Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88656 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 443(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Kage chuckled quietly and took the blunt from me, sucked in another hit, and gave it back. It was the familiar back-and-forth of getting high— an intimate exchange like fighting, or dancing, or fucking. It felt nice. I took a deeper hit this time, filling my lungs to capacity and holding it as long as I could.
I tried unsuccessfully to ignore Kage’s state of undress. He’d worked out in front of me in nothing but a pair of shorts, but this was different. This was underwear, and it was really freaking me out.
He pulled one knee up and draped his arm over it, and I caught a glimpse of something I shouldn’t have seen as his boxer fly gaped and settled back closed. Against my will, desire sparked down low in my gut.
Don’t think about it, Jamie.
I tore my eyes away, already feeling lightheaded, and crashed down onto my back on the bed near Kage’s bare feet. The ceiling was very far away, at least ten feet above me, the dark wood rafters beginning to shift when they should have been still.
“You boys starting the party without me?” Vanessa entered the room with a beer in her hand.
“Never,” Kage said, his deep voice vibrating through me. “Come here, Nessy.”
Kage got up onto his knees on the bed, and Vanessa walked over to stand right in front of him. He slipped the lit end of the blunt expertly between his lips, the fire disappearing within his mouth. Vanessa leaned in, and Kage put his hands on her shoulders, held her as she closed her eyes and parted her lips. Then he positioned the end of the blunt right at the edge of her waiting lips and shotgunned the smoke straight into her mouth.
It was a shockingly sensual act, and I licked my lips as I watched, unable to look away as Kage shared his high with Vanessa in the most intimate way possible. Then he crawled across the bed and leaned down over me, the blunt still wedged between his lips. I could tell by the urgent look on his face that the fire was getting hot inside his mouth, but he wanted to give me a shotgun before he removed it.
I parted my lips like I’d seen Vanessa do, my heart fluttering as Kage’s face came close to mine and he blew smoke down into my lungs. I couldn’t help thinking how intimate the act was, him blowing into my mouth, our lips nearly close enough to touch.
Then he was gone, sitting up and pulling the blunt gingerly from his mouth, being careful not to burn his lips. He took a deep breath and handed it to Vanessa, who hit it a couple of times before dousing the fiery tip and setting it in a hotel ashtray on the bedside table.
By this time, I was flying, no doubt about it. The rafters were really starting to move, seeming to breathe with a life of their own, casting blurry trails against the white expanse of ceiling. I shook my head, realizing with alarm that I was hallucinating.
“I haven’t felt like this in a long time,” I mumbled. “This is some good shit.”
“Mmm hmm,” Kage agreed, dropping down onto his back right beside me, his hip nearly touching mine. “Very nice.”
Vanessa climbed onto the bed with us, lying down beside Kage, sandwiching him between us. “What do you think?” she asked him. “About what I suggested earlier?”
“No,” he replied flatly.
“Hey, it’s not like it would be the first time, you know?”
Kage grunted and spoke slowly, sounding very stoned. “That doesn’t count. We were in high school. We were stupid.”
“God, Kage, why won’t you let me do something for you? How long has it been?” Then Vanessa started crying. Not like an authentic cry, but the whiny kind you do when you’re fucked up and everything strikes you as emotional. The kind of cry you’re ashamed of when you think back on it from a sober vantage point. “You can’t go through life with nothing but fighting, Michael. I can tell it’s wearing on you. Please let me help you. Let somebody help you.”
Kage lay there in silence for a moment, and my mind began to float up into the rafters. I have no idea how long it was before he spoke again.
“He’s not down for it,” he said quietly, calling me back to Earth.
Whoa… I am truly fucked up. Where was my mind just then?
I kept expecting the two of them to start making out, but they just lay there staring at the ceiling. Talking with each other like I wasn’t even there. I kept trying to make sense of what they were saying. It seemed like they were talking about me, but in my blitzed state I couldn’t quite grasp the meaning of their words.