LOGINThe 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 tilted his head and everything changed. His bottom lip caught mine and pulled a little and my mouth just opened and then his tongue was there. Just touched mine. And my toes curled in my shoes.I made this sound. I didn't mean to.His hand went to the back of my neck, fingers in my hair, and he pulled me closer. His other hand pressed into my shirt then slid around to my lower back and pulled me against him. My hips hit his and I felt how hard he was through his pants, felt it against my thigh, against my stomach, and I made that sound again, louder.He bit my lower lip. Soft. Then tugged it. Then licked it."Sebastian," I said. His name came out shaky.He pulled back and looked at me. His eye
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 day of a fresher year.I'd paid for it with blood and bruises, and I wasn't going to let Sophie or Jason or anyone else take that from me.Two: I was going to find Sebastian. And I was going to make him tell me what the fuck he meant.The third decision… I had to go to the club at eight o'clock tonight… I shoved into a box in the back of my head and didn't open.* * *The university was exactly what I expected. Big buildings. Girls in expensive leggings and guys in even more expensive sneakers. Rich kids everywhere who showed off.Everyone is laughing and talking, having fun.As I stepped into the hallway, I noticed everyone kept looking at me. Not just looking. They were even snickering to
"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
"You think I'm stupid?"The words came first, and then his hand landed harshly on my cheek and my back hit the freezer door before my brain caught up… Manager Cole's fingers tight in my collar."I didn't touch the register." My voice came out steady and firm. "I promise you, I wouldn't take your mo







