Jared laughed and leaned in to steal a kiss. “Best of both worlds.”
“I’m best of all the worlds, darling.”
“That you are.”
“Tell me about your family.”
Jared groaned. “They’re fucking awful.”
“Come on. I spilled. It’s your turn.”
Sighing heavily, Jared moved onto his back, pulling Adam with him so they ended up with Adam’s head on his shoulder, snuggling like a koala bear. Brushing his fingers through Adam’s hair was reassuring, so Jared did it rhythmically until he’d soothed himself.
“Youngest of three kids,” he started. “Two older sisters. My mom is a society girl, probably like yours. Her branch of the family tree is Irish, actually. I’ve always wanted to go to Ireland.”
“I’ll take you,” Adam promised. Jared huffed a laugh.
“My dad was really strict when we were growing up, and that gave me the perfect route of rebellion. I knew exactly what would piss him off from a very young age, and the main reason I came out was because I wanted to see what their reaction would be.”
“Really? That doesn’t seem like you at all.” Jared couldn’t decide if he was being sarcastic or not, so he dug his fingers in Adam’s ribs. “Really!” Adam exclaimed. “You’re so chilled.”
“Well, I am now. I don’t have anything to rebel against any more.”
“I suppose.”
“Plus, I don’t want to piss Hadley off. She’s been really good to me. I’m not about to fuck that up.”
“All right. Go on. What happened when you came out?”
“Oh, it was at dinner,” Jared said, smiling at the memory. “We’d just finished dessert, and I set my spoon down and told them I had something I needed to tell them all. Then I said, ‘Mom, Dad, you should know that I’m gay.’ No one said anything. They just stared at me, so I said, ‘I’m attracted to men.’”
“Of course, my mother threw a fit, and I was sure my dad was going to have a heart attack; his face actually went purple. He started screaming and told me to get out of his house. Then my mom was wailing and saying he couldn’t throw me out, and my sisters just sat there smirking at me.”
Adam laughed. “You’ve got style, I’ll give you that much.”
“Thanks.”
“Did they kick you out?”
“Of course not. My grandmother loved it. She still does, actually. She’s in her eighties, and my dad has always had a very tense relationship with her—she hasn’t approved of him in a long time. Says he’s got a bad temper, which he does, of course, but he doesn’t like his own mother telling him off about it. Grandma loves me.”
“You’re lucky. All my grandparents passed away years ago.”
“I’ll share mine if you’d like. Grandma would love you too, you know. Actually, I should take you out to meet her. She’d get a kick out of that.”
“Where does she live?” Adam asked, shifting to look up at Jared.
“New York.”
“Oh, I’ll definitely go there,” Adam said and sounded relieved. “I thought you were going to send me to the back end of nowhere in Michigan.”
“Have you ever been to Michigan?”
“No, and I don’t intend to.”
Jared snorted. “Well, you’re safe. Grandma lives on the Upper East Side.”
“Nice.”
They watched each other for a moment, then together their eyes fluttered closed and with the smallest movements, shifting on the bed, they were kissing. This was slow and easy, no pressure, all sweet caresses, and Jared adored it.
“This is really happening, isn’t it?” Adam murmured. “I really get to have this.”
“Mhmm.”
“I so thought I’d fucked it up.”
Jared nudged Adam onto his back and twisted so he was lying at a ninety-degree angle, his feet hanging off the edge of the bed. Like this, Adam’s belly was once again his pillow.
“Sometimes… I don’t know. There’s a journey involved. It took us a while to get here but it was worth it, right?”
“Yeah. I’m going to be apologizing to you for what happened for the rest of our relationship.”
“Do that and it won’t be very long,” Jared said easily. “I’m over it, Adam. In a weird way, I don’t blame you.”
“But it was my fault.”
“Well, yeah,” Jared said with a laugh. “I get the circumstances now, though. I can’t blame you for acting the way you had always acted before you met me.”
“I’m different now.”
“In some ways, yeah. That’s why I’m with you.” Jared turned his head and grinned up at Adam.
“I just thought of something.”
“Oh?”
“We never went out to the club. With your fake ID.”
“And it was so nice for Clare to get it for me.”
Adam tugged at Jared’s hair lightly. “We should go out. Like, dancing or whatever.”
“You want to be seen in public with me? Why, Mr. Hemlock. I’m honored.” The fingers in Jared’s hair tightened. “Fine! Fine. I’d love to go out with you. Set it up, I’ll go.”
Adam sighed in apparent happiness. “I love it when I get what I want.”
Waking up in Adam’s bed, in Adam’s room, in Adam’s arms… it wouldn’t be a given for much longer, so Jared tried to savor it. His partner was no longer the covers-stealer he used to be; it seemed he preferred to drape himself over Jared’s back as he slept, cheek pressed between Jared’s shoulder blades.
Time seemed to be moving too fast. Spring was already creeping in around the edges of winter, stealing some of the chill out of the rain and nudging flowers up out of the ground. Jared imagined summer would come before any of them was ready for it, bringing finals and the last few months of their adolescence before the whole gang split, heading to different corners of the country for college.
For now, though, there was a
