Out of Nowhere (39 page)

“I’m gonna get ginger ale,” she says and walks over to the snack table, but I think I see the ghost of a smile.

The kids paint nails peacefully for a while, trading friendly barbs and compliments like always as their music pumps in the background.

“Holy…,” Rafe mutters, and his eyes are on his nails. Mischa has actually made them look like pictures I’ve seen of outer space. Black with swirls and clouds of white, stars that blaze yellow and blue, and smatterings of dusty particles. “That’s amazing,” he says to Mischa.

“Dude,” Mikal says, “there are, like, a thousand tutorials on YouTube. Get a meme.”

I smile at Rafe. I should’ve known that it wouldn’t matter if it was actual astronomy or nail polish technique. Rafe is captivated by anything that takes skill. I’m so distracted by how handsome he looks that I don’t notice my own nails until Mikal says, “All done!”

He’s changed the color somehow. My fingernails look like broken glass, with white shattered over the gray.

“What the…?”

“You like?” Mikal asks.

“Dude, that’s… kind of awesome. Looks like a broken windshield.”

“Good call on the crackle topcoat!” Mikal calls to Dorothy.

She salutes him, then says, “An announcement, then cake.”

“Ooh, there’s cake?” Mikal asks, and she just shoots him an offended look that says
You would dare to doubt me?

Dorothy nods to DeShawn and everyone falls into a circle, their attention on him.

“I wanted you all to be the first to know,” DeShawn says, but his gaze is split between Rafe and Anders. “I got into MIT. I just found out.”

Rafe lets out a whoop and is across the gazebo in an instant. He grabs DeShawn and squeezes him in a hug so tight DeShawn’s feet come off the floor.

“Dude, dude, you’re gonna get your galaxies all over his shirt!” Carlos yells.

Rafe unhands DeShawn, but he’s grinning wide.

“I’m so proud of you,” he says to DeShawn. “So damn proud.”

DeShawn is nodding and looking at the ground, seemingly overcome. Anders is standing against the wall. He doesn’t look surprised, but he’s watching DeShawn intently and he has his arms wrapped around himself.

All the kids are whooping and patting DeShawn on the back, carefully keeping their freshly painted nails away from his white clothing, and Rafe looks like he’s close to tears. His eyes are wide and unfocused, and his hands are shaking at his sides, galaxies vibrating.

Finally, in all the jumping and yelling, Rafe’s eyes find mine and everything in him pulls at me.

I don’t care that we’re in public, don’t care we’re in front of twenty teenagers and that god knows what bubble-gummy dance music is blaring in the background. Rafe needs me, so I take a step toward him and keep my eyes on his.

“Colin,” he says, his voice shaky. I nod at him and he grabs my shoulder. DeShawn had a lot of trouble over the last few months. A bunch of family issues arose, and his uncle was concerned about his mental health and turned to Rafe for some support. Since DeShawn is eighteen, Rafe felt okay being involved, and they’d ended up talking a lot about DeShawn’s future, and what he hoped for if he got into MIT. Rafe’s pride in DeShawn is radiating from him. He’s practically glowing.

He pulls me to him and buries his face in my neck. My arms come around him automatically and I hold him tight. Then he tilts my chin up gently and kisses me. Just a light brush of our lips, but his thumb strokes my cheekbone and he’s looking into my eyes like he doesn’t see anything else at all.

And suddenly it goes dead quiet except for the pulsing backbeat from the stereo.

“Um….”

“Uh….”

“So….”

The kids who already knew about Rafe and me are grinning. The others are staring at us and looking around at each other.

“Oh. My. God. I
totally
called it!”

“Dude, me too—I knew it!”

“Um, yeah, we all
knew
it.”

“But—”

“And—”

Then it’s just more clapping and squealing and the kids are bouncing around us. Someone has thrown their arms around us in an excited hug. Someone has turned the music up and the kids are dancing. Someone has thrown glitter up in the air and it’s falling down on us like rain.

Through the backbeat and the nail polish and the goddamned glitter, Rafe puts his hands on my shoulders and my eyes find his. He holds me there, at arm’s length, like we’re kids at a middle school dance. But his smile is as warm as I’ve ever seen it. His dark hair falls around his face and his skin glows against the collar of his white T-shirt and he’s looking at me like I’m the only thing in the world.

