Page 37 of Hilarina and the Ogre

Trenton’s arms were indeed around him.

In the end, Hilary thought he’d managed to be very sneaky about his plan, but of course Trenton wouldn’t be the ogre he was without his mind-reading powers. When they got back in the car, the boy turned to him.

“I’m sorry you feel you’ve got to tiptoe around me because of the bullying. I do value our time in school together, and I know dropping out would mean potentially missing out on memories we could never have otherwise. I want to treasure it. I do treasure it. But when I see them hurting you—"

“They’re not.”

“You don’t have to be stoic.”

“I wouldn’t know how to be stoic if I tried. Trent, it’s hardly a sacrifice. Did you have fun today?”

Trenton always grew very still when he was feeling emotional, and he hadn’t moved since entering the car. Well, except to put the heat on. Trenton was the only one who could make the heat work anymore. “Yes.”

“More than usual?”

“More than I’ve ever had in one day.”

Hilary leaned against him, taking hold of his arm. He hadn’t realized he was a cuddler until Trenton. Or maybe it was Trenton who had turned him into a cuddler. It was hard not to be when the boy was so comfortable to lean on. Like his own personal couch. “Then let’s do it again next week. And every week until they kick us out. I always hated Wednesdays. It’ll be nice to have a reason to start liking them.”

“Kiss me,” Trenton said. A first.

Hilary could have cried. He didn’t know what else to do. He put his hand to the back of Trenton’s head, pulled his face down, and kissed him.

Chapter Eleven

The Little Notebook

The parents were surprisingly on board with the once-a-week hooky days—even enthusiastic.

“The five-day work week is a crime,” was Albert’s opinion.

They didn’t spend all the time goofing off on those days. They did some schoolwork too. It was Hilary’s first time being ahead of the curve in math, and it was intoxicating to come into class and realize he already understood everything the teacher was saying, though it also meant he was even more bored during lessons. So he started reading again. It was almost easy to stare down the teachers once he remembered that if he was expelled, Trenton would drop out too, and they’d be losers together. After hearing “put that away” for the fifth time in a day, he just said, “I promise to make up for what I missed later.” The teachers didn’t really know what to do with that, especially because he was scoring nearly perfect grades on all his exams. One teacher still tried to take his book away. It was whisked out of his hands too quickly to stop. Hilary could have tried to grab it back, but that would have landed him in Krinkle’s office again—something he was certain would ruin the man’s day, especially if it was in the middle of a pen-counting session. So he tried again with the honest approach. “I appreciate the work you do, but that book is my personal property. Please don’t steal from a child.”

She actually threw it at his head, but he got it back, and with the bonus of having her pointedly ignore him after that. Trenton was impressed. “You’re getting reading privileges faster than I did.”

Taken altogether, it was difficult to deny things were going well. Hilary’s grades were up, his mood was up, and he wasn’t being forced to spend time with annoying people or the girlfriend from hell. Best of all, he finally had a true friend. One as good as the books promised. The Sam to his Frodo, the Jonathan to his David—or was he Jonathan in the scenario? In any case, for the first time in his life, he had someone who seemed to make everything better, who he could trust with anything. So he couldn’t understand why he was feeling so antsy.

He thought it might be worry that Trenton would soon realize what a boring dildo he was and leave him, but the boy wasn’t stingy with his affection and was more than happy to give him all the assurances he might want. “I’m the boring one,” he’d say. “I don’t even have aspirations. The only thing I want in life is to spend time with you.” And Trenton didn’t lie. Not even to the people he didn’t like. So Hilary could believe him when he said they were together for the long haul. But the agitation only grew worse, an itch he both couldn’t scratch and couldn’t ignore, growing and growing until he was forced to act or risk exploding with it.

It happened on a hooky day. The weather was especially cold and windy, so there weren’t any major plans. They’d gone out briefly to scout for Christmas trees, but Annette said they weren’t allowed to bring one home until mid-December, which was still a week away. Hilary was taking a lot of showers by then. Trenton seemed to think his fingers would get frostbite and fall off if he didn’t warm himself the moment he walked through the door, so after the tree shopping, Hilary stayed under the water until his toes were pruney. He hadn’t even known that could happen and couldn’t wait to show Trenton. But somehow, when he came out and saw the boy sprawled out across the bed, book in hand, he jumped on top of him instead.

It was meant to be a total knockout, a crushing defeat, but Trenton’s reflexes were godlike. The boy managed to set down the book and catch hold of him without so much as losing which page he was on.

“Hey, handsome,” Trenton said—the usual greeting.

It was then that Hilary thought of something else. Something that was sure to get a reaction. “Let’s fuck.”

Trenton’s laugh was a bark of surprise. “Hallelujah, is it my birthday again?”

Hilary touched that smile. “That’s right. How do you want it, birthday boy?”

Trenton was grinning, big square teeth on full display. “What brought this on?”

“I’m horny.”

It wasn’t what he meant to say, and for a moment everything skittered to a halt. Trenton blinked, unsure of how to proceed when he didn’t know whether it was a joke. A valid deliberation. Hilary wasn’t sure himself.

He chose to smile as if it were a joke, and said, “What, you don’t get horny?”