Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 78007 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78007 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Maybe I don’t have anything to talk about.” He looks away, playing with the simple chain necklace he’s wearing.
“Everyone has something to talk about. Wait, we’re talking about heavy shit again. I just want to have fuuuuuuun. Stop poking at my insides.”
He smirks. “Believe me, if I was poking at your insides, you’d know. Hopefully, I’ll get to, though.”
I can’t deny that’s a weird way to say it, but maybe Perry just really wants me to be able to talk to him. He’s probably just a nice guy like that, and will keep poking to get me to open up. “Maybe I’ll let you one day.” I lick along the edge of the blunt paper to close it, grab a lighter, then hand it over. “You first.”
“Such a gentleman.” Perry’s fingers accidentally brush against mine as he takes the blunt from me, strangely making my skin prickle.
I watch him as he lights the end some, then brings the other side to his mouth, trying to get the flame to catch, then inhales the smoke.
We pass the blunt back and forth. The smoke burns my lungs in the best way, my brain immediately feeling a little more tingly than it did before.
Perry laughs at something, and I automatically laugh too, though I have no idea what either of us thinks is so funny.
“I’m high,” he says, moving to the chair next to mine. He kinda lies back, so I do the same. Our arms brush, but mine suddenly weighs three hundred pounds and is impossible to move.
“Me too.” I smell his cologne again, and damn, I like it. What the fuck scent is that?
“Why are you sniffing the air?” Perry asks, which makes me crack up laughing. When I settle down, he says, “We should hook up sometime. It would be fun.”
“Hell yeah. I’m down. I think it would be fun too.” I totally want to hang out with Perry.
“Where’s your phone?”
“I think it’s in my pocket, but I can’t move.”
“Are you okay?” he asks, and the concern in his voice makes me feel a little funny. I’m not sure how to explain it other than that.
“Yesssssss. Ss are my favorite sound.”
Perry laughs.
I try to do the same, but nausea suddenly hits me, my stomach twisting and turning. “I think I need to go to bed.”
“I think you do too. Here, let me help you.” Perry stands up, takes my hand, and tugs me to my feet. He wraps an arm around me and leads me outside.
My body is dead weight, my belly rebelling against all the things I put inside me today.
“Hold on to me so I can lock the secret room. We don’t want people to see your stash.”
I do as he says, my face landing weirdly in his neck, but I don’t have the energy to move. I do breathe him in again, though, because a guy has to breathe, not because I want to smell him.
“Easy there, big guy. You’re determined to make this night hard on me, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He doesn’t answer, finishes locking up, puts the key back, and with his arm around me, helps me walk away.
“My hero,” I tease.
“Which way do I go?”
I try to give him directions, but I’m not sure if I say the words out loud or not. I figure I must because eventually, I’m upstairs, lying on my bed, and my new friend Perry is taking my shoes off.
“You’re nice.”
“Thank you.”
“And you smell good.”
He groans, finishes with my shoes, then tucks me into bed. “I have your phone. Can I put my number in?”
I open my eyes. “Use my face.”
He moans deeper this time, and I’m pretty sure says something like I wish, but that wouldn’t make any sense.
He uses face ID to open my phone, then types his number in and sets the phone on the nightstand. “Maybe I should stay and make sure you’re okay.”
He’s definitely the kind of guy who would be a really good friend. I’m so happy I met him.
The music is still rumbling downstairs, making the walls shake, and before I can answer him, my door opens. “Shit, Theo. You’re in bed already?” Casey asks.
“No.”
“Who are you?” I hear him ask.
“He’s Perry. He saved my life,” I say.
“I’m pretty sure he greened-out,” Perry says. “The weed and the alcohol. Are you his…”
“Roommate,” Casey answers.
“Yeah, that. I was going to stay with him and make sure he’s okay,” Perry tells Casey.
“He’s so nice,” I mumble.
“I got it,” Case replies.
I want to tell him he can go party, that my new friend can stay, but I lose myself to the darkness before I can.
CHAPTER FOUR
Perry
“How was last night?” Ty asks as he comes into the living room the next morning. He plops on the couch across from me as Brax goes into the kitchen.