Page 78 (1/2)

We lie down side-by-side on top of the sheets, then stare up at the ceiling, our shoulders pressed together After the mess we made, we’re down to our underwear, our clothes in a balled-up tangle on the floor

In the cool, still silence of his room, the reality seems to wash over us both at once We’ve said ot up off the bed, cleaned up in the bathrooed the sheets

The room fills with our individual breaths

I’ each and every one of theently from our nostrils Thirty-six for Jimmy Forty-one for me

Forty-two Thirty-seven

Forty-three Thirty-eight

Forty-four …

“What does this mean now?” I ask quietly

Jiainst o along, huh?”

“Yeah”

The silence swells between us again

Forty-eight Thirty-nine

Forty-nine Forty

Fifty

“I really like you, Jimmy,” I tell him

“I like you, too, Bobby That ain’t nothin new”

“I know, but—”

“I know,” he says, his tone more sincere

A nificance passes

“I don’t want this to … to change things between us,” I tell him in that moment “I don’t want—”

“Neither do I,” Jis and is desperate to agree with ot between us? That’s too fuckin’ precious It’s theto me, you and I”

“Me too”

“I love you, Bobby” He reaches over to give ht slap and a bro-ish squeeze onto let go of ot you”