Sex & Mayhem 02 The Devil's Ride (27 page)

That was the last thing he wanted to hear. He
already regretted trying to look nice on his first day at school.
“Well, I’m not…” he muttered and put his hands in his pockets. They
were sweating already.

Mr. Harlow gave him that sickening smile again.
“Maybe that’s for the better. The classes here are difficult.
Having our earlier friendship in mind, I could help you out.”

Friendship? The guy had fucking blackmailed him
about telling everyone, including his mother, that he was gay. “I
think I’ll just… see how it goes.” He looked
at his feet. Where had his big mouth gone?
Where had his balls gone? They’d crawled back into his body never
to return.

Mr. Harlow gently pulled Luci closer to the
wall
so they wouldn’t be
in anyone’s way, and Lucifer followed as though he was in a trance.
He was a lifeless puppet. “How about we talk in
private?”

No.
It was the last thing he wanted. He could bet
Harlow still had photos from when Luci was younger and jerked off
to them on a regular basis. And Lucifer
didn’t
look fifteen. He was almost twenty and looked at
least eighteen. He would never be that boy again. He refused
to.

“I’m kinda in a hurry…” He took a few steps back,
dying to be out of this building.

Harlow snickered, but the upper part of his face
remained completely motionless. “Maybe I’ll come back to your place
later.”

Lucifer pursed his lips and clenched his hands into
fists in his pockets. “Yeah, you wanna visit me in the Coffin Nails
clubhouse?”

This seemed to hit home, but Harlow stepped closer,
his brows gathering into an ugly frown. “Do they want to see your
pictures?”

Luci managed to hold back a scream, leaving it
ear-piercing on the inside. The idea of this horror consuming his
life again made him completely empty. He didn’t know what to say.
If people saw those photos, his life would be over.

It happened quickly, but it felt like the world
slowed down. Luci turned on his heel and… ran. His boots hit the
floor as slowly as if he were running in a sea of tar, but the
farther he
made it, the
easier it got. The school door, then the stairs, the pavement, and
he was off. Whichever way was good enough as long as he was
stretching the distance between him and the man he feared and
despised.

He ran out so fast he stumbled on the front stairs
and fell to his ass with the edge of the last stair digging into
his back. It hurt so bad he stayed like that for several seconds,
but he knew he needed to run. The school vanished once he took a
turn into another street, but that wouldn’t stop him. Closed
stores, withering flower beds under someone’s window, cars in the
street. He registered them all through a cloud of indifference,
focused only on getting away.

He didn’t know how long it took, but he turned
into an alleyway of never
ending houses. With so many of them abandoned, he chose one
at random and after making sure it wasn’t the home of some junkie,
he sat down on the floor to catch his breath. He hit his temple
against the wall time and time again. Jesus, fuck. Why couldn’t he
have a normal life? Always fucking messed up.

It was only ten, maybe fifteen minutes before his
cell phone started screaming at full volume. He groaned when he saw
it was Tooth calling him.

“Hey, what is it?” he tried to sound neutral.

When Tooth spoke, his voice was a low, unforgiving
rumble. “Where are you?”

Luci swallowed, looking around the deteriorating
living room. Tooth couldn’t have followed him. “At school.
Duh.”

“
Don’t lie to me. You are
not
at school,” said Tooth, his tone harsh and without
an ounce of mercy. “Haven’t we agreed on something? No
lies?”

Luci stilled completely. How the fuck did Tooth know
that? “Are you spying on me?” he hissed, squeezing the cell phone
tight.

“It’s for safety reasons,” said Tooth right away. “I
know where you are, and I’m gonna be there soon. I want you to go
out and wait in a visible spot.”

Luci hung up. This was bullshit. He hit the wall
and then hit it again until his knuckles hurt. Why was he trapped
in this life? Nothing could ever end well. No matter how hard he
had tried to keep trouble out of his mom’s way, she still shot
herself. No matter how much he avoided the abusive fucker, Harlow,
the bastard
, would still
end up back in his life. And now he knew where Luci lived because
he’d been stupid enough to tell him. No matter how much he tried
not to, he fell for a straight guy who was a controlling fuck,
assigned to him by his dad.

