Page 182 of The Locker Room

“Please?” Xan hated begging, but God, he needed to hear it, which

was weird, because they hadn"t needed to say it much before.

“I love you, Xan.”

“I love you too, Chris.”

“Bye.”

And then the computer screen went dark.

The Locker Room 157

There was a waiting silence on the other side of the door. Then:

“Xander, can I come in?”

Xander sighed. Four o"clock in the fucking morning. There were

two things that should be happening in his bedroom at this hour, and the

following conversation wasnotone of them!

“Yeah.”

Mandy looked around the vast bedroom curiously, from the dogs

asleep on the floor with their pile of toys (which reassured her) to the

prints on the wall (Chris tended to go for ink and watercolor, and Xander

liked them. They looked real.) His suit was draped loosely on one of the

two stuffed chairs in the corner and there were various things on the

dresser: cuff links, ear studs (Chris"s ear was pierced, and he liked flashy

studs in it) combs, hair gel, even a new bottle of man-steurizer, that

Xander couldn"t bring himself to use because it didn"t smell the same

when it wasn"t on Chris"s skin. It was all littered in a vague sort of order,

the sort of thing you could clean up quickly when you were in the mood,

but why bother when you were just living your life, right?

“This room is homey,” she said quietly. “The weight room looks

used and shit, and the big TV room on this side of the house… they look

happy. But none of the other rooms look… you know. Lived in.” She

was wearing a franchise shirt, size XXLT, and it came to her knees and

slid off her shoulders. She looked helpless and gamine—but not