Page 42 of Collin: Episodes 1-3
“Neither. Pink G-string and blond highlights. Maybe a braided shell choker.” Collin dared a look toward Mr. Reevesworth.
The older man’s eyes were soft with amusement. “Hmm…not the look I’d choose for you.”
“Oh, how do you dress your boys in the Caribbean?”
Mr. Reevesworth smirked. “I don’t like tan lines.”
Collin smirked back. “So nothing. Do I at least get one of those long bohemian scarves to tie around my waist when I’m walking around in public?”
“Maybe. If you’re good. And I’m feeling generous.”
Collin’s lips twitched. “I don’t even know how to be good yet. If we went today, I’d be naked all the time.”
“Only when I don’t give Damian permission to cover you like a beach towel.”
Collin blushed. “He wants to do that.”
Mr. Reevesworth raised an eyebrow. “Are you opposed?”
Collin looked down at his hands. Would he mind? Fuck no. “If you wanted that, sir. No, I’m not opposed.”
“Damian’s never had a little brother in The Residency. He’s eager.”
Collin hugged his leg to his chest but let his other thigh fall open on the window seat. “I liked it, yesterday, when he held me in front of the mirror.”
“He told me.”
Collin colored and dropped his face. “I’m not going to have any secrets, am I?”
“None.”
Collin sighed. He looked down at the scratches on his arm. “And what if I can’t give them up easily?”
“I have ways of getting them out of you if you give me permission. That’s why there’s a contract so I can take you places you can’t say yes to in the moment even though you want to go.”
“What if all you find are pieces?”
“Then we build something from them.”
“What if there aren’t enough pieces left?”
“There will be. And life has a way of giving us new pieces.”
Collin heaved a sigh. “I want to believe you. This”—he waved at the apartment and Mr. Reevesworth—“none of this, it’s not real. I’m waiting to wake up… Like maybe I wished everything away so hard I made all this up. Maybe I’m in a coma somewhere, and now this is playing out like The Matrix.”
“Well, can you find another reality? Can you wake up?”
“I’ve tried.”
“And?”
“And this seems to be the only place I can wake up.”
“Then dream or not, you have to keep going. Might as well live it as if it was real.”
“Wouldn’t a dream person say that?”
Mr. Reevesworth smiled. “I’m the wrong person to ask. I practice lucid dreaming. So my dreams are usually quite metaphorical. But in my experience, dream people usually tell you that you are dreaming or don’t engage with your doubts about their veracity. Or doubt makes them disappear.”
