Page 36 of Styx & Stones

I grimace. “If I say no will you make me leave?”

“That depends on what your intentions are with my son.”

“Well, for a start, I wanted to tell him they booked my surgery.”

“Holy shit,” Styx says.

Styx’s dad scrubs a hand over his face. “You sick too?”

“Brain tumor. The chances of dying before they remove it are just as high as if they do crack open my skull like a melon and scoop it out.”

“I swear to God, you kids use cancer like a free pass for everything. Come on up. You can stay the night, but Styx ...” He turns to his son’s window. “... if you get her pregnant, you get to be the one to tell your mother, and I had nothing to do with this sleepover. I didn’t even know about it.”

“Nice, Dad. That’s really tactful.”

“I’m just stating the facts, kid.”

“The girl tells you she’s dying, and you tell me to go get laid, but to make sure we use protection?”

“Well, I didn’t want to embarrass you both by asking if you’re having sex, and even I’m not that much of an asshole to make you sleep on the couch. Your dad is not a cock-blocker.”

“Okay, Dad.” Styx puffs out his cheeks in a long exhale. “Don’t you have to be up early tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” Mr. Hendricks shakes his head. “Just don’t ... don’t tell your mom.”

“Hang on,” Styx says to me, ignoring his father completely. “I’ll buzz you up.”

“Thanks,” I say. He stares down at me with a smile and I smile back, wondering what the hell he’s doing. “Styx, it’s fucking freezing out here. Seriously, my nipples have turned to ice.”

“Shit. Sorry. Coming.” A beat later, a loud buzz pierces the quiet morning. I head over to the metal grate between the two storefronts and push it open, then I hurry up the stairs, exhaling my hot breath into my cupped hands to warm them.

Styx waits in the doorway at the top of the landing under a flickering fluorescent bulb. He has a duvet wrapped around his shoulders, and he opens his arms wide. I stare for a beat, and then I crash into him. I’m so damn cold my joints ache.

“Nice to see you too.”

“I was an idiot.”

He chuckles low and deep, and the sound resonates through his chest and into mine. “I know.”

“I didn’t mean it.”

“It’s okay if you did, Stones. We’re different, and it’s okay to not be okay. It doesn’t changeus.”

“Yeah?”

He wraps the duvet tighter around us. “Yeah.”

I snuggle closer, relishing his strong, steady heartbeat against my ear and the smell of teenage boy—an intoxicating mix of cologne, sandalwood soap, and laundry detergent. “How’d you get so smart for a seventeen-year-old?”

“It’s cancer wisdom.”

I laugh and stare up at him. “Oh yeah? Think a little of it might rub off on me?”

Styx grins, and I swallow hard because I never noticed he had flecks of gold in those deep brown eyes, or the way his cupid’s bow appears to be carved from granite with two sharp peaks and the cutest little dip in the middle. I knew he was hotter than the average seventeen-year-old, but I’d never had the breath stolen from my lungs when I looked at him. Not until now.

“Stick with me, kiddo. I’ll teach you everything I know,” he says, but his smile is quickly replaced by a frown.Shit. He’s obviously reading the surprise on my face. I try to school my features, but it’s too late. Styx just caught me looking at him like a lovesick goober. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Can we go inside?”

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