“I’ve made mistakes in my life that have led to this,” he grumbles and Luke smirks at him.
“Nah, man. I’m the best thing that ever happened to you. You told me last night while you were asleep.”
Magnus shifts in his seat and stares at them. “I’m sorry, are you two sleeping together?”
“Absolutely not,” Elliot remarks in a clipped tone.
Luke laughs and then throws an arm across the back of the booth.
“He’s just being shy. I sleep in his bed most nights. It’s fucking comfy. He has this fancy mattress that feels like sleeping on a cloud. He said it was ten grand. This dude is Mr. Moneybags. He’s a doctor too.”
Elliot glances at Luke and there’s something there moving between them, but my gaze is drawn to Emery who is shifting in his seat and blurting. “Oh, sorry to interrupt, because mattresses are super important. I mean, we spend half our lives sleeping on one, but I don’t want to forget. I brought something for you guys.” He reaches into his hoodie pocket and pulls out a handful of lollipops.
Elliot shakes his head when he’s offered one, but Sem takes one and Luke grabs two, unpeeling them both and placing them into his mouth at the same time.
“Fuck yeah. These are good,” Luke groans.
Magnus rolls his eyes and pockets the candy. “I’ll save this for later then. Apparently, Luke may need it. He’s having a mini-orgasm over there.”
Luke is popping each lollipop in and out of his mouth, like some kind of fiend and Emery looks up at me with a smug smirk.
“And you thought I was bad; I could be doingthat,” he tells me.
I chuckle and Emery beams at me.
Magnus scoots out of the booth and claps his hands like he’s trying to get the attention of his kindergartners. To be fair, we resemble them at times.
“Alright, listen up. So, we need to go likenow. It will take about fifteen minutes to get to the laser tag place and we need to check in…Luke do not do that with your sucker. That is not sanitary.”
Elliot eyes Luke and sighs. “I guess I can’t get out of this.”
“Fuck no. You’re stuck with me all damn day,” Luke replies.
“Fine, but my sisters do not find out about this,” Elliot says.
“Too late,” Luke says and Elliot groans.
* * *
After checking in, we split into two teams to ‘battle to the death’ as Luke dubbed it. Magnus, Elliot, and I are on a team versus Sem, Luke, and Emery. That was mistake number one. Putting the three of them together was a terrible decision because Emery fits right in, and they arewild. I can hear them cackling from where I stand. Sem has smeared his face in war paint and Emery lost his shirt somewhere.
Is Luke howling?
“They forgot this is laser tag and not an actual war,” Magnus says, and I run a hand through my hair.
“Yeah, it’s embarrassing. They are annihilating us,” I reply and then sink down on my haunches next to Magnus who is a little red in the face.
“Yes, they are, but I have a plan. We just need to show them who’s boss. We need to take Luke out first. He’s the wild card.”
We both turn to stare at Elliot who is wielding his laser gun like it’s a dirty napkin.
“What? Why are you looking at me?” Elliot asks and Magnus sighs.
“Show him who’s boss, Elliot,” Magnus replies. “Distract him. Anything. He’s brutal out there. If you manage to keep him busy, we can take the others down. Sem won’t shoot me, and I think Emery will just hump August’s leg if he gets too close. This man is shooting out pheromones like it’s nobody’s business. He just gets a whiff of August and he’ll be all heart eyes.”
Elliot arches an eyebrow at me, and I shrug. “What he said.”
“Fine, I’ll do this because I am a team player, but I’ll need a drink after this. A stiff one,” Elliot grumbles and then pushes away from the tree trunk and stalks away. He doesn’t even hurry, just meanders over to where Luke is puffing out his chest and howling like a werewolf.