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I’m the luckiest man in all of Spruce, to have been given one more chance by Toby to prove to him I can be all he wants me to be. But perhaps a better truth is, he gave me a chance to prove the same fact to myself: I am capable of more than I ever dreamed.
“So who’s gonna run the Arts club when we graduate?” asks Toby as he lays his head on my shoulder, swaying along with me to the romantic music—some country song I’ve never heard of and would never have dreamed of finding myself slow dancing to.
I smile against the side of his head where my cheek rests. “Oh, it’ll be kept alive, don’t worry. Mr. Hewitt more than assured me of that. I don’t actually think he realized how many students at Spruce High were craving such a creative outlet. Hell, even Marcus joined on the first day. That guy’s got a knack for color.”
“Speaking of: I think I finally picked a color.”
I lift my eyebrows in surprise even though he can’t see them. This has been an ongoing debate for weeks: the color he wants to paint our final project to present to my Arts club, the project that represents a culmination of a whole semester of our work. “Oh?”
“Yes. But … it’s probably going to be a no-brainer for you.”
“Golden yellow, like a moogle’s pompom?”
“Nope.”
“Dark purple, like a moogle’s bat wings?”
“Jeez, am I that predictable? It isn’t related to moogles at all. Nor to Dread Knight …”
“The blue of Sub-Zero’s martial arts uniform?”
“Nor to Mortal Kombat,” he finishes testily, then chuckles, lifts his head off my shoulder and smiles at me with dreams in his eyes. “I think your newest demon needs the deep, greenish-blue hue of the ocean behind him.”
I squint. “Blue. So I was almost right with Sub-Zero?”
“Greenish-blue. I just noticed that your demons are all in Hell. Maybe one of them realizes they rather prefer the sea view.”
I don’t see it. I try to picture my demon on a beach. I try to see the sand and the ocean waves, but all I see is my demon in a polka-dot swimsuit sipping from a drink with a tiny umbrella in it. “Nah, I don’t know,” I groan, unconvinced.
“C’mon. You won’t know if it’s a good idea unless I try.”
“But once you begin painting …” I start to say.
“Hey, there’s nothing to worry about. I’ll do a beach, and if it still bugs you, we can turn it into an ocean of lava. All it takes is a little bit of red and that painting’s right back in Hell where you like it.” He grins, satisfied. “I … kinda bought the paint already.”
I smirk. “By now, you’d think I’d be on to you and your sneaky schemes to turn my demonic army into a bunch of beach bums.”
Toby flashes one of his killer smiles at me he knows I can’t in any way resist. “Oh, there’s plenty about me you’ll never be on to. I’m a Pandora’s Box that never empties. Full of bad, bad, bad and not a drop of hope to be found.”
I kiss him tenderly, then press my forehead to his and give him a devilish look. “Toby, baby … there ain’t one bit of bad in you at all, and you know it.”
“Wait. ‘Ain’t’?” Toby pulls away and gapes at me. “Did you just ‘ain’t’ me? Tell me you didn’t just say ‘ain’t’ in an actual sentence.” He laughs while I stare at him wide-eyed, not even having noticed it myself. “Vann, Vann, Vann … Spruce has gone and infected you. There’s no escaping me now. You’re mine for good.”
I pretend to scowl at him. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”
But the truth is, those words of his do so much to me. ‘There’s no escaping me now. You’re mine for good.’ I don’t ever want to know what my bed feels like without him lying next to me. No Sunday morning will ever again pass where I don’t wake up with Toby’s gentle breathing in my ear, with his soft skin touching mine, with sheets wrapping us up in a cool and cottony cocoon.
“I’m in love with you, Toby.”
He smiles at me, taken away into a dream with me by those words. Then: “Well, duh. That ain’t news.”
“No, Toby. I really mean it. I feel like …” My heart could burst. “I feel like you’ve done me in. For good. Forever. I’m in love with you. Fully. Completely. You have my heart, Toby, and no one else for the rest of my life is going to have it. No one and nothing. Not even my demons. Nor anything else I create with these hands.” By now, we’ve stopped swaying and are standing still in the middle of the dance floor. “I’m in love with you, Toby. You’re the one who’s infected me. Not Spruce. And no matter where you are, I know I’m home as long as I’m by your side.”
