Foxe Hunt (28 page)

All in all, it was a pretty good night. He managed to skirt Ed Fallows, whom, every time Skyler looked, seemed to be making furtive and frantic phone calls.

Whenever he found Keith in the crowded room—and it wasn’t hard because he was quite tall—he had a concentrated look on his face, as if he were puzzling through a knotty problem. He wished Keith would talk to him a little. Ever since they separated on Alice Goodwin’s stern suggestion, he hadn’t returned.

God, Keith looked good! Really handsome. It was as if he didn’t know it, either. Maybe he didn’t. Keith might have his flaws of character but it wasn’t vanity. He seemed comfortable with
232 Haley Walsh

who he was and it was all there, laid out on a platter. Despite Sidney’s worries, he truly felt that Keith was a straight shooter.

No surprises. He found he liked that.

Suddenly Keith looked up and his eyes locked with Skyler’s.

He gazed at him for a long time, so long that Skyler felt his whole body grow warm. The man pushed away from the table he was leaning against and started walking through the gyrating dancers toward Skyler in a purposeful stride.

Rooted to the spot, Skyler breathlessly watched him approach.

The dark-haired man finally made it across and walked up to him. “I haven’t talked with you much tonight,” he said.

Skyler played it cool and turned slightly away to survey the crowd. He shrugged. “You seemed kind of pissed off with me.”

“I’m sorry about that. It had nothing to do with you.” He sighed. “Well, it had everything to do with you, actually.”

He kept staring in that strange concentrated way until Skyler couldn’t take it. “Keith—?”

“Skyler… Man.” He took a deep breath and shook his head.

He seemed to be silently berating himself. Taking another breath he said softly, “Skyler, the night’s almost over. Will you dance with me?”

Everything shut down. The sound of the music softening to a slower beat, the projected snowfall, the twinkly lights—all seemed to disappear into a mute bubble. There was only Keith’s earnest face looking at him expectantly, and then the man’s hand came up, silently asking for Skyler to take it.

Lucidity finally prevailed and his senses came crashing back in. “Are you nuts? No!”

“Skyler. Aren’t you tired of this? Of us standing apart? Just dance with me.”

“No, Keith! No!”

The hand was still out. It was a nice hand, he noted somewhere in the back of his head, the part that was still working. The palm was smooth and dry, though there were calluses at the pads.

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The man was serious. He wanted to dance with him in front of everyone. Everyone who mattered at the school. What would they say? What about his students? His heart pounded madly in his chest.

People near them started to stare. Keith’s hand out like that?

It was becoming obvious to other people what he was asking for.

The students began whispering and turning their full attention to it. Just what Skyler didn’t want.

Then he thought of Ed Fallows and all the bastards like him.

And he thought of Rick and Alex and the rest of the GSA kids.

He thought of his friends and how out they were. With Jamie it was unavoidable, but even Philip flew a rainbow banner outside his coffeehouse. And Rodolfo made no secret of it either. Even Mike de Guzman seemed okay with it.

And then there was Keith. He was willing to out himself in front of his coaches who seemed to hate gays with a passion.

It was a far bigger deal for him and he didn’t seem to care.

His steady gaze never wavered and he even smiled a little, that irresistible gleam of square, white teeth and dented cheeks.

“Dance with me, babe,” he said again. “Forget about everyone else.”

And suddenly, without realizing he had done it, Skyler’s hand was in Keith’s and he was being led out to the dance floor.

People around them gasped and when the dancers saw what was happening, they parted and stopped dancing. It was a slow number and the dance floor was dim, and the light-generated snowflakes were whirling all around them, and warm hands slid around his back and an even warmer body pulled him close, and before Skyler knew it, he was dancing, slow and gentle and soft.

He didn’t take his eyes off of Keith’s. But his heart was ready to burst from his chest, it was pelting his ribcage so hard.

“What are we doing?” he whispered to his dance partner. “This is insane.”

Keith wore a million dollar smile. “I know. But I like this kind of insanity.”

