Page 53 of Loverboy

Fuck it.

I tilted my head and snatched the lime from between his lips with my teeth, straightening as I sucked out the juice. My lips tingled, and it had nothing to do with the acidity.

Milo sat up, wiping the brush of our lips away from his mouth with his sleeve.

It irked me.

“Happy now?” I tossed the lime, and he scrambled to catch it.

“Yeah,” he said breathlessly. “See? You can be fun.”

“Eating and drinking things off of your brother’s body is fun to you, is it?”

“What? No. Not that specifically!” he sputtered.

I didn’t bother responding. I was already heading for the balcony, yanking the pack of prerolls from my pocket.

I stayed outside longer than I’d initially intended. The cold air nipped at my cheeks, and my racing mind refused to quiet. The things that were meant to help did nothing at all—not the weed, the alcohol, or the fresh air. I considered smoking a cigarette on top of it all to see if that would somehow be the thing that got the taste of his skin off my tongue, but I knew that the issue wasn’t me wanting to get rid of it.

It was me wanting more of it.

By the time I went back inside, the party had mellowed. The music was lower, and a few people had presumably gone home. Milo stood next to the girl from earlier, picking up a section of her long black hair and letting it slip through his fingers. He muttered something that made her laugh and then fully turned his back on me, blocking her entirely from view.

Watching my brother flirt with girls wasn’t anything new. The flirting in itself wasn’t what bothered me. It was the way I could already see the future playing out, a repetition of every bad decision he’d ever made.

I thought about him getting into another relationship and moving too fast. It was too easy to imagine him telling me to go back home to Mom’s place so his new lover could move in. I even went as far as picturing him in that hospital bed again, and that’s when desperation crept in.

I wanted to get him away from her, closer to me, where he was safe.

“We need to talk.” I was already next to him, my hand pressing urgently to his back.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” Milo shut me down with an annoyed look.

“Now.”

I didn’t wait. I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him towards his bedroom, slamming the door closed behind us.

24

Jasper

“WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?” Milo demanded.

“It’s too soon for you to bury yourself in another woman,” I stated plainly.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You’re not ready.”

“It’s casual,” he said. “Like what you did with Oliver, right?”

I should have seen that coming.

He turned away and reached for the door. I grabbed his wrist and spun him back, pinning him to the door with my chest. This wasn’t like me—or maybe it was, my usual restraint muddled by the pot, alcohol, and the fear of loss.

“Fuck off!” he shouted, struggling against me. “So what if I wanna distract myself with a quick fuck? It’s just sex, right?”

“You don’t do casual, Milo.” I squeezed, my fingers pressing into bone. “She’s paying attention to you, and you’re in a vulnerable place. We both know how that goes.”