Page 130 of The Locker Room

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interrupted by the blare of the phone. He swallowed. “I"ll get it,” he said,

interrupting Xander as he turned around.

“I can get it.” The phone rang again.

“No, Xander, I"ll get it. Because we both know what"ll happen, and

I"m not going to make you say that to me, okay?”

Before Xander could argue, Chris had brushed past him, placing a

tentative hand on his shoulder, and picked up the phone. “Hey, Leo.

How"re they hanging?”

He was quiet after that, and too, too still. “Denver?” he said, and he

moved to the closet while he was listening. He started throwing clothes

on the bed in a random order—suits, casual, underwear, jeans, a couple

of different pairs of shoes. Xander made a strangled sound in his throat

and went to the closet to get the luggage. It was his luggage. The set that

Chris"s parents had given him and had his name and their address on it.

They both had better suitcases now, but he wasn"t sending Chris away in

anything that didn"t have his name on it.

112 Amy Lane

Tomorrow morning, he thought painfully. Chris would be gone in

the morning.

He was wrong.

He came back with an armload of suitcases, and Chris was sitting

on the bed, looking at the handset in his hands. The conversation was

obviously over.

“Denver,” he said softly.

“I heard,” Xander said, dropping the luggage and sitting down next

to him.

Chris leaned against him, boneless, and for the moment, beaten.

“The plane leaves in three hours.”

“Fuck.”

“Leo called the town car—”

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