“When I found out for sure, I didn’t want to ruin what we had going on. I wanted us to enjoy our time together without worrying about having an expiration date.”
He scoffs. “An expiration date? So, we’re done for sure? That’s what you’re saying? You going off to New York to record an album means the end of us?”
I stand up and go to him. “No, I just meant I didn’t want either of us to be so preoccupied with me leaving that we didn’t enjoy every second we had together. I’m coming back, Ali. Once this album is done, I’ll be back.”
Ali shakes his head. “And if you’re successful?”
“I’ll always come back to you.”
“You didn’t even tell me you got signed. I’m sure you celebrated that, and you left me out of it, Kingston. That hurts.”
“Ali, I don’t know what’s about to happen, but I do know that I’ll always want what we’ve always planned. I want us no matter what.”
He gently touches my cheek as he stares into my eyes. “You’re about to be one of the biggest celebrities in the world. I’ve heard you guys, and you’re all so talented. You’re about to be everywhere. There’s no way you’ll have the time to come back to little ol’ Gaspar, and you certainly won’t have time to have a gay lover.”
I circle his wrist with my fingers and pull him into me. “You’re so much more to me than a gay lover.”
Ali plants a soft kiss on my lips before stepping back. “Not anymore.”
17
Alejandro
Present Day
“Well, looks like the movie’s over,” I say, noticing people getting up.
“There was a movie?” Merrick jokes.
“You were too busy running your mouth.”
“Well, it’s been a long time. Just trying to catch up.”
Merrick gathers our trash and walks it over to the bin about twelve feet away. I’m just getting to my feet when I notice a couple girls approach him.
He’s been recognized.
As I get closer, he poses with them for a selfie, smiles that adorable fucking smile, and says something that makes them laugh.
“Still charming as ever, huh?”
His eyes find mine. “You tell me.”
I shake my head and playfully smack him on the shoulder. “Come on, rock star. Those girls are about to post those photos to social media, and everyone’s gonna come swarming.”
After we’re in the SUV, he just sits behind the wheel, not making a move to start it up.
“What’s up?”
Merrick shifts in his seat and faces me. “I don’t want to take you home yet.”
I glance at my watch. “It’s only nine o’clock, and it’s not like I have curfew anymore. What do you wanna do?”
That was the wrong question to ask, because when Merrick looks at me, his eyes are hooded, and nothing but lust-filled thoughts rest behind them. When he looks at my mouth, I unconsciously lick my lips.
“I don’t know. I don’t care, really. Nothing too public would be nice, though.”
“Well, I don’t know. We could just drive.”
I think briefly about saying we could go to my place, but that would definitely send a message that I’m not trying to send. I can tell Merrick’s got a lot of things on his mind, and I can try to be his friend again, but I’m not willing to put my heart on the line anymore.
“That’s fine,” he says, turning the key to crank the engine.
Merrick drives through our small town, and we reminisce about our childhood.
“Remember when we were parked in that little lot,” he says, pointing out a small spot near another park. “And we got so fucking high in the car, and then a cop pulled up?”
I laugh. “Oh, yeah! Shit, I was scared out of my mind.”
“I remember,” he says with a laugh. “I was so paranoid. I didn’t know if leaving would bring attention to us, but didn’t really want to stay there either. The car was smoked out!”
“Good thing that other car got his attention first.”
“Yeah, ’cause the windows were steamed up and the car was rockin’.”
“Teenagers are so stupid, man.”
“Aw, man. They closed down Box O Tacos?” he says, noticing the boarded up windows. “They had the best fucking Strawberry Mountain Dew and cheese sticks.”
“Wrong. They had the best Strawberry Sierra Mist, and you would always pull the cheese sticks open and only eat the cheese, like a fuckin’ weirdo.”
“Hey, man. Don’t judge me.”
After driving for another ten minutes or so, he pulls up to our old high school and puts the vehicle in park.
“So many memories here.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “There’s that table we used to sit on at lunch.”
He chews on his lip, fighting off a laugh. “That fucking table.” Before I can ask what he means, he goes on. “You see the alcove to the music building?”
“I see it.”
“That’s where we met.”
“What? Really?” I ask.
“You don’t remember?”
“I thought we met in English.”
“No. I was coming out of choir, but it was raining its ass off. I mean, you’d think we were in the middle of a hurricane or something, so I stayed in the alcove, looking at my schedule and map of the campus, trying to figure out where I needed to go. Right before I was about to make a run for it, you came darting around the building and into the alcove with me. You were drenched, looking like a drowned rat.” He laughs, shaking his head. “You looked up at me and gave me a lopsided grin and said, ‘The weatherman said there’s a slight chance of rain today.’ and I started cracking up. I don’t even know why I thought it was so funny, but I kept thinking about it the rest of the day.”
“You were so bundled up,” I
