IT WAS MIDMORNING when Caiden, showered and dressed, made his way into the living room. He could hear the sound of voices and identified them as Shelly, Marianne, Auntie Lou, and another woman.
“Hey,” he said, entering the room.
“Ah, Caiden,” Auntie Lou said, “this is Nora, Cooper’s wife.”
Caiden held out his hand to the woman. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nora.”
Nora took his hand and shook it. “Likewise, Caiden. I’ve heard a lot about you from Coop.”
“Nothing too bad, I hope,” Caiden said.
“No, no. No need to worry on that score,” Nora said. “He told me you like chilli crab, so I did extra. Hope you like bush tomato and lemon myrtle too.”
“Definitely,” Caiden said.
“He and the other boys are bottomless pits,” Auntie Lou said with a chuckle.
Caiden grinned at her. “Can’t argue the truth. So, Coop’s outside?”
“Yes, with Hien and Bluey. They’re all standing around the barbeque, although no one’s cooking yet.” Shelly shook her head. “I hope they don’t start before we’re ready—they’ll burn the snags and chops!”
“Can’t have that,” Caiden said. “I’ll go out and say hi.”
“Don’t forget to have some breakfast,” Auntie Lou said. “And I’ll give your hair a trim when you come back inside.”
“I won’t and okay,” Caiden said. He made his way out of the living room and down the corridor to the kitchen. In the kitchen, he could hear the sounds of Hien, Bluey, and Cooper talking outside, and he smiled to himself as he made a cup of coffee and poured a bowl of cornflakes. He ate quickly, then ducked into the bathroom, brushed his teeth and checked his bruises again. He frowned as he held up his T-shirt, peering at his reflection and the yellow-brown bruises staining his skin. “I wish you were gone,” he muttered, poking at one experimentally, and wincing as it twinged in reply.
They hadn’t faded noticeably, not since yesterday at any rate, so Caiden tugged down his T-shirt and left the bathroom. “I’m ready for a hair cut now,” he called out to his aunt.
Auntie Lou came to join him in the corridor. “All right. I’ll get the clippers, you grab a chair and sit down by the sink.”
Caiden did as he was told, and Auntie Lou soon returned. He sat still as she quickly trimmed his hair, wiping away the bits that had stuck to the back of his neck with a damp cloth. It took ten minutes, and when she was done, Caiden peered into the mirror.
“That’s loads better,” he said. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, dear.” Auntie Lou patted his shoulder. “I’ll clean this up, don’t worry.”
“Okay, but next time, I’ll do it.”
“Only if your ribs are healed,” she said.
Caiden huffed a little. “They better bloody well be healed,” he grumbled.
“I’m sure they will be. Go on outside and join your friends.”
“Okay.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and ran his hands through his now shorter hair and stretched. “That feels so much better,” he said.
“I’m glad,” Auntie Lou said.
Caiden grinned at her and left the bathroom. He walked outside to join his friends where they stood on the back deck, beneath the broad verandah, talking. The view from there was of sun-yellowed grass and brown dirt, and the sky was a bright, cloudless blue. It had rained overnight, Caiden realised, a brief summer shower that had left everything smelling fresh and clean.
“G’morning, sleepy-head,” Bluey said. He was leaning against the balustrade that bordered the deck, wearing a T-shirt and cargo shorts. His feet were bare, and he had a pair of sunglasses pushed up onto the top of his head. In his hand, he held a can of Coke.
“Hey.” Caiden ignored the sleepy-head part of the greeting. “How’re things?”
“Good,” Bluey said.
“Not too bad,” Hien said. He too wore cargo shorts, like Bluey, and a faded, black AC/DC T-shirt. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay. Still a bit sore. My side aches,” Caiden said. He moved to join Bluey in his leaning against the balustrade. “Sometimes it feels as if I’ll never be better.”
“Mate, you’re healing up loads fast,” Hien said. His lanky, whippet-like frame was folded into one of the small plastic chairs on the deck. “Though when are you coming back to work? You must be going out of your mind with boredom.”
“Fuck, I really am,” Caiden agreed. “Soon, I hope. What do you think, Coop?”
Cooper shrugged. “I honestly can’t tell you, lad. I don’t think it’ll be too much longer though. You’ll know for sure after the doctor gives you the once over.”
Caiden sighed and moved to sit in another of the plastic chairs, grunting as he tried to squash into it. “We really need better chairs,” he muttered.
“I was just saying that,” Hien said. “So how did your date go?”
“It went well, like I told you before,” Caiden said.
“And . . .?”
“And it went well,” Caiden said. “I’m not saying anything else. You guys will just tease me forever anyway, so I’m not giving you any ammunition.”
“Probably wise,” Cooper said with a grin.
“We’ll be good,” Bluey said.
