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Prompt Words:
lilygcs - thunderstorm, condo, purple, antique
akmmiles - elbow, frantic, ridiculous, preserves
winnie_jerome
- doppelganger, Schadenfreude, regeneration, Excalibur
Midnight Encounter - Part 3
"Yeah, Josh can call me. I told him he could." Henry's tongue darted out to catch the dab of grape
preserves on his lip, but missed. He dropped the phone and his sandwich as the glob landed and slid down the side of
his white shorts, leaving a purple streak. "Damn it."
"What? What's going on?" Henry could just make out Paul's
voice. He sighed and picked up the phone, but left the sandwich. The ten second rule did not apply during shedding season.
Furball came over to sniff the PB&J.
"Sorry. Dropped the phone," he told Paul. "Anyway, yeah, Josh said he'd get
my number from you."
"Okay. I just wanted to make sure you wanted me to give out your number."
"Sure.
You know him, right? He's okay? I mean, he's a bit different, but that was fun."
"Yeah, he's cool."
"Hey, I've
gotta go. Got a mess to clean up here. Great party, by the way." At least, it had been a great party up until Bryan had cornered
him and drunkenly rambled on about regeneration, or reincarnation, or some such off-the-wall topic. When Edward had
joined them and started in with his dumbass schadenfreude based jokes, he'd become downright frantic to get
the hell out of there.
"Thanks. Yeah, I'm still picking up from that. Why are all my friends such slobs? Seriously,
I've got coasters everywhere, but now there's a ring on my antique coffee table."
The antique coffee table Henry'd
put a cold beer bottle down on? He mumbled something about inconsiderate people and hung up the phone.
He'd barely
gotten the floor wiped up when the phone vibrated in his pocket. He tossed the grubby paper towels toward the trash and looked
at the caller ID. Not a number he recognized, but he pressed the Talk button. "Yeah?"
"Henry?" The familiar voice had
a cheerful tone. "Hey, it's Josh. Remember? From last night?"
How could he forget? He'd hoped Josh would truly follow
up with the promised call, but he hadn't gotten his hopes up. "Yeah, don’t be ridiculous. Of course I remember."
Josh
laughed. "I try to be memorable."
Henry grinned reflexively. "You were memorable all right."
"Great. How about
a memorable afternoon to add to it?"
"What? Today? Like, right now?
"Sure. You doing anything? I feel like going
over to the Excalibur for some go-carting."
Go-carting? He hadn't been to the family entertainment center in
West Monroe since he was a kid. It sounded fun, though. "Okay. But isn't there a good chance of another thunderstorm
this afternoon?"
"Well, if it does we'll play laser tag inside, instead."
Awesome. Henry liked Josh's idea of
a date. If it was a date. He assumed it was a date. "Okay. Where do you want to meet up?"
"Come over to my condo.
We'll head out together from here." Josh gave him the address and they arranged to meet in a couple hours.
* * * *
*
The door swung open and a wide grin spread across Josh's face. "Well hello there." He looked Henry up and down as
if he'd never seen him before. It had been dark in the park, but seriously, it was a bit much. "Nice."
Henry
felt his face heat up. "Uh, thanks. You look nice too."
An eyebrow quirked up on the handsome face. "Yeah? Maybe Josh'll
share you with me."
The hell? Either Josh had a doppelganger or his sense of humor was even weirder than Henry'd
given him credit for.
Josh -- the real Josh -- stepped into view. "Jeremy, keep your hands off. He's mine." When Josh
reached them he took hold of Henry's elbow possessively. "Hey, Henry. As I imagine you've figured out, this is my twin
brother, Jeremy."
Henry swallowed. Hard. "Yeah, I was starting to catch that drift."
"Henry thinks I look nice.
He told me so."
Josh rolled his eyes. "He thought you were me. I don't want to share this one. He's cool. I kinda like
him."
This one?
"Don't you think Henry should have a say? Maybe he'd like to play with both of us?"
Josh's
jawline hardened. "Fine." He turned and faced Henry. "So, do you just want to play around with both of us, or are you interested
in getting to know me and see what happens?"
Henry's mouth dropped open. Jesus. What did he want?
This
is pretty evil of me, but…
To be continued at some point in the future?
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