Facade

young man pushed back and reached behind himself to pull Jonas closer.
    “Now stop wasting time and fuck me. Hard and fast.” 8
    Zahra
    Owens
    Clearly a man used to dishing out orders, Jonas thought.
    “You’ll need some time to adjust,” Jonas suggested.
    “That’s for pansies. Now fuck me like a man. Or are you a pansy too?”
    Jonas pulled back and plunged in again.
    “Fuck yeah, that’s it,” Nicky grunted.
    Jonas knew it must have hurt and hoped Nicky wouldn’t bleed as he continued the onslaught, urged on by the young man. He could tell Nicky was trying to hide the pain clearly visible in the way he held his body and hoped that he simply got off on it and that it wouldn’t last very long. The knuckles of Nicky’s hands were white as he held on to the bedding, and then Jonas saw him push one hand underneath himself.
    “Don’t stop now! Harder! Please!”
    That last word was drawn out and Jonas felt Nicky slightly pull away from him, so he stopped thrusting. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought Nicky had come, although there were very few indications. Nicky had stopped urging him on, and when Jonas let his hand caress Nicky’s back, Nicky pulled away again, this time pushing himself to his feet and pulling up his jogging pants. Jonas let himself drop to the floor. He leaned against the side of the bed as he watched Nicky walk a bit unsteadily toward what appeared to be a bathroom.
    Jonas rolled off the condom and didn’t bother tying it in a knot since he hadn’t come. He simply discarded it in a small basket that was next to the bed and got up to pull his boxer shorts on again. He wasn’t sure if he should wait here and give Nicky some privacy, or if he should just knock on the door and ask if he could freshen up a bit before returning to his hotel, but his train of thought was halted when he heard a thump and then a loud curse. Before he could stop himself, he had pushed the door open and walked inside the bathroom.
    Nicky was sitting on the closed toilet lid smoking a cigarette.
    His long hair looked messy and he was shivering. The only light Façade
    9
    inside the bathroom was what reflected off the mirror from the other room.
    “You okay?” Jonas asked as he turned around to wash his hands. Just as he noticed the broken glass in the basin, he saw Nicky wipe the hair out of his eyes, leaving a dark smear across his face.
    “What the….” Jonas patted the wall for the light switch and flicked it on, illuminating the room with light that was way too bright.
    There was blood on Nicky’s face, arms, and chest. Jonas tried to stay calm. “What did you do?”
    Nicky shrugged and looked at Jonas with narrowed eyes as Jonas took hold of his wrists and examined them.
    “Watch it,” Nicky said, looking annoyed as he pulled loose the hand that held the cigarette. He took another drag and blew the smoke away from both of them.
    “Did you cut yourself?” Jonas asked. He grabbed a wash cloth and wetted it. “Boy, you really like to hurt, don’t you?” he asked, more to himself than to Nicky.
    “It was an accident, okay!” Nicky shouted like a child caught doing something he shouldn’t have done. “I forgot about the broken glass and it was dark and….”
    Jonas started wiping away the smeared blood and couldn’t find any large cuts, not even on Nicky’s wrists where he thought he’d find the wounds. Instead, there was a relatively small cut on Nicky’s palm, still bleeding quite heavily. Jonas took a dry wash cloth and rolled it up. “Here, squeeze that. It’ll put pressure on the wound.” Nicky complied, but he was shivering more violently now, and Jonas saw tears running down his cheeks. He hesitated for a moment and then pulled the young man up and into his arms. “Let’s get you to bed, warm you up a bit, hey?”
    “No, no bed.” Nicky resisted, shaking his head and wiping his cheek with his uninjured hand.
    Jonas took the cigarette stub from him and threw it in the sink, and then he pulled Nicky into the bedroom again.

    10
    Zahra
    Owens
    “No, don’t want to lie down, can’t sleep anyway,” Nicky protested, tensing up in Jonas’s arms. “The cupboard. There’s a duvet in there.”
    Jonas let him sit down on the larger couch and opened the doors of the cupboard.
    “You can use the bathrobe if you want,” Nicky said in a soft voice. “If you’re cold too, I mean.”
    Jonas took Nicky up on the proposal and donned the soft robe that was hanging on a hook