But he can’t do that.
They finish the game, and while Skyler does win, it’s not by much. Trevor may not have cared about school, but he isn’t dumb. And he doesn’t give himself enough credit for how good he is with words.
As they’re clearing the board, tossing tiles into the small drawstring bag, he gets an idea. He takes the bag from Trevor’s hand and dumps the tiles back out on the table.
“What are you doing?” Trevor asks, affronted.
He ignores the question and searches for the letters he needs. He arranges the tiles horizontally on one row to spell outnot hiding. Then vertically, intersecting at thet,just being. Then he grabs his phone and takes a picture.
As he types out a caption for Instagram, he’s aware of Trevor smiling at him, understanding. Trevor always understands.
He reads the caption out loud. “I’m taking a bit of time for myself right now, but I want to say thank you to everyone for all your love and support. It means the world to me. I’m as excited as you are to see what comes next.” He flips his phone toward Trevor so he can see. “Is that good?”
Trevor’s eyes flit across the photo and then meet his. “It’s perfect.”
Posting it gives Skyler a sense of satisfaction. He doesn’t owe his entire life to the world, but he does like sharing glimpses of it.
After Trevor leaves, he reopens the app and notices he may have shared too much of a glimpse. Part of Trevor’s foot is visible under the table at the edge of the photo’s frame. It’s not enough to identify him, but fans will try. He hates how he has to worry about things like this, but that’s how his life goes. And still, he can’t bring himself to delete it.
It’s too late anyway since the post already has over a hundred thousand likes.
He’s still thinking about how nice it was to do something as normal as playing a board game with Trevor when he winds up in his music room. There’s music in his head for the first time in weeks, so he picks up one of his guitars and sits down with it, humming a melody and then finding it with the strings.
The opening lyrics are a pleasant surprise when they come out of his mouth.
Haven’t gone out in a while, but I’m doing fine
Enjoying takeout and Scrabble for two
Got a lot on my mind, just taking some time
Because this feels so fragile and new
His heart is beating confidently as he finds a notebook to jot everything down. Trevor was right. Inspiration comes when it’s meant to.
Maybe everything comes when it’s meant to.
After he’s got a rough draft of the song, his mind is peacefully clear for the first time in weeks, and he’s ready to go to bed. But he stops first in the dining room and finds the fortune that he left on the table. He rubs the tiny slip of paper between his fingers as he heads up to his room.
You will receive everything you’ve ever needed.
Maybe he already has.
Maybe he did at seventeen.
Chapter Ten
Now
TREVOR
SITTING ON A BENCHat Griffith Park, Trevor takes a sip of his Jamba Juice Go Getter green smoothie with one hand while he types out a quick reply to an e-mail from the parent of one of his guitar students on his phone with the other. Stella tugs at the leash looped around his wrist.
“Another minute and we can go, girl.”
She gives him a petulant look but plops her butt back down in the grass.
They’re waiting for Oli, who always manages to be late even when he’s the one who sets the plans. Though to be fair, today Oli wanted to meet downtown for dinner, and Trevor countered with a morning hike instead. He didn’t tell Oli he couldn’t do dinner because he already has plans to go over Skyler’s. It’s the third time he’s seeing him this week, and he’s not sure if that’s weird.
