It was a dig intended to hurt her. Jared knew she didn’t have a whole bunch of friends here, and the only people who knew her were imported from somewhere else. They didn’t have anywhere else to go; Hadley’s hospitality was what kept them in Washington.
“Yeah. Okay,” Hadley said. “No worries.” She was clearly hurt, at least a little bit by Jared’s words, and held up her bottles of wine. “I’ll get back to the guys. I’ll see you later, yeah?”
Jared nodded and continued on, up the stairs and down the hall to the room Hadley let him call his own. Adam followed silently.
The room was a mess, but not hideously so. Just a few things on the floor and a pile of papers on his desk. Dirty clothes were thankfully contained in his laundry hamper and the bed was made… sort of.
“It’s nice in here,” Adam said, leaning against the door frame.
“Thanks. I didn’t decorate or anything. It was like this when I got here. Hadley said I could pick a room, and I liked this one the best.”
It wasn’t the biggest room in the house, nor the second or third biggest. It was tucked out of the way at the end of the hall so he didn’t have to deal with people stomping past when they stayed over. There was a bathroom opposite he’d claimed as his own, and enough space for a king bed and his desk, which was all he really needed.
The walls were papered dark blue with a very fine checked pattern. The woodwork was clean white, and the furniture was made of solid pine, which was nice, so he’d kept it. There was a TV mounted on the wall, fully loaded with all the cable channels, not that Jared watched much.
His bed wasn’t quite as big as Adam’s, but it was fine for Jared on his own, the king more than enough space for him to stretch out on.
Jared crossed to his closet and pulled out a clean shirt and pants, then found a tank top from his dresser to wear under the shirt. He balled up boxers and socks and stuffed them into an Eastpak, shouldering the bag, then nodding to Adam.
“Okay. I’m good.”
Adam grinned. “Yes, you are,” he said, his voice an appreciative burr.
On impulse, Jared grabbed the front of Adam’s shirt and pulled him into a hard kiss, lips and teeth catching painfully at first before Adam grunted, caught his footing, and wrapped a hand around the back of Jared’s neck to steady him.
Then Adam licked into Jared’s mouth, immediately taking the kiss hard and deep. They were both still dressed in their school uniforms, and Jared had a fleeting idea about dragging Adam down onto his bed and making out there, maybe pushing their boundaries a little further, figuring out what else they could do. In his bed.
Adam’s hair was silky smooth under Jared’s fingertips, the light brown strands still soft despite the product Adam must have used to make it look so good. By this time of day—it was nearly eight—there was light stubble on Adam’s jaw that definitely hadn’t been there that morning, and Jared fought the impulse to lick it.
He hummed into the kiss, then broke it with a quick peck to the tip of Adam’s elegant nose.
“Mm. That was nice. Come on. I want to get out of here before we run into one of Hadley’s drunk friends.”
Adam seemed confused, and it was his turn to have to take extra steps to catch up with Jared as he strode down the hallway.
Chapter 11
The white party wasn’t invitation-only. Chris opened his doors, and the neighborhood flooded in, as with most of the parties he hosted. From the first one, just after school started, to now, Jared had learned the boundaries and idiosyncrasies of this odd little clan of people and felt far more confident in navigating the social rules.
Adam offered him a ride to the party, but Jared declined, preferring to get ready at his place, then make his way to Chris’s house. For some reason, it was important that he took his car there, that he arrived alone, on his terms and in his own time.
Not wanting to arrive too early, Jared forced himself out of the house for a run in the early evening, just as the sun was starting to lower in the sky. It took a good couple of hours to circle New Harbor, taking in the sights of the picturesque town at sunset while Fall Out Boy blared in his ears.
By the time he arrived home, his muscles were singing and he was out of breath, sweating, feeling generally disgusting. He pushed his fingers through his hair and let himself back into the house, jogging lightly up the stairs and heading straight for the bathroom.
While he showered, humming to himself, he contemplated how much things had changed from the first party he’d attended at Chris’s to this one. Things could have been so very different if he hadn’t immediately settled with the “in” crowd here, and he still wasn’t sure what stroke of luck or turn of fate had brought him to this conclusion. Whatever it was, he was grateful. Starting at a new school for the senior year of high school sucked.
Jared had planned to wear a tank under the shirt—it was thin, and probably see-through, but standing naked in front of the mirror in his room changed his mind.
He definitely didn’t have a bad body. Playing soccer, along with his regular running and gym habit, had sculpted his muscles and added definition where flab would otherwise have set in. Unlike some of the kids his age, he had hair on his chest, light, golden fuzz across his tanned skin. Jared was always a little tanned; genetics had given him a dusky skin color.
Tonight, he was in the mood to play. He wasn’t sure what
