Page 152 of The Locker Room

you might want to snap out of your self-pity and everything, because the

guy called to make sure you"d be watching.”

Xander closed his eyes. “Fuck,” he breathed. “Is it really that late?”

Leo let out a string of curse words, some of which Xander hadn"t

heard since high school, and others that he was pretty sure Leo had no

personal experience with whatsoever. He finished with, “Man, are you

going to get up and go dry off and warm up or something, or do I have to

call the fucking paramedics?”

“Don"t be a drama queen, Leona,” Xander mumbled. “Just give me

a hand up, willya?”

It took more than a hand up—Xander actually had to lean on Leo"s

shoulder, because his foot, given some sign that the punishment was

about to end, decided to bitch like a prom queen on the rag. Xander

asked Leo if he could get the pain meds out of his bag while Xander

went up and took the world"s fastest shower—or so he planned. It took

him a while, because his hands were too damned cold for small shit, like

taking off his socks, or fumbling with the handles on the shower.

When he came gimping down the stairway ten minutes later,

holding onto the rail because his knees wouldn"t hold his weight and his

body was just too exhausted to move, Leo had the DVR on pause and

The Locker Room 131

had put together a tray of leftovers that Lucia had left for him, as well as

some hot chocolate.

Xander was too tired to even complain that the hot chocolate was

for a little kid. He felt like a little kid. The last time he could remember

feeling this completely wrecked, had been—

Oh shit. Surfing, on their way to Chapel Hill. Xander actually had

to fight back a sob, and he was angry with himself for even thinking it.

All of that work, all of that hard work, to not think about sleeping in that

bed without Chris—for damned near the next six months.