Page 32 of A Totally Platonic Thing
Sebastian shut the door behind me, starting to frown a little. Okay, good. At least now he might take me seriously.
“Aidan?” he called out, and a second later, Aidan appeared from the door to the kitchen on the other side of the large living room. “Have you heard from Chris?”
Aidan shrugged. “Not since I dropped him off at his car on Friday morning. I didn’t even see him at Aeon on gay night, which was kind of fucking weird, actually. Is he okay?”
“I don’t know, that’s the point,” I snarled. I was so worked up that I almost missed the look Aidan and Sebastian exchanged—almost. But some understanding passed between them, and one of my worries, a much less significant one compared to finding out where the hell Chris had gone but on my mind nonetheless, eased a little. That look said it all: Sebastian and Aidan had already talked about the time Chris spent at Aeon, and there wasn’t going to be any problem from that direction, like Sebastian getting jealous.
Okay, good, but that still left me missing one bratty, difficult, pain-in-the-ass of a roommate—who was going to get his own asstannedwhen I fucking caught up with him.
The thought sent an unwelcome, incredibly disturbing bolt of heat down into the pit of my stomach, and from there straight to my cock and balls.
Jesus, there was something so fucking wrong with me.
But Chris deserved it. I tried to force down the panic, but it kept growing, like some kind of poisonous vine climbing all over my emotions and choking my brain. Chris fucking deserved it for dropping off the face of the earth. If he actually had a paper to write, he’d have told me about it.
“Lucas?” Sebastian asked softly. “You okay? You look kind of…”
Aidan cut him off with, “Like you’re about to fucking murder someone, dude. What the hell is going on with you and Chris?”
And there was the million-dollar question. And I’d have given up a million dollars not to have to answer it.
Luckily all I had to do was simply…not answer it, and get the hell out of there before they cornered me and made me talk. Aidan could pin me if he wanted to go to the trouble, and Sebastian couldlookat me with those wide eyes of his and make me squirm with guilt. I had to escape before they thought of double-teaming me.
“I’m sorry, looks like there’s no movie night tonight,” I said abruptly. Too harshly. I simply didn’t have the patience for social graces. “I’m going to go look for Chris. Yes, I’ll let you know he’s okay when I find him,” I added, as Sebastian’s brows drew together and he opened his mouth.
And I would. Later. After I gave Chris a piece of my mind, or maybe the flat of my hand on his ass.
“Anyway, I’m heading out,” I said. “I’ll see you guys soon.” And I dodged around Sebastian and got the door open before either of them could stop me.
I heard Sebastian protesting behind me, something about helping me look for Chris, and then Aidan’s voice, persuading Sebastian that there wasn’t any real emergency and that I could handle it.
The door shut behind me on Sebastian’s final call of, “Let me know the second you find him!”
I waved over my shoulder, but I was already climbing in the car.
The next two hours of running around hunting for Chris were some of the most irritating of my life, particularly since I’d already had a long-ass day. I’d left for school before Chris got up. I hadn’t stopped working aside from a short coffee break in the late afternoon. And I wouldn’t even have taken that if a girl who’d been in one of my fall-quarter classes hadn’t wanted to ask me what I thought about the professor teaching the next class in the series. I’d only been sitting down for an hour and a half, for fuck’s sake, the time I’d spent in a lecture. Since I’d been planning on eating at Sebastian’s, my stomach had started growling like an angry stray dog.
So back to school I went, even though I doubted Chris was there, because I had to be thorough. I called again on the way. It went straight to voicemail—for the seventh fucking time.
Searching the library was basically impossible given the size of the place, so I limited myself to the main floor with its huge study area, the fiction wing, and the literary criticism section, peeking in some little side study rooms along the way just in case.
I also finally, because I was an idiot and hadn’t thought of it yet, emailed him from my phone so that he’d see it if he had his laptop out and was genuinely writing a paper.
But I didn’t believe it. Chris had probably gone to Aeon, and I’d only come back here first so I could honestly tell him I’d given him the benefit of the doubt. And because some small part of me had been hoping he’d told Sebastian the truth.
As I drove back to town, going a little too fast, I tried to take a breath and chill the fuck out. Chris had every right to go out for a drink. Obviously. And he had every right to turn off his phone. Also obviously.
But.
We’d had a weird fucking weekend. I’d spanked my roommate, and every time those words passed through my head I wondered if I’d fallen andhitmy head, and this was my bizarre concussion dream. I’d put Chris in my lap and held him down and spanked him, and I’d been hard as a rock the whole time, and then I’d held him and slept with him and forced him not to have an orgasm either.
That Chris hadwantedto have an orgasm from me slapping the hell out of that soft, pretty ass of his was another issue all its own, one I couldn’t even begin to deal with.
So Chris might be freaking out. He hadn’t seemed freaked out after he’d had a minute to recover, but…who knew, since apparently I’d missed a lot of Chris freaking out lately.
He’d gotten all gung-ho about studying and being a good friend to Sebastian and generally sorting his shit out, reading poetry and writing that paper all weekend.
But then he’d up and disappeared on Monday. Chris never missed movie night at Sebastian’s. Ever.
