Page 114 of Enemies with Benefits
I glared at him, beginning to wonder why I was ever worried about him. I couldn't even say it was the concussion that had turned him into a freaking idiot, because as Julie had pointed out, there were clearly not enough brain cells in his head to worry about.
"Seriously, though," Kayden continued, tilting his head and looking at me. Only to wince and pull his head upright. “Ow, that hurts when you've got brain damage. And don't think making a joke about the brain damage I already have is somehow going to make me forget. They told me the worst is past, and the only memory problem I have is everything leading up to getting shot. I definitely haven't forgotten that you've been trying to keep your boyfriend, fuck buddy, or whatever he is, from all of us."
"We're not…" I began and then stopped because he'd covered both boyfriend and fuck buddy, and we weren't either of those things, but we also weren't nothing. Well, weweren't,was the best way to put it, because...we were something that was hard to describe, but that was before. It was obvious we weren't ever going to work out in...anyway, obvious.
Kayden sighed, shaking his head. "Seriously? Comeon, Jace. Look at me, do you really think I'd care about something like that?"
"You didn't say anything, and you apparently knew," I shot back at him.
"Well, of course, I knew. It was pretty obvious."
"Apparently not. You seem to be the only one who figured it out...and Micah. Which is...weird."
"I knewsomethingwas up when you first spotted him months ago. I haveneverseen you get that pissed about someone who wasn't a piece of shit. And okay, sure, he comesoff as a bit of a dick, definitely back then, but it was obvious he wasn't a total asshole. As time went on, and I saw him...you know, without you around, I realized he wasn't actually all that much of an asshole, just...kind of a little shit."
"That's one way of describing him."
"But he always kept getting under your skin, even when he wasn't doing anything that should have pissed you off. And it kept bugging me because why should someone just doing their own thing piss you off that bad? And then you kept acting weird, like you couldn't stand being around him, but you couldn't help spending more and more time with him. I mean, yeah, there's Micah, but you could have easily found ways to spend time around him without Mason. But you never did, you didn't eventry.That was about the time I realized you two were...drifting toward one another, and you were always aware where the other one was and what they were doing. And by the way, on a far less romantic note, I totally caught you checking his ass out at least half a dozen times."
I went from feeling uncomfortable to giving a choking gasp at the last one. “You ass!"
"No, it washisass," he said with a smirk. "I never caught him doing it, if you can believe it. He's a lot better at hiding what's been going on, but you? You I can read like a book, especially when you're fumbling through your first relationship with a dude."
"We're not in a relationship."
"Call it what you want?—"
"No, there's...nothing going on."
"Dude—"
"Now, nothing is going on between us now. There was, and I still don't know what to call it, but it's not...it's done, alright? It's over."
"Why?"
So I told him, well, noteverything; there were some details I was not going to share, but it was enough to cover the past few months. I tried to keep to the bare essentials, the fact that yes, Kayden was right, Mason and I had spent a lot of time around one another, and...things happened, a lot. I skimmed over those to the best of my ability, ignoring the sly look on his face as I continued into recent weeks. My confusion about what we were, my sureness that everything was going to burst into flames, and then...well, the other night.
"So let me get this straight, if you'll excuse the pun," he said with a smirk that I again ignored. "You started a fight with him when the man was just talking to you?—"
"I did not start a?—"
"Shut it, you had your say, now I'm going to have mine."
"I wasn't telling you shit so you could start running your mouth."
"If you didn't want me to have an opinion, you shouldn't have told me anything in the first place. Should have gone right back to locking everything down in your head and pretending like nothing was wrong. But you didn't, now did you?"
I glared at him. “I liked you better unconscious."
"I'm sure," he said with a bright grin. "Look, you always want to act like all that matters is facts, well, the fact is, you started that fight. The guy was talking to you, and you started getting pissy with him."
"He got pissy first!"
"Yeah, man, you pushed and poked about his dad. If I lost my dad at that age, I'd be pretty testy about it too. I mean shit, I've never talked to Moira about it, and I don't plan on it unless it's something that comes up. But you? You just had to push, didn't you?"
"Like he doesn't do that to me."
"Wah, wah, wah, he pushes you, so you push him, and he pushes you, and you push him. Both of you are always pushing each other. But it sounds to me like you were the one who did the real pushing this time. You two always wanna push, but you were the one who finally hit the wall of no return."
