Little Stalker by Erica Pike Page A

guy? Grayson...
    We didn’t end up doing anything last night. Grayson wolfed down a bunch of burgers
    and fries, amazing me with how much he could stuff into that small body. Then we went
    home, and he played with Percy while I rummaged around in the bathroom to find an extra
    toothbrush. I couldn’t find any, so I made him promise to stay while I ran out to get some. By
    the time I returned, he was asleep on the couch. I carried him to bed, chased Percy around the
    apartment to put him back in his cage and then wrapped myself around Grayson to sleep.
    I grab his wrist when he’s about to swing his feet to the floor. He looks down at me,
    thinning his lips.
    “You really are a jerk, you know that?” he says.
    “I’m sorry,” I say with a small laugh. “I thought you were a girl.”
    He rolls his eyes. “Gee, thanks, just what every guys wants to hear.”
    “I’m sorry. Don’t leave,” I say with a smile and curl my body around his feet and
    waist, resting my cheek on his warm chest. I didn’t remove his pants last night, but I did pull
    off his t-shirt. “Don’t leave.”
    As I stroke his body, I take in the full feel of it – the hair growing back on his shaved
    chest feeling rough under my fingertips, the protruding hip bone at the end of his straight
    torso, the trail of hair running from his belly button into his jeans...
    I gaze down at the good morning bulge in his pants.
    Definitely not a girl. I tighten my hold on Grayson – Grayson who feels right . I’m
    gay, but I don’t care anymore as long as I get to keep him.
    When I look up he has that wide-eyed look on his face, gazing down at me, his hair
    sticking out at odd angles. I lift myself up and kiss him gently, pulling him back down to lie
    next to me. We cuddle for a bit, both quiet, but his breathing indicates that he’s still awake.
    “So you really are gay?” he asks into my neck, his nimble fingers absent-mindedly
    running in circles on my back.

    “Yeah,” I answer.
    More silence. I stroke his back and rub his shoulder a bit whenever my palm goes
    there.
    “Um, you got to see a very bad side of me last night,” says Grayson
    “It’s okay, I also like that feisty side of you,” I say in chuckles, pulling him closer and
    kissing the top of his tousled head.
    “I’m not really a rent-boy. I mean, I did it a couple of times before I started college
    and back in high school, but last night was the first time since then. It’s just that my dad left, and I got hungry...”
    I squeeze him tightly until he wraps his arm around me and hugs me back.
    “I’m sorry,” I whisper to him, reaching down to kiss his bruised temple. “Please stay
    with me?”
    He loosens his hold on me and pulls back. “I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I don’t want you to think I like you because of your money.”
    “I don’t think you like me because of that,” I say with a chuckle.
    “I don’t,” I repeat when he just looks at me. “But I want to stay. You’ll have a place
    to sleep, food to eat, and any clothes you want... Speaking of, how did you get money for
    clothes? You have a very impressive wardrobe.”
    He looks away with a blush. “I, um, borrowed them.”
    “You stole?” I exclaim, lifting myself up a little, staring down at the slumped figure in
    my arms. “Jeez, Grayson, you keep surprising me.”
    “Yeah, but I plan to pay them back,” he says, looking up at me with an honest look on
    his face. “Just when I have a job. I’ll send them money and the tags. I still have those – every
    single one.”
    His face doesn’t relax until I start laughing.
    “But come on, stay with me.”
    “What do I have to do in return?” he asks.
    “Just be my boyfriend,” I say, heart pumping at the sound of that word and idea that
    follows it.
    He eyes me with a cute blush. Funny how he can switch from shy to feisty almost like
    Jekyll and Hyde. I don’t know which side I like better.
    “I’ll be, like, a kept boy?” he