Eden

Chapter 10

We stopped at a little hole in the wall downtown, the small building squished between two much bigger shops. Zeke stepped out with a smile and closed the door, the car shaking a little at the action. I took the money out of the console and put it in my pocket -could never be sure when someone could decide to smash the window and steal your savings- then stepped out and locked the car.

Zeke was talking to a burly man that looked like he was in his late 40s, his tattoos covering up a fair portion of his body. He noticed me staring and then he turned his head in my direction and tipped his glasses downward. My blood ran cold. Would this be the day the full stop was hit on my chapter? Maybe Zeke was the wrong crowd after all.

What really shocked me, though, was the sun-shaming smile that this man threw at me.

"Hey, kid. Here for a tat? I'll tell ya, this boy here is the best artist I ever did see." He put his arm on Zeke's shoulder and used the other to ruffle the taller boy's hair, effectively bringing him down to his level. I relaxed after I deemed the man a 'non-threat' since he was so chummy with Zeke. We might have only known each other for about a week, but I'd say we were about as close as I and Devin.

Zeke wiggled himself out of the man's hold and began to unlock his shop.

"Sorry for the wait, Jace. Someone kept me waiting for a little." He said the last part of his sentence with a little smirk, a guilty laugh coming from me before I could stop it.

"I'm sorry, man. Some serious shit came up and I couldn't exactly... come out of it?" My statement came out like a question instead and I inwardly cringed. I'm already messing up with a new friend.

The grate finally went up and Zeke pulled out a smaller set of keys that contained his car key, too, and began to fiddle with the glass door.

"So, kid, you got any ideas? For your tat, I mean." I looked around in question before raising my head at Jace with a raised brow.

"Me? Hell no. I would scream all through. And besides, I don't have any idea what tattoo I would like to get." I said with a small smile.

"Well, I could help with that. Provided I help you pick a spot on your body that you'd like to get it." Zeke turned to me and wiggled his eyebrows. I flipped him off with a nice, manicured finger and rolled my eyes.

Zeke was openly... pansexual? I think that's what he called it. He told me on the third night that we were hitting each other up and I had to admit, it weirded me out for a while, but when he explained to me what it was all about, I had no choice but to shut the fuck up. I'm no homophobe, but I don't really know a lot about gay people, but that didn't mean I had to hate or disrespect them. I just had to make sure that I warn him about Cade in the event that he ever met my other friends.

I was laughing with him when the realization that we weren't alone dawned on me. Zeke was talking about roaming his hands over me when there was a white, middle-aged, possible biker gang member standing in our midst. I'm not really sure how it is, but I knew for a fact that gay people got a lot of hate and I didn't want Jace here to show me the other side of midnight.

Jace, all of a sudden, began to approach me, and his steps slowed. My eyes widened in panic as I realized that this would be the end of Vincent Ife. His arm once hoisted above his head, began to plummet down on me. I couldn't move – I was about to be fucking mobbed and I couldn't move.

The plummeting arm landed on my back and began to hit it repeatedly, a throaty laugh filling the air.

"My god, Zeke. You never change. At least give the lad a chance to become that close to you first before you start throwing your indecent jokes that shame our community at him." He cleaned a tear out of his eye and the world began to play at normal speed again. Zeke opened the glass door after forever and led us into the small, linear space.