“And yet, I don’t believe you,” Caiden said. “It’s cool. He’s cool. Everything is cool.”
“Have you met the Giannopouloses yet?” Cooper asked, more as a way to change the subject, Caiden thought.
“Yeah, actually.” Hien leaned forward in his seat. “Gina, she’s nice. My dad’s friends with Stavros. I haven’t met Spiro though. I didn’t even know they had a kid until you both ended up in hospital.”
“They told me that he’d been in Adelaide and Melbourne.”
“Maybe that’s it then,” Bluey said.
“I don’t know him at all either,” Cooper said.
“His fam are pretty ace,” Bluey said. “He’s probably all right.”
“What time are they coming around?” Caiden asked.
“After lunch,” Hien said.
“And what time are we kicking off the barbeque?” Caiden asked.
“Mari and Shell were saying something about mid-arvo,” Bluey said. “Something about us eating everything in sight.”
Caiden laughed. “They all seem to think we’re always hungry.”
Cooper laughed as well. “Considering how much food my missus brought, I’d wondered.”
“Yeah, and it smells amazing,” Hien said. “I smell seafood every bloody day, and most of the time it just smells like the sea. But those crabs she did, every time I go past the stove, my mouth waters.”
“Oh yeah?” Caiden quirked an eyebrow. “I should go and have a look, put an image to the smells.”
“You’ll be tempted to taste, and then Mari will slap your hands with a wooden spoon,” Hien said. “She did that to Bluey.”
Caiden burst out laughing. “I bet that surprised you!”
“Too right,” Bluey said. “She’s got a hard slap, your sister.”
“What are we having for lunch then, if the barbie isn’t starting until later?” Caiden asked.
“Your aunt said something about toasties,” Cooper said.
“Excellent. I love her toasties. Toasted cheese sandwiches with a bit of Dijon mustard, tomato and ham.” Caiden rubbed his hands together. He knew he was distracting himself from thinking about Gray too much, from worrying how Gray and his friends would get along, and most importantly, trying to stave off his own nervous excitement as much as possible. Food was a good distraction for that, in Caiden's opinion.
THEY HAD FINISHED their lunch and were sitting in a loose circle on the deck, talking about small, unimportant things, when they heard a loud call of, “Halloo! Anyone home?”
“That sounds like Stavros,” Auntie Lou said. She got to her feet and moved to the far end of the verandah. “Around the back here,” she called, leaning over the balustrade and waving.
A few minutes later, Stavros and his wife, Gina, appeared. Behind them was a shorter man that Caiden assumed was their son, Spiro. It was difficult to reconcile this person with the minotaur that Caiden had last seen, but Caiden forced himself not to stare too much. Spiro looked much like his father, but younger—it was clear that he was uncertain if he was welcome. He kept behind his parents, his head down, his black hair falling into his face. His hands were in the pockets of his loose-fit jeans, and his shoulders were hunched.
As Auntie Lou greeted Stavros and Gina, Caiden shot his sister and friends a look that was returned by all of them and spoke volumes. They all recognised that Spiro felt uneasy, possibly even shy, but they weren’t sure what to say or do to alleviate his mood or to reassure him that everything was fine and no one blamed him for what had happened to Caiden. Marianne gave Caiden a slight shrug, and he jerked his head in the direction of Spiro as Auntie Lou drew his parents onto the deck and offered them something to drink.
Caiden got to his feet, Marianne beside him, and moved to Spiro. “Hey,” Caiden said, “Spiro, right?”
Spiro looked up. “Yeah, I’m Spiro. Rhymes with zero. You’re the guy who knocked me out.”
Caiden shot a sidelong glance at Marianne. “Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. I’m Caiden. Rhymes with maiden.”
“I guess I hit you pretty hard,” Spiro said. “You were in hospital, Mum said.”
“I was, yeah.” Caiden mentally flailed. “How are you feeling since you got out?”
“Okay.” Spiro shrugged.
“Would you like something to drink?” Marianne asked. “I’m Marianne, which doesn’t rhyme with anything, and I’m Caiden’s sister. Call me Mari, everyone does.”
“You work at the fish and chip shop,” Spiro said. “I’ve seen you around.”
“Yeah, I do,” she said. “I haven’t seen you though.”
“I work out the back of Dad’s shop.”
“Ah.”
“Would you like a drink?” Caiden asked. “We’ve got beer, water, soft drink, wine . . .”
Spiro shook his head.
Caiden shot his sister another look. She returned it, looking just as much at a loss as he was feeling. Turning back to Spiro, Caiden said, “Do you know Bluey, rhymes with chewy or Hien, rhymes with bean or Shelly, rhymes with telly? Or Cooper, rhymes with super? From the hospital? Or Nora, rhymes with flora?” He couldn’t help the note of sarcasm that crept into his voice as he listed off everyone’s rhyming words.
