Fifty Yards and Holding by David-Matthew Barnes

Author:David-Matthew Barnes [Barnes, David-Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626394155
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2015-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

*

Once they were in the car, Riley turned to Toro and asked, “Hey, is everything okay?”

Victor shrugged and said, “Yeah. I feel better now.”

Riley braked at a red light. “Good.”

“You’re not upset I came by, are you?” Victor asked. “I hope I didn’t get you into trouble with your mom. She seems cool.”

“I’ll deal with her later,” Riley said, already anticipating the questions she would ask. “Where do you want to go? What do you want to do?”

The traffic light changed, casting a green electric haze over the car.

“Can we go back to the pier again? I like it there,” Toro said. “It kinda feels like it’s our spot.”

Riley made a right turn and headed west on University Avenue. “I looked for you at school today.”

“I didn’t go.”

“How come?” he asked.

Toro’s tone was nonchalant. “I went to a funeral yesterday.”

“For your cousin?”

“Yeah,” he said. “A lot of people showed up. They were crying.”

Riley approached his next question with caution. “Did you cry?”

Victor almost sounded insulted. “No, man. Not in front of everybody.”

Riley glanced over at Toro. His face was illuminated by the dashboard glow and the passing lights from the cityscape outside. Riley breathed in deep, realizing how beautiful Toro was. His dark features pulled him in and refused to let go.

Once they arrived and parked, they zipped up their jackets and stepped out of the car. The night was warmer than the last time they were at the marina, but the breeze had a chilly bite to it. Since it was a weeknight, the pier was practically abandoned.

Riley glanced up at the stars twinkling against the vast, dark sky.

They started to walk, shoulder to shoulder. By Toro’s pace, he could tell they weren’t in a hurry.

That’s fine with me because I want to spend every second with him I can.

“It feels like we have this place to ourselves,” said Toro.

Riley smiled at the thought. “I wish we did.”

“What would you do differently?” Toro asked.

“If we were totally alone?”

Toro grinned. “Yeah.”

“I don’t know. Tell you all my deep, dark secrets I guess.”

Toro was intrigued. “You got a lot?”

“Not really,” said Riley. “I’d probably make most of ’em up. My life is pretty boring.”

“You can have some of mine, then.”

They reached the end of the pier. It was then Toro seemed to relax. He breathed in deep. The view seemed to have a calming effect on him.

“I never thought about it before,” he said, “until I met you.”

Riley joined Toro at the railing. They both leaned against it, facing the water. “Hanging out on the pier?” he said.

“No. Leaving someday,” said Toro. “Getting outta here. The other night when you were talking about going away to college, it got me thinking. Maybe that’s something I could do.”

Has he never thought about going to college before? The concept sounds so new to him.

Many times since they’d met, Riley tried to imagine what Victor’s life was like: his friends, his parents, his sister. How did he act when they weren’t together? Was his home life grim?

“You could, Toro,” he said.

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