Chapter 7
Toby
I was probably a little drunk. Maybe. Buzzed at the least.
“I can’t believe the serial killer kissed you,” Sebbie muttered.
“Yup,” I replied, popping the p dramatically. “Right at the kitchen island. Smooch. Lots of really good kissing.”
“I thought we decided he was a military operative?” Josh cut in.
Sebbie just waved his hand dismissively. He might’ve been a little buzzed too.
Josh snorted. We were sprawled across my living room, all drinking. They had both taken a rideshare over to my house, but I don’t think Josh had drunk more than a half a glass of wine.
“Refills!” I called out, standing up.
“Nah, I’m good,” Josh answered.
Sebbie pouted. “Party pooper. Barely drinking, and you’ve been on your phone for half the night. Is someone dying or something?”
I almost spurted the wine I’d been drinking out my nose, and I choked a bit, coughing out, “Sebbie!”
Sebbie just shrugged. “What? Like I haven’t noticed that I’m super bad luck,” he murmured glumly.
“You are not!” I insisted. “You’re our bestest friend in the whole world, and we’ve had all sorts of good things happen. Like Serial Killer Neighbor kissing me!”
I walked over and smacked Josh in the arm. He flinched and grabbed his arm, but I really hadn’t smacked him that hard. “Sorry,” I murmured.
He just smiled at me then turned to Sebbie. “You’re not bad luck, Sebbie. You tried to save that guy’s life. It’s not your fault that he died or that the guy you were on a date with was an asshole. We’ve all had asshole dates. Don’t let it get to you.”
“I guess so,” Sebbie muttered. “Still, you gotta admit, lots of people end up getting injured around me. Or dying.”
“Well, maybe you’re really a super powerful warlock who has the ability to save lives so the magical entity that controls the world keeps throwing injuries into your path,” I said. “Ohh, or maybe you’re being watched by a super secret society, and they’re ascertaining your power level before they recruit you for their world-saving missions. Or—”
“And we’ve lost him to plotting,” Josh cut in.
I ignored him and started looking around for my notebook. Or my phone. I should totally write some of these ideas down.
“Yup, we have,” Sebbie laughed. “And yeah, I know there’s plenty of guys out there. I’m just on a string of bad luck in the dating department. But seriously, Josh, what’s up with you?”
I stopped searching around for my phone and looked at Josh. Sebbie was right—Josh had been off tonight.
It was Josh’s turn to sort of shrug. “Rick and I are just having a little disagreement.”
Sebbie and I looked at each other. Neither of us liked Rick. At all. The guy was just an asshole. He was loud and rude, and it seemed like he was constantly putting Josh down in the guise of joking around. We tried not to butt into each other’s love lives without being asked, though. I’m sure Josh knew we weren’t fond of Rick, but we tried for his sake.
“Everything ok?” I asked. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really,” Josh admitted. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. It just has me out of sorts tonight. I’m sorry if I’m a party pooper.”
“Pfft,” Sebbie spit out, waving his arm haphazardly. “You can always be a party pooper with us, Josh. We’re your besties. If you can’t poop at parties with besties, then who can you party poop with?”
I giggled at Sebbie’s words, and even Josh couldn’t help smiling. So maybe Sebbie had drunk a little more wine than me. No more refills; he hated being hungover.
He laughed along with us, saying, “You know what I mean.”
“I do,” Josh said quietly. “Thank you, guys. I should probably get going, though. Seb, you can always grab a rideshare separately if you wanna stay later.”
It wasn’t even that late, but Josh and Sebbie had been here for a couple hours, and if I was gonna be productive tomorrow, it probably was time to call it a night. Still, I pouted at Josh anyway.
He chuckled—he totally didn’t fall for my pouting, and then I heard a car door.
“Ohmygod!” I whisper-yelled. “It’s probably the neighbor! You guys can totally see my sexy neighbor!”
“Why are we whispering?” Sebbie whispered back.
Josh snorted. “You two whisper at the volume that most people talk at. And I’m not sure if we should spy on your neighbor.”
Sebbie had already made his way over to the window and was peeking out the side of the curtain, though.
“Oh my god, he isn’t wearing a shirt. And he is hot . Those tattoos!” Sebbie whispered.
I ran over, pushing him out of the way. “No shirt? Ohmygod! It’s like Christmas came early! Lemme see!”
“You guys are ridiculous,” Josh murmured, but I noticed he shut off the living room main lights, probably so we wouldn’t be so obvious looking out the window into the evening. It wasn’t fully dark, but it was close to it. Luckily, Sexy Neighbor’s porch light was on.
“And you’re an enabler,” I whispered to Josh, peeking out the window.
