Page 55 of Into the Blue
I wake to arguing that’s rising in volume outside the bedroom. Somehow I’m under the blanket again. Where Blue was once beside me is no longer warm.
Not baby.
Not Blue.
Milo.
I’m naked, so the sheet will have to do as I get up to see who’s here.
If I’m honest, the two voices sound identical. The only reason I can sense a difference between the two is by how much thicker Milo’s drawl is.
I get close enough to the door that I can hear the voices a little better. I would put something on and go out there but something tells me not to.
“You’re in a shitty mood,” Milo says to the other man.
There’s a grunt and then, “Can I stay here or what?”
“Don’t piss me off. Your room is down the hall,” Milo responds.
“I’m not gonna be here long. I’ll just stay on the couch and leave in the mornin’.”
Milo sighs long and deep. “T, wassup? You hidin’ from somethin’.”
“Not in the way you think.”
“How do I think?”
Another grunt and then a scoff. “It’s Drea, alright? She's with this fucking dick. He’s… It don’t matter. I’m gonna sleep on the couch and drive back tomorrow. I have work.”
“Whatever, bro,” Blue says.
Bro?
His brother is here?
Then I hear his heavy steps coming back toward the room. I skip, hop, and jump back into the bed before he can find out I was snooping.
I do my best to rearrange the covers back on the bed but it’s not that great of a job. Somehow, Milo notices in the dark room.
“Did I wake you up?”
I try to fake like I was much more asleep and croak out, “No, I’m always up at two in the morning.”
He turns on a lamp before getting back into the bed. “Smart ass. C’mere,” he pulls me toward him with ease and now I can’t imagine not going with him.
“Why are you up?” I ask into his chest, my lips brushing the warm skin there. He might blow me off, but I think that’s a perfectly reasonable question to ask right now.
“My lil’ bro, Tony, is in thefriend zone,” he says into my hair.
I should not marvel at how I fit into his body like this. With his arms around me, it feels like this spot was made for me. “Huh?” My brain catches up to the fact that he’s said something. I was too busy warring in my mind withhe’s a markandif not partner, why partner shaped?
“He’s got it bad for his best friend and she’s datin’ somebody else. Think he drove here after findin’ out.”
“I can go, if you—”
“Nah, you good right here. Don’t think he’s stayin’ long. Will probably be in Colorado before end of day tomorrow.”
“You care for him. Really I can go so you two can talk or whatever.” I don’t actually want to go. But this could be an easy way out of the house and back to my people if I play this right.