Spiro shook his head in the negative.
“Ah . . .” Marianne tried again. “Would you like to sit down?”
“Dad said you two are mythica,” Spiro said, ignoring her question.
“Yeah, we are,” Caiden said.
“What are you?”
“Half-selkie,” Caiden said.
“Only half, huh?” Spiro’s voice was bitter. “Lucky you.”
“It’s not that much different to being fully selkie,” Marianne said. “The only real difference is that we don’t have a seal skin we need to keep separate from ourselves. Being a half-selkie means that the seal is inside us”—she tapped one hand to her chest—“it doesn't mean we turn into one every time we get wet, so we don't have a seal skin tucked away somewhere.”
“And what, being a selkie means you spend a lot of time at the beach? Yeah, that must be real hard,” Spiro said.
“When you’re away from the water, it’s fucking damn hard,” Caiden said. He was beginning to feel the first stirrings of annoyance and frustration. “Being a half or full mythica has its own problems. So you’re a minotaur. So what? You can obviously control it. You got poisoned, and that’s being investigated. What happened at Bridging Lives wasn’t your fault.”
Spiro regarded him for several long, slow moments. “You have no idea what I live with,” he said finally. “I don’t want to be in this stupid, one horse town. You have shitty TV reception, no Internet cafes, no good restaurants, no music or club scene. I want to go back to Melbourne. That’s where I belong, not here, being Spiro the Zero in Tiddy fucking Widdy and Ardrossan, the land of boring.”
“Well,” Marianne said, her voice curt, “you feel free to grab the bus interstate when it shows up on Monday.” She turned on her heel and went back to the others. Caiden could hear her talking, and while he couldn’t make out the words, he could hear the tone of her voice. She sounded upset, and offended, and he didn’t blame her. Spiro was nothing like his parents.
“I’m sure you won’t have to put up with this boring company for long,” Caiden said. “Your mum and dad are bloody lovely. Pity none of that rubbed off on you.” Then he turned and followed his sister.
Spiro drifted over to the balustrade and stood, gazing out over the flat plain of grass and dirt. As Caiden resumed his seat beside Hien, he wondered if Spiro intended to stay there until his parents decided to return home.
“What’s his deal?” Hien asked. “Mari’s really upset.”
“He hates this place and everything in it, and he thinks his mythica problems are worse than anyone else's,” Caiden said.
“Uh-huh. Mari said he wanted to go to Melbourne? I thought he’d been in Adelaide last.”
“Yeah, that’s a point. I wonder what that’s about.” Caiden looked over at his aunt and Nora who were engrossed in conversation with Gina and Stavros. “Oh hello. Now what?”
Hien turned and the two of them watched as Spiro went over to his parents and spoke to them quickly. His mother looked stricken, his father answered, and Spiro held up his hands and shook his head. Then he turned and walked off, marching away from the little group and around the corner of the verandah towards the street.
“I am so sorry,” Gina said then, wringing her hands together. “I don't know why he is like this.”
“It’s not your fault, Gina,” Auntie Lou said. “You and Stavros are very welcome.”
“Gina, we cannot make him do what he doesn’t want to,” Stavros said. “He is . . . he has become difficult.”
“He wanted to go to Melbourne,” Marianne said then. “That’s what he told Cai and me.”
Stavros sighed. “I do not know what has got into him. He went to Adelaide to study, and then he went to Melbourne to do further study. He got work there, and we only found this out this week. We did not know! He returned to Adelaide for a few days before coming home to Ardrossan.” He paused to shake his head. “His own parents, and we did not know. He gave us only a mobile number to contact him on.”
“I think he’s made his decisions,” Nora said kindly. She moved to them both and took their hands in hers. “You’re good people. You care about your son. But no matter how much we love someone, we can’t make them do what we want them to. Keep him in your thoughts, keep your door open to him, and one day, he’ll return.”
Stavros nodded, and Gina let out a little sigh. “I hope you are right,” she said.
Marianne moved to them. “You’ll stay, won’t you? For the barbie?”
Stavros smiled at her. It was, Caiden saw, a shaky smile, but it was genuine. “Are you sure?”
“Of course,” Caiden said. “Right, guys?”
There was a chorus of “Yes!” and “Too right!”
“You are all so kind,” Gina said. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry, am I interrupting?” a new voice asked.
Everyone turned, and Caiden smiled when he saw it was Gray. “Gray, hey.”
“Of course you’re not interrupting, come in and have a seat,” Auntie Lou said.
Gray did, nodding a greeting to everyone. “I saw Spiro marching down the street like a man on a mission,” he said. “Is everything all right?”
“My son is being a sulky boy, I regret to say,” Stavros said. “He has gone back to our house.”
“Ah.” Gray didn’t ask any more questions. “Well, I'm glad to see everyone here looking so well.”
