Page 18

Chapter eight

Gem’s Neighbor’s Balls

Rusty

After Rusty finished washing the dishes, Gem dried them and put them away in the cabinet Rusty couldn’t reach.

Neither of them addressed the embrace or the embarrassing way Rusty had almost burst into tears in Gem’s living room, for which Rusty was grateful.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked about his mother to anyone, and the sudden grief that had surged up his throat had taken him off guard.

But grief was funny like that. His mom was dead and buried nearly ten years, and yet, the pain in his chest was still raw. The wound scabbed over but still tender. Maybe some wounds never fully healed.

Humming off key under his breath, Gem wiped down the counter as Rusty sprayed the sink clear of suds.

He felt the Araknis’s gaze on him, but he ignored it.

The vulnerability exchanged between them had left him unsteady, and if he met Gem’s eyes, he’d know it too.

Rusty didn’t think he was ready for what that meant .

“I’ll head out,” Rusty said as he dried his hands, squeezing the water out of the fur of his wrists as best he could. “Get some sleep tonight, Gem.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?” Gem asked, sounding both surprised and disappointed.

Rusty’s tail flicked. “Uh, yeah. Figured you’d wanna rest.”

“It’s still early.” Gem pointed out the window, to the twilight settling over Lust. “Why don’t you stay a little? We could watch anime.”

His expression was so hopeful, and guilt infiltrated Rusty’s chest, weakening his resolve. “I should… get back.”

“Right.” Gem deflated, tucking his hands into his hoodie. “Okay. Well, thanks for the soup.”

Gem’s disappointment thickened the guilt, and Rusty huffed in annoyance. “I guess I could… stay. For a bit.”

Eight intense eyes scrutinized him. “Really?”

Rusty nodded. “Sure.”

With a wiggle of excitement and a hum from his arm and leg fur, Gem beamed at him. “Cool.”

While Gem fiddled with the TV remote, Rusty ducked into the bathroom and used the toilet. He washed his hands and caught his own gaze in the mirror. The Pyclon looking back at him had a judgmental look on his face, and Rusty scowled.

“We’re friends. Friends hang out,” he muttered defensively.

“Sure,” his brain replied.

“Shut up!” he snapped back, fleeing the bathroom and his reflection.

Already on the couch, bundled up in that ginormous hoodie, Gem smiled up at him, and Rusty’s stomach somersaulted. Fuck, he should leave. He was coming down with something. An illness, probably contagious! And Gem was immunocompromised right now.

Yeah, he really had to leave. Before he could open his mouth to say this, Gem’s phone rang, and he dug it out of his pocket.

“It’s Ollie,” he announced. “He went home with Liel, right?”

“Uh, I think so,” Rusty said, and Gem squealed as he brought the phone to his ear.

“You better be calling me to spill the fucking tea!” he said, and Rusty hesitantly lowered himself onto the other end of the couch, ear swiveling so he could pick up Oliver’s response.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” the human said, and Gem rolled several eyes.

“I’m fine. Now spill!”

“Gem,” Oliver said firmly, and Gem pouted.

“I’m okay, really. Yesterday was literally the worst day of my life.

I felt like I was going to die. I kind of wanted to die.

But I survived,” he said as he shifted his position, scooting closer to Rusty for some reason.

“Today’s been better. I’m still tired, like a hangover that won’t end. But I’m good, I promise.”

Rusty pressed into the armrest of the couch, but Gem continued to scooch until his socked toebeans slipped under Rusty’s thigh. The Araknis hugged his knees to his chest and angled the phone so Rusty could hear better, and Rusty grudgingly relaxed into the couch.

“I’m so sorry that happened,” Oliver was saying, and Gem exhaled heavily.

“I don’t remember most of it, which is honestly the scariest part,” Gem admitted, before he grinned teasingly and knocked Rusty’s arm with one hand. “Well, Rus being nice to me might have been the scariest part.”

Rusty flipped him off, and he stuck out his dark tongue before he sobered and admitted, “But yeah, it’s…

fucked up. I feel like an idiot. I didn’t even notice he’d done something to my drink.

Then everything was br ight and spinning and…

Asshole motherfucker. If I see him again, I’m going to rip out every feather individually and stuff them down his throat until he chokes. ”

“I’ll help,” Oliver offered, and Rusty pantomimed cocking a gun, making Gem chuckle.

“Thanks,” he said to Oliver, but he also reached out to squeeze Rusty’s wrist. “But what would really make me feel better is to hear every dirty detail of your weekend.”

Rolling his eyes, Rusty pulled out his phone and scrolled through his Rosheen account notifications. He replied to a few comments and liked several more as Gem and Oliver chatted about his sex marathon weekend with Liel.

