“How about you mind your own fucking business?”
The man’s good-natured smile fled. “S-Sorry,” he rasped, stumbling back a step. He turned and hurried away like his ass was on fire.
Blood roared in my ears. Heat seared me from the inside out. My skin felt too tight over my bones, which ached like I was about ninety instead of twenty-three. Knifing pain shot up my shins and down my arms—worse than anything I’d experienced playing football.
A bell jangled, and a woman stepped out of a bookstore with a bag over her arm and a coffee in her hand. As she fumbled with the door, I moved closer to the building.
And got a look at my reflection in the window.
The roaring in my ears grew louder. A sense of surreality descended over me as I gaped at my glowing eyes.It’s a trick of the light.
But it wasn’t. My irises were usually a bland, ordinary blue. Now they glittered like someone had flicked on a light bulb inside my skull. A loud gasp made me jerk my head to the side. I locked gazes with the woman, who stared at me with the same expression the old man had worn.
I didn’t think. Just turned and ran. Storefronts and alleyways whipped past. A few pedestrians leapt out of my path, but I didn’t stop. I ran, my shoes thudding against the sidewalk untilit turned to grass. My lungs burned but I kept going. The light behind me faded, and the sound of my labored breaths replaced the traffic noises.
When my legs threatened to give out, I stumbled to a stop in a clearing surrounded by trees. I doubled over and let my backpack hit the ground. Hands braced on my knees, I gulped cold air. The snow fell in earnest now, thick flakes blanketing the grass and clinging to my white oxford. I blinked moisture from my eyes, which burned like I hadn’t slept in a week. What the fuck was happening to me?
I straightened. As I looked around, a fresh wave of panic rolled through me. A jogging trail stretched into the distance, the fine gravel winding through the forest before disappearing around a stand of shrubs. Hale Valley Christian College’s private forest. I’d avoided the place since August.
Well, tried to. No matter how much I attempted to stay away, it was like something drew me back. Over the last ten weeks or so, I’d ended up at the head of the main jogging trail more times than I cared to admit.
A small park bench stood next to a clump of greenery. It was a pleasant place to sit during the day. But now, at dusk, an aura of menace hovered around it. Or maybe I was just remembering waking next to it flat on my back with four hours missing from my life. My heart thumped faster as I peered through the trees.
The wind picked up, making the trees shiver. Goosebumps lifted on my skin. Was I going crazy? The question had floated in my brain for months. In my worst moments, wild possibilities spun through my head—conspiracy theory shit like my parents drugging me. I didn’tthinkthey would stoop that low. Why go out of their way to make me even more of a problem? But if they wanted an excuse to lock me away somewhere…
A twig snapped behind me, and I whirled with a growl in my throat.
“Whoa,” Nathan Brooks said, his eyes wide. He raised both hands in a gesture of surrender. Three guys from Hale Valley crowded behind him. Practice jerseys peeked out from underneath heavy winter coats. They must have come straight from the stadium. “Take it easy, Lawson,” Nathan added. “You look like you’re ready to kill someone.”
“Sorry,” I said. Embarrassment tightened my shoulders. “These woods are creepy this time of day.”
“We saw you run in here,” one of the other guys, Aiden Cross, said. Burly and redheaded, he was the team’s backup quarterback. He was also a fucking asshole. Fortunately, he mostly minded his own business.
“Meeting your boyfriend?” he asked.
Okay, so apparently he’d revised his MYOB policy.
Nathan turned and gave him a hard look. “Lay off that shit, Cross.”
Cross raised his ruddy eyebrows. “What? Lots of people come to these woods to hook up.” He shouldered past Nathan and leered at me. “Why should Lawson be any different?”
The other guys laughed.
Icy tentacles of dread crept through me. By some stroke of luck, my parents had recognized I needed socialization. Signing me up for youth football was one of the few solids they did me. When I reached high school, being good at catching a football had gone a long way toward making my classmates overlook my sexuality. That trend had continued in college.
But most of the guys at Hale Valley were products of a religious school system. And I didn’t catch footballs anymore.
“You okay, Caleb?” Nathan asked, concern in his eyes. “You took off so fast, we were worried.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Cross got there first. “I told you, man,” he said, “Lawson was late for a circle jerk.”
Anger flared like a lit match on gasoline. My voice rumbled in my chest as I stabbed a finger in Cross’s direction. “Shut your fucking mouth or I’ll?—”
“Shut it for me?” His shoes scuffed the snow as he stepped into me, his chest nearly brushing mine. “My dad says your kind go to the woods to blow each other and shit. Maybe that’s why you quit the team. No time for drills when you’re getting hot and heavy behind the bushes.” Viciousness dripped from his tone as he raked his gaze down my body. “Which part do you play, Lawson? My money’s on catcher.”
I got in his face, pulse hammering. “You sound like you’ve given it a lot of thought, Cross. You sure you aren’t asking for personal reasons?”
One of the guys behind him snorted.
