Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
He was so uncomfortable, on edge, as though fearful I was about to spoil everything in a moment.
“Forget I said it,” he added.
“No.”
He turned to me, wide-eyed. I could see the terror in his expression. I hadn’t realized until that moment just how scared he was. How scared I was.
“After the school year ends, just through the summer, and then we do whatever the hell we please.”
“James, you’re out of your mind. They’ll talk.”
“I don’t give a shit about talk. They can talk all they want, but they won’t know. You’re nineteen in August, and once you’re not my student anymore, no one can touch us. Unless…that’s not what you want.”
He set his sandwich down behind him and slid toward me, his gaze piercing mine, his jaw tense. “I’ve been the talk of this town for plenty of years. About time I give them something worth talking about.”
He kissed me, without shame or inhibitions, like he might have kissed me in my bedroom, something neither of us usually allowed outside. But we shared the unguarded moment. Reveled in it.
A sound caught our attention, startling us, and we turned together, only to notice a rabbit a few yards away, near a shrub that shook, I assumed from when the rabbit had moved past it.
We laughed together, our faces red, our expressions knowing. It reminded us of the cruel reality we lived in.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s the rabbit’s fault.” He smiled. “And it was perfect. Six months more, and this town will know what trouble really looks like. I don’t give a shit about any of it as long as I have you.”
“Okay, maybe more Heathcliff and Cathy than I was thinking,” I joked.
“Damn right. Kiss me, Cathy.”
I obeyed.
Again, I expected it to be quick, but he didn’t let me go easily, and as we continued, I allowed myself to relax into it. To cherish the experience the way we both deserved to be able to. The way one day we would, without fear of consequences greater than chatter around Wyachet.
38
Kyle
James and I made the best of the time we shared, and as fate carried us to the end of the school year, with each passing day, I knew we had so much more to look forward to.
I stood at the floor-length mirror, assessing my rented tux.
Excited as I was about spending prom with my friends, it would be impossible for me to deny wishing it were James I got to go on a date with. I was learning that life didn’t necessarily make things easy, but I didn’t need easy—I could have endured everything I had and more, so long as I could have him.
A knock at the door caught my attention.
“Come on in, Uncey Tex.”
The doorknob rattled before he stepped in. “Hot damn,” he said as he approached. “Looking as good as ever.” He flashed those familiar whites as he settled beside me.
“Thank you.”
His forehead wrinkled. “Just an adjustment needed here.” He seized my tie and removed it, making me laugh. “Here I thought I was preparing you for the world, but I can’t even get you to tie your tie properly.”
“I thought I did good.”
“It was all right, but you can do better.”
I shook my head at his slight as he made the knot on himself before handing it off to me and pulling it tight at my collar. He inspected his work in the reflection. “Now there’s a handsome man. Oh, look. You’re in there too.” He winked, and I laughed again.
“Handsomeness courtesy of Men’s Warehouse and those Harris looks,” I joked.
“Nah. I meant whatever has you smiling big as ever. It’s made the spring that much more worth it.”
Even though I knew he was right, I protested, “I’ve always smiled.”
“Not the smile you have now. I know you too well for that, Kyle. I’ve even seen the smiles with the hurt and pain behind them, but this is different. This is… He’s something magical, isn’t he?”
“I’m bi, doesn’t have to be a he.”
“No, it doesn’t. But I am psychic, so I know these things.”
I shook my head. “You don’t know shit.”
“Might be a giveaway that the cologne you wear home after you sneak off isn’t something I’d take a lady to wear, but I could be wrong.”
“Fuckin’ A.”
He laughed so hard before adding, “Busted.”
“You clever fuck.”
“Come on. For a second you thought we had some mystical mind-meld from all this time we’ve spent together. You can hide a lot of things, but it’s those little details that give a man away. But even without the cologne, I knew there was someone special—disappearing all these weekends, smiling brighter than I ever thought you were even capable of. God, what it gives me to see you like that again.”
“Again?”
“That’s the little kid I remember. When you were carefree and saw all the beauty in the world. Only a monster could have wanted to take that smile away from you, but perhaps that’s how it’s easy for me to know it’s a monster, because all you wanted were the simple things in this world. Didn’t need much to have everything. And we still don’t, do we?”