When Oliver confirmed that Liel had not topped, Gem hummed thoughtfully.

“Okay, well, this friend of mine bottomed for a Gymnot once, and what they don’t have in hard thrusting power, they certainly make up for in targeted sucking stimulation.

The suction cup at the end of their dicks is… oh my gods.”

To punctuate his claim, Gem made what Rusty feared was his cum-face as he made several sexual gestures. Rusty grimaced, and Gem winked obnoxiously. Then Rusty snorted a laugh, and Gem waggled his tongue.

“Is the friend you, Gem?” Oliver asked.

“Of course the friend is me. Get your head out of your ass, Oliver, and keep up!” Gem gave Rusty a significant look, as if to say, Can you believe this guy?

Snickering under his breath, Rusty shook his head and focused back on his phone as Gem interrogated Oliver further.

At some point, he admitted that he would have fucked Oliver had the human been up for it—which Rusty already knew—and Oliver replied with a dry, “What a shame I’ll never experience it. ”

“I know you’re being sarcastic, but it is a shame,” Gem said as he twisted a dark curl around an equally dark finger. “Mostly for you. Because my ass changes lives.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Rusty whispered.

Gem covered the phone receiver as he hissed, “We’re not having this argument again. I would literally destroy your dick and alter your reality forever. Get over it.”

“Who’s that?” Oliver asked, and Gem removed his hand to respond, to tell Oliver that Rusty was here.

Rusty thought of Oliver’s knowing smile and teasing in the train station Friday, and panic gripped his chest. Oliver couldn’t know that Rusty brought Gem soup.

He’d think… things. Oh gods, what if he assumed things.

And then maybe he’d tell people the things he’d misconstrued, and then they’d all believe things that just weren’t true, and—

Before Gem could respond, Rusty waved his hands desperately and shook his head. Gem frowned in confusion, then said, “No one. Nothing. It was…”

Gem splayed several hands as if to ask, What’s your problem?

Rusty pantomimed more forcefully, and Gem rolled his eyes and said, “The wind.”

“The wind spoke words to you?” Oliver said.

With an aggravated look at Rusty, Gem threw up a few hands and said, “The wind speaks to everyone, Oliver. It’s nature. Try communing with it sometime!”

“But you spoke back. ”

“ Communing ,” Gem repeated, glaring at Rusty as the Pyclon carefully stood up. “It requires, you know… collaboration.”

“Why are you being weird?” Oliver accused.

“ I’m not being weird,” Gem said, speaking more to Rusty than to Oliver. “ You’re being weird.”

“Why won’t you just tell me who’s there with you?” Oliver said.

Covering the phone once more, Gem whispered, “What the fuck is going on? What’s wrong with you? I sound like a psycho right now.”

“Shh, he’ll hear you,” Rusty whispered back.

“Why does that matter?” Gem mouthed, and Rusty jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to convey that he was leaving.

“Gem?” Oliver asked, and Rusty gestured to the door more blatantly.

“It’s, uh… my neighbor?” Gem said.

What? Rusty mouthed, and Gem flailed his hands and pointed accusingly at him.

“Okay?” Oliver said doubtfully.

“He came over because he wanted me to see…” Gem drifted off, looking to Rusty like it was his job to provide an explanation for the lie Gem had started. Rusty growled low and splayed his hands in front of his stomach. With a wrinkle of his nose, Gem said, “His balls?”

What! Rusty mouth-shouted at him, and Gem mouth-shouted back, though Rusty couldn’t understand him.

“What? Why does your neighbor want you to see his balls?” Oliver demanded, and Rusty waved at the phone to say, Exactly what I’m wondering!

“You gestured to your balls,” Gem hissed quietly. “What else was I supposed to say? ”

“I don’t know,” Rusty whispered back. “But I’m pretty sure anything other than your neighbor’s balls would have sufficed. Also, I didn’t gesture to my balls.”

“You clearly did,” Gem snapped before he flapped his hands. “You know what, I can still salvage this. So just… shut up.”

“Gem?” Oliver said through the phone, and Gem straightened his shoulders and smoothed a hand through his hair.

“Um, his balls are enlarged,” Gem blurted, expression telling Rusty to keep his mouth shut or face his wrath. So Rusty kept quiet as Gem expounded. “And he was worried. So he came over to get my opinion.”

“On his enlarged balls?” Oliver asked, like he wasn’t buying a single thing Gem was saying.

“Yes, and he’s very sensitive about it, which is why I lied about the wind.

” Gem grinned victoriously as Rusty. “See it all makes sense. Now, I’m really busy with this whole ginormous-ball situation, so I don’t have time to hear about your sex life, okay?

Not to be harsh, but it’s unprofessional.

We’re co-workers, and I think we need to set some clear boundaries. ”