Page 1 of His Plaything

Chapter One

Seth’s Christmas was as uneventful as it always was. Without work to keep him busy and the library closed, he spent the day a little off-kilter. He slept in, then wasted time playing games on his phone, reading, and watching videos. For lunch he splurged on Chinese food instead of a freezer meal, and ate it tucked up in his room while watchingDie Hard,as was his personal little tradition. After the movie, he turned to the little pile of gifts and cards he’d received from people at work.

Seth hadn’t expected to get anything for Christmas, because he never really had before. His work, Turner’s Toys, had organized a Secret Santa gift exchange for all the employees though. Mr. Turner had also sent everyone home for the long weekend with a card and small gift, both of which Seth had been saving for actual Christmas day for the novelty of having something to unwrap.

He opened the secret Santa gift first, to find a three pack of soft novelty socks and a bag of miniature kit kats. One pair of socks had sharks on them, another had dinosaurs, and the third had candy canes. They were cute, and Seth pulled on the candy cane ones since it seemed appropriate for the day. Kit kats were his favorite candy, and he’d been given a whole bag, so that was exciting too.

The card with the gift was a simple one. It wished him a Merry Christmas, and let Seth know that Lee had been his secret Santa. Seth set the card on his dresser, made a note to thank Lee the next time he saw him, and then opened the card from Layla. Layla was the toy doctor who ran Turner’s Toy hospital, and the person Seth reported to most often as assistant toy doctor. Her card contained a $15 gift card to Starbucks, which was cool since even an occasional Starbucks drink wasn’t really in Seth’s normal budget.

He’d have to thank them both when he saw them after Christmas.

Last to be opened was the card and gift from Mr. Turner. Seth peeled back the paper on the gift first because it was oddly heavy, to reveal a squat jar full of what looked like pieces of chocolate wrapped in wax paper. Curious, Seth plucked out a piece and tried it, lighting up when he discovered that it was fudge. Andgood fudgetoo, obviously from some sort of fancy brand.

The card with the gift was a thick cardstock, printed with the words,Thank you for all your hard work at Turner’s Toys! May you have a happy holiday and a sweet new year,along with a fifty dollar bill.

“Not too bad at all, wow,” Seth said to himself as he looked over his little pile. The fifty was definitely appreciated too. That, plus the extra cash he’d managed to acquire last week meant he was only a couple hundred dollars short of the new laptop he was saving for. A few more paychecks and he’d finally be able to have a home computer again.

Of course, thinking about how he’d gotten that extra cash had Seth’s cheeks flaming. He hadn’t heard from Clark at all since that night last week when Seth had stayed over due to the snow storm, but Seth still couldn’t get the man out of his head.

He had told himself over and over again to just forget what had happened, especially as more and more days passed. So they’d had some good conversations and Clark had… been nice to Seth, and gotten him off. So what? He’d also paid Seth for his time and not contacted Seth since. That had seemed as clear a sign as any. Clark was older, and handsome, and obviously well-off and Seth…

Seth was a nobody.

He’d just been a convenient thing for Clark to play with that night. To think it was anything more than that was foolish.

And Seth wasn’t a fool.

***

Turner’s Toys opened back up on boxing day. It was a whirlwind the first day with returns and exchanges and customer’s angry for some reason or another. There were shelves upon shelves to stay on top of stocking and dozens of new patients at the toy hospital, and by the time Seth was dragging himself through the door to the house where he rented a room, he was exhausted. All he wanted was a microwave meal and to curl up in his bed, stuffing bite-sized kit kats into his mouth until he passed out.

Instead, in the kitchen, he ran into Jake.

Or at least Seth assumed the guy shirtless and standing in front of the open refrigerator was Jake. They hadn’t been formally introduced, but Seth had received an email days ago about a new tenant taking the empty upstairs bedroom.

Now said tenant was blocking the way to the kitchen, scarfing down noodles from a container that Seth knew was Alberto-in-1A’s take-out from two nights ago.

“Oh, hey man. 2C.” Jake said as he saw Seth, gesturing to himself. “Name’s Jake.” Seth couldn’t help noticing the sheer size of the guy– tall and stocky and taking up most of the room in the small kitchen.

“1B,” Seth said. “Seth.”

“You need the fridge? Sorry man.”

Jake stepped aside, but barely. The kitchen wasn’t large, so Seth still had to come right up to the man to reach the freezer.

“It’s cool,” he said, quickly grabbing one of his frozen meals.

With his meal in hand, Seth had a vague thought about trying to address the food Jake was slurping down, but he didn’t know if he had it in him for a confrontation tonight. He was bone tired, and he just wanted to get his food and get out.

Keeping his mouth shut, Seth took his meal to the microwave, trying to ignore the eyes on him.

“So,” Jake said once the microwave started up. He’d moved to lean against the counter now, the picture of ease. His bare chest on display felt like an intimacy being thrust upon Seth, and he shifted uncomfortably. “Any good bars around here? I just moved from Seattle.”

“Uh, I don’t know.” Seth kept his gaze mostly focused toward the microwave, doing his best to sound polite, but uninterested in engaging. “I don’t really go to bars.”

“You don’t go out? How do you get laid?”

Seth felt his cheeks warm. What was with this guy? Instead of answering, he shrugged.

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