Staccato (Magnum Opus #2) - E.M. Lindsey Page 0,90
pleased to find it smelling a little bit like Christmas pine and cleaning solution. “Are you burning candles?”
Jay laughed from the kitchen. “Found some old ones my sister left when she was here last November. They didn’t smell too rank.”
“It’s actually kind of nice,” Adam remarked, then made a surprised noise. “Oh. Hey, Seth’s already here.”
A small, shy voice came from Nik’s left, and he turned to greet it. “I wasn’t sure if I should be awkwardly early or fashionably late.”
Nik couldn’t help his chuckle as he stuck out his hand. “Either’s fine here. We don’t stand on ceremony.”
“And yet he says things like stand on ceremony,” Jay said, clapping him on the shoulder as he walked by. “Did you get me veggie pizza?”
“It’s the one on the bottom,” Adam said. “Did you get my text about The Sandlot?”
Nik heard Jay scoff. “Making me break my eighties rule.”
“My turn to choose,” Adam said loftily, then slid his arm around Nik’s waist. “I’ll bring our pizza to the couch. Snag the good spot.” His breath was warm against Nik’s ear, and Nik fought his constant, pressing urge to whisk Adam off and keep him to himself.
For now though, this was good. He knew Adam needed it—craved it, this sort of connection. And he fell too easily into his brother’s same habits of shutting himself off from the world, especially when things got bad. He let Adam keep him above water, and though the idea of relying on someone terrified him, because it was Adam, the idea was almost soothing.
He made his way across the room, then stopped at the sofa and cocked his head to the side, but he couldn’t tell if Seth was there. “Is there room for us?”
“Oh. Yeah, I’m on the floor, no worries,” Seth told him.
Adam felt almost bad about it, but he wanted to squish himself on the uncomfortable cushions next to Adam and delay the inevitable for a little bit longer, so he sat. “Sorry if this is awkward.”
Seth let out a small laugh. “Trust me, this is nothing. My ex was a photographer for this indie hipster magazine that worked with these really pretentious models. He’d drag me to these parties that were…” Seth trailed off, and his breath came out a bit shaky. “Everyone thought I was this weird, ugly loser, you know. Like I didn’t know fashion to save my life, and I was just tall and gangly—but not in a good way.”
“I never noticed,” Nik offered.
There was silence, then Seth tried for a laugh. “You do that a lot, don’t you?”
Nik’s lip curled up in a half smile. “It helps break the tension. And it’s a good defense mechanism for when people are being really shitty.”
“I’ll have to remind Sarah.”
“Your sister,” Nik guessed.
Seth let out a sharp puff of air. “I worry—not because her diagnosis or anything. I mean, I do worry about that. Um. No offense.”
Nik waved him off. “It’s not the same, going through life sighted, then everything changes. I was barely a toddler when this happened. This is my whole life. It’s okay to be nervous.”
“Thanks,” Seth said. “I’ve always worried about her, though. She was kind of the whoops baby—the one that my mom thought was menopause. And she was just…tired, so I took care of her a lot, and I’ve always been the one to look after her. My parents died two years ago within a few months of each other, and I hate that she’s only got me now.”
“I’m sure she appreciates it,” Nik told him, thinking of his own brother, of how they were so much older than these people, and yet it was still the same. Van had tried to give Nik a sense of independence, but he’d always been close, and Nik had resented him a little for it. Now, though…
“Scoot.” Adam’s voice and the nudge of a knee interrupted his thoughts, and Nik shuffled to the side of the sofa before Adam put a paper plate in his hands, lukewarm from the pizza that had cooled on the way over.
It was good though, the cheese a little congealed, but the grease was comforting in its own way, the same way Adam’s warmth was as it nestled in close to his. No one spoke, and he heard Jay fiddling with the remote, then the movie began—the audio descriptions started, and he heard Seth curse under his breath.
“Oh my god, what is that?”
“They’re captions for Nik,” Jay explained, his voice a little terse.