Keith lifted his head and glared at her. “He forgot my name, Kelly. My freaking name! That’s nearly as bad as calling out someone else’s name when you’re in the middle of sex! And just after we . . . we . . . shit.”
“After you what,” Kelly prompted when Keith didn’t continue.
Keith looked away with shame. “After we got physical and basically said we’d go steady. This has to be the shortest relationship in the history of relationships.”
“Oh, honey,” Kelly said with a shaking voice. Keith looked over to see her wiping away tears. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”
Keith sighed and sat up, pulling her into a hug. He stroked her hair as she cried into his shoulder. “Shh, it’s not you’re fault, Kelly. You didn’t know his ex-girlfriend would make me obsolete in his eyes and try to stick her tongue down his throat in front of all of us. You had no way of knowing she was a cheap whore trying to win back his affections.”
With a choked laughed, Kelly pulled back and hit him in the shoulder. “That’s not funny, Keith!”
“Sure it is. Let’s me forget that I’m insanely jealous and that my now ex-boyfriend just went out with his ex-girlfriend.”
Kelly sniffed. “I’m going to kill him. I really will. Why didn’t he tell just her-” She cut off and threw a guilty look at him.
“Why didn’t he tell her we were together? Good question, one I really don’t want to delve into at the moment.”
Kelly placed her hand on his chest and began to open her mouth to say something, but stopped. Instead her hand moved up to his throat and then up to his forehead, while her other hand when to her own head. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as he pulled his head away with a grimace. “What the hell were you doing having sex and running around half naked while you are running a fever? Get into bed right now while I go get a thermometer!”
“But, Kelly, I-”
“Now, Keith!”
“Fine,” He sighed in defeat. He was just too tired to fight with her.
She stormed from the room as he peeled off his shirt and his jeans. Pulling on some boxer briefs, he slid under the covers with a shiver. The damn sheets were cold.
Kelly came back in shaking an old fashioned glass thermometer, Scott right behind her looking on curiously. Kelly leaned in towards Keith. “Open.”
Keith obeyed and let her place it under his tongue.
“Scott, I want you to make sure he keeps that in his mouth for five minutes while I go make some lemon tea with honey.”
Scott grinned evilly. “Sure thing, doll.”
Scott sat on the edge of the bed as Kelly left the room. “Sick, huh? That means you’re weak, doesn’t it? Don’t have as much strength as you usually do.”
Keith pulled the thermometer out and glared at Scott. “I still have enough strength to kick your ass. Get the hell off my bed!”
“Put it back in, or I’ll tell Kelly you’re not behaving. You don’t want her to get all bitchy on your ass and call the school doc for a house call, do you? She’d do it, too.”
Disliking doctors with a passion, Keith put it back in his mouth.
Scott got a nasty look on his face and leaned down, pinning Keith’s hands to the bed, ignoring the glare Keith threw him. “Do you have any idea how badly I want to gobble you up?”
“You just want me because you can’t have me. I’m nothing more than a prize in a pissing match between you and Mike, aren’t I?”
“Don’t open your mouth, or the thermometer won’t work right.” Scott leaned down and licked the side of Keith’s neck making him shiver. Keith tried to pull his head away, but Scott just followed him, inhaling deeply. “Mmm, you taste divine.”
Keith tried to jerk his hands out of Scott’s grasp and threw his hips to the right away from Scott. Scott just laughed and nipped his shoulder. “I love it when you fight me.”
Keith moaned as Scott found the spot on his collar bone that made him go crazy. Scott laughed darkly in his throat and pulled his knees up onto the bed so he could perch next to Keith. “Like that, do you?”
Keith mumbled darkly, keeping his lips firmly around the thermometer, hoping it didn’t break in his mouth, and glared at Scott’s dark head. Curses floated around in his mind along with ways to get away from him.
“Christ, I want you,” Scott muttered softly. “I could make you happy, you know. I’d never forget your name. I would try everyday to make you smile. Hell, I’d never let you leave the bedroom.” Scott leaned his head down onto the pillow next to Keith’s head. His voice became painfully soft. “Somewhere along the line, you stopped being a prize.”
“Okay, Keith, here you-what the hell is going on, Scott?” Kelly had come back into the room carrying a steaming mug of tea, stopping just inside the door as she witnessed the scene before her. Scott was practically on top of Keith, pinning him to the mattress. Her eyes narrowing dangerously, she took a step into the room. “Get the fuck off of him, Scott. Now, before I kick your ass.”
“Kelly, it’s not what you think,” Scott said condescendingly. He hadn’t seen her look this mad since her last boyfriend had cheated on her. She’d ended up putting the guy in the hospital with severely bruised goods.
Keith took advantage of the moment Scott was distracted, pulled his legs up underneath him and launched Scott off of him. Scott flew off the end of the bed and crashed into a bookcase, books and CD’s falling onto his head.
“Damn it, that hurt!”
Keith spit out his thermometer and lunged at Scott, pulling him up and hitting him across the mouth. “You asshole! No means no! If you ever so much as breath in my direction again, I swear I’ll make you an eunuch! Do you understand me?”
Scott held a hand to his bleeding mouth, but Keith could tell he was smiling. “You’re beautiful when you’re angry.”
Keith punched him in the stomach. Stepping back, he pulled on his pants, pushed past Kelly and left the room breathing hard. Damn that Scott! Double damn Mike for leaving him in the house with Scott! Keith punched the wall as he headed down the stairs and grimaced as pain shot up his hand.
“Keith? Keith, wait! Keith, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have left him up there with you. I don’t know what I was thinking,” Kelly yelled as she ran down the hall after him. “This is just my day for screw ups.”
“Don’t worry about it, Kelly,” Keith said tightly as he made his way to the fridge. He could hear Scott stumbling down the steps, groaning as he went. “Scott and I just made some boundaries, that’s all. Right, Scott?”
“Boundaries, yeah. Good strong boundaries. Christ, you’ve got a hell of a punch for a bookworm.”
Keith got out some ice and started breaking it on the counter. Throwing the ice chips into two different sandwich bags, he turned and tossed one at Scott who caught in one hand. “You’re mouth is still bleeding.”
“It’s not my mouth I’m worried about,” Scott said, his left arm pinned around his waist.
Keith glared at him as he put his own ice on his right hand and let out a hiss. “Suck it up, pansy. I didn’t hit you that hard.”
“No, but the bookcase did. My shoulder is killing me!”
Kelly looked back and forth between the two of them and shook her head. Keith still looked pissed and Scott still looked like the cat that had eaten the canary, but they were still talking to each other. Even if they were keeping the entire room between them, why they weren’t yelling and screaming or just beating each other bloody was beyond her. At the very least she’d expected Keith to throw Scott out of the house.