AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shut up, Jo. Don’t make this weird. And please don’t tell anyone.”
His hands crossed at the hem of his cut-off. He pulled it over his head, revealing the tattoos across the side of his torso, and handed it to me. “Why would I ever allow another person to know such an intimate detail about you?”
I snatched the sopping pile of shirt from his fingers and pulled it on quickly, shielding my body from any onlookers lurking in the outside world. Before I could dwell too much on his admittedly attractive inked skin, my feet began working to continue our walk back to our spot where June and Oli were likely waiting.
A firm hand on my wrist stopped me, tugging me back. I swung around to face Jonah.
“Do not scrape your nails,” he said softly, wrapping my wrists in his hold. “We’re in public, and the consequences would be…humiliating at best.” Jonah took both of my hands and lifted them to his neck, spreading my fingers on either side, just beneath his hairline. He then dragged them down, allowing my touch to glide all the way out to his shoulders. I observed our movements carefully. His breathing stopped for a moment as I slid over the curve of his bone structure.
Finally, he released me, rolling his neck once with his eyes closed to regain his composure. It was weird knowing something that turned Jonah on. Not only because I’d been under the impression that he wasn’t exactly one to turn on at all, but because it felt like a secret. Our secret. I liked that he’d sympathized with me as such, though I can’t say I wasn’t totally confused by everything that had happened in the last fifteen minutes.
“We are the weirdest pair of friends,” I whispered. He smiled. I did too. “Dead puppies. A room full of flies. Moldy cheese…”
He rolled his eyes. “Knock it off, Kai.”
I continued to blurt obscenities to make sure his sea wood wasn’t showing. “A sock you’ve just pulled from under the couch that’s covered in dust and hair.”
“I’m not that weak. And you’re not that good at touching me.”
My mouth dropped open. “Oh, you—”
He turned me around with two hands and pushed at the center of my back, sending me into a forward stumble.
Chapter 21
Kai
We didn’t go back to the studio for two days. Food poisoning had gotten the best of Noah, along with Tiff’s teasing that that’s what he gets for eating food not cooked by her.
Jonah and I didn’t talk about the beach. I think I did a pretty good job of playing it off as a weird moment of trust between friends, but that was untrue. It wasn’t just a weird moment. It sparked something in me. It made me reconsider years of sheltering. Nothing more than a few odd minutes, and my mind was sent running rampant. It’s not that I was suddenly in love with him or anything—that would’ve been totally fucking weird—but I realized I didn’t quite hate getting close to him. Which, let’s be real, was also totally fucking weird.
At least my work was a distraction. I had some nice clips and pictures of the guys already accumulated on my phone, so even though we didn’t go back to the studio, I could start on content for the band. Justin had offered me the job over a week ago, and I hadn’t done a thing yet. He was weird like that.He just kept saying we’d talk about it so I had a good starting place, and we never did. Then, suddenly, while we were all home due to Noah’s sickness, he texted and asked me to put some stuff together.
The boys sent me old Instagram stories, Tiff and June sent me random snippets they had, and I was able to create enough posts to fill the two days and save up some drafts for later. Nothing extravagant, but based on Justin’s text in the band group chat that Jonah showed me, he was content.
When we finally got into the studio, I was able to enjoy my first official day on the job, in person. I got some good stuff, too. Jonah singing behind the glass, Oli using his drum stick as a mustache, and Noah pretending to play his bass with his tongue.
During a break in the session, I lined the three boys up on the couch for a video and stood in front of them with June and Tiff on either side of me. Noah’s pink T-shirt and Oliver’s red checkered flannel contrasted heavily with the charcoal T-shirt Jonah refused to ever take off. The latter crossed his arms and sank into the couch, looking at his black sneakers, one of which bounced rapidly. In the center sat Noah, leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees. His long, blonde hair fell around his shoulders, and he smiled brightly, amused by a piece of content that hadn’t even been created yet. Oli sat to the right, his ankle placed over his thigh and his arm up on the back of the couch behind Noah. He gave me a smug look like he already knew this video was going to be a shit show.
“Tell us something nice,” I said, holding the camera up to them. “Something sweet about the band. Or something top secret.”
“Top secret?” Oli asked, ready to kick off the shit show with a bang. “Noah doesn’t actually play bass. He just rips ass in the booth, and we put a little reverb on it.”
Noah laughed loudly, boasting a wide, toothy smile as Jonah’s forehead fell into his hand without so much as a smirk. Grumpy boy.
“Oh, and Oli’s drum sticks are actually specially made and sent in because regular sticks look like toothpicks compared to him,” Noah said, biting down on his bottom lip to hold in his goofy giggles.
I laughed along before turning my attention to the stoic man on the left. “Your turn, Jonah. Don’t you have anything to say?”
Jonah peeled his face up from the palm in which it leaned, looking not at the camera but at me. The edges of his lips twitched. He couldn’t keep that grin from me if he tried but, still, he said nothing.
“Another thing that’s top secret,” Oli continued, “is that Jonah is just, like, way too fucking loud. He never stops talking. Really. He loves small talk, so everyone go message him and bring up something casual like politics.”
“Do not. Thank you,” Jonah finally said, pressing a flat-lipped look to the camera with a small wave of his hand. “I will not respond.”
“Don’t worry, fans…” Noah smacked Jonah on the arm with the same foolish grin he wore constantly. “It took him a while to come around to me, too. He’s not rude, just antisocial.”
“I believe the term is asocial,” Jonah corrected quietly.
