“No, you didn’t tell me.”
Kaden knew he had. “Come and watch me and we can go to the club after.”Am I already backtracking on my decision?
“Watch you make a fool of yourself? Not my idea of fun.” He ended the call.
Kaden sighed. He definitely needed to end things with Harris. This was going nowhere. The coward in him wanted to send a text, but he knew how he’d feel if he got dumped like that so he’d wait until he saw him.
Joe loved pizza. Kaden had cut it up into small pieces and Joe consumed an entire slice. Kaden could actually see him getting bigger and firmer. Closer to a mini football than a tennis ball. It was like watching bread rise. Though Joe growing fast could turn into a problem. He was easy to hide at the moment, but wouldn’t be if he got big.
Which brought on another worry. How large could he get? Big enough to fill the whole building, so that he oozed out of the windows?Fuck!There was more of a shape to him sometimes, a sort of head and body with limbs. He even mimicked a cup, then the pepper grinder, but he kept reverting to the shape of a ball as if it was hard to maintain the other forms.
Kaden used his laptop to watch one ofThe Blue Planetseries, with Joe sitting on his knee. Every now and again, Joe changed shape to imitate what they were watching on the screen: a small penguin, a seal, a narwhal. It was so cute and more mesmerising than what they were viewing, especially when Joe somehow turned white when he was the narwhal.
He went to bed with his head buzzing. Joe had indicatedyeswhen Kaden asked if he needed to sleep, so he’d put one of his winter hats on the desk for Joe and placed the water container next to it. He wished he had someone to talk to about him. If he told any of his friends, they’d think he’d lost his mind.
Maybe I have.
Until he decided what to do, he needed to handle this scientifically. Teach Joe how to communicate. Monitor his physical and mental progress. Keep him alive and ask him where he wanted to go. Find out where he was from and what he could do.
Except where was there to go for a blob called Joe? How would he survive? If anyone saw him, they’d probably stamp on him. He swallowed hard. Kaden felt responsible for him now.He’d saved him from the incinerator and the enemy blobs so now he had to look after him and protect him.
Or confess to Harris and ask him what to do?
He could imagine the result of that. Lixian would be sealed off. The army would be called in. Harris would be furious. Kaden would be arrested and Joe might be dissected. Especially if Kaden told them how he’d healed that cut. He lay awake, thinking and fretting, and was still awake when he heard the buzzer.
Just after eleven and he could guess who was outside. None of his friends would come at this time of night. Even if it wasn’t Harris, he couldn’t let anyone see Joe. He pushed to his feet, padded across to the door and checked the screen. Kaden sighed when he saw Harris glowering. He pressed the controller to open the door downstairs and went back to his desk.
“I need to hide you. Don’t let Harris see you or I’ll be in trouble and so will you. Okay?”
Joe touched Kaden’s middle finger.
Kaden put Joe and the hat at the bottom of his wardrobe with the water. He looked so vulnerable that Kaden’s throat tightened. “Stay still.” Then he shut him in.
He put on sleep pants before he opened the door of his flat. Harris pushed past, slamming his way inside.
“Why didn’t you unlock this door? You knew I was coming up.”
It was Kaden’s routine to release the outer door, then unlock the door of his flat so Harris could walk straight in. He didn’t see why it mattered that he hadn’t, but Harris wrapped his hand around Kaden’s throat and shoved him back against the door, closing it with the weight of their bodies.
“I just nipped to the loo,” Kaden croaked.
Harris had been drinking. Kaden could smell the alcohol. He sucked in a breath when Harris released his throat.
“Written the article yet?” Harris took off his coat and tossed it on the chair.
I don’t want you to stay.But the words remained in his head. Kaden’s courage was slipping away. “I’ve made a start. What are you doing here?”
Harris glared at him. “What do you mean, what am I doing here? You said you wanted to talk.”
“But I told you I was tired. I was in bed.”
Harris moved back to press himself against him, rocking his hips against Kaden’s. “Let’s get back into bed, then.”
“You’re drunk,” Kaden muttered.
“So what?”
Harris was cold and cruel when he was drunk. Kaden swallowed.Colder and crueller.
