Mac put away his phone.
The sun zipped behind the mountains as if it were playing hide-and-seek. Lampposts became less frequent, and darkness took over the roads. He stayed on the side of the road and shielded his eyes from the powerful car lights.
He jogged with a smile on his face. He never thought a week like this would ever happen again. He’d had that same thought about geology class, though that was where comparisons ended.
A pickup truck’s lights nearly blinded Mac, but they didn’t pass. They pulled over to the side of the road.
A familiar face smiled through the windshield. Justin Weeks. Mac’s stomach pulled into a tight knot.
Justin was on the shorter side. He looked scrawny, but he was all muscle. Mac spun around and walked toward home, toward the lampposts.
“Mac Daly,” he said.
Mac’s heart leapt around like crazy in his chest. He slowly faced Justin.
“Holy shit. It’s Mac Daly. I was driving, and I says to myself, I says that can’t be Mac, can it?”
His laugh made Mac taste the blood in his mouth all over again.
“I haven’t seen you in years.” He slammed his car door. The sound echoed in Mac’s chest. “What are you doing back?”
“Seeing family.” Mac could barely hear himself. He wanted to run. Adrenaline surged through his veins, telling him to get the hell out of there.
“Your parents seemed like nice people. It’s a shame they got a faggot for a son.” Beer coated Justin’s breath. Some life he led. “I thought we got rid of you.”
“You and your dad are liars.”
“We’re doing God’s work, Mac. You can’t just go around living this homo lifestyle. Not here.”
Mac got a good look at his face, a face he’d remember forever. He punched Justin, connecting a right hook with his nose. “God’s work, Justin.”
Justin stumbled back. Mac savored his victory for a second, then he bolted as fast as he could. His body was possessed by a strength more powerful than adrenaline: fear. He didn’t look behind him. He didn’t waste one precious second.
He couldn’t focus on hewing to the side of the road, not when all that mattered was getting home. He couldn’t see in front of him, only the lights in the distance. His pulse pounded in his ears. All he could hear was himself gasping for breath.
Don’t look behind you. Don’t look behind you.
But he did. The sound of the engine was too close to ignore.
The truck’s lights overpowered him. The heat of the car kicked up against his legs. Mac’s chest heaved with breaths that couldn’t come fast enough. He heard Justin’s laugh.
“Aaah!” Mac screamed out as something smacked into his back.Was that a baseball bat?He stumbled away from the car, and in the darkness didn’t see the railing. He lost all sense of gravity and what was up and what was down as he fell.
He tumbled over rocks and into the forest. His body smacked against thick tree trunks and pointy bramble. He wailed in pain to the night sky and blinking stars and the quiet trees. None of them cared to listen.
The last thing he thought of before he blacked out was the comfort of Gideon’s bed.
CHAPTER thirty
Gideon
Winter vacation was spent catching up with Noah, updating friends on his sexual preference, and vegging on the couch watching TV. All of his friends showered him with supportive statements and bro hugs. If he’d known coming out was going to be this easy, he would have done it sooner. He was lucky, and he knew it. He knew it could be so much worse, like getting-the-crap-kicked-out-of-you worse. The only awkward moments came from his mom, though he supposed that was to be expected.
She knocked on Gideon’s door whenever she wanted to talk with him, even when his door was wide open. She would tap gently, and her eyes would squint, as if she might catch her son watching gay porn.
“I’m fine, Mom,” Gideon assured her. He saved that for after she went to bed, naturally.
He never brought up anything about Mac or being gay around her. They would go about their business and talk about celebrity gossip or random people from temple, and then all of a sudden, his mom would burst out with a sentence like “How did you meet Mac?” or “Does this have anything to do with your father passing away when you were young? Should I have tried to remarry?”
