Black Friday: BLEED LIKE ME teaser

BLEED LIKE ME: Brooks & Gannon bonus scene

“Gannon. Gannon. Wake up.”

I creaked open an eye and peered at Brooks, his long, thin, shirtless frame crouched on the edge of his futon. I still couldn’t believe we were here together. “What time is it?”

“A little after ten.”

“Why are you waking me up? I don’t have anywhere else to be.” I nestled down in his scratchy blanket and watched him roll a cigarette.

“Where do your parents think you are?”

I arched my back and sat up, holding out my hand for one of the cigarettes he was rolling. “I left at midnight last night, they think I’m braving the crowds at some super store to get all my Christmas shopping done.”

Brooks offered a half-smile. “That’s right. Black Friday. Are they gonna say something when you don’t show up with anything?”

I smiled back. “Well, I’m showing up with about seven hundred hickeys, do you think that counts?”

He lit his cigarette and tossed me the lighter, sliding closer to where I sat. “I only put them in places no one but me would see.” He waggled his eyebrows.

I peeked down the front of his T-shirt, the one I’d shrugged on last night before slipping into the futon next to him. My chest was practically covered in bites and bruises.

I inhaled the strong smoke from the Indian Spirit cigarette and rested my head on his shoulder, feeling the tense muscles in my neck ease. He put his arm around my hip and tucked my body even closer to his.

“What should we do today?” I asked after a few minutes of silence, punctuated by exhales of smoke.

“Movie?” He leaned forward and dropped his cigarette in the tin can on the floor beside him.

I shook my head. “It’s gonna be packed and I don’t want to see anyone from school.”

“So I guess the mall is out too?”

“God, yes. Who do I even have to get gifts for? I give my parents a gift certificate to Red Lobster or the Olive Garden every year, and I already bought Ali a set of belly button rings, and God knows I’m not getting my brothers anything.”

Brooks slipped his hand beneath my borrowed T-shirt and stroked the bones of my hip. “Maybe you should get your brothers handcuffs?”

I snorted a laugh. “They’d just figure out a way to use them on me.”

“Well, that sounds promising.”

I laughed and shoved him. “Don’t be gross.”

He plucked my cigarette from my fingers and put it out, then pressed me back on the bed, straddling my hips. “You like when I’m gross.”

I rolled my eyes. “No I don’t.”

He leaned over me and kissed my neck, my collarbone, the spot beneath my ear that made goose bumps rise on my skin. “You do,” he whispered.

“No. I just like you.”

He lifted his head and grinned. “Well, that’s good news, because I like you too.”

Then he kissed me, long and hard, sucking and biting and wrapping himself around me until I didn’t know where I ended and he began.

Finally, when he pulled away, both of us flushed and breathless, he traced the hoops on my ear and said, “I’m glad you came over last night.”

I drew my fingers over the scabbing tattoo on his chest, the bloody heart with my name in piercing straight pins coming out of it. “I’m glad I did too. Now, can we go back to sleep?”

“Nope,” he said, putting his hand over mine. “Black Friday. We don’t stop till we drop.”

I sighed and laced my fingers with his. “Okay. But we’re probably going to need to get food.”

He winked at me. “And more condoms.”