Breaking Jaden by J. Shiloh Leonard

Author:J. Shiloh Leonard [Leonard, J. Shiloh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JSL Publishing
Published: 2016-05-06T16:00:00+00:00

A Different Tune

Monday, May 9, 2016

Precisely at 7 p.m., Jaden arrived for his scheduled shift at The Terrace. He already knew that Erik and Konner worked that evening, as well, and he understood that he’d be paraded around as a vanquished nemesis. He psyched himself. A generous shot of Sharon’s tequila helped him prepare.

He opted for a bit more verve that night, trading his dark jeans for the light ones, and wearing his body-hugging crimson uniform top. He had pulled his hair up, coiling it into a topknot held into place with a short lacquered stick in a similar shade of red as his uniform.

As soon as he walked into the door, he knew he had been played; nearly every 18-year-old gay male he had graduated with just happened to be in the bar that night, as well as a handful of older guys who had been in the class above him.

Konner greeted him at the door. “Ready to begin your shift?” he asked, in a cloying voice. Jaden noticed that most of the barbacks were pretending to work near the door; several of them poorly hid their eavesdropping.

Jaden merely smiled. “Yup. It’s going to be a good night. How have things been so far today?” His nothing-is-unusual response generated a hint of an eyebrow raise from his coworker.

“You know. Same old shit. For some of us, it’s like we’ve seen this day play over and over and over again, like an auto-play video you can’t stop watching.”

One of the barbacks failed to hide a giggle at the joke.

“Maybe you should get out more, Konner,” he said, patting him on the shoulder. “Maybe find a real boy instead of jerking off to the ones on your computer screen.” He headed toward the bar, encouraged at the snickers his insult stirred up.

He signed himself in on one of the cash registers then picked up a towel and a tray. He flashed Erik a smile then started his job. Erik, for his part, didn’t make a big deal out of things, either.

As Jaden cleaned tables, he made a point of visiting all his high-school acquaintances. He joked with them and offered them a warm welcome to the bar. As the evening wore on, little by little people trickled out. Jaden kept up the happy and excited demeanor, Erik remained impassive and Konner looked increasingly irritated by the whole ordeal. No one–not Erik, not Konner, not any of the folks Konner brought into the bar–brought up the subject of sex or of Jaden’s tattoo, despite that some people failed at trying to hide their attempts to glimpse it as Jaden worked the floor.

By the time the bar closed at 2 a.m., only Erik, two bouncers and a half-dozen barbacks remained. As Jaden made one of his last passes, he overheard Konner lash out in angry whispers at Erik.

“What the fuck?” Konner hissed. “I had a shit-ton of people here who wanted to see that bitch humiliated and you just play it cool?”

“I know,” Erik said.

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