234 Haley Walsh

Skyler gasped as Keith drew him even closer. There wasn’t an inch to spare between them. Skyler couldn’t keep his eyes off Keith’s face. Independent of his brain, his mouth was saying, “You look
so
handsome.”

He smiled down at Skyler. “So do you. You always do. All night I longed to take you in my arms like this.”

“This is really crazy.” Skyler felt his face flush hotly and he buried it in Keith’s chest to hide.

“Hey,” came the gentle rumble from that chest. Reluctantly, Skyler raised his face. “We’ll get through it together.”

It was then that Skyler got the courage to finally look around.

No one else was dancing. Though people still stood around them, they were effectively alone on the dance floor. Glancing at the outer edges, he caught sight of Rick, who looked shocked and then pleased, smiling from ear to ear. Heather looked smug and Amber…the poor girl. She looked positively crushed.

Rick was motioning toward them and put out his hand to Alex, who vigorously shook his head. Rick took his hand anyway and argued with him. They were too far away for Skyler to hear but he got the gist of it through Alex’s vehement body language.

He tried to pull away, and when Ed Fallows came up to him, he managed to yank his hand from Rick’s. He gave Rick one last look and tore out of the room, slamming the double doors open.

Rick scowled at Fallows and tossed his hand up in a gesture that seemed to say “fuck off ” before following Alex out the door.

Uh oh.

A flash. Skyler looked up at a boy with a camera who gave them the thumbs up. “That just got into the year book,” he groaned. Then others seemed to wake up and suddenly there were a lot of mini flashes from cell phones. “And that just made it to the internet.”

“Does it matter?” said Keith. “I mean, in the great scheme of things, does it really matter? I don’t want to hide my feelings for you anymore, Skyler.”

“Gentlemen.”

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They stopped and turned to Alice Goodwin. She wore an unyielding expression that brooked no argument. “Would you two mind coming with me?”

She led them out to the corridor. It was only when they stood out in the blaring lights of the hallway that Skyler realized he had been holding Keith’s hand the whole time. He let it go.

Alice folded her arms over her chest and glared at each one in turn. “Would someone please explain to me what happened in there?”

Keith stepped forward. There wasn’t an ounce of fear on his face. “We were dancing. Couples dance. And we’re a couple.”

She looked at Skyler. He knew he must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights but he couldn’t quite pull off as relaxed an expression as Keith was wearing. “Well, yeah. I mean…he’s…

he’s my…boyfriend.”

This was the first Keith heard of that, and his head whipped toward Skyler, grinning madly.

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I see. Well, what you do on your own time is your business.

But when you are on school property fulfilling your obligations of your contract on school business, I expect you to conduct yourselves with a little more aplomb. That was a spectacle I don’t want repeated.”

“Excuse me, Ms. Goodwin,” said Keith. And Skyler just knew he was going to cause more trouble. “With all due respect, if we had been a heterosexual couple—”

“Stop right there, Mr. Fletcher. If you had been a heterosexual couple of
teachers
working at the same school at a school function as this is, I would have done the same thing. Consider this a warning on both your records.” She gave them both a nod of finality and hurried away.

Skyler turned to Keith. “It’s on my record.”

“At least you don’t have to serve detention.”

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“You think this is funny? I don’t think this is funny. I have a warning on my record. I always had a perfect record. No matter what school I went to or what job I had, I’ve always had a perfect record. And now look!”

“Are you blaming
me
? Because you didn’t
have
to dance with me.”

“‘
Dance with me, babe
,’” he said in imitation of Keith’s baritone.

“I was going to say no to
that
?”

Keith smiled and looked down at his shoes before cocking his head. “Boyfriend, huh?”

Skyler stopped short. “W-well, I just thought…I mean.”

He chucked Skyler’s chin. “You’re adorable when you stammer.”

He slapped Keith’s hand away. “Stop that! We can’t do this here.” He stared down the long hallway without really seeing it.

What had he done? He’d outed himself. All his careful cultivation.

And it was all over the internet now. It was on every one of his students’ Facebook pages, on Twitter, being exchanged in emails complete with digital pictures. Proof positive, ladies and gentlemen, that yes, Skyler Foxe was a homo, and now everyone knew it. The school newspaper would know it, the yearbook would have a lovely picture probably with the both of them in a heart-shaped border, and his mother— Oh God! His mother!

