Page 220 of Fragments
Once we’ve hung up with Dash, I look around the room for Joy. She’s usually pretty prompt in getting her phone back when we’re done. But right now, she’s in the back of the room with Velle, having a conversation that looks serious from where I’m sitting.
Attempting to take my mind off of all the drama, I turn to Felix. “So, how are things going with your man?”
Felix’s lips slope into a smile that answers my question without words. “It’s awesome. He’s…perfect,” he sighs dreamily, and I grin.
“That’s cool. I’m happy for you guys,” I tell him, and he bites his lip.
Kang scoffs, loudly, and Felix peeks at him, his smile slipping.
Ignoring Kang, I keep talking. “Does he see any other patients down there in the East? Or is it just you?”
“So far, it’s just me,” Felix replies. “But he thinks now that Trevel is here, the Warden might want him to start seeing him again…”
Felix’s gray eyes take on a fraught darkness behind his black-framed glasses, troubled gaze setting on the tray of picked-apart food before him.
“Have they ever fucked?” Ren blurts the question with his standard lack of conversational finesse. I elbow him in the ribs, and he grumbles, “Damn, babe! I’m gonna bruise if you keep doing that.”
“Rein it in a little,” I hiss at him, then turn back to Felix. “Sorry. He has no filter.”
Felix chuckles. “It’s okay. No, they haven’t fucked.” I can’t help noticing how Kang suddenly seems invested in the conversation he wanted nothing to do with a moment ago. “Lem was always straight before… before we met.”
Felix’s mouth twitches, and he tugs his lower lip with his teeth again. I’m telling you, this dude is the cuddliest, most precious sociopathic murderer ever. You just want to pinch his cheeks. Maybe from afar…in case he decides to bite your fingers off.
“See? I love that,” Ren hums. “You’re out here doing the Lord’s work. Turning hot dudes to the dark side. Bless you, child.”
Ren makes the holy cross motion, but wraps it up with a wrist-flick, and Felix laughs.
“If they’ve never hooked up, then why do you care if your man starts treating him again?” Kang butts in with a tone both curious and accusatory.
Felix’s face lights up, clearly excited that Kang is actually talking to him for once without being insulting or threatening. “I don’t know if Icare, necessarily…”
“You do,” Kang grunts. “I saw it on your face when Ren asked the question. It worries you…”
Felix swallows visibly. “Maybe a little…”
“What’s wrong? You don’t trust yourperfectDoctor Daddy?” Kang sneers.
Felix’s eyes narrow, his features sharpening drastically. In a blink, he looks much moreCarverthan cuddly, and it’s giving me chills. Ren notices and rubs the goosebumps on my arm.
“Oh, I trust Lem emphatically,” Felix murmurs. “It’s Trevel Fenwick I don’t trust.”
Kang stares at Darcey for a moment, before lifting a shoulder like he doesn’t care either way, though I think it’s obvious he does. But I just don’t knowwhy.
“Is that dude even gay?” Ren chirps, pulling at a thread on my t-shirt sleeve while he eyes dart across the room briefly, toward Trevel. “When it comes to Brits, I seriously can’t tell.”
“I think he’s Pan,” Felix mumbles.
“He is,” Kang says definitively. “He’s Pansexual.”
Ren squints at him. “How doyouknow?”
“He told me.” Kang gives him a casually snarky look.
“So, let me get this straight.” Ren leans in. “Out of thelimited wordsyou claim to have exchanged with that string-bean, at least two of them were him informing you of his sexual orientation?”
Kang blinks at him, then sits back, folding his arms over his chest. “It would appear so.”
The two of them are having a staring contest, and I’m starting to feel unsettled again.
