Shawn Lane - Car Wash 1 - Car Wash Read Free Page B

Bennett had come to the car wash and had even asked him out. Kevin had noticed Michael seemed to be devouring him with his eyes. Kevin had learned over the years that most gay men found him attractive. He didn’t ever have to wait long for attention in gay bars. But he had been surprised Michael actually asked him out.
    The bus arrived and Kevin slipped his money in the slot. It only took about fifteen minutes for the ride that took him to within a block of his apartment.
    Michael wanted to have sex with him. Kevin had no doubt of that. The question was whether Kevin would allow it. Having had no money for a while, meant no bars for looking for pickups. And with no steady boyfriend for even longer, he’d had sex with his hands and toys only lately. And he’d wanted Michael all those years ago. Now, he could even have him. If he wanted him.
    Kevin got off the bus and walked to his apartment. He ran up the stairs and then stopped halfway up looking at an envelope taped to the outside of his door. A heavy ball of dread pitted in his stomach. He stood frozen, unwilling to move the last few steps to the door.
“Just do it,” he said out loud.
He charged up the rest of the way and removed the
    envelope. He tore it open and read the words, “Eviction Notice.” Great . Now he was going to be starving and homeless.
    He unlocked his door and entered the dark apartment. He flipped on the switch, grateful the light came on. At least his electricity hadn’t been disconnected. He threw the envelope on the nearby coffee table and headed to the kitchen. He might be able to find some ramen noodles or something. He turned on the kitchen light.
“Ah, fuck!”
    Hundreds, maybe thousands, of ants swarmed on his kitchen counters and sink. Okay, now the perkiness was officially shot. Grimacing, he reached under the sink to locate his bug spray. Kevin could swear they’d built these apartments on an ant hill.
    Pointing the can at the ants as though he were a cop getting ready to taser a perp, he pushed down hard on the button coating the creatures with a heavy dose of poison. Then, when he was sure most of them were drowning in the spray, he dosed them again. He returned the can to its place and stared at the bugs. He was getting nauseous now. He definitely didn’t need to throw up the little food he had in is stomach.
    He walked out of the kitchen and out the front door of his apartment, relocking it. He just couldn’t stay there. Couldn’t face the cleanup. Not tonight. Kevin trudged down the stairs and down the street to the nearest drug store. He knew they still had a pay phone. A rarity these days. He quickly called the one person who knew what shit he’d been going through.
    “Hi, Gabby, it’s Kevin,” he said when she answered. “Listen, I-I’m having a bad night. Do you think maybe I could stay with you?”
“What happened?”
    He swallowed heavily. “Well, I got home to an eviction notice for starters.”
“Oh, Kev, that’s terrible.”
“I know. And then there were all these ants and I—” He stopped, his throat clogged with too much emotion for him to go on.
“All right. Where are you? I’ll come get you.”
He got out the directions to the drug store and then hung up. He was grateful he could count on Gabby. He didn’t know who else to call. Yeah, he could call Noah and he knew Noah would come. But, Noah had his own life now. He certainly didn’t need a loser like Kevin horning in.
One thing was true. He really needed to come straight with his friends. He knew they’d be pissed he’d been hiding it, but Kevin knew he couldn’t hide his humiliation any longer. He did not want to be homeless.
He walked outside to wait for Gabby. At least he had something to look forward to tomorrow night.

CHAPTER 3
    It was already ten minutes past the time Michael was supposed to pick him up and Kevin had started to think he’d been stood up. Great .
    As if being rejected by Michael once hadn’t been enough, he had to put