Go Your Own Way (10 page)

The drive into the small city near Leon suddenly seemed like the longest of Will’s life. Longer than the trips to Tennessee every other summer to visit his mom’s family, and longer still than the road trip to Disney World as a first grader when he’d pestered his dad every five minutes.

“Who is that little punk?” Ben asked.

Will avoided Ben’s eyes. “We must be nearly there” he said, even though they’d just reached the main road. He tried to keep the desperation from his voice. With any luck, he could get his dad to talk about something else—someone else—besides Lennox. “I heard they finished that new movie theater and—”

Ben turned to him across the front seat as they stopped at a light. As soon as Lennox had rolled out of sight and they’d calmed his dad down, Will had found himself in the front seat. Karen had been booted to the back and, like Will, was glowering at Ben. Will hadn’t expected anything less than an interrogation after what had just happened, but it was still annoying. Lennox was as kind as a bullet hole, but that didn’t mean Will couldn’t handle him.

He wasn’t a little boy anymore.

“We aren’t even close to there yet, buddy. And if I don’t get answers from you, I’m driving slower. I’ve got a full tank of gas and I’m not afraid to use it.”

Will turned to face Karen. “So what restaurant are we going to? I’ve been wanting to try that Bonefish Grill place that just opened up. I mean, if you haven’t picked already.”

Karen eyed Ben’s headrest and nodded. “That sounds nice. Nancy went with her husband and she said it was great.” The Jeep slowed down. “Ben Osborne, don’t you dare!”

Karen kicked the driver’s seat and Ben let off the gas even more. In the side mirror, Will watched the car behind them rev closer, and then swerve into the right lane and zoom past.

“I’ll go slower.” Ben ignored Karen’s second kick. “Just try me, William. You know I will.”

Will frowned at the speedometer. Maybe a cop would come along and arrest his dad for going thirty under the limit, and then this conversation wouldn’t happen. Instead, he and Karen could have a lovely dinner and movie night before they bailed his lunatic father out of jail.

‘”Spill.
Now.
”

“Ben, you’re being ridiculous,” Karen said. “Leave him alone for a bit. He didn’t want to deal with that boy either. I can’t believe you’re getting riled up about what some stupid kid said.”

“Well, he said it about my son,” Ben said. “I’m not standing for that crap. Will isn’t some piece of—piece of—nobody is going to talk to him like that. Not to my boy.”

“Ben,” Karen said. It was said like a warning, but gentle, too. Will slumped in his seat at her tone. She did that whenever his dad mumbled about “his boy,” and Will wished she wouldn’t. Something about his dad’s protectiveness cut through all of her annoyance. Conversations like this never did Will any good.

Ben’s eyes shifted from Karen’s in the rearview mirror to Will in the passenger seat. “Explain.”

“What do you want to know?” Will’s lips curled, but at least the Jeep picked up speed.

“More than you told me yesterday,” Ben said. “It’s pretty obvi­ous a huge chunk of story is missing, and my bet’s on that part being the main plot.”

Will sighed, crossed his arms and slouched down in his seat. Through his window, he could see more cars flying past before separating into the two lanes in front of them.

“Yes, that’s the delinquent idiot I was telling you about. I told you he was a complete moron,” Will said. With any luck, his dad would latch onto that and go on a rant.

“You didn’t say nothing about an ankle monitor. Or that he was—not that it—that he’s—”

“Black?”

“Biracial,” Ben said instead. “Thuggish. Some of the things on that jacket of his… he’s probably in a gang, Will. Did you ever think of that?”

“Did
you
ever think he wasn’t?” Will countered. He might be infuriating, but Lennox didn’t seem the type for a gang. If anything, he acted like a loner. And with what his dad was saying right now, Will didn’t blame him. Not around here. Too many people looked at someone’s skin and assumed the worst unless they were white. “Not every black person is part of a gang, Dad.”

Will huffed and sat up a little. The Jeep shot forward as Ben clutched the steering wheel tighter.

“His name is Lennox McAvoy. No, I don’t know how he ended up with the ankle monitor or what sort of trouble he is. Honestly, I don’t know anything beyond his name and that he’s crude.”

“Beautiful, but awful,” Ben summarized and Will squawked in protest. “Don’t bullshit me, Will. That’s basically what you said a few days ago.”

