I pointed right and he moved off quickly, not waiting for or wanting myhelp.
I sighed as I watched him walk away, and tightened the straps of Ev’s backpack on my back as I followedhim.
He could hardly get lost now. Within a minute, the hiss of rushing water filled the air, growing louder and louder with every step. The air was thick here, humid and chilly, thanks to the thick tree canopy and the kicked-up spray from the falls. In winter, the tree branches in this area got coated with ice and the whole damn place sparkled in the sunlight like something from a fairy tale. Today it wasn’t nearly that pretty but the sun was shining brilliantly, and I had anidea.
“Hold up,” I yelled. “Everett! Hold up!” When I grabbed his arm and turned him, his face was setmulishly.
“What?”
“This way,” I said, pointing off to the side just slightly, where there was no broken trail through theunderbrush.
Ev hesitated. “Why aren’t we staying on atrail?”
“Because this is a secret spot,” I told him seriously. “And you have to pinkie swear never to reveal it to anyone.”Especially Daniel Michaelson, I thought but didn’tsay.
His eyes narrowed. “Is this a trick? Come check out my van by the river, I have candy? And meanwhile, I get stuck in a giant vat ofmud?”
I barked out a laugh. “Geez, you’re suspicious. Not a trick. NotDeliverance. Just a… a cool thing,” I saidlamely.
His eyebrows lifted just a tiny bit. “A cool, secretthing.”
I inclined my head. “A place where Matt and I used to go when he was a kid. Our secretspot.”
He bit his lip and his eyes went soft. “Fine. Leadon.”
I reached for his hand and he let me take it, let me guide him over the slippery ferns and fallen leaves that formed the forest floor. The rush of water became overwhelming as we got closer to the source. And then suddenly, the trees around us were just… gone, and we were standing on rocky outcropping forty feet above the river, just a few feet away from the most dramatic part of thefalls.
“Holy shit,” Ev breathed, as he came up beside me. “Thisis…”
“Cool?”
He laughed, his green eyes shining up at me. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Definitely cool. This is agreatsecretspot.”
The sunlight refracted off the millions of tiny water droplets that hovered in the air and clung to Ev’s hair and eyelashes, making them shimmer like diamonds. Everything around us seemed impossibly clean and new. Ev’s fingers twitched inmine.
We stared at the water for long minutes. I found it soothing, hypnotic almost, the white noise and utter power of the falls making my brain fall quiet. But I wished I knew what Ev saw. I wished I could see it the way hedid.
“I don’t even know how I would paint this,” he whispered, like he could hear my thoughts. His voice was hushed, broken. “But I kinda want to try.” He looked up at me, like he’d shocked himself. “I do want totry.”
I nodded. “That’s good. Someday, if you want, wecan…”
“No, Si. You don’t get it.” He pulled me away from the edge of the world, back into the safety of the trees, and grinned up at me. His smile was a feral thing, wild as this place, and nothing I’d ever seen or imagined on Everett Maior before. “I haven’t felt this way since… God, long before Adrian died. And when I saw this, my fingers itched for a brush and… I don't know. It's not painful at all. It's fuckingamazing.”
“Oh.” I grinned back at him. I couldn’t have resisted that smile even if I wanted to. “That’s great, Ev.That’s…”
Ev kissed me with the force of a heavyweight boxer, a sucker punch that literally sent me reeling into a giant oaktree.
“Wait,” I said, lifting a hand to my bruised lip and another to his shoulder. “Ev,what…”
But Ev didn’t seem to want to talk… or think, or breathe, or any of those mundane things. He lifted both hands to my cheeks, stood on his tiptoes, and dragged my face down to his. “Just kiss me, Silas,” he breathed. His eyes were alive with excitement and more than a littlepleading.
I wasn’t sure what alternate universe I’d entered, that Ev was begging me to do the thing I’d been trying tostopmyself from doing since the minute I’d met him, but I didn’t hesitate. I wrapped a hand through the back of his damp curls and hauled him more firmly againstme.
