“Good, I’m glad you’ve found your peace. I’m slowly but surely finding my own.”
He did something then that surprised the gay glittering crap out of me. He put an arm around me, not even around my shoulder but around my waist, and he pulled me into his side. He gave me a quick but searing kiss on the side of my head before letting me go.
It felt like a magnitude eight earthquake had finished rocking through me. I half expected to blink and then reopen my eyes to a devastated market, everyone knocked to their feet by the force of the emotion that exploded inside me.
We both continued walking through the market nonchalantly, as if something didn’t shift between us, something with the power of two tectonic plates tearing the world apart.
“Oh, check out these books,” Nick said, drifting over to a book stall. I followed him in, making a futile attempt to look at the books and not at the handsome prince who had swept me off my feet. As I was trying not to stare at Nick, I spotted someone else across the way. A bald man wearing a red shirt and standing against a tall brick wall, his attention turned toward us before flicking away. He held a phone in his hand and appeared to be hurrying away.
“Nick, wait here,” I said, deciding I wasn’t going to lose this guy again. I wanted to ask him a few questions, and I was determined to do just that.
13 Nicholas Silva
I thumbed through a bin of old books, checking out the stained spines, reading the different titles but not registering any of them. All I could really think about was the kiss I had planted on Shy’s head. A moment when “fuck it” energy had overtaken me. I had been overwhelmed with how good I felt, walking through the market with Shy by my side. It had felt so fucking right, I had to express it. I couldn’t keep the happiness to myself, and so I shared it with a spontaneous kiss.
I hadn’t even scanned the crowd for any cameras or prying eyes. It had been that strong of a push. Would I regret it? Maybe in the future, but right then and there, I didn’t. As I mindlessly looked through the books, I found myself smiling.
It had been a common occurrence now that I’d been hanging out with Shy. I’d wake up with a smile, something that never happened to me before. I hated the mornings and never thought I’d be one of those people who woke up with birds chirping by their heads and a smile that looked as if they’d found a glittering pot of gold.
Maybe it was because I felt like I’d been waking up next to my own personal pot of gold. Shiro had been sleeping over, and every morning, I’d find his warm back pressed against my chest, our bodies curled together, our legs entwined. It was a feeling I couldn’t quite describe. One I’d been searching for my entire life.
Who would have thought that I would have felt more at home, floating through the Atlantic Ocean, with Shiro in my arms than I would have felt with any of my ex-girlfriends back at the palace?
I looked over to Shiro, wanting to admire him some more. I loved watching him, both from close and from afar. I liked memorizing the way he walked, with his hands relaxed and his butt perked out. He had a bubble butt I loved to play with. It had quickly become a favorite pastime of mine. I loved giving him a slap and watching it jiggle, or rubbing myself against him, feeling those globes of muscle press onto me. I had wanted to get between those cheeks and feel myself sinking into him on multiple occasions, but I held back each time.
“No, you listen to me.”
The angry words came from the man Shiro was talking to. I instantly went on guard, sensing the tension that rolled off the pair. I could almost see the anger in the man’s face, radiating off his bald head like heat off a strip of sun-battered pavement.
I moved closer to them. I didn’t recognize the man, but it seemed like Shiro did. Was he the one taking our photos? Had Shy solved it?
“I just wanted to ask a few questions, that’s all,” Shiro said, his hands up in an attempt to defuse the situation.
“For what? Are you accusing me of something? Fuck that, I’m just having a good time on my vacation. I already showed you my phone. Fuck you.”
The man stepped forward, getting into Shy’s face.
“What’s going on here?” I asked, walking into the lion’s den.
“Don’t worry about it,” Shy said, putting a hand out between me and the red cherry of a man. It didn’t help that his bloodred shirt matched the shade that was consuming his entire face. “I was just leaving.”