They all fell silent for a few minutes. A shopping center flashed past on the left as Will tried to think of something new to talk about. Anything was better than dwelling on Lennox. He’d sworn he wasn’t going to kiss him again and yet… He pressed his fingertips to his lips and had to fight down the smile leaping up from his belly. Every inch of him was shivering from those last minutes of detention. Nothing good could come from kissing Lennox again, but Will couldn’t fathom how he was going to get rid of him.

“So, uh, is what he said… it’s not true, right?” Ben kept his gaze on him for so long that Karen kneed the back of his seat. “Ouch! Don’t do that.”

“Keep your eyes on the road.” Karen squeezed Will’s shoulder. “You don’t have to answer that, honey.”

“I think I have a right to know if Will and this—this
bastard—
”

“Ben!”

Ben snorted. “He’s a little shit and if you two are going to date or—” Ben took a deep breath and shuddered, “have
sex
, I want to be aware of it. I want to keep you safe.”

“You can’t do that forever,” Karen said. “This time next year, Will is going to be away at college. I’m sure he’ll meet lots of attractive, nice young men at school.”

“Exactly.” Ben looked at him again. “I know living here is tough, especially for you. It hasn’t been easy, but please don’t do anything with that kid just because he’s the only option in town, okay? I know you understand all the mechanics, but so much emotion goes into having sex, especially that first time. And trust. You don’t know it yet because you haven’t experienced that, but it’s not just a couple of bodies slapping against each other. Don’t ever sleep with someone you can’t trust, and I don’t trust that kid any farther than I could throw him.”

Will put his feet on the dashboard and hunched down further. “I’m not—I mean, I like him. But then he opens his big fat mouth and ruins it.” He plucked at a shredded thread on the knee of his jeans. “We did kiss. Twice. Well, two and a half times. It’s not going to happen again, though, all right? I know my limits enough to know I don’t trust anything beyond that. Not with him. Okay?”

Slowly, Ben nodded. In the distance, Will could see the tower­ing shopping mall sign and signs announcing the highway.

“You know I trust you, Will. A lot more than any parent prob­ably should with all the hormones rattling through you,” Ben said as he pulled into the turn lane. “But you also aren’t used to any of this, especially not with a kid who acts like that. I don’t want you getting hurt. Any kind of hurt, not just heart stuff. I don’t trust him, and I don’t want you hanging around him anymore. If he won’t leave you alone, tell someone at school or you come straight to us. Do you understand?”

Will sat upright and nodded. “Yes, sir.”

But what good would it do? None of the teachers at Eastern had ever bothered to help him when he was bullied. Once in a while, they intervened, but the few times he’d reported stuff in middle school, nothing had ever been done. He’d been told he was jumping to conclusions, that boys will be boys, that shoving and punching was their way of being friendly. It wouldn’t be any different if he went to a teacher now. If he told his dad, Ben would fly off the handle and do something stupid. Ben Osborne was wonderful, but he didn’t always think things through.

Throughout dinner and a romantic comedy (Karen and Will outvoted Ben’s choice of an action flick), Ben kept looking at him. It didn’t make him uncomfortable, but it didn’t ease any of Will’s uncertainty either. His dad was worried. That was the last thing Will had wanted; now he had no idea how to end it.

They returned home late and Will went straight to bed. From the basement, he could hear the rush of the shower and the pat­ter of bare feet and paws upstairs. The basement door creaked and Oyster’s collar jingled as he trotted downstairs. As Oyster curled up at his feet, Will shut his eyes. Lennox came to mind first and he tried to shove that thought aside. Thinking about Lennox wouldn’t help him fall asleep. If anything, it would make him angry. So many obnoxious things came to mind. That stupid smirk, the patched jacket, his slim hips and those bright brown eyes.

Will rolled over and punched his pillow. He had to stop think­ing about Lennox, had to figure out a defense against his body’s excitement at the idea of Lennox. Upstairs, the water shut off and he sighed. No more Lennox. That was what he needed in his life. No more rude comments or fury from his dad. Just serene silence to fall asleep in…

Will groaned as a soft pair of lips latched onto his neck.
He squeezed his eyes shut as a hand pushed his pajama pants down his hips and closed around his cock. He was aching, dizzy, his stomach tight with a blistering heat he’d only experienced in short spurts before. As Lennox’s tongue traced patterns down his chest to his belly, Will shuddered and ran his fingers into the thick curls brushing against his skin.

