Page 25 of Believe in Caloosa Springs

I chuckled, imagining some dystopian scene with large piles of burning rubbish in the middle of the Strip.

“I could pick you up, if you want,” I offered, my gaze falling to the floor.Did I sound too desperate?

“Really?” I glanced up to see a small smile cross Tian’s face.

“Yeah, I’d be happy to.”

I heard Henry huff out a breath next to me, but chose to ignore him. “Maybe I could give you my number, and you could just text me when you are ready?”

Tian pulled his phone out of his back pocket. “Sure.”

It was at that moment I realized I had no clue what my phone number was. It was brand new, and I’d never had to call it. I inhaled nervously. “Uh, I actually got a new number last week and I don’t know it yet.”

“Oh, okay. Mine is 702-555-1121.”

I punched the numbers into the dial pad as he spoke them and hit send. After a moment, his phone lit up in his hands. “Got it.”

“Cool. So, I’ll see ya later?”

“Yeah, see ya later.”

***

TIAN:What are you supposed to even wear to a bonfire????

I looked down at my phone, surprised to see the text come through. I know we had exchanged numbers earlier to facilitate picking him up, but I hadn’t expected him to text me. Or, I guessed, to text me with anything other than “I’ll be ready at six,” or something similar.

My thumbs hovered over the keyboard as I rattled my brain, trying to come up with a reply that didn’t sound stupid. What I would be wearing this evening hadn’t even crossed my mind. Between focusing on properly trimming flower off the stocks that had been harvested yesterday, and thinking about spending the evening with Tian, clothing was pretty far from my mind. Whatdidone even wear to a bonfire?

I knew the evenings were mighty cold, and my immediate thought would be to dress as warm as possible. Then, on the other hand, you didn't want to over-layer yourself, or you’d be too hot once the fire got big enough. I’d only been around smaller fires from our family camping trips when I was younger, but I knew it to be true.

ME:maybe a few light layers so you don’t get too cold? You are pretty small. I don’t want you to get sick.

I regretted the text the moment I sent it.Now I sound like I’m typing to be his mom, or something. Ugh.

TIAN:Yes, Daddy ;)

I could feel the blood rush to the back of my neck as I read the message again. I swiped the text closed and looked around the room as if I’d just been caught watching porn or something. But I was alone in the warehouse. I’d stayed behind to finish sweeping and locking everything up while the others, includingHenry, had gone ahead to start getting the barn ready for the evening's festivities.

What was Henry’s problem, anyway? Tian hadn’t done or said anything to Henry—not that I had seen, anyway—to warrant Henry’s off-putting behavior anytime Tian was around. Or even mentioned, for that matter. The whole point of running away was to get away from our family's judgmental and oppressive culture. Henry and I had made a pact years ago to do everything we could to escape… and we had. Now, his attitude was seriously starting to bug me.

If you had told me a few weeks ago that I would have fallen head-over-heels for a tattooed goth boy with knobby elbows and pale skin, I wouldn’t have believed you, but here we are. I’ll admit I knew little-to-nothing about him, and we’d barely held a conversation, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Tian. I’d never had a boy plague my thoughts as much as he had since I’d met him a few days ago, including boys I’d been intimate with. Something about him was just so…different.I was becoming obsessed with it.

I emptied the dust pan into the dumpster towards the back of the building and pulled my jacket closed as I hit the lights and secured the padlock on the door. I headed off towards the south side of the property where the cabins were, in no particular hurry. I opened his message again.

I began typing out a response…

ME:You keep calling me Daddy and we’re not gonna make it to the bonfire.

I shook my head. That was supposed to sound sexy, but it came off oddly threatening to my eyes. I could saywe’re not gonnamake it to the bonfire because I’m going to devour you in the back seat of my car the second I see you…

But that seemed like too much and not at all as sexy as I had intended it to be, so I just erased the whole thing.

God, why was I so bad at flirting?

I didn’t want to just leave him to read, either. (I wanted to encourage him to continue.)

I also didn’t want him to think I was a total pig, either… unless he was into that?

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