Go Your Own Way (12 page)

Otto held the boy back, and that gave Lennox enough time to grab Will’s hand and drag him past them and across the parking lot. They stopped at Will’s truck as Will fumbled with his keys. The group was almost upon them when Will unlocked the driver’s side and hurried in. Lennox circled around and hopped into the passenger side. They pulled out and the boys fell back, jeering and throwing pebbles after Will’s sputtering truck.

Will didn’t say anything until they were half a mile away. He pulled over onto the dirt shoulder.

“I don’t need your protection or whatever that was,” Will said. “I can take care of myself just fine. That’s not getting you on my good side.”

“I don’t want your good side. I want your backside, particularly if it’s flush with my front.”

Will frowned at him. “I’ve been dealing with those guys since kindergarten, so don’t bother, all right? God, between you and my dad… why doesn’t anyone think I’m capable of handling things on my own?”

Lennox unbuckled his seatbelt and popped the door open. This was a conversation they could easily have had while driving, so it was clear he wasn’t getting a ride home. But Lennox offered his own suggestion anyway.

“Maybe because you aren’t? You act tough, but handling that shit… nobody should have to deal with it. Though,” and Len­nox grinned slyly at Will through the open window, “if you ever want to convince me that you’re capable, I’ll happily watch a demonstration of you jerking off.”

“Fuck off.” Will hit the gas and peeled out, kicking up a dirt cloud around Lennox as he drove toward the mountains. Lennox coughed and stumbled back out of the dust. Will’s truck grew tiny in the distance. In a second, it turned down a side road and disappeared.

“Great,” Lennox muttered as he started his trek back into town. “No blow job is worth this.”

Almost a week passed before Will saw Lennox again. After the parking lot incident, Will spent two days looking for him. By the time he’d gotten home that day, guilt had crept up on him for dumping Lennox. But Lennox wasn’t around. Something might have happened to him, and all because Will had left him outside of town. Will had lived here his entire life, and, even for him, walking the streets wasn’t very safe. But on Friday morning, Roxanne finally gave him some good news. She’d seen Lennox heading into the front office, looking a little frazzled but fine.

By Monday, however, Will started to panic. Their project for English was due at the end of the week, and Lennox still hadn’t returned to classes.

Monday morning was like last week—mind-numbing. Bore­dom had settled into his year when it never had before. The only dif­ference—and Will hated admitting it—was Lennox’s absence. For once, his school year had been filled with the unexpected, with an untamable excitement. Will missed it. His life had rarely been unpredictable, and when it had, he’d never gained anything from it. Until now, it seemed.

He spent the morning by himself, keeping his nose in his books and ignoring the whispers that always seemed to waft around him. When the lunch bell rang, Will took his time getting to the cafeteria. Lennox was sitting at a table in corner.

Will almost bolted. So what if his life was back to its boring old self and he was now aware of how mundane it was? It was better that way. He liked life to be simple, and Lennox was a complication. Then he remembered their novel analysis. They had a project to do. Will squared his shoulders and headed to Lennox’s table. This conversation would be short. He’d get the information he needed, set up a time to meet after school this week and be rid of him until the next book started.

“When are you free?” Will asked as he sat down.

Lennox gave him that stupid smirk, and Will’s stomach pulsed a little. For a week, he’d been without that feeling, the sensation that molten lava was sloshing through his belly. It wasn’t fair that one tiny upturn of those soft, plump lips could get to him so easily.

“Desperate doesn’t look good on you,” Lennox said. He shoved a forkful of spaghetti into his mouth. “A mouth on your dick would. Particularly this one.”

“And keep you from your spaghetti?” Will said as Lennox gave a loud slurp. Flecks of sauce hit the table and Lennox’s cheeks. “How could I ever part you two? Besides, I’m not that interested in seeing how wide your mouth can stretch.”

That earned him a laugh, and Will paused at the sound. It was fuller; it somehow seemed more real than any laugh he’d heard from Lennox before. Will saw the light in his eyes and something that seemed different. All of Lennox was real—all the bad and the crude and the hostile—but this moment was human.

“We need to work on our English assignment,” Will said, giving himself a little shake. He couldn’t get caught up in figuring Len­nox out right now. His grade point average for college applications was more important. “It’s due Friday, and your dumb ass has been suspended. I’m free today and Thursday.”

“Got detention through Wednesday. Lunch whenever they decide to let me eat. Thursday’s out, too.”

Will groaned. “I have baseball conditioning on Wednesdays. Why can’t you do Thursday?”

“What time does your baseball end? We’ll both be here after school tomorrow. I’ll be nice and hard after seeing you in those tight baseball pants again.”

“From your seat in detention?”

