at me.”
It sounded so pathetic, but it was true. Or it seemed that way, at least.
Mark laughed, but the sound was filled with anger, with the hatred that Mark radiated whenever Gavin was around.
“You don't have any idea why, do you?” he asked, and Gavin shook his head. No, he didn't, not really, but he would like to. “You sing my own songs better than me. You're younger than me, you're hotter than me, but worst of all, you do it all with these huge innocent eyes. Like you don't even know what you're doing. You won't even own the fact that you're obviously trying to replace me.”
“You think I want to replace you?” Gavin stared at Mark, utterly shocked. That was an utterly ridiculous concept to him, that someone like him could even hope to replace Mark. “That's insane. Why would I want to replace the lead singer of my favorite band of all time? That just doesn't make sense.”
Mark turned to look at him, and Gavin shivered. Mark believed it. He believed every insane thing he was saying.
“Maybe you're not doing it on purpose. I don't know. But you are doing it, and you're acting like you're not.”
“Because I'm not !” Mark arched a skeptical eyebrow, and Gavin groaned softly. What a mess this all was. “Would you like me to go back to my shit job, Mark? Just so that you don't have to deal with your ridiculous, immature jealousy?”
It took a lot for Gavin to get angry, but this frustrating encounter had done it.
“Look, I don't really wish bad things on you or anything. You're damn good, you deserve everything you've gotten,” Mark said.
That was an obvious attempt to placate him, but for Gavin, it just made him more angry.
“Oh, wonderful. You don't actively wish bad things for me. I'm glad that you don't have a voodoo doll of me or something. I mean, that's definitely the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.” The anger was better than the confusion, and Gavin embraced it. “Mark, get out of my room. I need to sleep. And while you're at it, get over yourself and stop being such a jealous idiot.”
Suddenly, Mark reached for him, grabbing Gavin's shoulders. He pulled him close, and Gavin gasped. Mark was so damn huge, so strong, and he so easily pulled Gavin around to wherever he wanted him.
“Yeah, I am a jealous idiot. Except that this is my life, and I earned it just as much as you earned yours. Only you're doing it better. Yeah, I'm a little bitter, whether you deserve it or not.”
Gavin looked into those stormy gray eyes, and sighed softly.
“I deserve to not have you be an asshole to me because you're hitting your midlife crisis, or whatever's going on with you. I deserve not to be treated like shit because your ego requires constant stroking.”
Something got dark in Mark's eyes then. Dark and terrifying, promising that Gavin would suffer for what he'd said. In a flash, Mark had jumped to his feet and had grabbed the back of Gavin's head, forcing him to bend over his own bed. Just one more humiliation among many from this man.
He couldn't have expected what happened next, though. He'd had some sort of dim thought, panicky but also strangely hopeful, that Mark might take down his underwear and fuck him right then and there.
“Mark, what are you doing?” Gavin asked, hating the sound of his own voice. Being manhandled like this was frightening, but it was also strangely arousing, because it was Mark doing it to him.
“You deserve this, and you deserve that,” Mark ranted. “You deserve everything, you fucking little brat.” Still holding him down with one hand on the back of his neck, Mark's other hand settled on Gavin's tight little ass, then slammed down onto it, hard.
Mark smacked his ass again, and then once more, his strong hand rising and falling, each slap echoing through the room.
“Stupid little slut.” Spank. “Playing shirtless on my stage.” Spank. “Turning
Learning to Kill: Stories