Frayed Ends (BxB)

𝔁𝓲𝓲𝓲

↳ 𝓕𝓻𝓪𝔂𝓮𝓭 𝓔𝓷𝓭𝓼

Tsuki, standing behind the bar, pours Kenji a glass of rum, as he watches Samir roll his hips in rhythm to the music from afar. Kenji's thick eyebrows form an arch at his not-so-subtle ogling. His silk sleeves rolled up, the veins trailing his arms - the left partly covered by a bold arrow - flexes, as his fingers tighten on the wide neck of the bottle after he passes Kenji the glass. The clink of the cherry-colored liquid in his glass was faint, drowned out by the bass of the music.

❝He sure knows how to move his hips, hm? Better make a note of that,❞ Kenji adds as an afterthought; a small smirk he hides.

Tsuki snaps his gaze towards him. His mouth falls open. ❝Uh, I...❞ he trails off, but words seem foreign.

❝It's fine.❞ Kenji's vocal cords rouse a laugh. ❝If you're hiding it, you should be more subtle, first of all.❞ Tsuki flushes a candy apple red at the statement, or perhaps, it was from the red lights illuminating his tanned skin. ❝I matched you with the description Samir gave me at Sloan's party.❞

❝Oh,❞ he mumbles. ❝Please don't tell Meena. He'll kill me if he knows I'm screwing around with his baby brother. He's barely eighteen, and fuck, I'm twenty-one. And plus, I've been a dick.❞

❝Been?❞ Kenji's chortle was followed by a gulp of the rum - and the sweet, candy-like smell of Captain Morgan that stained his tongue with the aftertaste of vanilla reminded him of Meena.

Tsuki flashes his third finger - adorned with a thin, black ring - at the white-blonde, and Kenji's lips curve up. ❝Flipping off a customer seems like a dick move,❞ he whispers.

Tsuki muttered an incoherent sentence under his breath, but Kenji had diverted to attention to Juno.

He was leaning against the fading brick by the entryway of the bathroom. A half-filled Corona he pinched between his shaky fingers, his black eyes haloed by blotches of red. Kenji followed his hardened gaze until he noticed Mustafa aiming a cue at the yellow ball diagonal to a pocket. But when he saw the clearly-drunk circle of sorority girls cackling and ghosting their fingers over his bare arms - for he wore a tshirt - he realized why Juno was pouring beer down his throat.

The scowl threatening to lift his lips he tried to diffuse with the golden liquid, but Kenji picks up the glaze of jealousy in his hooded stare. It was the same jealousy Kenji tried to obscure at Sloan's party. Seeing Cherilyn touch Meena angered Kenji, but he tried the route of witty banter - knowing Meena would give a more favorable reaction that way.

And judging by the white that had traced Cherilyn's knuckles, he knew it worked.

Juno can't tread the same waters. Especially with Samir resting his cue on the edge of the pool table, prepared to shoot a ball. Samir knows damn well Juno hated the game. He didn't downplay that, so if he jumped in, Samir would find it suspicious.

Kenji hopped off his stool, replacing his glass of rum with crinkled bills. He maneuvered through dancing bodies and flavored smoke. ❝You doing alright, Juno?❞ Kenji mused lowly and gestured to the table covered with felt with a subtle nod of his head.

❝I'm imagining all the ways Kay can rip their heads off, sweetheart,❞ he hisses and chases his words by swallowing the rest of his foaming beer.

Kenji smiles at his statement, and he echoes them with a snicker. ❝I can't say Alessio would like that,❞ he whisper-shouted, voice barely audible over the music.

Juno mutters, ❝Well, shit.❞

🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍🌹🤍

The dimpled moon peeked through Kenji's blinds beside his small bed, covered with several blankets thanks to his broken heater, and his headboard rests against his blue-grey walls. The flow of her silvery dress hiding her ghostly form spilled through the sliver of space between the blinds and onto the patterned wood splaying his room. The color of ash-grey masked part of her face, leaving only a sliver under her shadow-like veil. Kenji stares at the uneven bumps on his ceiling, as his eyelids weigh heavily on his face.

Juno's soft snores from beside him thumped Kenji's eardrums. Juno was sleeping facing the window, his arms clutching the pillow.

Samir had crashed at Meena's, too tired by the end of the night to endure his father's wrath for staying out past curfew, so Juno couldn't stay in Mustafa's room. And he already told his parents he wouldn't be home until the morning.

Kenji grabbed his phone off the nightstand and scrolled aimlessly through his Instagram feed. Most of the photos on his home page were of fashion designs or coffee art. Yes, looking at pictures of coffee interested him.

But when he noticed Meena had posted a new photo, the edges of his mouth stretched to the point where his cheeks ached.

It was just a photo of him smiling, his black curls combed by the breeze and his sleeve of tattoos was shown when he flashed his middle finger at the camera.

Shit, I love him, Kenji thought to himself.

Hey loves. Chapter thirteen was a mess to write. I rewrote it like three times.

Did you like seeing Tsuki and Kenji interact? Did you like seeing jealous Juno? Did you enjoy Kenji's drunken confession?

I'll see y'all next chapter.