LOGINGhost in the HallwayJae's POVThe next morning came too fast.I hadn't slept. I'd lain in bed with my eyes open, feeling the weight of what I'd done pressing down on me like a physical thing.Archer hadn't messaged again but he did receive my message because the down payment had appeared in my account. Enough to pay Mr. Donnelly and then some. I checked my bank balance three times. Each time, the number was the same. Large enough to make me sick.Because I knew where it came from. I knew what it meant. It wasn't a gift. It was a down payment on something I'd agreed to. Something I couldn't take back.I told myself I could still back out. That Archer would understand. Maybe he'd let me go back to the regular stage work and forget the private sessions ever came up.I knew I was lying. But I needed the lie to get through the morning.I dragged myself out of bed at seven. My body felt heavy. My head ached. My stomach cramped. The walk to campus felt longer than usual. Every step was a fi
The MathJae's POVI sat on the floor of my room with my back against the bed. My phone was in my hand. My laptop sat open beside me, displaying my bank account information. The number on the screen was small. Too small.I had eighty-three dollars.Rent was four hundred and fifty. It was due in six days. My fridge had one egg, a bottle of hot sauce, and bread that had gone hard at the edges. I hadn't eaten a real meal since yesterday morning.I opened my messages and looked at Archer's name. I didn't type anything. I just looked at it, like staring would make the decision for me.My phone rang. Unknown number. I knew who it was before I even picked up. My landlord only ever called from numbers I hadn't saved, like he didn't want me to know it was him coming for me."Hello?" I said."Jae. It's Mr. Donnelly." His voice was flat. No hello back, no how are you. "You're late again.""I know, sir. I'm getting it together. I need a few more–""You said that last month.""I know. I'm sorry. I
The OfferJae's POVThe sun hurt my eyes.I opened them slowly and regretted it. Light cut through the window. My head pounded with every heartbeat. My mouth tasted like garbage.I lay still, staring at the crack in the ceiling. Nothing ever changed in this room. But I had.Yesterday I let my stepbrother jerk me off in a janitor's closet. Yesterday I came in his hand and bit his shoulder so I wouldn't scream And then he said it didn't mean anything.Last night I touched myself thinking about him until I fell asleep.I grabbed my phone. No messages. No missed calls. I refreshed three times, nothing. Just his name at the top of an empty chat.I wanted to throw the phone. Scream. Go back to sleep forever. Instead I lay there.What did I expect? That he'd wake up and change his mind? Call and say sorry? Show up at my door and kiss me again?No. This was real life. And in real life, people like Sebastian didn't end up with people like me.I finally sat up. The room spun, then settled. I st
By the time I got to my building my knee was hurting from the fall the other day and my elbow was throbbing, and the stairs smelled like piss and as always while the elevator was still broken technically.I climbed to the third floor and fumbled with my keys and got inside, and my apartment was dark and cold with the fridge humming and the window cracked letting in a draft, so I didn't bother turning on the light because I knew where everything was and there wasn't much to know anyway.I kicked off my shoes and sat down on the mattress where the sheets were rumpled from last night because I never made the bed, and then I lay back and stared at the ceiling at that crack in the plaster that looked like a lightning bolt, the one I'd been staring at for months that never changed.But everything else had.I closed my eyes and Sebastian was there again, his face and his hands and his mouth, and I could still feel him on my skin, his fingers tracing my ribs and touching my bruises like they
The lights were still burning on my skin when I walked off the stage. My hands were shaking, not from nerves this time but from something else like adrenaline or the way those old men looked at me like I was a piece of meat, so I grabbed the cash off the edge of the stage — maybe fifty dollars this time — and stuffed it in the waistband of the boxer briefs because I didn't have anywhere else to put it. The red room felt smaller on the way out or maybe I was just done pretending I was okay with any of this.I pulled on my jeans and hoodie in the dressing room and the other guys were already gone so it was just me and the smell of sweat and that floor cleaner that doesn't clean anything. I didn't look at myself in the mirror again because I already knew what I'd see, a nineteen-year-old kid with bruises on his ribs and a split lip that kept opening up and a face that looked like it hadn't slept in a year.I walked upstairs, and Archer was leaning against the bar, nursing a whiskey. He s
What did I just do? What did I let him do? What does this even make me?I don't know. I don't know anything anymore.♡♡♡An hour later my phone buzzed.Sebastian: Behind the gym. Now.I typed back: Why?Sebastian: Just come. I stared at it. I should have ignored it. Should have thrown my phone at the wall. But I went anyway because I'm an idiot and because my dick was still sore from his hand and because I wanted to see if he'd look at me differently.He didn't.He was leaning against the wall near the dumpsters, arms crossed, jaw tight. He wasn't even looking at me. Just staring at the ground.I stood there for a second just looking at him. The way his jaw was set. The way his hands were shoved in his pockets. He looked almost as fucked up as I felt. Almost. But then again he wasn't the one who just got used like a cheap experiment."You showed up," he said."Yeah, no thanks to your creepy-ass text. What do you want?""That shouldn't have happened earlier.""No shit. You already said
Sebastian's hand was still on my jaw, his thumb moving in slow lazy circles against my cheekbone, and I couldn't fucking breathe.He was staring at my mouth."Tell me no," he said again, quieter this time.I didn't.Then he kissed me.His lips were soft at first and I felt the warmth and then he ti
I couldn't sleep all night.I lay on that mattress with the ceiling staring back at me, replaying every word Sebastian said.I must have checked my phone a hundred times. No texts from him. No damn explanation.By the time the sun came up, I had made two decisions.One: I was going to school. First
"I will take you home. You're badly injured."I pushed myself up from the pavement I'd been sitting on. Everywhere in my body hurt… my ribs, my elbow, my fucking soul… and I hated that Sebastian seemed to have noticed all of it."What were you doing out here?" I asked. "Following me?""I was leavin
Sebastian didn't reply.I checked my phone about 10 more times before falling asleep but there was nothing. Just that fucking read receipt glaring at me.I slept off.By morning, I'd decided it didn't matter.So what if my stepbrother saw my bare chest? It wasn't like I had anything impressive up t







