Page 27 of Inevitable

“Ow,” Bas complained and shoved Drew.

“If we do this, there’ll be no screwing,” Ezra said. “It’ll just make an already complicated situation even worse.”

“Really?” Bas asked as his eyes flittered between Drew and Ezra. “But—”

“It’s nonnegotiable,” Ezra said firmly.

Bas looked at Drew for help, but Drew just nodded and said, “You’re right.”

“You two are no fun,” Bas grumbled as Ezra snorted and followed him back into the guest room Ezra had left seven days ago. Maybe Drew was crazy, but for the first time that week, he felt at peace.

9

Being back at Bas’s and Drew’s apartment for the second time was strange. Ezra felt distinctly out of place. The feeling that he was an intruder was strong this time around, but as was becoming customary, he was shit out of luck and had no options.

He’d managed to find a job at a coffeehouse, where he took the early morning shifts, serving coffee and bagels to people who passed through before they hurried off to their jobs at one of the surrounding high-rises.

His workday started at the crack of dawn. Working at the coffee shop meant there was enough time during the day to go to school, but the pay was abysmal. Saving enough to cover rent and a security deposit seemed like a pipe dream.

He’d spent the week trying to find a place to live, but eventually, he had to face the facts—he simply couldn’t afford to live anywhere. The only roommate offer came from a guy who seemed to be cooking meth in his kitchen. After his last experience, rent-to-rent schemes, even though dirt cheap, didn’t exactly appeal to him.

In the middle of December, in Boston, having no roof over your head was not good news by any stretch of the imagination. He’d been staying in overnight cafes, and for two nights, he’d managed to secure a place in a shelter.

He was out of options, exhausted, and the voice at the back of his head was getting louder and louder, telling him to give up. That he was a useless piece of shit. That he’d never amount to anything, so why even try?

When Bas’s text came in, he had swallowed his pride and dragged his sorry ass back to Drew and Bas’s place.

He was determined to seem invisible. Between school and work, it was almost too easy to do just that. Dragging his tired ass home from the library one night after a full day of work and classes, he was starting to think he might have been too quick to think he’d even need an apartment in the first place, he’d just sleep in the library and call it good. Too bad they regularly kicked him out at midnight.

He trudged home through the darkened streets. It was cold, but not as cold as usual. Drew had forced Ezra to wear a hat and gloves he’d dug out from the hallway closet. Ezra’s hair had smelled like Drew the first time he’d worn the hat.

Even with the extra layers, by the time he entered the apartment, Ezra’s fingers were tingling from the cold, and his toes felt like blocks of ice inside his sneakers.

It was already well past midnight, so the last thing he expected was to find Drew in the kitchen with two large steaming mugs on the table.

“I made you some tea,” the man said as he pushed a mug toward Ezra and nodded at a chair for Ezra to take a seat.

“What’s with you people and tea?” Ezra grumbled. “I’ll have you know most normal people drink coffee.”

“My grandmother liked tea. She said it was healthier than coffee. When we were younger, Bas and I would sit in her kitchen every weekend, drink tea, and talk. The habit stuck.”

Ezra dropped his backpack in the corner and sat down. The cup was warm. He wrapped his icy fingers around it and sighed in relief as the warmth of the apartment started slowly driving away the chill inside his body.

Drew eyed him from his spot on the other side of the table. “When we offered that you could live here, we didn’t mean that you have to sneak around, trying to avoid us at all cost.”

“I’m not,” Ezra denied. It was partly true. He did have a lot of stuff going on. Then again, he couldn’t deny that he’d definitely taken a couple of extra shifts at the coffeehouse and had spent a lot of time in the library.

“Where’s Bas?” Ezra asked, desperate for a change of topic.

“Studio.”

“Is he always away this much?” Ezra had been using the apartment for sleeping mainly, but even he couldn’t help but notice that Bas was gone even more than he was.

It was Drew’s turn to avoid eye contact. “He’s busy with work.”

Ezra snorted. “He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth.”

Drew kept staring at his fingers, fiddling with the handle of his mug.