Page 70 of Full Body Hit, Part 1

His thoughts fogged over. He slipped under, and—

There was someone attacking him. Attacking the room. He’d been dreaming, maybe—he’d been at a party and was trying to talk to people, but his teeth kept falling out. It was so embarrassing, someone had shouted, something had crashed—

A long groan sounded.

Wait, no, this wasn’t a dream. Chase went for the switch by the bed. The room flooded with light, piercing Chase’s eyes, and he fumbled until it turned off again and he got the right one, a dim glow settling over everything.

He blinked in confusion. What the hell had happened?

“Fuck.”

Chase’s gaze followed the noise to see Auston getting up from the floor, hand on the small of his back. The cot was half-collapsed, the end of the mattress on the ground. Auston, Chase now noticed, was just in his briefs and a shirt.

Chase gaped. Fuck, that bulge was—

“What the fuck,” Auston cursed. “That thing almost killed me.”

“Well,” Chase said, focusing his attention on what it should be on. “I did tell you.”

Auston rolled his eyes. “Really? You’re ‘I told you so-ing’ me?”

“I mean…”

“Forget it. I can just get this thing on the floor completely and sleep like that.”

Chase huffed incredulously. He checked his phone. 2:42. Great. “Fine, do what you want.”

He lay down again, leaving the lights on. The rattling of the cot filled the silence. There was screeching. Rattling. Screeching. Minutes passed. Auston began cursing.

Chase opened his eyes and leaned up on his elbow. “Problem?”

Auston didn’t even look at him. “This fucking thing won’t fold. It’s fucking…stuck.” The last word was punctuated by another little scream from the cot.

Auston let out a loud burst of air, sitting on his heels and glaring at the offending piece of metal.

Chase rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe he was about to say this. His heart beat in his ears as he opened his mouth.

“Just get in the bed. It’s big enough. We’re only here for a night, anyway.”

Auston’s gaze flickered to him and then away, eyebrows low and knotted together. “That’s not a good idea.”

Chase gestured wildly with one hand. “Fine. Suit yourself. I’m going to sleep.”

With that, he burrowed back into bed, sliding to the side closest to his charging phone and shutting his eyes.

He kept his breaths even, trying to calm his pulse. It was fine. They could sleep in the same bed. It wasn’t like Chase was doing anything wrong—Aunix would understand if Chase explained.

Not that he would, because that would bring up some questions about his job he couldn’t answer, but there was nothing to tell anyway.

Chase had gone so deep into his freakout that he’d forgotten what he was worrying about, startling out of it when the bed dipped.

Chase cracked an eye open. His back was to the other side of the bed, but he could feel the sheets move, rubbing on his skin, the moment of cold air and then the unmistakable presence of another person in bed with him.

God. Fuck. He was in bed with Auston. The movement of the blankets was sending shivers through him, knowing that it was because of Auston.

“You can turn the light off now,” Auston grumbled.

Chase flinched and did as asked. Everything turned black.