Banks rolled his eyes.Had Harper always been this much of a cheeky, witty smartass?And why had he never bothered to find out before this very moment?“Piedmont State, obviously.”
Harper shrugged, the navy blue of his pride t-shirt complimenting his smooth, tanned skin.He’d been a swimmer back in high school, for the first few years at least.Then he’d stopped, suddenly, as if to adopt his goth lifestyle full-time.Apparently, though, he still kept in shape, his swimmer’s body long and lean and nonstop alluring as they sat at the small table in the back.
“Same way as you, I guess.Online?”
“Counselor Barry told me about it,” Banks admitted.
“No shit?”
“He went here years ago, said if I was looking for a place to, uh, start fresh, Piedmont State was just the place.”
“Start fresh from ...what, exactly?”Harper pressed.
Banks shrank back a little, realizing the quick shot of ice cold coffee to his veins and the sight of Harper, rocking that obviously significant rainbow tee, had him getting too comfy, too gushy, far too quickly.“Just, breaking family traditions, I suppose.”It wasn’t entirely a lie, though it was far from the real, solid truth.
Harper held up an oversized white mug in his long, thin fingers, tan and veiny as they palmed the big cup in the palm of his hand.Banks met his soft hazel eyes and nudged his chin out gently.“And you?”
“And me what?”Harper’s smile was slow and lazy, as if he, too, was embracing the sweet, loving pull of caffeine’s intoxicating, sexy love story of his own.
Banks grinned, nodding pointedly at the capital letters on his t-shirt, “Pride” spelled out in vibrant, colorful rainbow letters that left little to the imagination.“I can’t help but notice you’ve had a little, uh ...makeover since you arrived on campus, huh, Harp?”
Harper glanced down, as if only just then realizing what he’d worn to Freshman Orientation.“Oh.Shit.”His blush was as unmistakable as the colors of his big, fat rainbow letters.“I, like I said, I never thought I’d see you again.Or anyone else from Sagebrush High, for that matter.”
Banks pretended to be offended, struggling to understand why he was so excited about the prospect of Harper being ...well ...like him.“Sorry to burst your, uh ...coming out party?”
Harper glared quietly over the cozy table for two in the corner of the Campus Café, then just as quietly softened.“Hardly a party, just ...it was time, you know?”
Banks knew all too well indeed.“So this is a ...fresh start for you, too?”
“It was supposed to be,” Harper said, waving a big hand around the mostly empty café.It was Welcome Week at Piedmont State, a kind of soft opening for the freshman class to get acquainted, not just with each other, but with the cozy, green, leafy campus itself before the upperclassmen arrived for the official start of fall semester the following week.As such, everywhere on campus was either half-empty or flat-out deserted, giving it an almost eerie feel that was far more to Banks’s liking than a bustling beehive of activity.“But I found out real quick that just because you buy a new wardrobe, you’re still the same old you.”
Banks gave a kind of chuffing argument to that particular nugget.“I knew the old you, Harper.Remember?You’re not the old you.”
Harper was back on the defensive again, if in a playful way.“You didn’t know shit about me back then, Banks.Just like I didn’t know shit about you.”
Banks wasn’t denying the fact as Harper huffed, “Elementary school.Junior high, then high school?We’ve talked more in the ten minutes we’ve been hanging out than in the twelve or thirteen years we’ve been going to the same schools.We just ran in different circles, that’s all.”
“You can say that again,” Banks murmured.
“Do I have to?”
Banks thought about the words for a moment, then met Harper’s eyes across their coffee cups.“Not really.I mean, look around.No more cliques or cool boys, mean girls or gross coaches.We can start fresh here if we want to.”
Harper seemed to consider it.Or Banks.Or maybe just his big, fat coffee cup.It was hard to tell with the brim of his ball cap hiding his shadowy eyes.“That’s just the pep talk I gave myself before walking to that auditorium this morning.Then I saw you, sitting there among all those other faces.Kind of hard to get a fresh start when the only other human I’ve talked to since getting here yesterday is a kid from my old high school back in Georgia.”
Banks grinned.“Not the fresh start you were looking for?”
Harper sagged slightly, his long, lean frame seeming to shrink in on itself.“Not exactly, no.”
Banks brightened, none too eager for this sudden reunion to end.“For what it’s worth, Harper, seeing you in that gym this afternoon?Looking like this?Dressing like this?I mean, it was kind of like meeting someone new.”
Harper nodded, peering quietly into his overpriced latte.Banks waited for another quick retort, a huffy, overdramatic comeback or at least a begrudging snort.Instead, time stretched out, soft like taffy and warm like the tangled knot of uncertainty and desire simmering in his taut, hungry belly.He heard the funky, catchy, festival pop music overhead, noted the way Harper’s fingertips were carefully clipped and manicured, wondered suddenly how his long fingertips might feel against his throat, struggling to wipe the erotic thought away.
“Why do you care so much?”Harper said at last, voice low and tight as he stared into his swirling mug of coffee and soy foam whip.
“About what?You?”
Harper finally glanced up from his coffee mug, pinning Banks with those soft, inquisitive eyes.“I guess.Yeah.”
