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“Not unless you got a pussy.” I slid in closer to him until our faces were inches apart. His breath smelled rotten, but that wasn’t anything new with Murph. “Don’t you like pussy?”
He shoved me and spat a glob of grossness beside my scuffed black boots that I’d stolen last year at the outdoor mall. I hadn’t gathered the courage to lift another pair yet.
“I like women, so fuck you.” He shifted back and rolled his shoulders, narrowing his eyes at Jonas, who’d finally picked himself up off the ground. Murph snorted and held up his hands. “Whatever. I’m out.”
Murph spun on his heel, and I watched him until he was clear of the river before finally turning to look at the man behind me. I’d never been this close to Jonas, and he was even sexier than I’d realized. His sun-kissed skin glittered under the morning light, and he had the plumpest lips I’d ever seen on a man. His nose was large on his face but perfectly proportionate to the rest of his features. It was his warm brown eyes that had my gut feeling funny.
“Thank you,” he whispered, startling me out of my trance.
I cleared my throat and nodded sharply, but I shrugged at the same time, making the situation more awkward. My cheek stung where Murph had gotten me, but it wasn’t too bad. I would probably end up with a bruise. “Yeah, no problem. Can’t get kicked out of the trailer park, you know? And if he starts a fight with you while I’m here, the owner will knock me out on my ass along with him.”
“I’m Jonas.” He stuck out a dirty hand, then stared down at it, snapping it away again to rub it on his muddy jeans. He groaned.
“Sorry about him. He gets like that sometimes.” I ran a hand through my hair and laughed. “Chronic dickhead, you know?”
Jonas blinked at me, and I felt the clash of personalities. It was almost as if he didn’t understand, and his confused stare had me shifting uncomfortably. This guy grew up on the opposite side of the river—thegoodside. He had no idea what I was talking about.
“I don’t think he’ll give you any trouble, but how about I walk you to school? That’s where you’re going, right?” I reached down to grab his backpack, which had fallen off when he’d landed in the mud, and threw it over my shoulder, not worried about the dirt. I didn’t give him a chance to respond before I began to walk south. The high school wasn’t far from here, but no one from the trailer park really went there. Most of us dropped out as soon as we were able to at sixteen.
“What’s your name?” Jonas power walked to catch up to me and bumped his shoulder against mine. The personal contact was weird, and I wasn’t sure if he’d done it on purpose or not, but I didn’t mind. He smelled nice, even though his bottom half and hands were covered in mud. His cologne had a woodsy scent that reminded me of a park near the lake that Leo used to take me to as a kid. It took a few buses to get there, but Leo had made it a habit every Saturday until I was twelve and joined him in his business.
I ignored Jonas’s question and focused on the street ahead of us. The picture-perfect houses were spaced farther apart with large lawns as the neighborhood transitioned into storefronts—square glass windows covered by white curtains that looked like they belonged in a movie.
He kept talking, but I wasn’t really listening. We got some strange glances, especially from people who sat in the fancy café that served up ten-dollar coffees parked in the middle of the private community. I didn’t miss the suspicious stares. My spine stiffened. The unwanted attention was another reminder that Jonas and I came from two different worlds. He didn’t seem to notice.
Jonas talked—a lot.
“And then, Louis Strawbridge built the church to show he meant business. That was the old one, not the one we have now. He wanted to prove his brother wrong and created the private community of Cider Mill to do that. He was cool, I guess.”
I hadn’t even realized he was telling me about the history of the neighborhood until he was halfway through the conversation. It didn’t matter anyway because I couldn’t keep up with him.
“Do you go to school here?” he asked a few seconds after finishing his speech about Cider Mill. It wasn’t exactly a suburb, since it was too far out from New Gothenburg to qualify, but I guess people had still been born here and done shit with their lives.
“I did for a little while.” I gave him a half smile, nothing too inviting. As much as I wanted to get to know him better, maybe find out if he was gay, that wasn’t a possibility. He lived too close to the park, and I couldn’t risk any of the guys finding out the truth about me. “I left school when I was sixteen.”
“That’s young.” Jonas stopped near a water fountain and I did, too. I passed him his backpack, and he smiled as he took it from me. He opened the zipper to pull out a water bottle and took the time to wash down his jeans. He refilled the bottle at the fountain and did the same thing all over again until his clothes were wet but mostly free of mud. Then, he meticulously washed off his backpack. I stayed quiet as I watched him work, not quite sure what to say. He clearly didn’t expect me to talk, though, because he did most of it for us.
“My parents run the church over on Hinkler Street. It’s the white building with lots of windows. You should come check it out one day.”
I frowned at him as he spoke. “Do you always bullshit this much?”
He paused as he got the final splatter of mud and glanced up at me. His cheeks flushed and he laughed, running a hand over his short dark hair. “I’m nervous.” He grinned at me and shoved his water bottle back into his bag before zipping it up. “You make me nervous.”
“Do I scare you?” The thought made my stomach clench. I lived off making people fear me so I could get the money they owed Dutch, but something about Jonas made me want to be gentle. Kind. Wasn’t that some fucked-up shit?
“No.” His eyes lit up as he gestured for me to start walking. He bumped my shoulder with his again, flashing me brilliant white teeth. “You’re cool. I’ve seen you hanging around the river, even thought about going over there to say hey. Mom would’ve had a heart attack if I did.”
That didn’t surprise me. His mother had come over to the park more than once, demanding we turn the music down or not start fires outside or some other complaint she managed to think up. There was no doubt in my mind she hated our guts.
“Cool.” Anxiety settled in my chest as we passed a newsstand outside a small convenience store, and I pointed at a gossip magazine. The cover fluttered with the slight breeze, but on the front was a redheaded man smiling beside a younger man with curly dark hair and gray eyes. The headline—“Alton and Noah Bouchard Donate Millions to Local Art School”—made me roll my eyes. “Look at this shit. A New Gothenburg billionaire marries another rich boy, and then they spread their money all over the place, and it’s all over the news. As if it matters, right?”
Jonas blinked curiously at me before his gaze slid to the magazine I was pointing at. He cocked his head and stopped to stare at it longer than he needed to, but I didn’t mind watching him. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was about him. It was as though he had to appreciate everything he stared at, like he got joy from taking a moment to value the sights. Strange, that was the only word for him. Well, maybe sexy was in the dictionary for him, too.
“It’s romantic.” He smiled at me with a twinkle in his eye, his mouth curling in a delicious way that had my insides turning warm and my cock twitching. “I would love to get married and do good things one day.”
“To a woman?” I asked before I could stop myself. No, absolutely not. I couldn’t do this. Fuck this line of questioning.
He cocked his head toward me and the smile he gave me made my skin tingle in excitement. “I guess.” His face turned serious quickly. “My parents don’t believe in homosexuality. It’s a sin.”
