Page 29 of Hollow

“But then you wonder, do they like you?” Jack pondered the question. “Do they see you because they want that in their life, or are they just a good friend?”

Jack went to the text captions and typed, ‘Felt cute. Might delete later.’ Then he hit upload, and as the percentage of the loading video increased, he contemplated sharing these thoughts with Dimitri.

It wasn’t as if Dimitri would just scroll online and stumble onto Jack’s mini confessional. Was it even a confession? What would Jack confess to exactly? That he liked Dimitri? That he wanted Dimitri? That he wanted Dimitri to want him?

All that did was put a pit of anxiety into Jack’s stomach, twisting his necrotic organs around. If Dimitri didn’t feel the same…Jack might ruin a good thing. A great thing. It wasn’t great, though, pining and wondering and feeling… It could be wonderful, though, if Dimitri felt the same.

Why would he, though?

The door burst wide open, Astaroth growling as he rushed inside. “Fucking stocks.”

Jack quirked a brow.

“I can’t even enjoy a leisurely walk without someone attempting to ruin my plans for world domination.”

“By conquering the stock market?” Jack chuckled.

“I have no time for your nonsense,” Astaroth snarled. “Keep it up, and I’ll buy those apps you use and destroy them.”

“Yeah, all right.” Jack scoffed, then thought about it for a moment. “Wait, you don’t actually have that kind of money, right? That’d be absurd.”

Astaroth glowered at Jack, his eyes glowing red.

“Learn something new every day.” Jack lay back on the couch, scrolling through notifications. Already, comments were pouring in on his vague posting, encouraging him to go for it.

Jack sat up, considering.

It would be absolutely foolish.

A waste of time.

But it couldn’t hurt to have a small conversation. Heck, it might not even lead to a confession of feelings. Maybe they’d just chat like usual, and Jack would be content with that much.

Jack stepped outside for some fresh air and maybe to wander the woods to find Dimitri. Maybe he could think of the right way to broach the topic on the walk. It turned out, he didn’t have to since Dimitri skipped around near the edge of the woods leading back to the open yard of the cottage. He jumped into the air, occasionally bouncing against a tree before landing back onto the dirt.

“Wait, are you actually prancing around, like literally skipping around like an actual deer?” Jack went to retrieve his phone and film this moment for posterity, then thought better of himself. “I can’t believe this.”

Dimitri jumped again and landed in front of Jack with a low grunt. “Well, I am basically a human stag.”

“OhMyGod, is Stag Man based off the Leshy lore?”

“Who?”

Jack did pull out his phone this time, pulling up images of Stag Man. “He’s a cryptid legend. Not sure if he’s real or not. Then again, no one’s ever sure about any of them. I’ve always been partial to Moth Man.”

Dimitri stared at the grainy photos of Stag Man. “I am not familiar with this. Perhaps he is a Leshy, too.”

“That’d be cool. Those photos are mostly fake. Not a lot of monsters like to get caught on camera.” Jack playfully wiggled his hips. “Most of ‘em aren’t as photogenic as me.”

“Or humble.” Dimitri grinned. “And to be clear, I was not prancing. I was frolicking. There is a difference.”

“Good to know.” Jack smiled, trying to work up the nerve to ask the question that’d been bouncing around his head.

Dimitri stared at Jack, probably confused by the weirdly silent smile. Dimitri’s unblinking, glowing green eyes studied Jack until he couldn’t contain himself.

“Do you like me?” Jack blurted.

“Of course, I do.”