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“No one deserves it.”
Daniel took hold of my hand and squeezed. “If it’s okay with you, I don’t think I want to be here anymore.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“Iwantto go find Minty, but Barry said he’d handle it, and I don’t want to get in his way. Minty’s prideful, and if I’m there, he might decide not to listen to Barry out of stubborn spite.” Daniel sighed. “So, I guess we should go home.”
“Home as in your place?”
Daniel nodded. “If you want. I mean, if you can? I’d like to hold you tonight, to knowyou’resafe at least.”
I nuzzled his cheek. “Yes, I’ll go home with you. But we need to stop by my house to grab some clothes first. I still have class in the morning.” With Minty, no less. God, that was going to be awkward. I needed to plan what I was going to say to him when I saw him.
But what if he didn’t come to class? What if he decided to skip?
Daniel took my hand to lead me out of the club.
Downstairs, I saw Jeremy on the now-busy dance floor, swaying with a twink, his head thrown back, laughing. My stomach knotted up remembering the reckless way I’d behaved with him, and the things I’d done while high on GHB.
I closed my eyes, and let Daniel lead me out of the smoke and into the fresh air outside the club.
The quote “There but for the grace of God go I,” took on new meaning for me.
I didn’t know how to process the news of Minty’s diagnosis, but I hoped beyond hope that something would change soon to protect him. New science, new drugs. Anything to keep Minty—that lover of moonbeams and fairy stamps—from getting sick and dying like Bobby.
Anything but that.
***
The front porchlight was still on at my house when we pulled into the driveway.
“Wait here,” I said, unbuckling my seat belt. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
Daniel unbuckled his belt, too. “But I want to see your room.”
I glanced over at him and considered telling him that I’d invite him inside another time, but the sad, hollow look in his eyes made me decide that the last thing I wanted to do was leave him alone right now. “Yeah, all right. Come on.”
As I unlocked the front door and eased it open, I heard the familiar loud clacking of Mom’s word processor, and the less familiar strains of some 1970s love song wafting from the living room stereo.
“There you are,” Mom said, turning from where she was dancing alone in a nightgown and robe, a wine glass in her hand, and her word processor going a mile a minute on the table, printing out her manuscript. “I was starting to worry.”
“You’re still up,” I said, grimacing. I hadn’t wanted Daniel to meet my mom just yet, much less meet her when she’d had a drink and was in her pajamas dancing to Billy Joel and crooning that she’d always be a woman to him.
“I am! And you’re very late.” Her eyebrows went up, seeing Daniel behind me. “And not alone.” She walked toward him, hand out. “Hello, I’m Jessica. You must be Daniel?”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s great to meet you, Mrs. Mandel,” he said, taking her hand and shaking it.
“I agree. Abe would want me to express his deep sorrow that he’s far tooasleepat this, oh-so-late hour of one o’clock in the morning to come and greet you as well.”
“Sorry,” Daniel said meekly. “We were—”
“Don’t apologize,” I interrupted. “We were out with friends, and we’re leaving again, Mom. I’m just grabbing some clothes and then we’re heading to Daniel’s house.” I said, starting up the stairs, mortified that Daniel didn’t follow. I jerked my head, trying to get him to follow me. Instead, he stood there, watching my mom with an odd expression.
Mom, for her part, didn’t seem to notice. She sipped her wine and said, “It’s really very late, Peter. I don’t like the idea of you driving at this hour. Why don’t you both spend the night here? I was just heading to bed myself. I can tidy up my manuscript pages, and Daniel can have the sofa.”
“Daniel needs to get home.”
“Why?”
