Page 38 of Slow Heat
Washing and waxing the car took a few hours and kept Jason’s mind occupied for the most part. He did drift off into fantasies at several points, imagining making Vale a present of a brand-new car straight off the assembly line, then riding with him to the seaside cottage for a week of lazing together in the sand. He wondered whether he could get a car in cerulean blue.
Afterward, he went up to his room to shower again. He changed into a pair of clean trousers cut to perfection by his pater’s tailor and a plain green button-up shirt. He started on a paper for Professor Rochera’s biodiversity class, spending extra time drawing the wings of the Saturniid moth in detail in the margins. Then he practiced the guitar a bit more, playing some songs he knew and attempting to write one of his own. He’d never been a very motivated musician, not like Pater who enjoyed playing and composing both, but with Vale the poet as a potential future audience, he was determined to bring him something beautiful if he could.
He played on, remembering the drifts of loose paper in Vale’s study, the light from the window on Vale’s skin, and the thud of his pulse in his neck. In his mind’s eye, it was a steady rhythm, delicate and yet firm. He played to its beat. Vale was so beautiful. Jason’s fingers flew over the strings, and he closed his eyes, letting the music fill him in a way it never had before.
Another dose of alpha quell was brought up to his room by Father before he left to meet with some suppliers.
“I’ll be home later with some sort of take-out. If you get hungry in the meantime, or if Miner does, go ahead and cook what I’ve put out to thaw.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You’re a good boy, Jason,” his father said fondly, sliding his hand into Jason’s hair and smiling down at him. “I know you’re overwhelmed now, but I assure you everything is going to be all right.”
“I know, Father.” Not because he trusted his parents, though he did, but because he was determined. He was young, but he wasn’t an idiot. With every second that passed, Jason became more certain. He could be what Vale needed. He’d stand taller, be smarter, work harder. He’d do whatever it took.
After his father left, a knock came at the front door. Irrationally, Jason’s heart leapt into his throat. He knew it wouldn’t be Vale, but it was possible, wasn’t it? He’d said he wasn’t immune to Jason. Maybe he was dying to see him, too?
Jason tried to hide his disappointment when he found Xan on the doorstep with a tin of Woodenhall Candy Store’s famous fudge in hand for Pater and a shy, nervous smile for Jason. “Hey, I brought my notes from school. Thought I’d help you out for a change.”
Jason swung the door wide. Whatever had been stuck in Xan’s craw when he last saw him in the student medical center seemed dislodged now. “Pater loves that fudge. So I guess I have to let you in.”
“Even if I was a jerk the other day?”
Jason smiled and wrapped his arm around Xan’s shoulder, guiding him into the foyer. “Who isn’t a jerk when their best friend goes crazy and attacks an omega in the library?”
“Not me, apparently.”
“Yeah, not you. You jerked it right up and without hesitation.”
The joking soothed the airing of grievances, and the wordsorrynever needed to be spoken aloud. “Do you want to give the fudge to Pater personally? Or just leave it here on the table for him?”
“Here’s fine.” Xan scooted the box safely onto the marble-topped table next to the coat rack.
“Let’s go upstairs.” Jason peeled Xan’s coat free and hung it up for him. “I’ve got new prepared microscope slides since you were here. Tree diseases this time.”
Botany wasn’t his absolute favorite thing to study, but it was pretty close. He loved learning about plants and how to grow them. The chemical processes within them and their reproductive functions were fascinating. And he enjoyed learning about plant diseases, too, as well as their cures.
Xan, for his part, couldn’t care less about any of it, but he indulged Jason all the same. At least he usually did. Given that he was here to pseudo-apologize, Jason didn’t think today would be any different. “The Cedar-Apple Rust fungus is especially cool.”
“Nerd,” Xan muttered, then laughed and straightened his blue-and-gold printed bow tie.
“The biggest,” Jason agreed, taking Xan’s hand and pulling him toward the staircase up to his room. “Wait until you see how pretty the bacteria is that causes root rot in Old World Japanese Maples. It’s the prettiest bacteria I’ve ever seen.”
While Jason set up the microscope on his neatly organized desk, Xan walked around the bedroom looking at everything like he’d never seen it before and might never see it again. Finally, he sat down on the edge of Jason’s freshly made bed and chewed on his bottom lip.
“They really aren’t going to let you come back to school?”
“I can go back for classes starting next week.” Jason pulled out a few slides from his collection. The butterfly wings he’d ordered at the end of summer were cool, too. He didn’t think Xan had seen those yet. “But yeah, not to live.”
“Ever?”
“Probably not. If I contract with him, then I’ll live with him somewhere. If negotiations get drawn out, then my parents will want me to stay home.” Jason sent him an empathetic shrug. “It sucks. We had a lot of plans, but, hey, look at the bright side. You get a whole room to yourself!”
Xan stared at him, his normally red cheeks pale. “How can you be so relaxed about this?”
Jason chuckled. “Relaxed? If I seem relaxed that’s just the alpha quell.” He slipped a glass slide under the microscope clip and took a look. It was a slide he’d prepared for himself instead of purchasing. It consisted of grains of sand from the shore next to their beach cottage. Under the microscope, they offered up an array of colors and shapes. “I’m going crazy deep down. But if I acted like I feel, it’d just make everything worse.” A small swirl of translucent shell sat at the center of the slide, amongst, red, blue, and green coral, minerals, and rock. “Look at this one first,” he said. “It’s fantastic.”
Xan didn’t move from the bed even when Jason beckoned him with a smile. Instead, his fingers curled into fists and his tear-filled gaze met Jason’s.
