Page 50 of Knock Knock

I was pretty sure I got them, too. Even when I looked at Karen. I’d never really had anyone to look up to in life, but the way Karen went about her situation and didn’t let it change her was heroic to me. She was a strong fifteen-year-old who felt like a loser, was obviously self-conscious of her body, and had little to hope for while carrying a lot of worry around, and she managed to smile. The best part was that I didn’t think it was fake.

My heroics weren’t heroic enough to help her home life, but maybe there was one thing I could do for her showering situation. An idea formed, and I knew Nate would be on board.

“Alright, you better get me that grocery list, sunshine. I got approval for Friday!”

“What?!” She jumped up. “You did?”

“Yep! You still wanna come to Garron Park for dinner?”

Karen did a dance on top of the picnic table. It was so horrible that I joined in to make it even more horrible, and when Nate came over and twerked in his tiny shorts, he made it even worse. It was awesome.

“We can strategize your mission statement,” I shouted at Karen over the happy music inside our heads. “About how you’re going to right the reputations of Karens everywhere.”

Behind her green shades, I swear her eyes got wet. But her smile was goddamn radiant.

Fucking loved the Karen Movement and it hadn’t even started yet.

CHAPTER17

NATE

Xavi wasduct-taping his left slide again, bent over with his ass pointed right at me like he thought he was subtle. He wasn’t. I wound up and slapped it, making him yelp.

Followed it with a tense moan, though.

“Bet you can’t turn my ass cheek red with one more slap,” he dared me.

I shook my head at him.

“What?! Spanking is on the kink list.”

Devon had found a kink list on the internet and reluctantly printed it out for us, and Xavi was going through them all. There weren’t any definitions, so we were going in blind, but he carried it around in his pocket like it was the bible to being gay.

“Spanking in the middle of the hardware store you’re stealing duct tape from is a surefire way to get caught.” I glanced down the aisle.

“I’m just stealing a little. I’ll put the roll back.” He did just that. “There. These sandals will last me another three years now.” He grabbed the cart handle and started pushing, leaning over, ass out. Hereallywanted to bottom. “Should we get plywood or something?”

“No. There’s scrap wood behind the store. We’ll steal pallets. The weather-treated ones. We just need the shower curtain.”

When Xavi stopped in front of the shower curtain section, I pressed up behind him and the cart. We already had a hose, a bar for the curtain, and a shower head in the cart. My wallet started bitching at me, but if we could steal the wood, it’d have to relax.

“Mm,” Xavi mused, pressing his ass back. “Is that a pool noodle, or are you just happy to see me?”

“Awe, thanks for comparing the size of my dick to a pool noodle.” I laughed, reaching over him to grab a white plastic shower curtain.

Xavi spun his back to the cart, face right in mine. “Are we hiding?”

“From what?”

“From people. You know?”

I had no reservations about my shift in sexuality, but that deep-seated insecurity that reminded me I wasn’t good enough to be a boyfriend wanted me to say yes. To hide. To keep our bubble intact so that no one would tell Xavi he could do better than me. But the look in his green eyes and the complete lack of shits to give about it on Xavi’s face had me shaking my head instead.

“Not hiding.”

“Good.” He weaved his fingers with mine. “If you won’t spank me again so I can decide if it’s one of my kinks, I’ll fall back to my favourite one.” He raised our hands. “Fuck, I could come from this.”

I hid my face from him and let him fondle me as we walked through the store. I related to my brother more than I thought I would. Devon never thought he was worthy of Maddox, and from the outside, I used to think he was stupid for that because Maddox was so obviously in love with him. But I understood it now. What did I actually have to bring to the table to be worthy of a relationship with Xavi? My complete disregard for a direction in life wasn’t worth shit, and my floundering personality was fun for a friendship, but what did he want from me? What could I give that I didn’t already give him?

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