After School Activities (26 page)

“I love you.” It surprised me. Not that I said it, exactly. I had felt it

coming. But by how much I meant it. It made me kind of nervous. “I just

realized that I hadn’t told you. That I’ve never told you how much I care

about you actually. ’Cause I do. Care about you, I mean.” I clamped my

mouth shut before I babbled myself to death.

Adam smiled. “I know,” he said.

“Really? Is that all you’ve got to say? No ‘I love you too’? Typical.”

“I already said it!”

“Actually, what you said was more like ‘I love
him
.’ You didn’t

even say it to me.”

“Oh, same thing.”

“Plus it was in the heat of the moment, so it doesn’t count.”

“Seriously?”

“How am I supposed to know it wasn’t just the excitement talking?”

“Fine. Dylan O’Connor, I love you.”

“You were clearly only saying that ’cause I coerced you….”

He growled and grabbed me. I yelped and tried to roll away. We

wrestled, laughing, until before long he was on top of me, pinning me

down. Then he kissed me.

“I love you, you stupid fairy,” he said.

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“I love you, you fucking jock.”

“Do we really have to fight, even about loving each other?” he asked

with a smile.

“Wouldn’t be fun otherwise, now would it?”

“I suppose not.”

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

THE NEXT morning I discovered that Adam’s bedroom had east-facing

windows, and that he had hung the stained glass pendant perfectly so that

the morning sun shone through it. I awoke, wrapped in the arms of the

man I love, bathed in scintillating, multicolored light. It was perfect.

Of course, it was quickly ruined by the same scourge that plagues

every lazy morning, an urgent bladder nagging for relief. I ignored it,

luxuriated in the moment for as long as I could, until I hit the point of

diminishing returns where the scales finally tipped in the direction of

discomfort. Even so, I put off getting up for another few minutes, until

I couldn’t stand it anymore and had to get up.

Adam had other ideas. “Nope,” he said as I tried to slip out of his

arms. He pulled me back against him, snuggled in, and promptly fell back

asleep. I couldn’t exactly be mad—I hadn’t wanted to get up in the first

place. After a minute, I tried again but couldn’t make his arms budge.

“You’re not really asleep, are you?” In response, Adam began to

snore loudly. He was obviously faking. “Come on. I really have to

pee.” Adam thrust his hips slowly forward, rubbing his hard cock against

my ass. “Me too,” he said.

“I thought you were asleep,” I said sarcastically.

“Mmm,” he replied, thrusting again. He reached around and grabbed

my cock, stiff with morning wood.

“Yeah, as much as I appreciate this—and don’t get me wrong, I

really do—anything that comes out of there will, best-case scenario, be

only one part cum for every three parts piss. As much as I’m sure

watersports are fine and dandy,” I said sarcastically, “maybe your bed

isn’t the best place to test that one out.”

“Watersports? What’s that?”

I flipped around to face him, see if he was serious. Apparently he

was. “You’re gonna have to use context clues to figure that one out, bub.”

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“Ew, people really do that?”

“Yup. It’s certainly a strange one. Have you never watched Internet

porn?”

“No. I’ve always been too afraid someone would catch me, or find

the browser history.”

“Well, you’re about fifteen seconds from experiencing it firsthand,

unless you let me get up.”

“Fine.” Adam kissed me. “I suppose—” Another kiss. “—I could be

convinced—” Kiss. “—to let you go. But I’m—” Couple of kisses that

time. “Coming with you.” He finally let me go, and we both climbed out

of bed.

Adam unselfconsciously strode straight out of his room without

bothering to get dressed. I was a little more nervous, poking my head out

the door and looking both ways before sprinting after him, cupping my

junk in my hands. I mean, I was barely comfortable walking around my

own house naked unless I was absolutely sure no one was home. Even

then I felt kinda weird about it. And there was a distinct lack of a violently homophobic brother at my house.

