His eyes met hers across the counter, and he breathed “I gotta go,” before running out of the house to the car, Hadley’s laughter following him.
When he arrived at the Hemlock house, Jared’s heart was beating so hard he thought there was a genuine possibility it would escape his throat, a bloody mess of sinew and tissue running down the front of his body. When he slammed the truck door closed, the front door of the house swung open and Adam stood there, barefoot, clutching his own open letter.
“Well?” Adam demanded.
Jared swallowed hard. “I got into Brown,” he said, his lips dry, throat raw.
For a moment Adam didn’t say anything. Then, “I got into Harvard.”
The words didn’t carry any of Adam’s usual swagger and arrogance. He’d been saying he was going to Harvard for years. The words barely held meaning any more. Now it was real, though. Now it was actually happening.
“That’s like, less than an hour away.”
Adam nodded. “More like thirty minutes if I’m driving. I looked it up earlier.”
They were still talking across a space of a hundred yards or so, Jared standing by his truck, Adam framed in the doorway to the house. All the things they hadn’t dared to say crossed that space, back and forth, back and forth.
We don’t have to split up.
We can still see each other all the time.
Hell, we could live together if we want.
Maybe in our second year. First year we have to do dorms. It’s part of the college experience.
You’re not going to be on the other side of the country come September.
After everything we’ve been through, I get to keep you.
Jared’s fingers twitched, then Adam ran out of the house, still barefoot, and hurled himself into Jared’s arms.
Jared caught him neatly and hauled him up, supporting his boyfriend by that very nice, very tight ass and buried his face in Adam’s neck. They didn’t need to say all those things aloud. For once Jared knew they were thinking the same thing. In a few months, they’d both move to the East Coast and start at Ivy League schools, and they’d be close enough to keep this still new, still fledgling relationship alive.
Thank God, he thought as he squeezed Adam tighter. They had a future together. Thank God.
Chapter 22
The Murano was one of the nicest hotels in the area. And even though it was only a high school prom, the hotel had gone all out, decorating the modern building with thousands of twinkling fairy lights and gorgeous displays of flowers. No balloons. New Harbor Academy was far too classy for that.
Jared had thought he was going to rent a tux, but it turned out there was no way his boyfriend was taking a date to prom in a rented tux, and they spent a very tense afternoon together in Seattle shopping before Jared picked something out to wear.
Apparently not all tuxedos were created equal. Who knew?
So, when he and Adam stepped out of the Caddy, Adam was wearing a Givenchy suit, and Jared was in Dolce & Gabbana. He’d nearly gone with Alexander McQueen, but D&G had won in the end.
They were dressed to perfection with the very definite goal of impressing. Jared tossed the car keys to a waiting valet and linked his fingers with Adam’s before they walked into the hotel.
Signs on large pieces of white paper directed them to the ballroom where the prom was being held—not that they needed directions. They could just follow the noise.
“Wait,” Jared said and pulled Adam into an alcove before they got to the main room.
“Hm?”
“I just… you look really amazing tonight.”
They’d already gone through this at Adam’s place. Juliette had insisted on taking a hundred pictures of them together before she let them go, and they’d promised they wouldn’t get drunk and drive home. Adam told her they had a room, and she’d relented. A little.
Because they’d both gotten dressed at Adam’s place, Jared knew his boyfriend wasn’t wearing underwear tonight, and on the whole ride over he’d been thinking about how fun it would be to peel the tight, glossy black pants off Adam later.
Later.
Adam reached up and cupped Jared’s face in his hand, then pressed their lips together lightly.
“I know,” he murmured, making Jared smile. “I love you.”
They walked into the ballroom holding hands, heads high, looking fucking good. Both of them.
It was, Jared decided after a few moments, like every other high school prom in the country. Just with more expensive outfits.
Someone was busy spiking the punchbowl, and he would bet his life savings everyone in the place had a sterling silver hipflask concealed somewhere on their person, ensuring the liquor kept flowing even when all the bar would serve was soft drinks. Except he’d been turned off bets recently.
Clare had selected, or possibly ordered, a table that sat on a slightly raised platform, giving her a view out over the whole party and the whole party a good view of her. She was wearing a tight gown that sparkled with crystals, more sparkle at her throat, wrists, and ears, and her hair piled up on top of her head in an elaborate twist. Next to her, Chris reclined in a black velvet suit, and although other minions fluttered and buzzed around them, Jared didn’t recognize them with more than a passing familiarity.
Ryder and Mia were dancing, wearing brightly colored dresses that made them look like elegant birds-of-paradise. Around them, other girls were dressed in Dior and Versace and labels movie stars wore on the red carpet to movie premiers, and no one thought twice about how ostentatious it was to put an eighteen-year-old in a twenty-four-hundred dollar dress.
“Come on, I’ll get you a drink,” Adam said, and led Jared to the bar with a hand on his lower back.
He ordered two Sprites with a smirk