“Hey,” I say, “Rafe. Move in with me.”

Rafe freezes for a moment, then relaxes. “I basically already live there,” he says over the music, his eyes dancing. I roll mine and look at him expectantly. He pulls me into a hug and I press my nose into his neck, breathing him in.

“So? What do you say?”

His laugh is pure joy. “Do we have nail polish remover at home?”

DECARCERATION REFERS
to the process of ending mass incarceration in the United States, acknowledging the entrenched political, historical, and social systems that produced it, addressing the damage it has done to our communities, and investing resources in alternatives.

If you’re interested in learning more about decarceration, prison education and literacy programs, or queer youth programs like those mentioned in
Out of Nowhere
, here are some places to start:

Check out Michelle Alexander’s book,
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
(www.goodreads.com/book/show/6792458-the-new-jim-crow).

Decarcerate PA (www.decarceratepa.info) is a grassroots campaign working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania.

In the Philadelphia area? Books Through Bars (booksthroughbars.org) distributes free books and educational materials to prisoners. You can volunteer and donate books or money. Not near Philadelphia? Find a similar program near you at Prison Book Program (prisonbookprogram.org).

The Attic Youth Center (www.atticyouthcenter.org) is an independent LGBTQ+ youth center in Philadelphia. Visit their website for more information and to donate, or you can find a community center in your area at www.lgbtcenters.org/Centers/find-a-center.aspx.

Middle of Somewhere: Book One

Daniel Mulligan is tough, snarky, and tattooed, hiding his self-consciousness behind sarcasm. Daniel has never fit in—not at home in Philadelphia with his auto mechanic father and brothers, and not at school where his Ivy League classmates looked down on him. Now, Daniel’s relieved to have a job at a small college in Holiday, Northern Michigan, but he’s a city boy through and through, and it’s clear that this small town is one more place he won’t fit in.

Rex Vale clings to routine to keep loneliness at bay: honing his muscular body, perfecting his recipes, and making custom furniture. Rex has lived in Holiday for years, but his shyness and imposing size have kept him from connecting with people.

When the two men meet, their chemistry is explosive, but Rex fears Daniel will be another in a long line of people to leave him, and Daniel has learned that letting anyone in can be a fatal weakness. Just as they begin to break down the walls keeping them apart, Daniel is called home to Philadelphia, where he discovers a secret that changes the way he understands everything.

“
In the Middle
of Somewhere is a deeply character driven book, which I found at turns to be charming, delightful, fun and poignant. Some of the prose is beautiful and so very apt.”

—Dear Author

“Sigh. So you know when you read a book and it just makes you happy? That is exactly what happened after reading
In the Middle of Somewhere
. I loved every minute of it and finished the book just so content.”

—Joyfully Jay

“
In the Middle of Somewhere
is tender and domestic and funny and often steaming hot.”

—Heroes and Heartbreakers

“This is a very enjoyable book, beautifully written, with well-drawn characters and just the right mix of angst, emotion and sensuality to make it a beautiful romance.”

—Prism Book Alliance

“I really enjoyed this novel. It was so well written, with great dialogue, I can’t believe it’s the author’s first book!”

—Sinfully

“…I was sucked into this story, so even though it’s 300+ pages it didn’t seem that long to me. I liked it so much I’m hoping to get to read the next books in the series.”

—On Top Down Under Reviews

“This was such an amazing story. It flows perfectly.”

—Rainbow Gold Reviews

ROAN PARRISH
is currently wandering between Philadelphia and New Orleans, drowning out her cat’s complaints at riding in the car by singing along to the radio at ever-increasing volumes. A former academic, she’s used to writing things that no one reads. She still loves to geek out about books, movies, TV, and music—now, though, she’s excited to be writing the kind of romantic, angsty stories that she loves to escape into.

When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing.

You can find her on her website, on Twitter, on Facebook, occasionally on Pinterest, and on Instagram, where she mostly natters on about food. Have questions/comments/pictures of octopi? Want to recommend a strong cheese or express a strong opinion? Drop her a line on e-mail. She’d love to hear from you.

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Published by

DREAMSPINNER PRESS

5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA

www.dreamspinnerpress.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.