Blaze meets my gaze. I wait for him to tell me to calm down, to be rational, to stop escalating.
“You can do that after you’re clean,” Blaze says, and I hear the quiet anger in his voice, that fierceness I thought he reserved for Asch. “Tate is going to pay, don’t worry. But let him quiver in fear first.”
I burst out laughing. “Quiver in fear? That’s not my style, Blaze. Revenge is best served piping hot.”
“And full of piss?” Blaze asks, and it’s so flippant, so awful, that I giggle some more.
I lean closer to Blaze, and he opens his arms for me. He doesn’t hesitate to hug me at all.
Get yourself a man who will hug you while drenched in piss.
“Well, now you’re filthy too,” I say.
Blaze snorts. “It was my clever ploy to force you to shower with me. The greenhouse has a shower. And a wash basin. Let’s go there. It’s closer than anywhere else.”
“You don’t want to walk across campus smelling like a New Bristol parking garage stairwell?” I ask.
“No. Fuck, this is filthy.” Blaze takes my hand and leads me to the greenhouse.
Part of me wants to argue that we can still catch up to Tate and his friends.
The other part of me is suddenly deeply exhausted.
The scratching in my skin is duller, less immediate. I sway closer to Blaze, resting my head against his shoulder while he inputs the code to get us into the secret rooms of the greenhouse.
“Whydoesthe greenhouse have secret rooms?” I ask once the door opens.
“They aren’tsecretrooms,” Blaze mutters. “They’re just the restricted areas. And I told you. This is where the botany students do their plant breeding or whatever.”
“Botany students, like Zayden,” I mutter.
Blaze leads me to a small enclosed room—no windows—with a shower stall and a wash basin. He takes my backpack and sets it by the basin, then unzips my hoodie to help peel the cold, wet fabric off of me.
“Did Zayden scream a lot?” Blaze asks. “Y’know. When you beheaded him?”
I smile up at him. “Are you wearing a wire, Blaze? Is this room bugged?”
“Nope. You’re about to see me naked anyway.” He undresses me all the way first though. He unbuckles my skirt’s belt, he unties my boots, then he helps me out of my leggings.
I’m standing naked in front of him, and I look up at his handsome face.
He’s so fucking perfect, isn’t he?
Even if he doesn’t actually want me.
I take a step closer. “I really want to kiss you right now, Blaze.”
Blaze laughs. “I kept thinking that too, but I don’t think I want that urine aftertaste. Unlike Tate, I don’t think piss tastes good.”
I start giggling again. “It was funny though, right? The party trick?”
Blaze shakes his head, but he smiles. “It was fucking hilarious. How’d you make him piss himself at just the right time, too?”
“The candies I gave him. I laced them with a diuretic. He thought they were uppers. I don’t think he’s ever seen a drug in his life, to be honest. Nobody in NB would have believed me. And I made sure he drank a lot.” I wait while Blaze undresses.
It’s weird to see him naked like this. He isn’t hard, but I like how his cock looks anyway. It’s thick, and doesn’t look too large nestled between his legs and pubic hair, but I know it grows.
Blaze puts our filthy underwear into the washbasin and turns it on hot. He adds detergent from a nearby shelf.