“Let me introduce you,” Marianne said, taking his arm.
Caiden moved to the balustrade and leant against it, content to watch his sister perform the introductions. As he had suspected they might, his three friends were thrilled to meet a sy’lph and said so, not holding back in their enthusiasm as they shook Gray’s hand and welcomed him to the group. By the time Gray had made his way around the circle, he had a bottle of beer in his hand and was caught in conversation with Cooper. His back was to Caiden, and so Caiden allowed himself the chance to cast his gaze over Gray’s body.
Gray wore a plain T-shirt that wasn’t tucked into his jeans, and as Caiden’s gaze lingered on Gray’s denim-clad butt, he saw there was a small tear in them, at the crease of the back of Gray’s thigh and the seat of his pants. He licked his lips as his gaze locked onto that sliver of revealed flesh, and Caiden felt his mouth go dry as a sudden thought came unbidden—him, shoving Gray up against the nearest wall and dropping to his knees, his hands on Gray’s hips as he pressed his face against Gray’s ass and his mouth against that small piece of bare skin, his tongue darting out to lick, to taste.
He was instantly hard, and silently ordering his body to behave itself. Caiden took several deep breaths, trying to think of things that were not so arousing. Unfortunately for his imagination, Gray bent over a little, and the rip in his jeans tightened fractionally, exposing even more skin.
“Oh fuck,” Caiden muttered, turning to face the dusty outback. He drifted a short distance away from his friends and family and willed his body—and his thoughts—to behave. Perhaps staring at the featureless plain beyond the house would calm him down.
And then Shelly was there, a hand on his shoulder. “Breathe, Cai,” she said softly.
“I’m trying,” he muttered.
“He’s really got to you, huh,” she said. “I can understand why. He’s quite possibly the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. That smile of his could light up a whole city block. And he has a very sexy voice.”
“He’s also a really nice guy,” Caiden said.
“I’m getting that,” she replied. “Try and think unsexy thoughts.”
“I am,” he retorted. “It’s not working.”
“You want to fuck him that much?”
“Or be fucked. Yes. Fuck!”
Shelly laughed softly. “Good thing you’re not drinking today. Dutch courage might make you say or do something in company.”
“I know,” Caiden groaned. “Fuck, Shell, if just looking at him has me acting like a lust-stricken hormonal teenager, what’s it going to be like when he talks to me?”
“No idea,” she said unhelpfully. “But if you like him and want to get to know him more and have hot sex with him, you’ll have to be polite. You can’t ignore him.”
“I wasn’t going to do that,” Caiden grumbled. “Let’s just say I’m bloody glad my T-shirt is long enough to cover my groin.”
She choked. “Caiden!”
“How do you think I feel?” he asked her.
“Ignore it,” she said after a moment. “I don’t think you can do much else. Not until you’re alone anyway.”
“Yeah.” He leaned into her. “You know, I’m a bit rattled anyway. Spiro shocked me.”
“Me too.” Shelly shook her head. “I’ve never seen a mythica like him before. He seems to really resent being what he is.”
Caiden hummed. “That’s exactly it. I couldn’t figure it out, but you’re spot on.”
“And he pissed off Mari. That’s not exactly easy to do, she gets along with everyone,” Shelly said.
“Yeah. I’m glad he left,” Caiden said.
“Me too. His parents are total sweethearts,” she said.
“I like them,” Caiden grinned.
“I wonder if he’ll be heading back to Melbourne when the bus shows up,” Shelly mused.
“I kind of hope so. I feel for his parents, but he must be a real pain in the ass to live with.”
“Who are you talking about?” Gray asked, joining them. Caiden started a little—he hadn’t heard Gray walk up.
“Spiro,” he said.
“Ah yes. Marianne and Cooper told me what happened.” Gray’s expression was one of confusion. “Why would he behave in such a way?”
“Because he’s a dingbat,” Shelly said.
“He’s a what bat?” Gray asked.
Caiden began to laugh. To his relief, his erection had subsided. “Dingbat. It means idiot.”
“I see. So there isn’t an animal called a dingbat?”
Shelly was laughing as well. “No, no. It’s slang.”
“Your slang,” Gray said, smiling, “it’s so colourful.”
“You’ll have it down soon,” Shelly said. “She’ll be apples.”
“I wondered if there would be apples again,” Gray said. “Caiden says this a lot too.”
“It’s a good one,” Caiden said.
“It is,” Gray agreed. “Now, I do not mean to be rude, but could we talk in private for a moment, Caiden?”
“Okay.” Caiden nodded, wondering what was on Gray’s mind. “Come on inside the house.”
“Thank you.”
Shelly winked at him. “I’ll keep the others out here.”
“Thanks,” Caiden said.
“Don’t mention it.”