Hedon

Hedon - Chapter 26

  Caston only found it easy to do two things in life; kill and fuck. Unfortunately, he wasn't about to do either of those things.
  He was about to apologize. It's not something he's ever felt inclined to do. It's certainly never easy. He actually never really apologized until recently. It was a lot easier to say things to Malachi than it was to anyone else. Caston sometimes questioned it, but other times, he just let it be what it was.
  It was really hard to do the latter when his brain was buzzing and keeping his lips shut at the presence of Hunter.
  The blond boy looked from Malachi to Caston, an unreadable expression on his face.
  "Sup." Caston half nodded.
  "Sup?" Hunter's voice was slightly deeper than Caston remembered.
  "Um..I'm sorry..and stuff. We good?" Caston flicked his hand between them, emphasizing his words.
  Hunter gave him an odd look, then rolled his eyes. "Yes, Caston. We're good."
  "Cool. Wanna fuck?" Caston turned his lips up.
  Hunter's face fell and he almost glared at Caston.
  "I'm joking. Chill." Caston chuckled, holding his hands up and out slightly.
  "Jokes are supposed to be funny."
  "Fuck if I know that. My bad."
  Hunter rolled his eyes again, shaking his head. He then looked to Malachi. "So he's the one?"
  "The one..what?" Malachi laughed awkwardly.
  "The one who turned my big brother gay." Hunter said, a smile tugging on his lips.
  "Good one, H." Malachi rolled his eyes. "To put it simply, though...yeah. Pretty much."
  Hunter nodded. "I hope this brings us closer instead of pushing us apart."
  "I'd ditch Caston before I ditched you."
  "Hey! That's rude Mr. I'm in love with you."
  "Wow. That is the closest I'll get to hearing it, huh?"
  "Yes, if you keep being a bitch to me."
  "You two are cute. I hope I'm the flower girl at your wedding."
  Caston turned to Hunter, glaring at him with his best disgusted expression.
  "You two even move in sync. Damn, that was creepy." Hunter shook his arms and his head.
  Caston turned to see Malachi giving Hunter the same expression that he was, and his forcibly-learned ability to use context clues helped him to figure out that he and Malachi did it at the same time.
  "Are we going to this boardwalk or do I get to kill someone?" Caston sighed, crossing his arms.
  Hunter furrowed his eyebrows.
  Malachi smacked Caston's arm. "Don't joke about death and killing people, Caston."
  "Ow." Caston grabbed his hicep and turned to Malachi. "Sorry."
  Hunter chuckled and walked over to the front door, slipping his feet into one of the many pairs of shoes placed neatly on the floor.

  Caston wasn't too thrilled about going somewhere full of people that he couldn't kill, but he figured Malachi's promise of shirtless guys galore was a good enough reason to go.
  Yeah, fuck Malachi for saying that.
  Even though it's significantly warmer in California than it is in Chicago, it's still January. The most skin he's seen so far was cleavage from girls wearing shirts that are clearly way too small for them.
  "Mal, can we go? I'm bored." Caston sighed, knowing good and well that his tone was bordering a whine.
  "Not yet, Cassie. I'm trying to spend some quality time with Hunter and he's meeting up with his friends for smoothies. You like his friends, right?" Malachi said, slowing his strides and letting his arm brush against Caston's as he talked.
  Caston shrugged, opting for silence instead of an answer he didn't want to force out of his mouth.
  "How come you're acting like this is the worst place to be? Didn't you enjoy your time here before?" Malachi came to a halt, letting Hunter walk a few paces ahead before realizing he was no longer being followed.
  "It's different now."
  "How so?" Malachi crossed his arms, his listening face being the only thing about him that reminded Caston of Miss Jameson.
  "You're here."
  "Okay? And that means you can't have fun?"
  Caston nodded.
  Malachi rolled his eyes, a gentle laugh falling out of his mouth. "Cassie, don't make me keep repeating myself. You being who you are isn't going to push me away or make me mad or make me hate you."
  "So I can go kill someone?"
  "No."
  "Contradictory!"
  "Cas-"
  "Hypocrisy!" Caston flung his hands up dramatically and started walking away.
  "Caston." Malachi called after him, his voice was low, but Caston could still hear it, telling him Malachi was following close behind.
  "Blah blah blah. Your words mean nothing." Caston muttered, crossing his arms and walking next to Hunter, who wasn't giving their argument any attention.
  "Caston." Malachi sighed, grabbing Caston's arm and stopping him from walking any farther.
  Caston was pulled towards Malachi, nearly tripping on his boots in the process. "Woah! Domestic violence!"
  "Don't say that so loud in public, Caston." Malachi said, throwing a glance around them quickly.
  Caston rolled his eyes and crossed his arms back over his chest, avoiding eye contact with Malachi.
  "Why are you throwing a tantrum?"
  "I'm not."
  "You are."
  "You told me I couldn't fuck your dad. I haven't. You never said I couldn't kill people. You even made it seem like I could. Why won't you let me?" Caston huffed.
  Malachi looked at him for a second, a smile slightly tugging on his lips. "Cas...why are you asking my permission? You never have before."
  "Because...you're like..part of it. I can't just kill someone if you're not able to help clean it up."
  "And you never thought of that before..why?"
  Caston shrugged. "We didn't talk as much before. And now you've threatened to not help me so many times that you could be serious. I gotta play my cards right."
  Malachi nodded and his soft expression was wiped away and quickly replaced. He nodded, then placed his hand on Caston's elbow. "Come on. We're holding up Hunter."
  "I don't care so much that you guys stopped. It's more about where you stopped. Not exactly somewhere I wanna loiter, you know." Hunter said, pushing his hands into his pockets and standing a fair distance away from Caston and Malachi.
  Malachi turned to look at the place they had stopped next to, an unpleasant expression making its way onto his face. "Oh. Yikes. Yeah, sorry."
  Hunter shrugged ans gave the place another glance. "Kinda reminds you of those people at the church we went to, doesn't it?"
  At those words, Caston looked to his right and read the sign on the white tent Correct Youth: Hope for a better, brighter future!
  "What?" Malachi turned his head quickly, a laugh passing his lips. "What are you talking about?"
  "The church we went to as kids." Hunter deadpanned.
  "You guys went to church? Damn, didn't do much, did it?" Caston said, eyeing them both.
  "No, we didn't go to church."
  "Chi, you were older than me. If either of us were to remember it, you'd think it would be you."
  Malachi's face was scrunched up in a weird way, his hands now in his pockets, and his eyes set firmly ahead.
  "I kinda thought it was the whole reason you were so...that you took a while to come around about..me and, well, yourself, I guess." Hunter said carefully.
  Malachi chewed on his bottom lip, his eyebrows furrowed beneath his backwards hat. "Well, I don't remember it, so..must not have impacted me much."