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“Yeah, I left all reith”

“I think it did a nue I think a part of youyou away fros I still haven’t unpacked, sitting outside o for New York And finally leaving New York for … well, for this small Texas town you can’t even find on a map, within arm’s reach of Houston and Austin and San Antonio”

“Must be a really long arm,” I mumble

He findsone breathy chuckle Then he coe of athers thoughts “The thing is, son, I want good people in your life Not like the rich kids you got twisted up with in New York Or the street punks in Chicago If you believe this Toby is a good, well-ht be the sort of friend you need”

“That makes one of you”

“As for your mother … you know she loves you She cares for you in her oay We’re just concerned about seeing the same pattern of behavior play out here that played out up in New York” His mustache twitches with irritation before he looks over at me “We don’t want a repeat of that, Donovan None of us do”

I avert ht that should never have happened, when my friend decided to take us all out in his dad’s BMW for a joyride It wasn’t our first tiether, but it sure was our last And after a school year full of bad choices, playing withthe inside of a jail cell, that joyride was the nail in my carefree coffin And that’s an especially co his dad’s BMW into was the rear of a parked hearse Thankfully, no one was inside—alive or dead—but it sure“Is that what you want?” shouted his father an hour later on that very curb “To end up in the back of a hearse? Dead? My Harvard-destined son and progeny? A disgrace, you and your hooligan friends!”

I think I was the hooligan friend to which his father referred Everyone always thought a certain way about , band shirts, spiky hair, torn jeans, chains … I always gave people the iood Butplace at the wrong ti out peoples’ worst, it turns out I’o

Half of —was left behind in New York My parentsbefore we stepped foot here in Spruce I guess they didn’t wantin any mud … into a town that’s full of mud from one end to the other But ould I be to questionson?

“Don’t relive it,” my dad tells me suddenly, as if he knohere my mind just went “You have a fresh new start here”

Yeah, I keep hearing that Fresh new start New faces On and on , yet still I’ine,its face into that hearse’s ass

There’s a pun somewhere in there I’m too exhausted to find

It’s a miracle I’m still alive

My father says a fewwith, “We love you, son,” at the door, then leaves me be I always marvel at how he has to say “we”, as if all too aware how seldom my mom says it herself

It’s afterpad, take a hot shower, then drop onto my bed Sleep doesn’t coh the , bathingabout Toby I saw hi at my notebook with curiosity, and the way his lips subtly parted in awe as he took in

Yeah, I caught hi in PE, too

I notice the way that boy notices me …

And the thought of his eyes on

I slip a hand down the front ofat ination, our bodies crash together, nothing there to stop us His hands fumble for my chest, my hands lock around his back, and when our lips touch, we become one