Page 22 of What You Own
“Me.” Adam shifts closer, breathing harder.
“What’s changed in you?”
“I admitted something to myself today, Rye, for the first time.”
“Which is?”
“That I don’t think of you as a friend anymore. My feelings are… stronger.”
I can’t stop the smile that breaks like sunshine on my face, or calm my racing heart. The moment I’ve dreamed of is here. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Nothing in the world will stop me from kissing him in this moment. Adam doesn’t respond right away, too surprised to react properly. I sense the instant that Adam gives in. His mouth softens, lips part. He starts kissing back, his own hunger and need growing. It’s a perfect first kiss.
“Shit, man, Langley’s a faggot too,” a deep voice says.
We pull apart, stunned by the interruption. Three boys from school, basketball stars the lot of them, surround Adam and me. Trapping us against the brick wall. Chad Phillips is the tallest. He plays center, and he’s missing a front tooth from taking someone’s elbow last year in a state championship game. His sidekicks, Bobby and Sam, look at us like we’re scum. All three reek of liquor.
I shift to stand in front of Adam and face down Chad. “Fuck off, Phillips, this isn’t your business.”
Chad brays laughter. “You two boyfriends now, Sanders? Never took you for a cocksucker, Langley. Shit, I bet the water cooler crowd at LQF is going to love this.”
Adam trembles behind me. I can’t see it, but I feel it. He’s trying to be brave, but three on two are bad odds, and this isn’t how Adam wants to come out to his father. Adam doesn’t deny anything, though, doesn’t try to talk his way out of what they saw, and I love him more for it.
Bobby gulps from a flask, then passes it to Chad. Chad takes a healthy pull. “So who fucks who in the ass here, huh? You bend over for him, Langley?” He cups his own junk with his free hand. “Wanna see what a real man’s packing?”
My temper roars, but Adam steps away from my protection. “No, thanks,” Adam says, perfectly sincere. “I wouldn’t want your mother’s prize poodle to get jealous of you sticking your dick in someone else’s ass.”
Chad’s speed surprises me, and I can’t stop him from punching Adam square in the chin. Adam stumbles into the brick wall, away from me, his chin cut and bleeding. I shout and tackle Chad to the ground.
“ISTARTEDthe fight?” I asked, shocked at my own audacity in accusing Chad of fucking his mother’s poodle.
“Technically, Chad hit first, so he started the fight.” Ryan’s lighthearted tone didn’t reach his face. He was struggling to report on their activities, the things they’d said, and the stress was taking its toll. “A lot of the actual fightin’ happened so fast. Bobby knocked me off Chad, then started kickin’ me in the ribs and chest. Got me in the face a few times too. Everything got muddled, turned around. Then Sam twisted my right arm back, and he was holdin’ me facedown. I could see Bobby and Chad beatin’ on you.”
His face went furious, almost feral. “I tried to get to you, Adam, I did. Sam broke my wrist tryin’ to keep me down. I think you must’ve heard me yelling over it, because you got real crazy. I remember you got Bobby in the nose good. Then Chad picked up a broken piece of brick.”
Ice water trickled down my spine. I knew where this was going.
“Chad clocked you upside the head with that brick, and you just… stopped. You dropped down, so still, like he’d cut off your engine. Honest to God, I thought he killed you.” A single tear squeezed out and trickled slowly down Ryan’s cheek. I wanted to wipe it away but didn’t dare break the spell. He was lost in the memories now, and while my participation in the event was over, he hadn’t explained yet how my arm was broken.
“Chad called ’em all off, and I thought they were gonna leave us alone. My ribs were on fire, and I couldn’t breathe real good, and I was tryin’ to get to you. They were talkin’, still drinkin’ from that flask. Then Chad squats down over you and just… fucking snaps your arm. I’ll never forget that sound.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Bobby and Sam dragged me over to that small space behind the enclosure, where no one could see us from the parking lot. I thought they were gonna kill me.
“Sam hauled me up, and I almost blacked out from the pain because three of my ribs were cracked, only I didn’t know it then. Chad was standin’ there, all smug and so drunk he couldn’t find his own ass with both hands.” Ryan shivered, his entire body seeming to fold in on itself as something inside his mind shifted. His eyebrows knotted. He looked at me, those dark-brown wells cold. “Someone from the restaurant called my name. Chad knocked me out cold, and they all ran. They say Mrs. Proctor found us and called 911.”
The ending of the story felt edited, but I couldn’t put my finger on which part. And the worn out, beaten up way Ryan was leaning against the old brick wall sent me four steps closer and into his arms again. He collapsed against me, still shaking, holding me so tightly I feared for my ribs. He pressed his face into the crook of my neck. I threaded my fingers into his hair, liking him there, willing to give him whatever he needed.
He’d given me what I needed: answers. He’d filled in the gaps, detailed those minutes I’d lost because Chad hit me in the head with a piece of brick.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you.”
Chapter 7
Ryan
ELLIETOLDme once that emotional hangovers can hurt worse than liquor-soaked hangovers, and I finally understood what she meant. Telling all that ugly to Adam, standing in the place where it happened, was like ripping out my guts, tying them into knots, and stuffing them all back inside again. I saw it all as I said it, like I saw it the night it happened. Saw Adam getting hit, going down like wet laundry, lying so still. Heard his arm bone snapping. Felt asphalt and stones under my knees when they dragged me behind the dumpster.
I thought I was gonna die back there.
