Take My Body (Curse Bound 2)

Noah stilled and his eyes widened. “You… you have seen the video, right?”

Caspian rose, feeling faint. “What’s this about?”

Noah pulled out his phone, fiddled with it, and then turned it to Caspian, showing him a paused video. “I’m… sorry. I don’t know what he was thinking.”

But Caspian could no longer hear Noah, freezing to the ground when the video started with indiscernible shouting. He recognized his parents’ garden, filmed from the balcony above the kitchen. A young man in a shirt and bow tie, likely a server hired for the event, was posing for a selfie when shouting erupted on the lawn below. The image shook before focusing on the action.

It was chaos.

Caspian barely heard his own thoughts through the drumming of blood in his head. Alex didn’t even sound like himself when he cried out following a hard kick in the nuts. Flooded by chocolate, with marshmallows flying from the falling table, the brawl was as brutal as it was glorious. Witnessing Alexander get his comeuppance was a pleasure as guilty as a marathon of ’90-Day Fiancé with Gunner.

The camera zoomed back in on the server after Dad dragged Gunner off Alexander.

“All you need to know about the guy getting his ass kicked by the twink in the blue suit, is that he asked me about the origin of the cocoa because ‘he only ate Trinidadian’,” the server said with a pout and stared into the camera.

Of course he fucking did, the snob. Clearly, the Ecuadorian variety Mom preferred wasn’t good enough for him!

Caspian was mortified. For his mom. For his dad. For the damage this would do to his reputation.

But seeing Alex put in his place after years of suffering the indignity of his snide remarks, and especially after the stunt he’d pulled helping Gunner shop, was too much of a treat to pass on. So he put the video on loop and chuckled every time Gunner, the rabid twink, kicked Caspian’s frenemy in the nuts. The moment when they both collapsed on the table, covered by splashing chocolate was sublime.

And just about the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

“So… um… You don’t think he’s in jail, right?” Noah asked when the chocolate fountain on the screen collapsed for the fourth time.

Caspian choked on air and stared at him, suddenly frozen with fear. “He was here a few hours ago. Do you think they could have gotten to him?”

Noah raised his eyebrows. “I just asked you if you knew.”

“What if they put him in a cell with some psycho? He’s so small,” Caspian uttered, rubbing the top of his head and once again choosing Gunner’s number. Should he go to the police station and demand to see him, if he was there? Was that kind of thing allowed? Caspian had never even been to a police station. And while he wanted to advocate on Gunner’s behalf if it was needed, he didn’t wish to draw attention to the violent encounter between Gunner’s fists and Alexander’s face either. Which left him at a crossroads, and without any indication about which path was the better option.

After hours of ignoring Caspian’s calls, Gunner finally picked up. “Don’t fucking call me, I’m busy!” he yelled, and… hung up.

The audacity!

Caspian roared and punched the side of the trailer, shocked when its wall gave, creating a fist-sized dip.

“You call him. You ask him where he is, or I’m gonna kill him!”

Noah frowned and pressed his full lips into a tight line. “Did you beat him up? He’s half your size now!”

Caspian raised his hands, because the accusation felt like a slap. “What? I would never! He told me he fucked up my parents’ party, and we argued. That’s it!”

Noah put his phone in his pocket and shook his head. “Okay, listen, I hoped he’d be here, but this is getting out of hand, and I know you really want to swap back, so we should write down exactly what happened to you on the night before you changed places and see what stands out. I wanna help, and I know my brother can be a bit… much.”

Today’s events proved that life couldn’t go on until Caspian was back in his own body. He missed his parents, and Gunner wasn’t equipped to handle the unfamiliar life, but still, he couldn’t stop the deep sadness spreading through his chest like wine over white cotton when he thought of this adventure coming to an end.

“We need to find him. This guy he beat up? He’ll do everything in his power to fuck me over, and now he has me by the balls.”

Noah rested both his hands on his nape, pacing in front of Caspian. “But I talked to Madge. She told me how she remembered that night. You drank with her, but she never even saw Gun that evening. She said she’s happy to—”