“Rent’s not playing right now.”
“What aboutCats?”
Tommy snorted. “We didn’t go to the theater.”
“Tell me you at least went on a carriage ride in Central Park,” Lawson said, donning a voice of dramatic disappointment, just to hear Tommy laugh.
“Definitely not.”
“Dude. What’s the point of New York, then?”
“Seeing my dumb family. But that’s done for now. So. What’ve you been up to?”
At some point – not now, not even soon, maybe, but at some day in the future – Lawson was going to ask Tommy why his family was a total mystery. Why his mom was so skittish, and why they couldn’t ever hang out at Tommy’s house, and why going to visit his relatives in New York had put such a dark look on his face the day before he left. But now, he remembered the car keys hanging on the hook in the next room, and he sucked in an excited breath.
“Oh,man. You won’tbelievethis…”
He didn’t believe it, laughing and insisting Lawson was bullshitting him. But the next morning, he was loitering out by the student lot when Lawson pulled up, and Lawson wished he had a camera handy to capture his stunned expression.
They had made plans the night before on the phone, and then Tommy had confirmed them in the parking lot, where they stood close together, close enough for Lawson’s arm hair to lift and strain toward the hum of energy coming off Tommy’s arm, but they didn’t touch, and that made it somewhere sweeter, and sharper, waiting through the school day for the time when they finally could touch.
~*~
Lawson’s palms were tingling, his whole body thrumming when he slid the key in the ignition and cranked the engine when school let out. Tommy’s color was a little high, and it could have been blamed on the cool autumn wind, but the way he bit his lip and darted looks at Lawson had nothing to do with the weather.
Tommy fiddled with the radio dials while Lawson battled through the after-school crush of cars leaving the lot. Then through the choked side streets that led into and then out of downtown Eastman.
“You hungry?” Lawson asked when they were at the stoplight in front of McDonald’s.
“No.” Tommy unbuckled his seatbelt, pushed up the center console, and slid over so he was pressed against Lawson, a shocking line of heat down his torso and wedged in thigh-to-thigh.
“Shit,” Lawson hissed, and Tommy buried a laugh in his shoulder. Pulled his right hand off the wheel and urged Lawson’s arm around his waist, where he clamped on like a limpet with no intention of letting him go. He’d steer with his feet if he had to.
“No,” Tommy repeated, low and close, right in his ear, warm breath stirring against Lawson’s cheek. “I’m not hungry.” His hand landed on Lawson’s thigh, and Lawson jerked. The car shuddered forward half a foot before he stomped back onto the brake.
He was sweating.
“Ijustgot my license. Do you want me to lose it my first day?”
“Ugh.No. Fine.” Tommy sighed, but he left his hand where it was, and he stayed pressed to his side, and Lawson wondered how safely he could drive while trying not to pop a boner. “Where are we going?”
“It’s–” His voice cracked embarrassingly, and Tommy snickered. “Shut up,” he said, with helpless affection. “It’s a surprise.”
“A good surprise? Or a frog-in-a-shoebox surprise?” Tommy asked, tone knowing.
“I still don’t understand what was wrong with the frog.”
“It was a frog. In a shoebox. And you put it in my locker,” Tommy deadpanned, and Lawson laughed, remembering the shriek Tommy had let out when he lifted the top off the box and the frog jumped straight at his face.
“I thought you liked frogs,” Lawson said, between chuckles.
“I literally never said that.” Tommy sighed dramatically, and then dropped the put-upon routine. “Okay, we’ve gotten off-topic.”
That was one of the (many) things Lawson loved about Tommy. He razzed him, made fun of him, and never let his stupidity slide…but beneath it all, Lawson always felt the strong undercurrent of affection. Could read the carefully-withheld laughter dancing in his eyes. Tommy’s sourness was an act.
Unlike his brother’s disapproval, which was apparently very real and, depending on what he did with it, very dangerous to Lawson’s future happiness.
That thought dried his laughter right up.
