Ozzy sighed, mouth closing. He squeezed his eyes shut so hard his nose scrunched. “You’re right.” It was strained coming out of his throat, but he did manage to get it out. His face relaxed just enough for him to crack his eyes open. “And I know it. But maybe I like that pattern. Maybe that pattern sounds good right now.”
“Fuck, that pattern soundsgreatright now.” Evander mussed his hair with one hand. “But so does some ecstasy and I don’t think we should be doing that, either.”
Ozzy snorted a laugh. “You’ve never done E.”
“Ozzy, am I known for lying? We did have two whole years since we broke up. Plus all those off-again stages when we were dating. You don’t knowwhatillicit substances I used.”
Ozzy raised an eyebrow. “Acid?”
“Nope.”
“Ketamine?”
“Once. Didn’t care for it. Lost, like, sixteen hours and swore it off.”
“Yeah. Not my favorite.” Something lit off in his eyes. “Shrooms?”
“Great the first time,badtrip the second time. It’s why I never fell in love with idea of dropping acid.”
“Damn. Maybe you are more adventurous than me.” He leaned back. “You think getting drunk would be smart?”
“Couldn’t fucking hurt, right?”
“I mean, it could. Remember the graduation party?”
“Of course I remember it. Bunny and Aras got so wasted they decided to go dancing on the roof of that house.”
Ozzy nodded. “And none of us were sober enough to try and talk them out of it.”
“Robinson was. They just didn’t listen.” A broken arm and thirty-six stitches between the two of them kind of proved he was right, though. “At least it was only a one-story house.”
“With grass. I can’t imagine if we ever did anything at my parents place, with all that concrete and the rock garden out front.” He laid all the way back on the bed, and even though they weren’t going to go further than that hug, Evanderdidtake the opportunity to peek as his shirt rode up, exposing his abs and his waistband. He didn’t linger, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Hey,” Ozzy grumbled. “You can’t tell me to hold back, then gawk.”
Evander darted his eyes away. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”
“Not a lot of other places to focus my attention.”
Evander shrugged, then lifted up the hem of his own shirt for a couple seconds. “There. Now we’re even.” He laid down next to Ozzy on the bed, making sure to leave a little space between them. A respectful amount of space. He looked up at the freshly painted ceiling and the exposed wires, waiting for the light fixture to be installed. “So do you want to talk about it, or no?”
“No.” There was no anger or harshness in the word, but no defeat either. A simple, firm decision.
“Okay.” They would just lay in that bed and wait.
Ozzydidtake Evander’s hand, though, and whisper, “Thanks.”
Chapter thirty-six
Ozzy
When Ozzy woke up,his head throbbed and his stomach lurched. He didn’t know where he was, just that it was dark and there were voices somewhere in the distance. Not home, obviously, but also not the hotel.
Ev was next to him, which clicked all his memories back into place like a thousand puzzle pieces. And led to the obvious question: how long had it been? Ozzy pulled his phone out of his pocket. His battery was in the red, but he had enough juice to check the time. Just a little after four in the afternoon.
He gently nudged Ev’s shoulder. “Hey.”
Evander’s eyes fluttered and he yawned, then looked over. “We fell asleep?”
