Page 68 of Golden

“Who’s ‘Golden Boy’?”

I push onto my elbow. “What?”

He points at my phone, the notifications listed on the lock screen. I haven’t checked it since I got in the car to head here this morning.

“You. Why?”

Something flickers across his face, and he sits up, the charged air suddenly cold and tense. I’ve clearly done something wrong, but I have no fucking clue what it is.

Reaching for my phone, I unlock it and click on his notification. He dropped me a pin while I was driving. I didn’t need it, though. The map app worked fine. I show him our text feed. Does he think it’s someone else? Is he jealous?

“Why did you save me as that?” he asks, his narrowed eyes fixed on the screen.

I can’t read his tone. He doesn’t sound angry. Just . . . tired. “What am I saved under on your phone?”

He looks at me with those big ice-blue eyes. “Wes.”

“I don’t know,” I admit with a sigh. “I mean. That’s what you are. Even before we got into this, you’re Franklin West’s poster boy. Top grades, captain of the lacrosse team, vice president of the frat, and on top of it all, you look like this.”

He stares at me, and I shrink a little under his scrutiny. Why do I feel like I’m making this worse?

“And,” I continue, trying to find a way to dig myself out of whatever hole I seem to have fallen into, “you’re probably the nicest guy I’ve ever met. You’re perfect.”

Sol sits up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and leaning his elbows on his thighs. I swallow, edging closer, and tentatively run a hand down his hunched back.

“Talk to me,” I say softly. “What did I do?”

He shakes his head. “You didn’t do anything. Alex and Zak call me that, sometimes. You said it that night at your place, too. It’s just, coming from you . . .”

I move closer, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. When he doesn’t shrug me off, the fist gripping my gut relaxes a little. “Coming from me, what?”

He sags further, his head dropping to his hands. “I thought out of everyone, you’d be someone who didn’t think I was perfect.”

I frown. “Why?”

“Because of how all this started. I fucked up so many times. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

I smile against his skin. “Yeah, but you’re an extremely fast learner.”

He doesn’t move, so I climb off the bed, kneeling in front him so he’s forced to look at me.

“What’s going on, Sol? Why wouldn’t you want me to think you’re perfect?”

He stares at me for a long minute, and when he swallows, I track the movement. “Because perfect is a lot to live up to.”

Something clicks in my analytical brain and adrenaline spikes in my blood. It’s the same feeling I get when I debug a tricky piece of code. Ever since that first kiss, when the dominant frat-jock in front of me let me push him up against a door and take control, I’ve been trying to unpick his layers. I remember how he tensed up after pizza at my place, when I was making sure he wasn’t taking too much on.

“Do you remember what I asked you at my place?” I push his knees apart and move between them, taking his face in my hands. “I asked who was expecting you to be perfect.”

Sol blinks and swallows. “It doesn’t matter. When you have a track record, it’s what everyone expects.”

“If you drop the ball, so to speak, no one is going to think any less of you.” I press a soft kiss to his lips. “Even if you fuck up, the people in your life that care about you will still think you’re perfect.”

I kiss him again, wondering if he knows I’m including myself on that list. We might never see each other again after graduation, but until that day comes, I plan on feeding my Sol addiction at every possible opportunity, for as long as he lets me.

“What if I’m not enough?” Sol asks, the words little more than a whisper as I pull away. “What if high school and college are it for me? My golden years? What if when I graduate, it all goes to shit? I have no idea what I’m doing, Wes. I don’t know how to—”

I silence his spiral with a firm kiss, gripping his jaw. “Stop,” I say against his lips. “You have a network of people around you that will never let you fall. Yeah, life after college is going to be different. Scary. But you’ll be fine. I promise.”

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