AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The shower curtain was jerked aside and Layne walked in. Apparently, we were sharing showers now.
“You know we don’t have to share, there’s plenty of showers here,” I pointed out with an eye roll.
“I’m done anyway, I just didn’t want to get my towel wet,” she said before a wicked smile curved over her face, then quickly faded. “Plus, I think we need to talk.”
The vulnerability in her voice had my stomach sinking.
“If this is about Crew, Layne. I don’t want him like that. He’s great and I think just flirty in general. I’m not looking for anything more than that with him,” I rushed out.
She looked up with puppy dog eyes.
“Really?”
I nodded. “Of course. I wouldn’t lie. And I think I have my hands full already. Drake, Hiro, and Roman are my mates.”
It was a secret I couldn’t keep from her. Our lives were far too intertwined. That and she’d revealed Crew was hers.
“It’s my fault. I’ve messed around with him, but I’ve never told him how I feel about ‘keeping it casual’. It feels too impossible here to be mates. Plus, who knows what happens after this place. If there is an after for people like me.”
She’d swiftly gone from happy and snarky right down to depressed. Her mind had to be exhausting.
Something I understood.
“What do you mean? It’s four years,” I said. “We’ll figure something out, right? Get an apartment, a job, we’ll have a degree.”
“Sure,” she said halfheartedly. “Except, I can’t function at a daily job. I’m not delusional enough to think that my down days or my outbursts wouldn’t get me fired. Some of us aren’t cut out for that nine-to-five world.”
“Fuck that world. We don’t have to fit into it, that’s not the only option despite what everyone wants us to believe,” I countered. “I’ve had this fight before, it’s not on us to fit in, we find out where we fit and own that shit. I’m not cut out for sitting in an office either and manual labor?” I held up my thin arms. “Noodle arms prevent that. But I think we can figure something out.”
“Vane won’t let us go. We’re his prize patients,” she said bitterly as a tear tracked down her face. Letting her go down this road further would likely end in a downswing, and I didn’t want that.
I’d also hug her if we weren’t both naked omegas huddled in one shower. Life was weird sometimes but we didn’t need to make it even more so.
“Fuck Vane. He can’t legally do that. And second of all, what are you going to do about Crew?” She laughed through her tears and swiped the back of her hand over her face before butting me out of the way of the spray. “You’re lucky you’re crying, or I’d kick you out of my shower.”
She beamed before her gaze went far away.
“We sneak down to the boiler room because he’s obsessed with fire. If you ever can’t find him, you can almost guarantee he’s there. But... we’re both stuck here, that’s a fucking reason to not get together.”
Since I was done anyway, I opened the curtain and wrapped a towel around myself so I wouldn’t freeze.
“Bullshit,” I declared. “You’re just scared. And from both of your reactions at dinner, I’d say it’s mutual. So, woman up and tell him what it is and what you expect out of your mate.”
She shut off the water in her shower and turned with a sly smile. “Is that what you did with Drake?”
I snorted. “It was much less romantic than that. I couldn’t shake the feel of someone else’s hands on me, like my body wasn’t my own. So, I took charge of it, marched up to him, knocked on his door, and told him we were going to fuck. And we did.”
“Tell me he’s at least got a shrimp dick?” Layne pleaded. “Maybe it would make him more bearable.”
“It’s tiny,” I said with a laugh, and she groaned.
“Fuck, he’s huge, isn’t he?”
“Yup,” I agreed. “And surprisingly really fucking good in bed despite being an asshole in general.”
“Yet another reason to hate him.” She huffed.
Layne finally finished drying and covered herself. The woman had zero modesty and it was taking some getting used to. I didn’t care but it triggered my grandma’s voice in my head, yelling about modesty.
