Craving Purity

04

Holding the boxed ring in his hand, Levi's mind kept drifting back to the weird men at the jewelry store. When he'd googled the best jewelers near him, Levi found that the place he went had five stars and was adored by some of the wealthiest people in the state.

His neck still had a slight burn where the one man, Elijah, touched him, and he didn't know why. There was no mark, but it still ached, and it seemed to hurt the further he walked away from the jewelry store.

Levi pushed it from his mind and checked his phone, upset to find that Maggie hadn't responded to his text about going out for a nice dinner. He decided that he'd go meet her in her apartment, since she didn't have work that day anyway.

When he got there, he saw an unfamiliar car parked in the space next to Maggie's car, and Levi felt his heart drop. He tried to convince himself that it was her mother or father's car, but Levi also knew they lived in Montana and didn't use rental cars, preferring to take an Uber whenever they visited.

He ran up the stairs and knocked on the door to the apartment and heard thumping from inside.

"The pizza is here!" a man's voice called, one that Levi had never heard.

The door opened and a man that had to be at least thirty stood on the other side. He looked confused, clutching a twenty in his hand.

"Who are you?" Levi asked, feeling worse and worse by the second.

The man held out his hand. "Marcus," he said, putting his hand down when he realized that Levi wasn't going to shake his hand. "Are you Mags' brother? Friend?"

"Boyfriend?" Levi asked, trembling in anger and pain.

Marcus turned and looked back into the house, and Levi saw Maggie standing in the doorway to her bedroom wearing nothing but red lingerie.

"Levi!" she exclaimed, sounding angry. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"What, is your boyfriend of two years not allowed to visit you?!" Levi yelled, gripping the box with the ring in his hand so tightly that he wouldn't be surprised if it broke. "You said you loved me!"

Maggie glared at him. "You never said it back! You're always so distant and I can't deal with it!" she said, crossing her arms and scowling at him. "You haven't come to see me in days, sex is boring, and you're always so damn sad. Why did you even come here?"

Levi's tears fell down his cheek and he showed her the box in his hand. "I came to propose. I wanted to get better and I thought you'd be able to support me and help me," he said, his voice breaking. "If you didn't want to be with me you could have at least been mature enough to break up with me before I got you a damn ring!"

"I know a really good pawn shop that'll give you back probably half of what you paid," Marcus said, earning himself a disgusted look from Maggie and a tearful one from Levi.

Levi shook his head. "Fuck you, Maggie," he said, turning away.

"Levi-" she tried, drawn in by the ring, but Levi cut her off with a nasty glare.

"We're done, by the way, because I'm mature enough to end a damn relationship without cheating!" he yelled, stomping down the stairs.

Marcus ran after him and grabbed his arm. "Hey, I didn't know she was taken, man," he said, obvious regret in his eyes.

"She's not anymore," Levi spat, pushing Marcus' arm off of him and stomped down the streets, his heart heavy and mind in horrible pain.

He was right; no one could love him.

•••

Levi had seen first hand what alcohol could do to people. In his foster homes where he was sexually abused, most of the men would drink before they raped him and it would only make it more painful.