The morning bathroom ritual was more silly than sexy. We both

peed at the same time, giggling, which made me feel particularly silly.

Toothbrushing was punctuated with a good deal of elbowing and snide-

comment-making. The being-naked part just made the whole thing that

much more fun. Besides, this was the first time I’d been able to just be

around a naked Adam for such a long time. Sure, there’d been a good

amount of nakedness before, but we were mostly pretty occupied at the

time. There was a definite appeal to being able to watch him be casually

naked, admire his body in its entirety. Of course, there was only so much

of that one could take until one’s body began to notice and perked up with

interest. So we fumbled our way back to the bedroom to take care of that

before heading downstairs.

Getting dressed proved to be an equal disappointment for us both.

It was still kind of weird to think that Adam got as much pleasure from

watching my body as I did his, but that was apparently the case. It was

only my body. It wasn’t even that special. But when I put on pants, he

complained far more loudly than I did when he dressed. Quite the ego

boost. I found myself laughing, almost uncontrollably, out of sheer

happiness. Adam laughed too.

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The laughter cut off when we walked in the kitchen. Pete was

there, standing in front of the stove, preparing something. He

acknowledged our presence with a quick glance and a nod, turned right

back to his cooking. He poked at something in the skillet, an

unconvincing attempt at seeming busy. I looked at Adam with an

expression that was part “now what,” part “holy shitfuck run away!” He

shrugged, sat down at the table. I followed suit. Cautiously.

To my surprise, it was Pete who broke the silence. “How many

pancakes do you want?”

Adam looked from Pete to me and back. Clearly, he had no idea

what to expect. This conversation was completely uncharted waters for us

both. It was possibly much more frightening to him, though if it was, he

didn’t show it.

“Um, two for me, I guess.”

“What about—” Pete hesitated. “I don’t actually know his name.”

“Dylan,” I introduced myself. “And I’ll have, like, six at least. I’m

not a pussy, like some people.”

Pete laughed, a sort of awkward, taken-off-guard kind of laugh. It

cut off kind of abruptly, and he self-consciously cleared his throat.

“I’m, uh, really sorry about last night. I was totally out of line.” I

thought Adam’s eyes were gonna pop right out of his head, he looked

so shocked. “It’s just, I was a real mess last night. Everyone being there

had set me on edge. I had too much to drink. Dad never showed up, not

that I even expected him to….” He trailed off, cleared his throat again.

Emotion had clearly overwhelmed him, and desperate not to let it show,

he had no idea how to continue.

Incongruously, Adam looked to me, wide-eyed, as though for

guidance. I inclined my head toward Pete, pulling my best “get your ass

over there and comfort your brother, stupid” face.
Me?
he mouthed.
Yes,
you,
I mouthed back.
Why me?
I gave him a flat stare until he finally got up and stepped across the kitchen.

Adam hesitantly placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Dad’s

an asshole,” he said.

Pete gave a mirthless laugh. The two looked at each other in some

silent solidarity before clearing their throats nearly in unison and

stepping away from each other. It was the weirdest display I had ever

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witnessed, especially because they were both so clearly uncomfortable

as though they had somehow gotten
too
emotional.

“So you two are, um, together?” Pete asked, sounding like he was

trying at nonchalance but failed in the follow-through.

Adam tensed visibly. “There a problem with that?”

“What? No, dude. I mean, fuck. Yes, it weirds me out a little. But

you’re my baby brother, I don’t want to be shut out of your life. If you

want to be gay, I won’t try and stop you.”

“It’s not really a question of want, Pete.”

“Fuck, dude, you know what I meant.”

“I do. And thank you. I was really worried you wouldn’t….” Adam

trailed off.

“What, love you anymore? Naw, dude, fuck that. What gave you that

stupid idea?”

