Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 235(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Tor squatted down and looked at the man. “Hey, you okay?” He touched his shoulder. “Cody?” He shook him.
“Is he dead?” the woman asked.
“No. He’s breathing, but he’s bleeding a lot and he’s unconscious. You should call for an ambulance probably.” Tor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Shit. We have to get out of here.” He grabbed Jule’s arm and yanked him up. “Let’s go.”
“I’m going to kill him.” He rubbed the back of his head and winced. Something warm dripped from his eyebrow along the side of his face. Tor always could land a punch. He was freakishly strong.
“No, you’re not,” Tor said.
“I need an ambulance,” the woman was speaking into her phone. She rattled off her address. “My husband was attacked.”
Tor flipped around, took the phone from her, and pressed it against his shirt. “If you tell anyone that he had anything to do with this, I’ll tell the cops why he did it. Explain that to Cody when he wakes up.”
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “You can’t. We’ll both go to jail.”
“I don’t give a fuck. Make up a story. I don’t care what, but you leave him out of it completely.” With that threat hanging in the air, he handed her the phone, then he ducked down, picked up the pipe, turned Jule around, and pushed him out the door. “Let’s go, killer. We need to get you out of sight.”
“What were you thinking?” Tor said angrily.
He was leaning over Jule, who was sitting on the closed toilet, and wiping balled up toilet paper dipped in water across his eyebrow.
“That hurts.” Jule pulled away.
“It’ll hurt more when I get the alcohol out, killer. Stay still.”
“Fuck you for punching me that hard.”
“Fuck you for losing your shit and being a dumbass.” Tor shook his head and tossed the bloody wad of paper into the trash. “Why the fuck did you go over there, Jule? All these years we’ve been keeping you out of trouble at school and making sure you have straight A’s so your mom will stay out of your hair and then you do something like this? Did you even think about what would happen if you got caught? If your mother found out? Do you think you’ll ever be able to come here again if she knew? She’d probably send you away to a boarding school or something.”
“I was thinking that you were being raped by a pedo and nobody was doing anything to stop it.”
“I wasn’t being raped.” Tor rolled his eyes. He reached for the bottle of alcohol on the shelf they’d built into the wall last year. Tor had removed a piece of drywall and then cut it up and covered the studs in the wall with it. Jule had helped him. Now there was space for the bottles and tubes and things that crowded the bathroom everyone in the house shared. “I was getting really conveniently located head, and you fucked that up for me.”
Jule stayed quiet while Tor crumpled up more toilet paper, coated it in alcohol, and then gently patted it against his eyebrow. “He’s too old for you,” he finally said. “It’s illegal.”
“Yeah, well, so is a lot of shit I do, and it’s never bothered you before. Like I said, he’s close and willing so whatever.”
“I meant illegal for him to be doing. Not illegal for you. It’s wrong.”
Tor stood up straight, threw the paper into the trash, and rolled his neck from left to right. “Yeah, probably.” He shrugged and then smirked at Jule. “Felt pretty good though.” He got a Band-Aid from the box and peeled off the paper.
There was nothing funny about the situation so Jule shouldn’t have laughed but he did anyway. “You’re insane.”
“I’m horny.” He put the Band-Aid on Jule and then looked at him appraisingly. “You ever had someone suck you off?”
“You don’t think I’d have told you if I had?” Jule felt himself getting angry again. “Fuck you for that too, by the way. I can’t believe you kept that from me.”
Tor gripped his hand and pulled him up. “Wasn’t sure how you’d act if you found out.”
“I’d act like a sane person and tell you to stay away from predators.” Tor walked out of the bathroom and Jule followed him. “I can make a list of good advice like that if you need it. Don’t take candy from strangers. Don’t get into the back of a white windowless van.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Tor said, chuckling. He bumped his shoulder against Jule. “You never told me why you came back.”
“My mom went out of town.”
“Cool.” Tor walked into the bedroom and collapsed onto his bed. Jule lay beside him, both of them on their backs, crowded together on the twin mattress like usual. “How long?”