Page 24 of Manhattan Tormentor

“I thought you were gonna screw right outside for anyone to see.” She announces without a filter. “Why didn’t you tell me you were into him?”

“I’m not.” I say, starting the engine.

It’s the biggest lie of my life.

She snorts, not believing a word of it. “Sure, right. That’s why you were eating each other alive. I didn’t know Finn Maverick was gay.”

Yeah, no one but me and my dick does. “He’s not.”

“Oh,” and thankfully Bunny doesn’t say much after that.

She wants to stop for fro-yo.

I text mom to say we’re okay and on the way home.

We have pretty relaxed rules, but that’s one we can’t ever break; we have to let our parents know we’re okay. Seeing as I rarely go out, they’re probably freaking out wondering if I’ve been kidnapped and who to pay to get me back. Mom hits me back minutes later with a text to say she loves me and there’s food in the fridge.

We’re spoiled. Noah and Sena Fierro are the best parents we could have asked for. We’re given independence more than some kids are. On the understanding that if we fuck up, we own the consequences.

I have to do that tonight, knowing I kissed my tormentor again.

I loved it and I crave him again as hard as any drug addiction.

It’s hard to process.

To accept I have failings as basic as arousal and attraction for the wrong person.

And Finn Maverick is the most wrong person to want.

Not only is he heartless and without morals, he’s also in the closet. The last time I visited Narnia, I was six years old and have no desire to go back again.

“You like him, huh?” Bunny’s voice cuts through the silence as I drive through the gate at home.

I could lie, but what’s the point?

“I shouldn’t, but yeah, I do.”

“He’s hot.”

And he knows it.

“But so are you, Sage.” Bunny tells me, “he doesn’t hold all the cards. If he wants you, then let him work for it.”

That’s the problem. I don’t want him to want me. I want Finn to go back to not knowing I exist at all.

Wanting a straight guy who tastes like sin is too much of a headache. Too much of a distraction. I have my extra credit to pass so I can go to college early. Nothing in my five-year plan says a hot man will ruin my whole fucking existence.

But there Finn is.

Larger than ever in my fantasies.

Owning me in the same way he did when he pressed me up against the wall.

I’m screwed either way, I decide that night, scrolling through social media. Looking at pictures from Bates’ party, seeing Finn tagged in a lot of them. Girls hanging all over him.

I’m screwed for liking him.

I’m screwed because I’m looking forward to seeing him again.

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