Emancipated by M. G. Reyes

Author:M. G. Reyes
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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LUCY

VENICE BEACH, FRIDAY, APRIL 17

I need a favor. Can u call me?

Lucy pressed the button to return John-Michael’s text with a call. The bus was pulling up to her stop in Venice. She gripped the rail as she waited for him to pick up.

“Where are you?” John-Michael’s voice sounded urgent, almost aggressive.

“I had detention.”

“Oh. Bummer.”

“What’s up? I’m on the bus . . . be home in a few minutes.”

“Stay at the bus stop. I’ll come pick you up in the Benz.”

“Dude, I’m in my uniform. Let me come home and change first.”

“I have an appointment, Lucy. I need to go right now.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. I want you to come with. I need you to.” He paused, then added in an anguished tone, “Please, Luce.”

“What kind of appointment?”

“At the health clinic.” Another pause. This time she could sense the anxiety in his voice. “I’m getting some blood tests done. Routine stuff, but . . .”

Lucy dropped her resistance. “Got it. I’m here for you, JM.”

John-Michael drove by a little later and Lucy hopped into the Benz. They just looked at each other for a second.

Impulsively, she leaned over and hugged him. “Try not to worry. It’ll be okay.”

He managed to nod. John-Michael looked paler than she’d ever seen him. His eyes had a haunted look.

Lucy leaned back into the thick leather upholstery. She guessed he was going to some kind of STD clinic. Lucy didn’t like to ask people if they did drugs or had a risky lifestyle, but someone like JM who’d lived on the streets might be at risk from hepatitis or even HIV. In which case, he’d have to get tested every three months. That had to suck. Even though there was a treatment nowadays, HIV was still a dangerous, troubling condition.

She felt honored that John-Michael had asked her to come with him. They’d had a brief period of intense friendship two years ago at rock camp, but since then, their friendship hadn’t gone much beyond the superficial. It was good to know that he still felt some kind of bond.

Lucy missed the thoughtful, intelligent, and surprisingly well-read boy she’d met when they were both fifteen. He was just coming to terms with his sexuality back then and wasn’t openly “out.” He’d come out to her one night as they wrote a song together. It had been an intense love song, what she’d taken to be a girl’s lyric. But when John-Michael had sung it back to her, he hadn’t changed the line, had sung of aching love for a boy. Suddenly, all the pieces of a puzzle had fallen into place. And very gently, she’d asked him if he was gay.

Yet the John-Michael she lived with now seemed, in some ways, completely different. He was still occasionally as sweet as he’d once been, especially when he decided to bake for the housemates. But he could be brusque, even belligerent, when he didn’t get what he wanted. Grace and Maya, who shared a room with

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