Page 22 of Everything That Kills Me
“Thomas!”Oh God.“I thought sending me to school was to allow me to come to some natural understanding of this sort of stuff.”
“It was. It is.”
“Okay, then give me time to figure things out.”
“If you do start a relationship, you know it can’t lead anywhere.”
“I know.” But…
“That’s a sacrifice that has to be made for your sake and the other person’s.”
“I know,” Jack repeated.I fucking know.
Seven
Falling in the light of the evening sun
Nowhere to hide when the robots come
Asking for help, finding trouble
Stars in your eyes and your problems double
Having a friend for the first time ever
Life could be different
If I was braver
Zeph snuck straight upstairs without anyone seeing him, but as he walked past Alice’s room, even above the music, he heard her wailing. He hesitated, then knocked on her door.
“Alice?”
She cried louder.
Zeph knocked again.
“What!”
He slowly opened the door and peeped inside. Alice lay curled up the bed, sobbing, her makeup, of which there’d been too much, was smudged. She looked… scary.
“How could you?” she screamed.
“How could I what?”
“I like him. I like him!”
Zeph’s heart sank. What was he supposed to say? I like him too? No one knew he was gay, so why wasn’t he allowed to be friends with Jack?
“What have I done?” he asked.What do you think I’ve done?
“You disappeared with him. You stopped me dancing with him.”
Not true. Jack had found him. No one had been dancing when Zeph left. He didn’t really think Alice was crying because of him. He thought she was crying because she’d realised Jackwasn’t interested in going out with her, but it was easier to blame Zeph.
All he had to do was say Jack was his friend. At the moment, it was true. But Zeph had seen something in Jack’s face that hinted it was more than that, felt something in that press of their thighs that did the same.
Alice cried harder. Huge lurching sobs that made her entire body shudder.
