Hold by Rachel Davidson Leigh

Author:Rachel Davidson Leigh [Leigh, Rachel Davidson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945053108
Publisher: Duet, an imprint of Interlude Press
Published: 2016-10-20T23:05:58+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

The next day at school, Luke couldn’t fight the feeling that he was supposed to be happy. No, he was supposed to be ecstatic.

He was maybe, sort-of-dating the boy he’d been in love with since middle school. There had been an actual date, and, when he’d come home, his mom had actually asked how it all went. For her, that was huge. He should have embarrassed himself with joy, but when Dee asked how he was doing, he only mustered a queasy grimace.

Then again, she grinned enough for the both of them. “Oh, I see.” She beamed as she poked the sketchpad in his hands. “Do you not kiss and tell? I realize you’ve never had the opportunity before, but Luke, Boo Boo, telling is the best part.”

“I think that means you’re doing it wrong,” Marcos said, as he materialized on Luke’s other side, and Luke considered buying him a bell. “I might be wrong, but I think other bits are supposed to be the best part.”

“Like the kissing?” Luke tried.

“Yup. That’s a start.”

Dee smothered a snort with her hand and kicked Luke in the shins as she backed away toward class. He was pretty sure that meant she was happy for them. So happy, in fact, that she didn’t ask about the bags under Luke’s eyes. It wasn’t that Luke wasn’t happy, per se. The joy was just tempered by a whole head-full of exhaustion.

Hours after coming back from Star Wars with Marcos, Luke still hadn’t been able to close his eyes. The night had replayed in his head on an endless loop, sometimes with extra bits of rehearsal with Eddie or set-building with Dee cut in for bonus confusion.

Yoda. Leia. Hordes of Ewoks.

Eddie walked in with Renée. His hands played on her skin.

Luke turned into an Asshole. Capital A.

Marcos laughed. Marcos shined brighter than the movie.

They kissed, right on the lips, where anyone could have seen them, where Eddie could have seen them, and it all felt—

Luke had dropped his hands over his face and ground the heels of his hands into his eyes until he saw stars. When he’d replayed their date, his brain got to the part with the lips and threw out error messages like confetti. Stop. Do not pass. Does not compute. Beep. Kissing does not compute. So he’d traced the drawings on his ceiling with his eyes until he couldn’t keep them open. The last time he remembered looking at his phone had been after three a.m.

“Do you have the time?”

Marcos bumped his shoulder and brought him back to the here and now. Luke held up his phone. It wasn’t fair, not to Luke himself and definitely not to Marcos, but when Luke looked at him, he could only wonder why nothing stopped.

They’d kissed; it had been Luke’s first kiss with his crush of a bajillion years, and he could literally stop time, but it hadn’t occurred to him, not once. He hadn’t even felt that metaphorical first-kiss stillness books always talked about.

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