Page 88 of Double Shot

Receiving the Best Friend’s Blessing

Brian

The first thing I noticed about Nat was that he was tall. Not as tall as me, but a lot taller than Klaus.

The second thing I noticed was that even if he hadn’t been that tall, he still would’ve been intimidating as shit.

I could tell straight away that he was a shadowperson. He was very beautiful, something I catalogued in a detached sort of way—that kind of undeniable beauty that mostly came from vast amounts of confidence. He had a mass of dark hair that fell around his face in artful, rumpled waves. Gold jewellery gleamed at his ears, neck, wrists, fingers. He was extremely pale, and he was wearing tight black pants, big black boots and a white crop top that said, Fuck off, I’m with the band in cursive font on the front.

A pair of skinny black shades were covering his eyes, but he reached up to perch them on the top of his head as he stepped into the house and smiled with genuine enthusiasm. In his other hand, expertly balanced, was a stack of takeout boxes that smelled incredible. My stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since this morning. While that was probably a normal amount of time between meals for lots of folks, I had to eat a lot just to maintain my size.

“Hi!” Nat said, looking at both of us, but mainly at me.

“Did you seriously wear that to work?” Klaus asked before I could unglue my jaw and attempt to greet Nat like a normal person.

He looked down at his shirt. “Yeah. Why?” When Klaus snorted, Nat huffed and repeated, “Oh my gods, you turd, why? What’s wrong with it?”

“Don’t you get a lot of elderly people where you work?”

Nat rolled his eyes. “Do you think elderly people have never seen or said the word fuck before? They don’t care.”

“I guess. Anyway, let me take those.” Klaus stepped forward and grabbed the takeout boxes, setting them down on the console table. Then he hurried back over to me and took my hand, giving it a subtle squeeze that managed to calm my nerves a little.

Just a little. My heart was still pounding like I was dangling off the edge of a cliff that was crumbling under my fingertips.

“This is Brian.” Klaus was beaming. I could hear it in his voice. He leaned heavily into my side in the way I found extremely comforting. He did it when he was extra happy, when he was in a really good mood and it was like he instinctively wanted to let me soak it up from him through his skin.

I swallowed hard and managed to raise my free hand, the one not currently sweating in Klaus’s, in some semblance of a wave. “Hi, Nat.” My voice was hoarse, my throat dry. I tried to blame it on not drinking enough water while lifting lots of boxes.

Nat was watching me, and I could’ve sworn something in his gaze softened completely when our eyes met. All that did was make me worry about just how terrified I currently looked. He gave me a genuine smile, one that was surprisingly warm when everything about him gave off the impression that he could put my ‘ice bitch’ face to shame.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Brian. I’ve heard so much about you. Seriously—so much.”

I relaxed just enough to chuckle at that, though it still sounded like it’d been scraped from the back of my throat. I glanced down at Klaus. “Same. I mean, Klaus talks about you a lot. You—uh… you’re, um, important. To him.”

Fuck, I’d been doing so well.

Thankfully, Nat didn’t react as if I’d just said something weird and pointless, even though I definitely had. We were all very aware that Nat was important to Klaus. He was his best friend.

“Well, of course I am, sweetie.” Nat grinned at me again and gestured at the stack of takeout boxes. “I brought lunch! I figured you’d both be starving by now, and it’s the least I could do seeing as I wasn’t there to help Klaus move out of that shithole and hopefully tell Simon what a turd he is before you left?” He said that last bit with a hopeful inflection, looking questioningly at Klaus, who shook his head.

“Simon was at work.”

Nat huffed in obvious disgust. “Of course he was. Couldn’t do anything right, that one.”

“Ruth hadn’t even realised I was moving out.”

Nat huffed again, picking up the food. “Of course she hadn’t. Fucking brainless, that one. Where should we eat?”

“Oooh, let’s go in the backyard! We haven’t been out there yet, have we?” Klaus looked up at me with a smile and squeezed my hand. I smiled back and shook my head, letting him lead me into the kitchen as Nat followed.

Klaus quickly located his bowls in one of the boxes, forks and spoons in another, and I washed and dried them while he and Nat unpacked the food on the kitchen island.

“Klaus told me you like pad thai with chicken, Brian.” Nat pushed one of the containers toward me when I joined them. “And I just got a bunch of sides for us all to share.”

“Thank you.” I tipped the noodles into my bowl but didn’t take any of the sides yet, because I didn’t want to seem greedy. That was something else I’d worried about as a kid—I’d always been hungry, because I’d grown a hell of a lot, and I hadn’t wanted to take more than my share in a big family with a lot of other growing kids.

Klaus took my bowl so I could grab the small cooler of drinks we’d brought to take outside with us. We went into the backyard, which had an outdoor dining set, and as we sat down to eat, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t really be able to relax and enjoy the meal, because it wasn’t just me and Klaus. There was someone else here. Someone who was probably expecting me to act normal and make conversation. Partake in small talk. Fuck.