Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69895 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Zachary grinned. He hoped he’d get an even bigger reaction with the prank he was about to pull.
Gus, Wes’ stepdaughter, had really come through for him on this one. Wes had texted him the other day: Gus says a good prank is to set up a table like for dinner and then it’s your head. Whatever that means.
But Zachary knew exactly what it meant, and it delighted him.
Which was how he had come to be crouched beneath his own dining table at 7:00 p.m., waiting for Bram to arrive.
He’d invited the other man to dinner and a few minutes ago texted that he should let himself in, as Zachary was occupied cooking.
The knock on the door came, and then it opened.
“Hello? Zachary, I’m here! Don’t wanna startle you.”
Zachary grinned. Bram was the one who was about to get startled!
The tablecloth hung to the floor all the way around the table to hide Zachary from view, so he couldn’t see Bram, but he could hear his footsteps approach.
“Wow, this looks fancy,” Bram called into the kitchen from right in front of the table. “Can I peek?”
Of course Zachary couldn’t yell from the kitchen since he was, in fact, under the table, but he was counting on the fact that Bram’s curiosity would compel him to lift the silver dome from the platter in the center of the table.
And sure enough...
The silver dome lifted. Zachary’s face was fixed in a rictus, and he bit down on the blood capsules. Blood spewed from his mouth and down his chin in a viscous blerb.
Zachary had just time enough to see Bram’s handsome face horror-struck, before he screamed and the silver dome went flying. It missed the hanging lamp by centimeters and hit the wall with a ringing sound and the crunch of plaster.
Bram clutched his chest. He looked genuinely aghast, and Zachary’s stomach fell. Somehow he had let the fact that this idea was thought of by a child convince him it would only be mildly startling, but it was clear that the effect had worked too well for someone as easily scared as Bram.
“I’m so sorry,” Zachary said.
More blood poured out of his mouth. It tasted blank and slimy.
Bram winced.
Zachary attempted to extricate himself from underneath the table, but his legs had fallen asleep as he knelt there, and he couldn’t quite drag the leaves of the table apart from this angle.
“Er. Any chance you could pull the table leaf out?”
Bram seemed to wake up then, and with one yank, Zachary was free. His head, which had been surrounded by a cardboard platter with a cutout for his neck, popped out, dripping blood, and with a groan, Zachary stood.
“I’m really sorry,” he said again, wiping the blood from his mouth with the doily around his neck. “I didn’t think this would be scary. I meant it to be funny, but I’m such an asshole and I didn’t think how scared you would be. Damn. I’m really sorry.”
Bram shook his head.
“I just. Jesus, you really got me.”
He pressed his palm flat against his chest as if to check his heart still beat beneath all that muscle.
“I guess I should’ve known it was a prank when I didn’t smell any food, huh? Silly me.”
And that was when Zachary noticed that Bram wasn’t wearing his usual outfit of worn jeans and a T-shirt (or worn jeans and no shirt at all). He was wearing navy pants and a pale pink short-sleeved button-down shirt that struggled to contain his biceps. He was dressed up. For dinner. With Zachary.
Only there was no dinner.
There was just an empty table covered in blood and Zachary in ratty old clothes he used to paint the walls when he moved in. Also covered in blood.
“Oh,” Zachary said softly.
“Er. Yeah. You got me,” Bram said. And although he was playing it off with his usual good nature, Zachary thought he could detect a darker emotion beneath that smiley facade.
Zachary wanted to put a hand on his shoulder and apologize again, but both of his hands were sticky with blood. He felt awful and it was very unlike him. He’d won! The prank had worked perfectly—even better than he’d imagined, and he would certainly be telling Gus every detail—but he derived no satisfaction from it. He wanted to replace the stilted smile on Bram’s face with his real smile. The broad, unselfconscious one that showed his teeth and crinkled the skin around his eyes.
“Hey, what if we go to Peach’s Diner for dinner? My treat?” Zachary offered.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. Good one, ha-ha.” Bram said, as if that too were another prank. But he wasn’t leaving.
“No, no, I want to. Please.” Bram’s shoulders relaxed and he put his hands in his pockets. “If you don’t mind waiting for me to take a shower and change.”