He’d been doing that more and more recently, and Chase didn’t understand why.
“What? Why are you being weird again?”
“I’m not being weird.”
“Yes, you are. You’ve been nice, but these past few days, you’re not even looking me in the eyes. I don’t like it. I thought we were friends.”
Mason still didn’t look at him even after he’d called him out for it.
“What’d I do? If I did something, you just need to tell me, because I don’t like it when you get like this. Is it the problems in the book? Because I’m doing the best I can to explain them. I can explain them differently if you want.”
Before Chase could say anything else, Mason moved at him quickly. It reminded him of that day in the schoolyard, only that time, Mason’s lips pressed against his.
A powerful sensation moved through him, frightening him, and he pushed Mason away, mostly from shock.
Mason gazed at him, his eyes wide. Like he was the one who was shocked.
But Chase just sat there in silence.
For someone who he thought was upset with him, he sure hadn’t seemed to be when he did that.
As Chase tried to think of what he was supposed to do, Mason hopped up from his chair and ran out of his room.
Why did he leave?
* * *
Mason couldn’t believe what he’d done, and when Chase pushed him away, he was devastated.
He didn’t even know why he’d done it. He liked the time he spent with Chase. A lot. He’d never met another guy he’d enjoyed spending time with as much as he did with Chase.
And it was more than just spending time with him. Every day that Chase had to go home, he was sad because he wanted a little more time to play. Even if they were working in the stable together, that was better than not getting to spend any time with him at all, and the more time they spent together, the harder Mason found it to keep his interest to himself.
He’d never really understood why some of his friends were so interested in having girlfriends before. He just didn’t think much about it, and really, only one guy in his class even had one. But all he could think about in his free time was Chase, it was easy for him to understand, and he knew that he felt that way about Chase. However, it was clear by how Chase reacted that he didn’t feel the same about him in return.
Mason felt stupid for acting on his feelings. It’d become more than he could handle as he sat beside Chase, working on his homework. When Chase had moved closer, he’d felt something different, something that he didn’t feel around his other friends.
He ran into the stable and hid in Dana’s stall.
What was Chase going to say to Ma and Pa? What would they do to him if they knew how he felt?
Ma’s brother was gay, and she never said anything mean about him, but he knew how others felt about it. If Chase thought like that, who knew what he’d do? Would Chase tell his friends? Would they ever talk to him again? Some of them would call himgayor tell other kids he was ahomo.
As he dreaded the thought of Chase tattling on him, the stall door rattled and opened.
Chase walked in, looking to the ground so that Mason couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
Mason tried to think of an excuse for what he did. He could just tell Chase it was an accident. Of course, nothing he could come up with could make it sound like an accident.
Chase approached him. “You kissed me.”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