Fuck.

“Fuck!” Luci screamed and kicked the rotting wall so
hard he made an indent.

Without much more thought, he rushed for
the
backdoor and went
out of the house. The next step was climbing over the fence and
passing to an adjacent backyard. If Tooth was somewhere in the
street, he would not see him leave. Luci faced yet another rundown
building, so he wasn’t worried about being noticed by anyone. As
quietly as he could, in case Tooth was really close by, he climbed
down the ladder into an empty swimming pool covered with yellowing
leaves and a few broken bottles.

He squatted in the corner by the wall and buried
his hands in his hair. His thoughts were at a low he hadn’t
experienced
for several
months, and all he wanted was to crawl into some narrow cave where
no one would find him and cry. There were some cars passing by, but
the unmistakable roar of a motorcycle engine made his muscles turn
into tense strings.

Luci crawled into the corner with his heart in his
throat and waited to hear the bike drive away. If he could only
melt into the wall of the pool, he would. The wind kept roaring
above, shoving more and more withering leaves in, and Luci felt
just as much of a piece of trash as those dead plants. He hoped
their smell would just cover him like a shield. He buried his head
between his knees, waiting.

And then the phone rang again. Loud and clear.

“
Fuck,” he hissed in panic and fell to his knees to
grab his bag. Every second the phone kept ringing felt like
forever. Of course now he needed to find the damn thing it was
buried somewhere in his bag and took ages to find. He finally
grabbed the phone and turned it off
in a rush.

Nothing. No sound apart from the wind, which
seemed to mute everything else, so maybe Tooth
hadn’t heard the ring either?

Just as he was getting up, Tooth landed right in
front of him. The heavy boots
stomped on the bottom of the pool and crushed the dry
leaves. Luci yelped and scrambled to his feet with his eyes wide.
With the background of the white sky, Tooth looked like a Viking
warrior from hell, stern and unforgiving.

“What are you doing?”

“
I
… I…”
How was he to ever explain this. “Who told you to follow me?” he
lashed out instead and pushed Tooth’s chest.

Tooth blinked and stared at his breastbone, as if he
couldn’t understand what just happened. “What the hell are you
doing? Did something happen?”

“No, nothing happened, I just didn’t wanna go to
school. Fuck off.” Despite the chilly weather, even being in his
hoodie felt too hot.

“Luci! Aren’t you doing this to be able to become a
licensed barber? What do you mean ‘you didn’t want to go to
school’?”

Luci backed away to the wall, cornered like an
animal. None of it mattered, he
’d completely lost track of that horizon when he saw
Harlow. “I don’t care. I just wanna move on.”

Tooth folded his arms across his chest. “What
happened? I’ve never seen you like this.”

Luci clenched his lips and mirrored Tooth’s gesture.
The last thing he wanted was for anyone to find out what Harlow did
to him.

“Luci, remember you promised not to lie to me?”
growled Tooth. “Why are you doing this?”

“Not everything is your business!” Luci began a slow
walk along the wall to see if Tooth would block his way, and he
did. Of course he did.

Tooth leaned over him with a squint. “Did someone
tell you something mean?”

“I just didn’t feel like it,” Luci growled at him,
gradually losing his temper.

Tooth squeezed his hands into fists. “Why are you
provoking me?”

“I’m not!” He backed off to his corner with a hiss.
“I’ve just had it with the fluffy lifestyle! I’m bored. I want
out.”

“Fluffy lifestyle? What the fuck does that even
mean?” asked Tooth, clearly on the verge of losing his temper.

“I wanna make my own decisions.” Luci leaned against
the wall, sick of this conversation already. He hadn’t felt this
lost in ages.

Tooth snarled and reached out to grasp Luci’s arm.
“Oh, yeah? I’ll show you what
your
decisions can lead to.”

Luci moaned, but didn’t have the energy to fight
him anymore. Tooth pushed him to the ladder, and Luci climbed up
without a word. Why
hadn’t he turned off that fucking cell phone?

