Page 15 of A Really Gay Book
I know, I know. I’d only seen a few instances of his bad luck firsthand, but if you’d seen the scars I had—and you better fucking not have—you’d know I’m not being crazy here. What if his bad luck was as strong as my good luck? I mean, I didn’t think it was because mine was off-the-charts amazing, but What. Fucking. If?
I shuddered.
No way, universe. This ismyAdam now. If you want him, you’ll have to pry him out of my cold, dead hands.
I raced down the path by the duck pond and reached the place where it split into three different paths. Which way had he taken? Had he gone back to his house? To the student center? Gotten snatched off the path by a flock of hungry geese?
I picked a direction at random, relying on my luck to give me a boost. For a few minutes, I thought it had failed me, but then I ran past the architecture building. It was all angles and massive, mirrored windowpanes. Each one was angled so you could see behind yourself if you looked at one.
Guess what I saw?
I stopped in my tracks and spun around, half furious and half dead with relief. I stomped up to Adam and jabbed him in the chest with a finger.
“You! Do you have any idea what could have happened to you? There’s a zoo nearby full of tigers, snakes, and bears. Possibly a velociraptor. Have you seen Jurassic Park? Why would you live near a zoo with velociraptors?”
“Velociraptors are extinct.”
“Like that matters! With you in the area, there is definitely a mad scientist around working to bring them back.”
Adam nodded like what I’d just said had merit.
“Come with me.” I linked arms with him and pulled. Adam was dead weight at first, but I was persistent, and eventually, he allowed me to drag him all the way to my special hideout.
Yes, of course I had a special hideout. I’m Apple. If I wanted, I could have had a special room inside every building on campus. Fortunately for everyone, I wasn’t a monster, or else I’d have become a tiny king in this town.
I had a feeling Adam believed I already was a tiny king.
Probably thought I was a monster too.
Well, there was no time like the present for teaching him otherwise.
“Adam,” I begin, ready to pour out my heart, soul, spleen—anything it took, really—to get him to understand that I was his and that he was mine.
The explanation died on my lips because Adam killed it with his mouth.
It took a moment for my mind to catch up. Unfortunately, Adam stopped kissing me before I had a chance to process what was going on.
Adam looked around the tiny room. “This is your hideout? It sucks.”
“Excuse me?”
“A lumpy, worn-out couch, an ancient folding table, and a strand of Christmas lights? What are you? A seventeen-year-old runaway?”
“Twenty, but who’s counting?”
“Wait, you ran away?”
“I had to. My house kept getting mobbed. I couldn’t keep doing that to my family. And if I’d told them I was leaving, they never would have let me go.”
Adam’s face softened.
I didn’t know what was happening right now, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“I love you. We are in love,” I announced.
Oops. I hadn’t meant to let that slip out yet, but I’d been holding it in since he’d wrapped my hand in gauze. Life hadn’t handed me enough challenges to allow me to learn anything about delayed gratification. I’d need to work on it.
“Okay,” Adam said like I’d just told him we were having pizza for dinner.
