Total pages in book: 13
Estimated words: 12376 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 62(@200wpm)___ 50(@250wpm)___ 41(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 12376 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 62(@200wpm)___ 50(@250wpm)___ 41(@300wpm)
Poor bastard didn’t even have a hoodie over his T-shirt.
Boar didn’t hesitate any longer. So maybe he wasn’t the perfect Christian. Maybe he wasn’t even a perfect son, or a perfect human being, but he would not leave another person to freeze when his blanket was large enough to accommodate two.
He was relieved to find the gazebo empty, and laid down his things before returning for the stranger. His limp body was like a log. Heavy, yet infinitely harder to carry when it bent in so many places, but Boar gritted his teeth and managed to transport the man to the makeshift bed.
When his head rolled over Boar’s shoulder, and flattened, greasy hair tickled his cheek, he was startled at the sheer vulnerability of this guy. Anyone might have robbed him or hurt him while he was out cold like this.
Or… do other things. Because even like this, with the black eye and a fat lip, it was undeniable that the man was handsome under all that grime.
Boar felt like a shitty person for even thinking that about someone he was trying to help, but he was only human. The insistent thoughts did make wrapping them both in a cocoon of clothes and a blanket that much more awkward, but at the end of the day, when he felt the stranger shiver, he pulled him closer to offer some of his own warmth. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t wake up to a punch in the face.
***
A strangled moan brought Boar back to reality.
It was bright outside, and once he opened his eyes, the chirping of birds lifted the haze of sleep completely.
He was warm. For the first time in three days, he hadn’t awoken to bitter cold. But heat came with the distinct scent of liquor, and a warm body spooning Boar from behind.
“Did we fuck?” asked the stranger in a hoarse voice, his warm breath tickling Boar’s nape.
How did Boar even end up as the small spoon? “Wh-what? No!” Boar choked out, looking back into green eyes, which were barely slits. He’d been warm before, but now his face flamed.
But the guy didn’t seem ashamed at all. His pupils expanded, and a grin tugged at his lips, revealing large teeth. “Ah. You’re even prettier from this side. I’m not good with names when I party. What’s yours?” he asked, rubbing his eyes and smudging the black makeup further.
Boar was stunned by the compliment. Ginger, freckled, kinda pudgy, he hardly considered himself ‘pretty’.
“J-Jamie. But friends call me Boar. I… we didn’t meet at a party.” Boar turned to face the guy, but couldn’t force himself to back away from the hands that rested on his body so confidently. His experience with guys was limited to crushing on Tom Callahan, a lot of porn, and making out with Ronnie Michaels behind the church back when he was sixteen, and Ronnie—about to leave for college. “I found you down the road, and it was cold so— Are you okay?”
The guy frowned. “What? So you don’t even know my name, and you take me to bed? That’s so nasty,” he said before slapping Boar’s buttock.
Freezing was the only option. Stiff from the stress of interacting with someone so open about their sexuality, Boar could just stare while his throat tightened.
“Y—it was cold. I just—”
“I’m Matt,” the guy told him, and found Boar’s hand under the blanket.
Boar squeezed it, embarrassed by the clamminess of his own. He couldn’t believe how cheerful Matt was after a night that might have resulted in his death. “Must have been one hell of a party.”
Matt shrugged, stretching alongside him, in no hurry to pull away as any other guy would have been. Relaxed as ever, he wouldn’t stop looking into Boar’s eyes in that unnervingly intense way. “I’m guessing you haven’t gotten that nickname because you’re such a party animal?”
Boar snorted and rubbed his face, still groggy after a night on hard stone. He pulled down his lower lip, revealing his protruding canines. “Used to be worse before I had braces. The nickname grew on me. Wild boars can be total savages, you know?”
Out of nowhere, Boar’s heart started thudding in his chest like a war drum.
Matt grinned, watching him without pause, as if Boar was the smartest, most interesting guy he’d ever met. “Are you?”
Boar’s tongue twisted and tangled in a desperate attempt to impress someone so much more experienced in life. “I can be.”
“But that’s not why you’re sleeping outside?” Matt asked, pulling on Boar’s clothing. The layers must have been a dead giveaway that he hadn’t lost his way home after a night out.
The buzzing energy, which fueled Boar in the presence of this handsome stranger, depleted. “I’m not seeing eye to eye with my family.”
Matt grinned. “You told them to fuck themselves and decided not to return until they give up?”