“Don’t what?” I asked.
“Don’t act like you regret it.”
“I don’t.”
Outside, the trash can lid clanged again next door.
Keaton tensed.
I caught his hand. “Stay.”
He exhaled slowly and leaned his shoulder against my bedframe again. “Okay. Unpause the game.”
A soft chuckle slipped out. “You seriously want to go back toHalo Warsright now?”
“No. I want to kiss you again.”
“Then do it.”
8
Keaton
Three MonthsLater
For the longest time,I’d thought something was wrong with me. It seemed everyone else my age was obsessed with dating. It was all my friends talked about during lunch, but I didn’t feel any of that. Not until recently when I realized it was because not only was I gay but also into my best friend.
I thought my crush was one-sided, but then small signs started popping up. He hung out with the popular kids at school and was always around girls, yet I never saw him go out with anyone, even though plenty of people tried to get his attention.
When he finally admitted he wasn’t into girls, I somehow found the courage to do the one thing I never thought I could do.
I kissed him.
A couple of days later, Rowan came over to hang out while my parents were gone, and that time he kissed me first.
After that, things didn’t return to normal between us, but it didn’t become a serious relationship either. It was something in between—something that only existed in private.
We didn’t see each other every day. He had practices or games, and I had work, along with the occasional suspension from school when people decided to run their mouths about me wearing black nail polish or dressing differently from them.
But whenever Rowan and I had a chance, we were together. Sometimes it was in his room with the lights off and the door locked. Sometimes it was in my car.
We never talked about what it meant. We didn’t call it anything. He never asked if I was his boyfriend, and I never asked if he was mine. Yet every time our mouths touched, it felt like something more than what we said out loud.
I pulled up in front of my house and turned off the engine. The car was older than me and had a dent in the passenger door from when the previous owner sideswiped a mailbox, but it ran, and it was mine.
I sat there with the driver-side window down, letting the cool night air drift through the car, but that was quickly ruined by the shouting coming from my house. I’d give anything to go a week without my parents fighting, but it seemed to be getting worse lately. Luckily, I had a job that got me out of the house. I worked at a pizza place and got paid enough to cover gas and insurance on my car. I worked until ten on weeknights since my work permit allowed it, which meant I usually got home after my father was passed out. Except tonight, he wasn’t.
A few seconds later, I heard a tap on the passenger side window and saw Rowan standing on the other side.
“You getting out or …?”
I shook my head. “Want to go for a drive?”
He grinned and hopped into my car. As soon as he buckled his seatbelt, I pulled away from the curb.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
Another shout reached my car. “Somewhere quiet.”
