Page 84 of Every Move You Make

Isaiah

“Good mornin’,” a low, raspy voice murmurs near my chest. Near my chest? My eyes open and Dell’s face is pressed between my pecs as my whole body koalas him.

“Sorry,” I say and clear my throat. “How long have I been holding you like that?”

“Just the last half hour. I’m starting to get sweaty, but I like it,” he says and nuzzles his nose through my chest hair.

After dinner, Steven, Brook and Liam went back to their home a few miles away, and we watched a movie with his parents. I couldn’t tell you what the movie was about because Dell was holding my hand the whole time and laying his head in my lap. When I started stroking his hair, he purred like a big, muscly kitten and fell asleep. When the movie ended, I led his sleepy butt to our bedroom and we both passed out.

“Your parents are so nice,” I say, lifting my leg off of him and shifting so we’re eye to eye. Under the covers, I find his toes and touch mine to them. “It’s not every day you hear about such progressive southern parents.”

“Yeah. They used to be a lot more closed-minded. But when I became a teen and started kissing boys and gettin’ in fights for just… having crushes, that’s when things started to change. My mom told me years later that the church elders came to my parents and said I needed to go to conversion camp. And they considered it.”

“They did?”

He nods. “But my mom knew someone from childhood, a friend of hers, who went to one as a teen. I guess she called him up and they talked for a long time. He told her how he’d never send his own children there. Said it messed him up for a long time.”

“I’ve heard the horror stories.”

“Yeah. Well, he got through to her and she got through to my dad. I guess when the elders asked if they were going to send me to the conversion camp, my mother said ‘There’s nothing wrong with our son or who he loves. And if there is, then I’m going straight to hell with him and I’ll see y’all there.’”

“Did she really?”

“Yep. Marched right out of that church and never looked back. That’s why I got this tattoo,” he says, shifting his arm to better show me the old school American heart tattoo with a banner across that saysMom. “She’s the fucking best.”

“But they’re still religious?”

“They believe in a God who loves all people. They believe in nature and science. They believe we were given brains and we’re supposed to use them and not blindly follow a book that was written by men.”

“And how do they feel about throuples?”

He shrugs. “I don’t really care.”

My head rears back. “You just told me how much you love your mom and how you got a tattoo for her on your arm, but you don’t care?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I do love her, but it’s my life. I have never and will never live it according to someone else’s standard for happiness.”

“Your youngest sibling energy is strong.”

He chuckles. “You wanna go work out and swim in the pool?” He rolls over to check the time on his phone. “We have a few hours ‘fore we have t’start gettin’ ready forthe—oh my god!”

“What is it?”

He twists back around, eyes locked on his phone screen. “Robyn just got picked up as the face of Adidas.”

“Holy shit! Call her!”

When she picks up she’s sobbing.

“Adidas, Robyn? Are you serious?” Dell exclaims as both of us sit up. “That’s huge!”

“I know,” she cries. “I just found out ten minutes ago.”

“This is incredible,” I smile. “I’m so proud of you!”

“They want me to fly to New York in a couple weeks for a photoshoot and everything!”

“Of course they do because you’re a fuckin’ knockout, darlin’!”

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