SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

I found out about Tiffany being a little sneak when I opened the door, because the doorknob hit her in the nose. She fell onto her butt with a squeak and skittered across the hall, pressing her back to the wall as I threw the door the rest of the way open and met her stunned eyes. 

We stared at one another for a good ten seconds, my mouth dropped open and hers twisted into a please-don't-kill-me smile, one hand clamped over her reddened face and the other held up between us like a shield.

"What are you doing?" I asked, tone sandwiched somewhere between disbelief and mounting annoyance. I couldn't help but glare a little while I shut the door behind me and leaned on it, and while we exchanged looks she swallowed, smiled, and laughed nervously. "Why were you listening in on our conversation?"

Tiffany fidgeted. 

"I totally have no idea what you mean, Aerin!" she chirped, lies written as plain as day on her face. "I wasn't listening in on anything. Really."

"Oh, cut the crap, Tiffany," I snapped, shaking my head. "You wouldn't have been listening at the keyhole unless you suspected something." 

She chewed on her lower lip with a face covered in guilt, staring down at her lap pathetically as she tried to keep her mouth shut, but it was quickly becoming obvious that she was a full-blown gossip girl at heart: a shut mouth was anathema to her very nature.

"How could I not? Leo dropped me a few hints, and after walking in on you two, I was curious to see if Bash was really... well, into you," she said at last, voice squeaking out the syllables. "Not that I asked him, of course, it's just that Bash is acting so different now, like he's consumed by you, and it was unexpected... I had to wonder what your relationship was! And I mean, I never would have guessed that you were actually into—that you were into—"

"Into what?" I snapped. "Foul-tempered werewolves?"

Tiffany started to nod, but then she stopped. Her perfectly trimmed eyebrows knit together and her glossed lips parted, and it took a good minute or so for her to finally say, "what are you talking about?"

That sure threw me for a loop. 

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"BDSM! Like, duh?" Tiffany piped; the bottom fell out of my stomach. "I was wondering what sort of guys you're into, and you know, more personal stuff, so I asked Leo —subtly, of course, because I didn't mean to pry or anything—and well, he said that you and Bash were probably a good pair and I asked what he meant, and he said that you gave him a seriously masochistic vibe!"

I listened to her speech with a brain numbed by metaphorical Novocain, and when she was finished I just stared at her. Her face had gone from jubilant to gentle.

"It's okay, Aerin," she said softly, reaching out a hand so she could grab my free one and squeeze it. "There's nothing wrong with liking... liking..." She went crimson. "I mean, there's nothing bad about being into that sort of... I mean... yeah, Sebastian was acting really, really cruel when it came to you, and I wondered why that was, but now it all makes sense—"

"I am not," I growled, "a masochist!"

"You're not?" she squeaked, hand freezing around mine. "B-but Leo, he said you and Sebastian—"

"I don't like abuse! I don't like being in pain!" I snapped, face flaming with anger. "And for the damn record, I'm actually a versatile top! I prefer slinging it over taking it, so you can take that assumption and shove it right back up Leo's ass where it came from!"