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He could go on for hours But the app is on to hie pops up telling him his account has been suspended He’s been frozen Shut out for bad behavior On a sex site
Fine, he thinks He deletes the account Deletes the app
It’s too easy He heads over to another app and starts doing the sa They suspend him in a matter of minutes He deletes his profile
He heads to Facebook Instead of his "friends," he decides to go after pop stars and politicians He posts links to gy pn on Justin Bieber’s page He posts links to Nazi groups on the page for a Republican congresse, he finds a video of a sheep being decapitated
It only takes two and a half minutes before his profile is killed That part of his life is over
He gets kicked out of every site he’s ever created a profile on A block on each and every one Stacked up, these blocks make a wall Hiht be his most successful barrier yet
It only takes an hour in a Starbucks for him to abandon his virtual life Which is, if he’s honest, most of his real life, too
One by one he deletes his contacts, until his phone is blank
What’s left? he asks himself
The answer is a satisfying nothing
Craig thought at least his mother would come for the twenty-four-hour mark But the fact that she’s not hereMaybe she doesn’t know it’s been a full day Or maybe she does, and has decided to stay away
With a couple hts back to Harry Sweaty, sticky Harry Fro But he’s not going to back down, and Craig loves him for it Genuinely loves him At this point, he’s not even sure where Harry’s body ends and his own body begins At this point, even their souls have becorows Forget the togetherness of dating, the togetherness of sex This is soether and started to be the sa wants Harry to knohat he’s feeling Craig wants to kiss him and mean it They may be weary, they may be broken up, but he wants them to always have this No matter what happens after, he wants them to be at one for this He kisses Harry as the nuins He feels so close to Harry, and then all of a sudden he can feel Harry slipping away As the crowd goes crazy, Harry goes slack Craig grabs hi, but keeps the ether even as Harry isn’t responding He squeezes harder, and Harry reacts As astays on top of hi hi up now The crowd doesn’t understand; the crowd is still cheering But Tariq knows S can see it in their eyes, in their rush to get Harry water
Harry is back on his feet noincing He drinks so’s lips seal their mouths shut But Harry’s still too hot He needs air He starts pulling up his shirt, exposing his skin But it’s a T-shirt Stupidly, he wore a T-shirt So there’s no way to get it off
Mr and Mrs Raht?
He signals yes Because he knoill happen if he signals no
Is he hot?
Yes
Does he need his shirt off?
Yes
Will he be okay without a shirt?
Yes
Mrs Ramirez heads off for a second The crowd has now realized that so can be heard behind it
Soet a fan, but Harry can’t wait His mother comes back with a scissors and asks him if he’s sure
Yes
She hands over the scissors and he aardly starts cutting the back of his shirt Right down the raph its delicate re’s hands must sit lifeless at his side Their lips are their only point of contact It ile
As soon as the shirt is off, Harry feels better The fan, when it co returns his hands to Harry’s shoulders, his back The heat of his skin, the slick of his sweat Harry , too He ’s shirt Skin on skin Dizzying
For aat the screen, he didn’t dare to breathe As if holding his breath could prevent Harry’s lips fro’s But we feel this connection all the ti to be connected to one another Our heart races without contact Our breath holds until the threat is gone
"What is it?"
Neil walks into Peter’s bedrooestures to the screen "It looked for a second like Harry was going to pass out Now they’re cutting off his shirt"
"Who’s Harry?"
"From the kiss" Peter now points to one of the boys on the screen "Harry Haven’t you been watching?"
"I’ve been doing other things"