Page 14 of Summer of the Boy

My new boyfriend moves at lightning speed.

He wants to see me without my shirt.

He takes off my shirt.

He wants to feel us skin to skin.

He takes off his shirt.

We spend the next few hours making out under the warm summer sun, golden rays lighting up the water, glittering off the waves making the ocean look gilded. We kiss and hold each other. Feel each other up. Over the pants, I don’t want to push Ridley too far his first make-out session. Until the warm breeze stops being warm and starts to chill our bare skin.

Then just for fun, we walk a ways down the beach. The man will be turning twenty in less than a month. Less than a month and he still has a curfew.

Ridley looks far away, which I’ve found for an autistic—they tend to look far away at most times—is saying something.

“Now what’s wrong?” I ask, sliding the hand I had holding his waist into his back pocket. And stop us, so we’re both staring out at the water.

“You’re going back to school in August.” He sounds not sad, more…reflective.

“Yeah.”

“My mom doesn’t know, I got accepted to Atlantic Tech.”

“I go to Atlantic Tech.”

“I know.”

He knows.

Of course he knows.

With all our getting to know each other, I avoided sharing that little nugget of information about myself to avoid thinking about leaving Rid.

But he knows anyway. Probably from that day playing PlayStation in my room. I’m sure I had T-shirts and stuff lying around. I never thought he’d paid attention.

“Are you going?” My interest now peaked.

“Mom had me work this past year. She thinks I should go to community college. Live with her. Someday, she says we could get a duplex and I could live on one side, she on the other if we thought I should try living on my own.”

“Jesus, you’re agrown-ass man. I know she loves you. I know she devoted her life to you. But Rid, she has to let you grow up.”

“That’s why I’m telling you. Will you help me?”

“Help you move closer to me? I think I can do that. Anything you need. When… um, when did you apply?”

He drops his temple to rest against my ear as he slides his hand in mine.

“Before I knew you. My cousin Jordan goes there. We helped her move into the dorms. We never lived close, but growing up she was the only one who treated me normal. I’m not stupid.”

“I know you’re not Rid. You’re one of the smartest people I know.”

This gets me a hand squeeze.

“She showed me around campus. Took me to visit the student disabilities center. Jordan said if she got accepted then she knew I would. And she’d be there to hang out so I wasn’t alone starting out.”

“You won’t be alone, not with me there. But I’d like to meet your cousin. I like her already. So… what do you need from me?”

“Help me fill out some financial aid forms. Mom doesn’t know, but I got scholarships for my GPA and for my condition.”

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