Sexy Neighbor was indeed shirtless, with just a pair of black jeans on. He was all muscles, and he totally did have tattoos. Some kind of symbols were tattooed all over his arms in black, and it was sexy as fuck.
“My god, look at those muscles,” I murmured.
“I was looking at those muscles until you elbowed me out of the way,” Sebbie grumbled.
“He’s mine, Seb. You can look, but don’t touch,” I mumbled as Sebbie pulled the curtain over further.
“You guys, he is totally going to see you,” Josh said, but I noticed he was making his way over to check out Sexy Neighbor too. “Maybe we should all go and sit on the porch like normal people, and then we can say hello,” Josh suggested.
“And ogle him,” Sebbie added.
“Oh my god, no, definitely not. I cannot sit and make small talk on my porch when he just kissed me this afternoon! You know how bad I am at nonchalant,” I hissed. “I’ll try and climb him like a tree, and you guys do not need to witness that.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you climb someone like a tree,” Josh said thoughtfully.
“But we have seen you hook up when we’ve gone to clubs,” Sebbie added.
Sexy Neighbor—I really needed to start calling him Dex in my head—chose that moment to look over, and with an eep we all ducked down.
“Great,” Josh said. “Now if he saw us we look even more suspicious. We couldn’t have just waved?”
“You ducked too!” Sebbie hissed out.
I slowly rose up and looked out, and he was thankfully turned around.
“Oh my god, that ass,” I murmured.
“Oh, let me see!” Sebbie cried out, elbowing me over.
“You guys are horrible,” Josh murmured, but I noticed he was totally looking out the window to scope out Dex’s ass too.
Dex lifted his arms up to stretch, and my god , those back muscles. He had tattoos there as well.
Hot. As. Fuck.
“I wanna lick over every one of those tattoos,” I mumbled.
“Mmmhmmm,” Sebbie added.
Then Josh’s phone started buzzing continuously. Sebbie and I both looked at him, but he was decidedly not looking down at his pocket where his phone was.
“It is a cute butt,” Josh mumbled, but he blushed as he said it.
The vibrating sound stopped and then picked up again a second later. My guess was that his dick of a boyfriend was looking for him.
We all sort of sighed and backed away from the window.
“I probably need to go,” Josh murmured.
“I’ll go with you,” Sebbie said. “We can share a ride back.”
“That’s ok. You don’t have to. I’m ordering the rideshare now,” Josh said, walking off with his phone out, probably to use the bathroom before he left.
I turned to Sebbie when I heard the bathroom door shut. “Try and find out what’s going on,” I whispered, trying to not whisper-yell.
“I will,” Sebbie sighed. “I just don’t… I don’t want to alienate him. I don’t think things are good, and I don’t think pushing him will help.”
“Maybe not. But I worry. Did you see the way he flinched when I smacked his arm? It wasn’t that hard,” I whispered.
“You think his boyfriend is messing with him?” Sebbie asked loudly.
“Shhhh!” I whispered. “And I don’t know. But Rick is a dick.” Then I giggled, because, yeah, I was a little buzzed and that rhyme had been too funny.
Sebbie giggled with me, then he got serious. “I’ll talk to him. Let him know we’re always here and we’ll never judge. I think coming from both of us it would be overwhelming, but I’ll mention it when we get back to town.”
“Ok,” I said, and we heard the door open.
“My turn!” Sebbie cried out, running into the bathroom as Josh came back into the room.
Josh rolled his eyes then looked at me. “I really am sorry.”
“No worries, Josh. You know we love you. We just want to see you happy, and I’m sorry if you and Rick are fighting. We’re always here if you need to chat. Or if you need to not chat and just forget about things for a while,” I said.
Josh smiled. “I know. You guys gave me a great night, and it was what I needed. Next time I promise no phone out all night.”
When Sebbie came out, they both walked to the front door and I went with them, flicking on my porch light, ready to walk them to their rideshare and confirm it was the right car.
“We can confirm our rideshare on our own,” Josh laughed, knowing me too well. “This isn’t one of your thrillers where we get kidnapped and ravaged.”
“Unfortunately,” Sebbie mumbled.
We all laughed as we stepped onto the porch, and then I almost choked on my own spit when I saw Sexy Neighbor leaning over the rideshare car.
He stood up, calling out, “Paula is here for Josh?”
“Yep!” Josh called out. He and Sebbie walked down the steps, and my feet carried me forward like I didn’t even have a choice in the matter.
They both gave me hugs goodbye, spoke to the driver, and got into the car. I stood a little back on the driveway, and as soon as they were in, Dex came and stood next to me.
“Text me when you guys get home!” I called out as they pulled away. I saw Josh stick his hand out the window with a thumbs up.
And then it was just me and my very sexy, shirtless neighbor standing alone in my driveway in the twilight.