Lennox leaned against the wall and shut his eyes. Will sighed. He couldn’t miss baseball tomorrow, not after missing two out of three tryouts because of detention a few weeks ago. Baseball ended at five, and the school library closed then. He couldn’t leave early, and even if he did, Lennox couldn’t get out of detention. Where could they go?

“So, the public library in Woodville? It’s a bit of a drive, but nothing else around here has a place to sit and work.” Will said. “It’s open until ten.”

Lennox’s foot slammed down on the table, and his ankle mon­i­tor blinked up at Will. He’d never seen it this close, but the sight of it made a shiver run down his spine. He still had no explanation for it, and the longer it took to figure out, the more it worried Will. He had to have done something serious to get that slapped on.

“I can’t make it to another town,” Lennox said, and for the first time, Will heard frustration in his voice.

“Then what are we supposed to do?”

“Each other.”

Will tried to think up another option. They could go to his house, but someone would end up dead if he brought Lennox there. The store closed early on Wednesdays, and Karen was off from the hospital. Either she or Dad would erupt, and Lennox would end up on a milk carton or
America’s Most Wanted
. He might even end up buried under their house. School was out of the question, the public library was too far away for Lennox’s stupid ankle monitor, and that left nowhere.

“We could always do it at my place. Check your clothes at the door,” Lennox said. Will frowned at the suggestive tone as Lennox winked. It was the worst idea Will had ever heard, and he still found himself agreeing. If Lennox came over to
his
house…

“Fine. What’s the address?”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll find you in the locker room while you’re showering,” Lennox said as the bell rang. “Maybe I’ll join you.”

“You will not—”

Lennox was already halfway across the cafeteria. Will watched him go, already dreading tomorrow afternoon and whatever it would bring. The rest of the afternoon flew by. In their final class, Ms. Mentore handed out guidance appointment slips. Will was glad to see his own appointment was early the following day. Finally, one thing was going his way.

That night, Will ate dinner by himself. Karen had the overnight shift at the hospital, and his dad worked late at the store on Tues­days to finish up mid-week orders. Will showered, changed and stretched out on the couch with his pre-calculus book and turned on the Pirates game.

“Anything good for dinner?” Ben shut the door and hung his keys on the hook next to Will’s favorite jacket.

“Grilled cheese and tots,” Will said. “I left some in the micro­wave for you. Pirates are working on a no-hitter, top of the seventh.”

Ben headed into the kitchen and returned with a plate. They watched the game in silence for a while, but Will saw Ben’s shadow lingering over his textbook as he struggled to solve the first problem.

“Need a hand?”

“An answer sheet. Why can’t I drop math?”

“You can in college. Well, if you do well enough on those AP tests.”

“I won’t.” Will flung his pencil toward the TV and slammed his book shut. “If I get a D in precalc…”

“I won’t hold it against you,” Ben said. “But if you fail the first test, you’re going to tutoring again. I want you to at least manage a C, all right?”

Will blew his hair out of his eyes. “Fine, mostly because I want to keep my GPA as high as possible for college applications.”

“Good man.” A rough hand clapped Will on the back. “You still looking at New York?”

The game went to commercial. They didn’t talk about next year often, not since last year when Will had officially announced that he was applying to schools in New York. Karen loved to talk about the city with him. She’d lived there once, for an internship, when she was just out of nursing school. Her stories were part of the reason he’d started thinking about school in New York City a few years ago. The excitement, the bustle of the city, the lights, the atmosphere. Being so much closer to people, to culture, to a gigantic hub of art and fashion was like stepping into a dream. A loud, chaotic, overwhelming dream that took him away from here.

Maybe it was a long shot, but it was worth a chance.

“Yeah,” Will said. He tried to ignore how guilty that made him feel, but his dad had realized almost seven years ago that Will wasn’t staying in Virginia when he’d found several notebooks full of pictures of places Will wanted to live, along with printed-out maps of bus routes and subway stops. “In the city, you know. Sarah Lawrence is a great school. Even Karen says so. They’ve even got LGBT studies, Dad. Isn’t that cool? You know, people more like me. NYU seems like a great writing school, too, but I think I want to try for Sarah Lawrence, if I can.”

“Good, that’s—you’ll love it there without this place hanging over you.” Ben tore off a hunk of his grilled cheese and nudged him with his elbow. “You still getting harassed by that little shit?”

“Dad
, he’s—I have to work on a project with him tomorrow. Not looking forward to it.”

“At school?”

Will paused and snatched a tot off his dad’s plate. “Yeah, in the library. I’d rather not watch you murder a classmate even if he is a vulgar prick.”

Ben nodded and left it at that, but Will’s stomach twisted. He never liked lying to his dad, and he usually wasn’t very good at it. It was better if his dad didn’t know about him going to Lennox’s place. Then he’d be tailed to all the way to… wherever Lennox lived. Will always saw him walking or skateboarding home, so he didn’t live far from Eastern.

