The Maple Effect by Cull Madeleine

Author:Cull, Madeleine [Cull, Madeleine]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2019-07-18T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

June floated just under a wave of consciousness; dreaming about walking the narrow path down the street to an old rental cabin with a clawfoot bathtub and spider problem. There had been one summer when June’s extended family had joined them here, occupying the tiny thing, and June vividly remembered what it felt like to climb the rickety porch steps. The stench of musk when you opened the door. The ladder up to the loft and the…overall spooky ruggedness of the place.

In his dream, he sat beside the wooden coffee table in the minuscule living room. By himself. Waiting for someone to get him. He didn't know who he waited for, but he was afraid of being there alone—a very odd feeling for June. The darkness beyond the windowpanes wriggled and shifted with life. Tree branches scratched the exterior of the cabin, threatening to curl their dying limbs around the doorknob and invite themselves in.

June felt like he was suffocating. Like the oxygen was burning up around him. He was hot. He couldn’t swallow.

Something gripped his shoulder, and he jolted out of the nightmare with dizzying speed. He lashed out with an elbow and collided with the solid person next to him.

“Hey!” Aaron huffed.

June blinked, fighting the blaring ceiling light. He groaned, yanked the cover over his face even though it was too warm. “Go away.” His heart still thumped along in his chest.

“June, we gotta get on the road,” Aaron insisted, although he sounded sleepy himself. “Get up.”

June burrowed deeper into the comforter, curled into a tight ball and refused to acknowledge the world. There was no way he’d been asleep longer than a few hours. What the hell was Aaron doing to him at this hour? What kind of date started before the sunrise?

“June, come on!” The weight beside him shifted and vanished. “Don’t you wanna know where we’re going?”

YES.

“No,” he growled. “I’m canceling on you. No date.”

Aaron shoved his arms under the covers at June’s feet, latched onto his ankles, and yanked him hard. June scrambled, trying to grip the headboard for leverage and failing. He cussed, flopped to his other side like a fish and then laid there, a stubborn dead weight until he was released.

“Get up!” Aaron demanded now. Voice tight.

“FINE!” June flung the blanket off him and sat up rubbing his eyes. He felt sweaty and gross. He needed a shower. Hunger prodded at his stomach.

“But don’t talk to me until after I eat breakfast.”

“We don’t have time for breakfast.” Aaron shook his head, stomped over to the dresser across from the bed and pulled open the top drawer. He riffled through June’s newly purchased boxer-briefs, pulled something blue and plaid out, and chucked it behind him.

June stared in astonishment. Not because of how pushy Aaron was being, no, but because he finally opened his eyes far enough to realize how different Aaron looked. He was freshly showered, hair neat for once, and fully dressed in something June had never seen before.

He

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