“Other than you?” Arlo countered.
“Yeah, other than me,” Dimitri teased, taking the used cup from Arlo and setting it aside. “Come on, let’s go inside and get this over with.”
Arlo grimaced. “I don’t want to go in there, but I can’t feel my fingers.”
Dimitri steered him towards the back door and then wrapped his arms around him from behind, threading their fingers together as he buried his face against his neck. Arlo sagged against him. He trusted Dimitri to take care of him. That shouldn’t make his dick hard, but it did. Arlo was his. Just his. And he’d protect him with violence if necessary.
Arlo tilted his head to let Dimitri nuzzle his neck. “This is nice and all, but how are we going to get from here to there if you’re holding me hostage?”
The door opened in front of them as a group of half dressed partiers staggered out into the cold, the alcohol clearly numbing them to the air, which was so icy they could see their breath. “Like this.”
Arlo shriek laughed as Dimitri picked him up from behind, carrying him through the doorway as one of the drunken girls said, “Aww.”
Inside, the living room was a crush of people, some gathered into a large great room, dancing, some crowded into the kitchen around a keg, and others playing beer pong in the dining room.
People knowing they were there wouldn’t be a problem. It was like watching people do the wave at a football game, only this time the wave was a hundred drunk college students noticing Dimitri had arrived at the party and that he had a boy in his arms.
“You know that part of the movie where there’s, like, a record scratch and then everybody stops and stares?” Arlo asked softly. “We’re living that part. I hate that part.”
Dimitri held him tighter. “They’re just surprised to see me here with somebody. I told you. I’ve never brought a date before. That’s all it is. I promise.”
Arlo scoffed, attempting to crane his head over his shoulder to look at Dimitri. “You’re a terrible liar.”
Dimitri snorted. “I’m an excellent liar. Trust me. This is the best thing that could happen to us.” He released his hold on him but took Arlo’s hand, weaving through a crowd that parted like the Red Sea but then quickly forgot them.
Dimitri spotted a shaved head and broad shoulders in the kitchen. Jason. He headed that way, thinking Arlo would feel safer among friends. Jason was at the tap, pouring a beer into a solo cup. He did an almost comical double take when he realized Dimitri had his arm around Arlo.
He frowned. “‘Sup, man? I thought you couldn’t make it?”
Dimitri shrugged. “Arlo said we could come, so here we are.”
Jason had the cup halfway to his lips when he paused, looking back and forth between the two of them. “Arlo said you could come? Like, he gave you permission?”
Dimitri shrugged. “I mean, he’s my boyfriend. If he doesn’t like parties, I don’t like parties.”
Jason blinked rapidly, as if attempting to process this completely new information. Dimitri didn’t blame him. They had traveled in the same circles since freshman year and Dimitri had never introduced him to a boyfriend before. Dimitri had never had a boyfriend before.
Silence stretched between them until Arlo stiffened. “Let’s just go. I knew people would be weird about me being here.”
Jason appeared to snap out of whatever stupor Dimitri had caused. “Nah, man. You’re good. You’re both good. Of course, you are. We’re not homophobes. Like, do you. Have a beer.” He looked at Arlo with wide eyes. “Do you drink beer? We have wine and jello shots!” he said excitedly before frowning, his head on a swivel as he looked around. “Somewhere.”
“I’m good,” Arlo said, sounding faintly amused.
They went to leave when Jason snagged Dimitri’s arm, tugging him around. “Wait, does Mandy know you two are a thing?”
Dimitri shook his head. “Arlo wasn’t comfortable telling anyone before tonight.”
There wasn’t anything to tell before tonight, but that was for Dimitri to know and Jason to never find out. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. He turned to a guy who was currently standing between the legs of a blonde perched on the kitchen counter. “Josh, watch the keg. I got something to do.” To Dimitri, he said, “Come with me.”
Dimitri looked at Arlo, who looked as suspicious as Dimitri felt, but he just shrugged. Dimitri followed behind Jason, once more weaving through groups of drunken revelers into what had once been a library when this was a normal house and not a frat house. An enormous wraparound leather couch hugged two walls, and Mandy sat on the arm, leaning over a burly football player who appeared to talk directly into her cleavage.
“Hey, Mandy,” Jason called. “Look who showed up.”
Mandy’s head snapped up, her face contorted like it irritated her that Jason had interrupted her, but then she saw Dimitri and a shark-like grin spread across her face, the guy on the couch forgotten. She rose, regal as a queen, smoothing the skirt of her green dress, hips swaying as she crossed to where they stood. Dimitri wondered if she thought that was seductive. Maybe it was to straight dudes. What did he know?
“He brought his boyfriend,” Jason tacked on gleefully, emphasizing the word, as he pushed Arlo forward. “You remember Arlo, right? From the coffee shop.”
Mandy stopped short like Jason had dropped a dead rat at her feet, her nose wrinkling. “I’m sorry, what?”
Jason feigned confusion. “Yeah, didn’t you know he and Arlo were a thing?” he said, as if that wasn’t information he himself had learned just sixty seconds prior to this meeting. “For a while now. They’re really cute together, no?”
Dimitri wasn’t sure what he was witnessing. He’d always assumed Jason and Mandy were friends. They were always together. They had the same circle of friends. But, Dimitri did as well, so maybe none of them were really friends, just victims of circumstance and geography. Or, in Dimitri’s case, a meddling mother determined the world didn’t know of his secret psychopathy.
Mandy raked her gaze over Arlo from head to toe before dismissing him entirely to focus on Dimitri, arching one overly manicured brow. “You’re dating…him?”
Dimitri tilted his head, well aware there were people attempting to covertly film their encounter. Mandy’s crush on Dimitri was hardly a secret, but then, neither was Dimitri’s sexual orientation. “Yeah. Arlo and I have been together for a while now. Why?”
She raised her chin, her arms crossing beneath her breasts. “Because it makes no sense. Look at you”—she waved a hand—“and then look at him.”
Arlo stiffened. Dimitri’s whole body grew hot, an uncharacteristic rage rolling over him. He pulled Arlo back against him once more, cradling his body, as if he could deflect all of Mandy’s nastiness.
Dimitri dropped all pretenses, letting the mask of normalcy fall away, his voice a low growl as he said, “What did you just say?”
He could hear people murmuring throughout the crowd. He’d known she was going to throw a tantrum, but it never occurred to him she would attack Arlo because she thought he didn’t meet some arbitrary set of standards she’d decided were a thing. He wouldn’t stand there and let her humiliate him publicly, not even to secure an alibi.