“Seriously? You’ve always been such an asshole, maybe not as bad

as last night, but—”

“Well, maybe if you had told me earlier I’d have known better than

to be such an asshole—”

“Maybe if you hadn’t been such an asshole, I’d have actually felt

like I could tell you—”

“If you weren’t such a pussy—”

“Douchebag.”

“Nerd.”

“Idiot.”

“Gay nerd.”

And suddenly the two were laughing. This had the feel of an old ritual,

sibling bickering that had gone on so long it had become nostalgic. The two

of them hugged then, a quick backslapping affair. Then Pete turned back to

the pancakes, and Adam sat back down by me.

“Dylan,” he whispered, “are you crying?”

“What? Acceptance makes me emotional. Shut up.”

Adam grinned a big dopey grin. “Yeah, that was pretty cool.”

The pancakes were done, and we all ate together. If Pete was at all

uncomfortable around me, he gave no sign. Indeed, the three of us laughed

and joked, and had an al -around great breakfast. And when Adam reached

out and held my hand, on
top
of the table, I’d like to joyful y point out, Pete even smiled. But the morning was soon ruined, like so many great times

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inevitably were, by parents texting and saying they’d be there in five minutes to pick me up. By the time I had grabbed my nice clothes from upstairs—

Adam insisted I keep the clothes he had lent me; they smelled like him, so I

wasn’t about to argue—my dad had pulled into the driveway.

“I guess this is good-bye,” I said, lingering at the front door.

Adam’s eyes lit up, remembering something. “Wait here,” he said. “I’ll

be right back.” A moment later he returned, carrying the stained glass pendant from his bedroom. “Here. It’s a little late, but Merry Christmas.”

“Thanks,” I said, voice catching in my throat. “I didn’t get you

anything.”

“You already got me the best present of all,” Adam began.

“Just stop right there. There’s no way you could possibly end that

sentence that doesn’t result in me rolling my eyes and making fun of how

cheesy you are for the rest of your life.”

“I can think of one thing you wouldn’t make fun of me for.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

Instead of responding, Adam pulled me to him and kissed me, deeply

and passionately. From the kitchen, Pete called, “Ew, gross,” but Adam

ignored him.

Breathless and giddy, I said, “See you Monday,” and ran out to the car.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“SO, WHAT’S going to happen now?” Kai asked as we walked down the

school hallway toward the lunchroom.

“I don’t know. Do I look like I’m psychic?” I snapped. I could

feel Kai and Mel exchange looks behind my back. I knew what they

were thinking, but I wasn’t being irrational. I was just on edge.

“I mean, do you want an honest answer?” Mel began, in her typical

playfully mocking tone. “’Cause I
have
noticed….”

Kai cut her off. “What I meant was, haven’t you two talked since

yesterday?”

“I mean, we’ve texted, but it was mostly just, like, casual flirty

stuff. Sorry I didn’t immediately start demanding ‘What happens on

Monday when I see you? Do I have to go back to lying?’ ’Cause that

was a little hard to work into the conversation.” A sudden thought

paralyzed me. “Oh my God, what if he’s been avoiding me all day?

Usually we see him by now, right? What if everything is just going to

be back the way it was? I don’t know if I can—”

“Whoa, Dylan, breathe, dude,” Kai said. “I’m sure everything will

be fine. Adam’s a good dude. Presumably. I’m still kind of taking that one

on faith—”

“Focus, Malachi,” Mel whispered.

“—but whatever, you guys seem to like him now, I’ll take your word

for it. I mean, he told his brother, Dylan, which is a pretty big deal. He

said he loves you. It’s still hard for me to imagine those words coming out

of his mouth—”

“Seriously? I said focus!”

“—but that only makes it even more profound, coming from him,

right? And then there’s that stained glass pendant, which is apparently

significant?”

Mel nodded. “Dylan did bring it up like six times.”

“Right? I’m still fuzzy as to
why
.”

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I cut them off. Left alone they might have gone on like that forever.

“Shut up, guys, It harkens back to our first night together, when I started