MILE
The call comes just as I am climbing into my car to head home.
I let out a groan when I notice the caller and contemplate ignoring it. I haven't allowed myself to think about Barcode all day.
Ever since I dropped him last night, I made an effort to block him from my head and focus on anything but the words he told me.
He's just a confused kid that wasn't ready for adulthood. I mean, sure, he turns nineteen in a month but that doesn't change the fact that I am thirteen older than him and shouldn't be planting ideas into his head.
No, that was my first mistake.
I watch the call die a second before my phone starts ringing again and with a sigh, I receive the call.
"Barcode..."
"Don't call me that," he whines in surly voice. "I don't like it when you call me that."
"Are you drunk or did you just wake up. Please tell me it's the latter."
"Does it matter if I am drunk or not?"
"Fuck!" I curse out when it becomes evident that he is in fact drunk and he just made himself my problem. I know none of the guys would have let him drink so whatever company he is with does not have his best interest at heart. "Where are you?"
"Why?" he sniffs and I can just picture his face in a pout. Fuck, I don't want to picture anything about him.
"So I can come pick you up. That's why you called me, is it not?"
"No, I didn't call you for that."
"Then why did you call, Barcode?"
"I told you not to call me that."
"But it's your name."
"I know," he mutters. "I know it is but you're not allowed to call me that. I like the other name."
"Kitten."
"Yeah?"
"Fuck, what am I going to do with you?" I say with an exasperated sigh. I have had a long day, I cannot deal with this right now. If it were Apo or Jeff in my place, they would would turn all mother lion on their cub but I can't summon enough energy for that. "Let's talk in person. Tell me where you are and I'll come pick you up."
He manages to mutter an address in a neighborhood that is the opposite side of where I need to be headed but I find myself driving to him despite it.
I should call Jeff or Apo to go pick him and I consider it. There is a voice at the back of my mind that says that if he wanted either of them to pick him then Barcode would have called them.
Even so, I consider doing it and making him their problem.
I arrive at the location he stated in a little under twenty minutes and I stop when I notice a figure seated on the curb. He is more like slumped against a pillar but I notice his frame right away.
I climb out of the car and walk to where he is and it's not until I call out his name that he lifts his head to look up at me.
"What are you doing out here?"
"I didn't want you to come in looking for me so I thought I would wait for you outside."
My eyes cross to the house before turning back to him. "Whose home is that?"
"Song's cousin."
"And who is Song?"
"He's my best friend," he says, struggling to get up an failing so I step in and grab his arm to help him up except he falls against me, his arms going around my waist. "His cousin is in college and he bought us booze."
"Barcode..."
"I hate it."
I shake my head. "The name?"
"No, I meant booze. I hate the name too, I prefer Kitten but, I especially hate booze," he slurs, tightening his arms around me. "I hate the smell, I hate the taste and I especially hate how it makes me feel."
"And how does it make you feel?"
He lifts his face from my chest and looks up to meet my eyes. "Helpless...Vulnerable."
"Sex will leave you feeling the same way."
"I won't know unless I try," he whispers, watching me earnestly and I just shake my head, detaching his hands from my waist before walking him to the car.
"I'll drive you home," I say once I've snapped his seatbelt in place.
"I don't want to go home," he slurs. "Take me anywhere but home."
"Well, too bad, I'm driving you home."
"P'Mile, I can't show up at home in this state. My parents will kill me."
"You don't have a choice."
"P'Mile..."
"Look, Barcode, we are not friends, okay? I am almost twice as old as you are and if you wanted someone who was going to baby you then perhaps you should have called Apo or Jeff or any of the other guys. I don't care how your parents will react and if you did, then maybe you shouldn't have been as reckless."
There is a long silence in the car before it's broken my muffled sniffles that have me dropping my head against the headrest. Heavens, I can't deal with this right now.
I turn to my side to find his head leaned forward as fat tears drop down his cheeks and I am suddenly overcome by guilt.
Perhaps I was a little too harsh with my words. It's close to midnight and I have been on my feet all day working, it's not right to take all this out on someone that is trying to figure themselves out.
"Hey," I whisper with a sigh, reaching over and laying my fingers on his nape before slipping it into his hair and massaging his scalp. "I'm sorry I'm being a little too hard on you."
"But why?" he ask, sniffing. His large innocent eyes are clouded with tears as they lift up to meet mine and just like that, I am reminded of how young he truly is. Not just young but innocent and naïve. I can't take advantage of that.
"Kitten, I can't be what you want."
"Can you try?"
"I'm straight."
"You kissed Apo in the series. You did more than just kiss him. Can't you try it with me?"
"I don't think that is a good idea," I say with a sigh, combing my fingers through his thick hair. "I don't want you growing attached to me. What happens when I give you a week and once it's over, you find out that you want more."
"I won't..."
"Lets say I give you a week and you grow attached and ask for more. What happens then?"
"I won't ask for more," he says firmly, undoing his seatbelt and in a flash, he is on my lap before I can stop him. "I've thought about having a daddy for months. I just want to know what it feels like. Just one week and I won't ask for more."
"Kitten..."
"Please, P'Mile... just one week. I just want to know what it feels like and after a week, we'll stop."
I shake my head, confused by why the hell I am not pushing him off me. I am clearly way stronger than him but his will seems to be made of steel.
Push him off.
Say no! Anything!
He is not your responsibility.
If he wants to date an older guy so badly, there are like ten of them in our group. He can pick any one of them.
This is not going to end well if I let him have his way but as he stares down at me with those teary eyes, I find my will slipping little by little.
"Please," he whispers again, his voice low and sultry. Needy.
Please.
