They spent more time teasing and touching each other than getting clean, but it was worth it. Dom explored Trey’s body with his eyes and his hands, rubbing the hard planes of his pecs, and tracing the dips and valleys of his abs. Trey gave as good as he got, too, spending quite a lot of time groping Dom’s ass, and that didn’t bother Dom like he expected it to.
He trusted Trey.
Dom paid attention while they were drying off, enjoying the view every time Trey bent over to wipe first one leg, then the other. He considered dropping a nice smack onto one of those pale cheeks, until Trey straightened and turned. Small, pale lines on his inner thigh stood out in the fluorescent light—scars.
His stomach soured. His big sister Taisha had scars like that on her left thigh from a bout of depression in middle school, the same year that the Boundses adopted her. Their parents had discovered the cutting after finding bloody shorts in the hamper and gotten her help. As she got older, she always wore a long cover up at the beach, but sometimes Dom spotted the scars.
Scars just like Trey’s.
Dom got dressed and followed Trey into the main room. To the back of the camper, where a huge mattress lay covered in a tangle of blankets.
“Don’t get any big ideas,” Trey said as he climbed up. “We’ve only got about forty minutes left.”
“I don’t need that long.” Dom soaked in Trey’s lusty look. “But I didn’t bring anything.”
“That’s okay, Dani promised to dump ice water in my shorts if we had sex in this bed.”
“I take it Danielle sleeps here?”
“Yeah, we share. Bobby and Andy are in the bunks.”
Dom stretched out on his back, head on a pillow. Trey curled up next to him, half draped over Dom’s slightly taller body, headon Dom’s shoulder. The embrace felt good. Really good. Trey traced his fingers over Dom’s tattoo.
“Can I ask you something personal?” Dom asked.
“Sure.”
“Why do you have those scars on your thigh?”
Trey tensed but didn’t pull away. “Put them there with a razor blade in tenth grade.”
Dom’s stomach churned. “From the bullying?”
He nodded against Dom’s shoulder. “I started not long after my father destroyed a song I really liked and thought had potential. Not even sure why but I pried apart one of his disposable razors and took one of the blades out. It was really thin and bendy, and the cuts burned in a way that made me feel . . . I’m not sure. ‘Alive’ isn’t right.”
“They helped you feelsomething.”
“Yeah. I did it more often after my music was found in my locker, and after a while it got harder to hide them during gym. This kid named Charlie, who was trying to get with Allison, told her about them and she confronted me. It was when we came up with the plan for me to write and keep music at her house.”
Trey’s fingers twitched. “Sometimes when I get super stressed I think about it again. Cutting. But it’s the wrong way to feel something.”
“I like this way better.”
“Me too. A lot.”
They existed in an easy silence for a while, Dom’s question asked and answered. It made him respect Allison even more, for standing by Trey’s side when he didn’t have anyone else, and it saddened him that he’d never be able to thank her.
“The waiting is the hardest part,” Trey said. “Two more days until we know.”
“Cosign.” Dom combed his fingers through Trey’s damp hair. Trey pressed into the touch like a cat being petted. “I hope we can steal more time together. I like being around you.”
“Me too. So you got the cutting story. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.”
“Like what?” Dom hated being put on the spot. He did better with direct questions.
“Um, favorite vacation spot as a kid. You said you went all over.”
Dom hummed as he considered the question. “Probably the first summer vacation after my parents adopted Starr and it was five kids and two adults. We used my dad’s brother’s time-share in North Carolina, way down in the mountains. Stayed in this awesome condo, and we had access to mini golf, this amazing lake where you could swim or fish, hiking trails, even coupons for a white-water rafting trip. It was amazing spending all of that time outdoors with my family.”