From the moment they climbed up to the ground to the
moment they mounted the bike, Tooth never once let go of Lucifer’s
arm, even though at that point, Luci knew he couldn’t get away.
They both kept their mouths shut, and the gloomy atmosphere was
weighing Lucifer farther down the black, cold well of despair. He
had nowhere to run.

They rode for quite some time, but eventually, Tooth
took a turn into a smaller street, and they drove along a green
fence built around something that looked like a well-kept park. It
was only at the parking lot that Luci realized they were by a
cemetery.

He got off the bike without much energy, lips
locked. The parking lot was empty, with only one car by the fence.
Tooth pointed
at the
gate and adjusted his leather jacket.

“Go first.”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Where?” He passed the iron
gate. The cemetery was very well kept, with alleys of white stone,
grass that was still very green, and with the graves located
between tall trees, it felt like walking through a park.

“Straight ahead for now.”

Luci pushed his hands into the pockets of his
hoodie. The stupid walk was about the last thing he needed now.
Leaves crinkled under his boots, and he made a point of stomping
loudly.

After walking for a few minutes through the
peaceful landscape, Tooth led him between the trees, and at some
point it became clear they were heading for a simple tombstone
underneath a large oak. It was made of
gray stone, and only as they stepped closer did
Luci notice a delicate design carved at the top. It was a winged
head surrounded by a garland of flowers. And it actually looked
classy.

Luci turned around to face Tooth. “So?” He raised
his eyebrows. Who the fuck was ‘Trayvon Jones’ and why would Tooth
bring Luci to his grave?

Tooth frowned and nodded toward the tombstone.
“Nineteen years of life. Just like you now. He was in a desperate
situation and made some very bad decisions.” He stepped closer and
pushed away the hair the wind blew into his face. “Do you want to
end up like that?”

Anger stirred in Lucifer’s stomach, and he pulled
the hood over his head. Tooth knew shit. “I’m not stupid, so I
won’t make stupid decisions.”

Tooth snorted. “Yeah, he thought that as well. But
in the end he was just as miserable as you. He risked everything
when he went into someone’s car night after night. And this is
where you’re heading if you don’t clean up your act.”

Luci’s face heated up at the realization that
Tooth
had brought him
here for some morality tale. The last thing he needed was Tooth
mentioning prostitution. “Only dead male hooker you know? What do I
care? Not the first one, not the last one.” He shrugged, staring at
the tombstone.

His head turned so fast he didn’t know what hit
him until the stinging in his cheek made him realize Tooth
had slapped him. With the flat
of his hand, but hit him nonetheless.

Luci held his stinging cheek and looked up
reproachfully. “What was that for?” he moaned and took a step to
the side.

Tooth took a deep breath, holding on
to his right hand as he looked
to Luci’s chest. “What the fuck is wrong with
you
? He was a person. He had dreams, hopes, and all
that. And someone just took it all away...” He swallowed hard and
walked up to the tombstone in a jerky movement.

Luci rubbed his face. He didn’t want to be mean.
It was just that this day was all too much. He groaned and
looked
at the grave
again. Asking who this ‘Trayvon’ was seemed like a natural next
step, but then Luci looked at the date of his death and something
clicked. The realization was so profound, his mind got all twisted
and scrambled.

“Is this… Tracy?” he uttered.

Tooth squeezed his hand over the top of the
tombstone and slowly, very slowly sank into a squat next to it. It
was hard to read anything from his face, but he gave a tiny
nod.

Luci took a deep breath and approached him, now
knowing he damn well deserved the slap. “I’m sorry.” He kneeled in
the grass, too confused to come up with anything better to say.

Tooth sighed and sat cross-legged next to the
tombstone, tugging at his beard so hard it looked like he would
pull out half of the hairs.

Was Tooth gay? Bisexual? Was Tracy transsexual?
Was it appropriate to ask? No matter what it was, it made Mr.
Harlow fade into a demon made of smoke. Luci inched closer and
gently wrapped his arms around Tooth’s neck from the back. Whatever
the story was about Tracy’s gender, Tooth must really trust Luci to
bring him here, and Luci
had blown it with his stupid comments. He put his cheek on
Tooth’s shoulder.