AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Picking up the snake, he let it weave between his fingers. The strange satisfaction of the weight and roughness of the plastic easing some part of his mind that he hadn’t noticed.
Is it really okay to have this, he thought, his eyes starting to gravitate towards the scars littering his forearms. His throat tightened and he turned quickly from the mirror to yank a clean hoodie on over his bare chest, pulling the sleeves over his hands to hide the marks.
Hugging his arms around his waist, he forced himself to close his eyes and breathe, muttering the words the therapist had told him. The snake rolled between his fingers like an anchor keeping him in reality, slowly allowing him to relax.
“Okay,” he muttered, not sure what all of that meant. “Let’s just go check out a website.”
Danny
Fergus was smiling as Danny rambled about Friday. Danny knew he had been talking for way too long and that Fergus knew all the details. Fergus was footing the bill for it, and Sean, Danny’s older brother and legal guardian since their mom left two years ago, had overseen all the actual bookings. But he couldn’t help it. He was turning eighteen on Friday and they were letting him have a real “adult” time away with his friends.
Well, with his friends, Kevin and Mark, and Andy, the guy that it would be weird to not invite, ya know?
Danny had known Kevin and Mark long before Andy. Their guardian was a good friend of Sean’s and what Sean called an “Emergency Clover.” Danny had no idea what that meant; when he asked them, they both shrugged. Later they reported back that Marcus told them it meant that “someone better be fucking dying if you are calling at three in the goddamn morning on a school night.” The air quotes, Kevin said, were very important.
“Aye, lad,” Fergus said when Danny paused to breathe. “Sounds like it’ll be a grand time for ya and the boys.” He glanced at his computer. “Everything’s all together. I got the confirmations here.” Something flickered on his face, something Danny had been seeing a lot lately when he came to the studio to earn a little bit of money helping Fergus’s honest career as a photographer. “I got a question for ya though, if ya don’t mind it.”
“Sure, what is it,” Danny asked, actively working to not mimic Fergus’s accent. Sean and Danny’s dad had been Irish, but the man had died when Danny was just a baby. Sometimes it felt like the accent just lived deep inside of him but he tried to not let it out. He didn’t want the Clovers to think he was making fun of them.
“I see ya invited the usual suspects,” Fergus said, pointing at something on his screen that Danny couldn’t see. “And it’s your party and I wouldn’t dream of telling ya to invite anyone specifically, but can I ask why ya didn’t ask Thomas?”
Danny’s heart leapt into his throat at the mention of Thomas. He had met Thomas last year during a Spring get-together that Fergus’s mentorship program was having at the studio.
Technically, Danny wasn’t in the program. It was for boys that had gotten into trouble with the law. That’s where he had met Andy as well. Sean had thought it might do him and Marcus’s boys some good to meet more kids that hovered on the edge of the Clovers and the other two Rings, so they could have more people to talk about their “unique” situations. Thomas had been a bit odd among the rest of the kids. While others grouped together to talk to each other and trade stories, Thomas hadn’t budged from his seat, his eyes down as he tapped on his leg with his fingertips.
He had been easily the most adorable guy Danny had ever seen and he only got cuter when Danny went to talk to him. Thomas stammered until you finally found a topic of conversation he was comfortable with. Then he could talk about it for hours. He was also a huge video game nerd and wickedly smart. Danny hadn’t wanted to leave the chair next to Thomas for the entire event.
Fuck, he’s staring at me, he thought, panicking as Fergus started to raise an eyebrow at him.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to invite him,” he admitted, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “But he’s always busy whenever any of us ask him to hang out.” He swallowed and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I just… I didn’t want to bother him.”
Fergus’s expression darkened so suddenly that Danny took a step back. Next to him, Sean caught his wrist, keeping him from going any further while rubbing his thumb reassuringly against Danny’s hand.
Then the look was gone and Fergus smiled, looking like someone’s fun uncle. “Give him a call, Danny,” he encouraged. “I think you’ll find he’s not so busy anymore. Adding one more person to the reservations won’t be any trouble.”
Danny blinked, then what Fergus said settled in. “Oh! Right!” Of course, Thomas’s mentor was a Clover so Fergus would know about if Thomas was free now. “Has his number changed?”
Fergus laughed, Sean echoing him softly. “No, lad. It’s still the same. He did get a new phone for his birthday, though. The numbers might not have transferred.”
“Cool, okay,” Danny said, taking another step back and this time Sean let him. “I’ll go call him now!” Without waiting, he dashed out of Fergus’s office to get his phone out of his backpack.
* * *
Fergus blinked as the door didn’t quite shut behind Danny, looking slowly from it to the young man sitting across from him.
Sean was laughing silently, his hand over his eyes with his head tipped back as he chewed on his lip. The bright clover tattoo stood out against his neck, barely a year old now. “God, I hope you know you just gave him the best present of his life if Thomas actually goes,” he said, his voice shaking with the laugh. “He’s going to bounce off the fucking walls until Friday.”
Fergus chuckled softly, sitting back in his chair. “It’ll do all the lads good to get to know each better.”
* * *
Thomas frowned at the screen as he typed in a series of commands and failed the result the game wanted. Sighing, he leaned forward over his computer and ran a finger along the lines to look for what he was missing.
The music in his ears suddenly cut out for the factory ringtone for his phone he hadn’t gotten around to changing. He tapped the headphone to answer without glancing away.
“Hello,” he asked, still fixed on the screen.
“Hey, um, is this Thomas? Thomas O’Malley?” The voice sounded young, masculine, and vaguely familiar.