“Oh shit! What have I done?”

“Skyler, hon, it’s not the end of the world.”

“Not the end of
your
world, you mean.”

“Skyler—”

“We…we have to get back in there. Patrol. Separately.” Dazed, Skyler walked back into the cafeteria and as soon as he entered, he was inundated with catcalls and whistles. His face was hot and red. He made his way as smoothly as he could to the drink table.

Grabbing a bottled water, he unscrewed the cap and drank down almost all of its contents.

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“Way to go, Mr. Foxe!” said Heather, suddenly beside him.

She had her hand up for high five but he didn’t return it. “Uh oh. What’s wrong? Was this some unplanned moment of teacher hijinks?”

“I’m afraid you haven’t caught me at my best, Ms. Munson.”

He unscrewed another water and drank up, wishing for all the world it was a bottle of Grey Goose.

She put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t meltdown. It’s okay.

No one here cares. We all sort of suspected anyway, didn’t we Amber?”

Amber still looked rather stunned and she had nothing to offer.

Skyler withered. “You
all
suspected?”

Heather shrugged.

“Great. Just great.”

“On the up side, it will make a great picture for the yearbook.”

“I live in the hope,” he said shakily.

“On the other up side, you can now co-sponsor the GSA.”

Her words were finally permeating his numbed senses. She had a point. And yes, now he could man up and do what he should have done in the first place. He managed to dredge up a smile. “I guess you’re right. No more excuses.”

They were silent for a moment before Heather chuckled.

“Soooo. Mr. Fletcher, eh? Dude! Your coolness quotient just skyrocketed. Not that it wasn’t good before, but, I mean, he is hot!”

He reddened again. Jeez! He had to get away before he was forced to swap Facebook urls. “Excuse me, Ms. Munson, but I have to go do…uh…teacher things now.”

“Sure. Go for it. I think Amber and I need to hunt down our ‘dates,’ though I suspect our career as beards just came to a screeching halt.” She smiled and waved as she dragged poor dazed Amber away.

240 Haley Walsh

He moved around the room. Most of the kids were giving him high signs and he could swear his face never got a chance to cool down. But there were also some kids, religious ones along with the jocks, who were giving him a cool reception. Not that
that
wasn’t expected.

He got to a cluster of female teachers, one of whom was Tricia Hornbeck. She disentangled herself from the pack that didn’t look like it had plans to break up anytime soon, and came over to him. She was wearing a tasteful black dress with a pearl choker. “Well, that was certainly…something.”

“Not you, too.”

“You have to admit, Skyler, that wasn’t the most discreet of moves.”

He ran his hand through his hair. “I know, I know. But it all happened so fast, like in a dream, and Keith was talking to me with his hand out, and all of a sudden I was out there…I mean really
out
there. Damn.” He looked back at the cluster of other female chaperones. “So, what are they saying?”

“Some said you made a really cute couple—”

“Ah
man
!”

“And some had some…not very nice things to say.” He groaned again. “What did you expect?”

“I really wasn’t thinking, truth be told.”

“I can see that.” She patted his arm. “It will be fine. It will be a bit of office gossip for a few weeks and then it will blow over.”

“Thanks. Let’s hope so.” He pulled his collar away from his sweaty neck. “Excuse me, I need to get some air.”

He made a few steps toward the doors when Tricia stopped him with, “Skyler?”

“Yeah?”

“Just for the record, I think you make a very nice couple, too.”

She smiled and then returned to her klatch.

He sighed and made his way to the doors. The corridors were Foxe hunt
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empty. He decided to check the boys’ bathroom before heading outside. No one there. The dark glass doors to the front of the school beckoned and he walked silently down the hall toward the entrance. He pushed the panic bar and it clacked open, and the chilly air of a November evening cooled his face at last.

He could only see a few stars because of the pervasive city lights just over the treetops beyond the quiet suburban neighborhood surrounding the school. But it was a clear night and the air was fresh as he filled his lungs with it.