“Fuck, I’m gonna—Lennox, j-just your h—” Will arched his hips upward, his cock thrusting through the tight fist stroking him. Lennox’s tongue brushed his ribs, his nipple, on its way back to his neck.

“Just the hand, I know. You’re so hot like this.” Lennox kissed his jaw. “Love watching you fuck my fist. Can’t wait for you to fuck my mouth.”

Another groan, deeper and louder, and Will’s mind slipped and his body tensed. Lennox’s hand stroked him as he came on his stomach. He took a few minutes to catch his breath, to let his eyes refocus on the ceiling overhead, to feel the warm press of Lennox against his side and the tongue cleaning his belly off.

“You’re ridiculous,” Will muttered, his voice hoarse and sleepy. “Like, the best kind, but if you keep sneaking in here, I’m going to die from too many explosive orgasms from my sex-crazed boyfriend.”

Lennox hummed and ran his tongue over the last spot of come, pressed a warm kiss to his belly and then hovered over his cock with a teasing smirk.

“If you’d just let me get you off at school, then I wouldn’t have to sneak in here,” Lennox said. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and grinned. “Though it is fun, getting you off with your dad above us.”

Will arched up as Lennox settled on top of him and kissed him. Soft, salty, a little bitter. It was weird to think he was tasting a part of himself, but it was easy to get lost in the swift passion and ache Lennox satisfied.

“Tastes weird,” Will mumbled as Lennox broke one kiss and pressed in for a second.

Lennox laughed. “It’s not supposed to taste like anything.” They shared one more kiss, soft and sweet, before Lennox sank down against him and sighed. “I really don’t feel like hoisting myself out of your window. You just had to have an underground bedroom.”

“Dad’s idea. Probably to keep this sort of thing from happening.”

Lennox nuzzled into Will’s neck; his hand brushed Will’s chest. “Should just stay here tonight. We can cuddle and talk and have more sex.”

“You’ll have to hide if one of them comes down here,” Will said, but he pressed his cheek against Lennox’s hair and shut his eyes. “Dad’ll cut you up like a slaughtered pig.”

“Worth it,” Lennox mumbled against his neck and Will grinned. He was the sweetest. No better boyfriend existed in the world and—

Will woke with a start as something heavy slammed overhead. Saturday morning. He was alone and Lennox was only half of what he could dream up. Unfortunately, he was the worse half. Sweetness, commitment—those were things Lennox couldn’t offer him. His room was still dark. He could hear rain lashing the windows and Karen laughing whenever his dad cursed. Pots clanged overhead.

He flopped back against his pillows and kicked at his blankets. They were half off the bed instead of weighing down the heavy warmth of his erection straining against his boxer-briefs. For a moment, his listened to his dad and Karen, and then lifted his hips and tugged his underwear down. He took his cock in his fist. He was moaning through the first stroke when the door to the stairway squeaked.

Will yelped, pulled his blankets back up, and flopped onto his side to face away from the stairs just as Ben’s footsteps thumped downstairs. Karen’s walk was like a heartbeat, but his dad’s was the constant thump of a bass drum. He shut his eyes until Ben’s shadow fell over him. Will squinted up at the frown stamped on his dad’s face.

“You haven’t had sex yet, right?”

Will groaned and rolled over. Ben left, but later that day, when Will had a mouth full of pizza and Karen was flipping through a fashion magazine with him, he popped in again.

“Not even with your hands, right?”

“Dad, shut
up
.”

Will drew the line on Sunday morning. He was halfway through a shower when Ben barged into the bathroom.

“You know you can still get STDs and stuff from oral sex if you don’t use protection, right? I mentioned that, didn’t I?”

Will got shampoo in his eyes and shouted at Ben until he left. After that, Will tempted Oyster downstairs with treats and then locked his door
and
the window. He wouldn’t put it past his dad to sit outside the tiny basement window and continue pestering him. He stayed downstairs and worked on homework with Oyster on guard. Karen appeared late in the afternoon. She had in one hand a straightened paper clip she’d used to pick his lock and in the other Will’s Pittsburgh Pirates cap.