Page 9

“If I didn’t see you back here, I would have gone after you, but I had a feeling you came back here.”

“I didn’t! I was up in the trees, and I came down and got scared and ran! I got lost!”

Dixon looked around and held up his hands. “Lost?”

“I was lost! I was scared!”

“You ran. What was the first thing I told you all about navigating the woods when you get lost?”

Jovian’s defenses rose. “I…I forgot!”

“Exactly.” Dixon closed some of the space between them and caught Jovian’s eyes again. Those chills that went through him took all the anger and fear from him, just leaving him in a weird mixture of freezing and being heated right through.

Dixon smelled of pine and campfire. His heat was radiating from his perfect body, and all Jovian could do was stand there, his mouth hanging open. Why was it he seemed to be his least cute around the man?

“You weren’t listening. I get it, you don’t want to be here, but while you are here, maybe learn something. I would not leave you lost, but you found your way back. Be proud of that. There’s blessed little in this life we can be proud of, and that is one for you.”

Dixon was gone, and his temperature normalized. He found he could breathe again. “What the hell is it about that man?”

He got back to the cabin and lay on his bunk, miserable again. He thought of calling Ci again, but her advice didn’t seem to work. For him to be cute, he needed certain things, and control over his environment was one of them.

In a place he had never been, with people he’d never known, camping, for fuck’s sake. It was nearly impossible for him to be cute in a camp.

Kathy was walking over to him, a pretty yellow scarf around her neck to match her yellow shorts and pale-yellow top. “Are you okay?”

“Did you already hear?”

As she sat on the bed next to him, she said, “Yeah, that you got a little lost. I’m sorry. It’s really easy to, that’s why we’re supposed to be in a buddy system if we leave camp.”

“Um, no one told me that!”

“Well, for one, yeah, they did. Bernie stressed it that first day. And two, you weren’t supposed to go far from Dix and the group. Just far enough to see that everything in the woods looks the same.”

If he was getting another lecture, he’d lose his mind. “Thanks for the advice, but I think I should just leave. Maybe I can move to another city, where I can still go to clubs.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

He knew he couldn’t leave Denver. His entire life was there, and his mother had begged him not to ever move away. If he did, she’d likely throw one of her patented hissy fits and cut him off from his allowance.

“Well, we’re going to the night games, if you’d like to join us.”

“I can’t show my face. I’m humiliated.”

“Why?”

Jovian looked over at her, incredulous. “What do you think we’ve been talking about?”

“Because you got lost? Jovian, no one’s laughing at you. They feel bad for you! It could happen to any of us, and believe me, you’re not the first. The woods can turn you around so easily, which is why they made Coach Dix’s class mandatory.”

“I can’t think when I’m around him,” he confessed. “It’s like he sucks all the power from my brain.”

“You like him. I can’t blame you, but maybe the way to get to him is to listen to his classes and try to do what he wants.”

“That’s not me, Kathy. I can admit that. I don’t like school, I don’t like being told what to do. My skills are few but fierce. I’m adorable. That’s…that’s all I have to give anyone.”

“I think you’re counting yourself really short, Jovian, but I can’t tell you that. Why would you believe me?”

“I wouldn’t. No offense.”

“None taken,” she whispered, then left him alone in the cabin.

It had been a hard day and all he wanted was a spa treatment.

Since there was no spa within easy commute, he pulled out his bags and found his skin products.

A nice facial, even if he had to do it himself, was in order.

He could let the moisture melt away his troubles for a little while.

One thing he’d learned about spa days. They were better than drinking or drugs to rid him of anxiety.

After taking his bag to the latrines, he scrubbed his face to exfoliate, then he stared on the mud mask that cost a hundred dollars a pop. Jovian swore by it, however, and considered it his one splurge, though, if he were honest with himself, he’d understand his entire life was a splurge.

It was puke green in color, but it smelled floral and fresh. With the clay and camphor, it pulled out impurities, and with red clover, it closed his pores nicely. Though Jovian liked to brag, his pores were super tiny.

The headband he wore to keep his hair back was soft pink with bunny ears.

Ciana had given it to him when they’d gone to a spa in LA when they’d taken a trip there.

He loved it, but it wasn’t exactly flattering.

With the mask, he looked like a bunny that had gotten too close to a cow’s ass when it had diarrhea.

No matter. The two people that had come into the latrine while he was there mostly ignored him.

But then it happened. When he was his most un-cute, possibly the most un-cute he’d ever been in his life, it happened.

Dixon finally came into the fucking latrines to inspect.

“Masseretti, glad you’re here,” he said as he came into the bathroom quickly and stopping to look into Jovian’s mirror to speak to him. “After I inspect, I’d like to talk to you.”

He wanted to die right there and seep into the sewer under the building or wherever the shit and piss went when people sometimes flushed.

He stood as still as a statue until Dixon left that area to inspect the stalls. Once Dixon was out of sight, however, he leaned over the sink and washed his face from the mud mask.

The insides of him twisted and he wanted to cry. If he could just once be completely cute in front of the man, he might have a chance, but every time he was around Dixon, he was either puking or covered with a substance that looked like puke.

The one time he wasn’t, well, he got lost in the woods and everyone thought he’d gone back to camp. Not once had he made the impression he’d wanted to!

He barely got the bunny-eared headband off before Dixon was back by the sinks, looking them over, and when he came to the one Jovian was currently using, his scowl made him even sexier. “You’re gonna wash that out of there, right?”

Jovian peered down to see his mud mask had left puke-green spots all over the white porcelain. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, of course.”

“Good,” Dixon said before he caught Jovian’s eyes as Jovian leaned his ass against the sink, the bunny ears in a tight fist behind his back. As soon as those icy blue eyes were on him, sure enough, he was shivering with the chills that suddenly broke out all over his body.

“Are you cold?”

“Huh?”

“Your lips are quivering.”

Jovian closed his eyes and could breathe again. “No, I’m…never mind.”

Dixon nodded and his eyes moved to the concrete floor of the place. “I’m sorry about earlier. I misjudged. I could tell you were scared when we saw you.” His eyes met Jovian’s again. “I also know you weren’t listening to a word I said.”

“I tried. I…got distracted.” He thought for a moment, wishing for something he could say that would make Dixon want him, but his head was as tangled as his tongue. Then, something came to him. “I remembered what you said about hunting trails and that’s what scared me so badly!”

“You saw one?”

“I don’t know if it was one of those or a human trail, but yeah, I saw a trail and thought of all the animals that could sniff me out, and…I got scared.”

Dixon smiled a little crookedly as he nodded slightly. “Well, you listened a little. That’s good but running away from something in fear is how many people get lost. Next time, move cautiously and quickly, but keep your wits about you.”

“Seems like I’ve lost a lot of myself since I came here,” he groaned, then regretted it. That wasn’t cute, complaining to a possible sex partner. It wasn’t cute at all.

“Well, maybe they’re parts you won’t miss,” he said as he started to turn and leave the building. “Good job on the latrine, by the way.”

Jovian would crumble to the floor if the thought of sitting on the floor of a public restroom didn’t give him the creeps. “Good job, yeah, good job, Jovian! You’re doing a great job at looking like total shit whenever the man is around!”

He got his things after cleaning out the sink from the mask and headed back to the cabin, meeting Alan on the way. “He’s all yours,” Jovian said in passing, and Alan just stared at him as he continued on his way.