“I’m gonna turn in. I’ve got an early day tomorrow. If he makes it to the ninth, you better record it so I can see the end,” Ben said as he finished his sandwich. “Leave the light on for Karen.”

Ben ruffled his hair as he passed behind the couch. Will fin­ished off the last few tots and flipped his math book back open. Of the twenty problems, he attempted sixteen, got one right on the third try, and finished with a dozen pages of jumbled calculations for the rest. After an hour, he finally gave up and watched McMillian blow his no-hitter bid in the top of the ninth.

The next morning after breakfast, Will tried the problems again. This time, he gave up and tossed his calculations in the trash before his cereal got soggy.

In English, Lennox was back. He took the seat behind Will and blew on the back of his neck. By the time the bell rang ninety minutes later, Will was sweating and wishing he’d worn looser jeans. After diving into the bathroom between classes to splash his neck and face, Will was late for fourth block and went to the guidance office for his appointment instead.

“Here for your senior checklist?”

Will tried to smile back at the secretary. It wasn’t easy when he was still hard. What he wouldn’t give to hit Lennox… or kiss him again. A rough, warm kiss down his neck. Fingers dipping under the waistband of his jeans, stroking his skin and slipping past his underwear—

“Yes. Will Osborne at nine-thirty.” He handed her his slip and she checked his name on a long list.

“Okay, you’re a little early. Take a seat and Mrs. Martinello will be out shortly.”

Will sat and pulled out his phone. Nothing new, not even a text from Roxanne that he could delete. Karen had sent him a silly video of cats late last night, and he watched it until—

“Missed you in class, babe.”

Lennox slumped down in the seat next to him. Will’s chest swelled as a hand rubbed along his thigh. His fantasies crept back. Only this time, those lips were skimming down his chest, his stomach; those fingers were peeling back his underwear and—

Will shook himself and leaned past Lennox to catch the sec­retary’s attention.

“Is he supposed to be here?” Will demanded.

“Lennox McAvoy, nine-thirty,” she said with a nod. “You two are paired with the Nguyen twins. Mrs. Martinello will be with you shortly.”

She picked up her desk phone and dialed a number. Will lis­tened to her ask someone if Sophie and Hana Nguyen were absent before he tuned out. Lennox’s fingers continued to dance over Will’s thigh as they waited. He tried not to squirm. It shouldn’t be this easy to get a boner, not from one simple touch in the
guidance office,
for heaven’s sake. Not even with his own head churning out one filthy, naked image after another. Lennox’s mouth was the last thing he needed on any part of his body. A soaped-up washcloth and some vigorous scrubbing would be more helpful. He might even manage to wash his lust right out of his skin.

“Ready for this afternoon?” Lennox asked as he dived in to kiss Will’s neck. Will shoved his face away. “Saving that beautiful neck for later? All right, I can dig that. You’ve kept me waiting this long.”

“You’ll wait forever,” Will told him. “Besides, you can’t possibly do that with your
parents
in the house. That’s gross.”

Lennox’s face dropped at his words. A frown settled on his mouth and his hand left Will’s thigh just as the guidance coun­selor stepped out of her office. “William Osborne and Lennox McAvoy?”

Will nodded. Lennox blew a spit bubble.

“Emily? Front office called,” the secretary said. “The Nguyen twins aren’t in school today.”

“Thanks. Okay, right back here, guys.”

Will and Lennox took seats in a conference room. On the table were several folders and files. Mrs. Martinello tucked two of them back onto a shelf and sat. “Now, let’s see. Your file says you’re planning on going to college, William. Is that still correct?”

“Yeah, it’s just Will.”

She smiled at him and pulled a packet from one stack. The front page read
College Applications and the Admissions Process
. “I’ll have you back for a solo appointment to discuss more of your school options, but is there anywhere you’ve been looking at?”

“New York City,” Will said at once. She jotted down a few notes. “I want to study writing and literature. Maybe a double major.”

“New York is a nice place to do that. Expensive, but New York has several great programs. In-state options are great alternatives, too.”

Will shifted in his chair and glanced at Lennox, who was busy blowing another spit bubble. “I’ve been looking at NYU a-and Sarah Lawrence. I’ll apply to a few in-state colleges as well, as backups.”

Mrs. Martinello whistled softly. “It’s always smart to have back­ups. Sarah Lawrence is a tough school to get into, Will. NYU will be easier, but your GPA and extracurriculars are great, so with a great essay, you stand a good chance. Have you started any of the applications yet? Or your application essay? I believe Mr. Lorren has made that an assignment for his advanced classes.”