New Kid

Gavin met him in the library the next day. He’d told Adam that it would be better for him that way, as he could more easily avoid Ted who was in his math class just before the free period. Ted liked to follow Gavin down the hallway and try to trip him. Until Gavin reached the intersecting corridor where Bobby and Suzie were usually emerging. Adam kept private his knowledge that Bobby had kicked Ted’s ass after the last time he’d actually made Gavin fall and that now he was too scared to actually touch the boy. He wanted to put Gavin’s fears at ease, but he knew Ted would figure out who’d told him so he kept his mouth shut. At least he could be Gavin’s friend in some way.


Adam watched the smaller boy in amusement as he eagerly read the back covers of the books that he had given him a few moments ago. He knew he’d made Gavin’s day and it pleased him. Gavin suddenly locked his silver eyes onto Adam’s and gave him a broad and grateful grin. And Adam’s insides turned completely upside down. Gavin’s smile would break him one day, he just knew it.

“Thank you so much for the books,” the smaller boy gushed, effectively breaking the silence. “I’ve been looking forward to them like you wouldn’t believe!”

“Oh, I believe,” Adam laughed. “Really, it’s cool. I’m glad you want them. Makes room for me to get more!” He raised his eyebrows up and down mischievously.

“Anytime you need more room just let me know!”

They both chuckled at that and settled back in their chairs. Adam wanted to ask Gavin so many questions but he wasn’t entirely sure where to begin. Really, he’d known the boy for six years but he didn’t know anything about him. Not where he lived or if he had brothers and sisters. He didn’t even know that Gavin liked reading until yesterday, he mused ruefully to himself. But could he just come out and ask him? Would that put Gavin off? Adam struggled briefly with the quandary then decided he had nothing to lose if he tried.

“Hey, I don’t know much about you,” he said. “Would it be okay to ask questions?”

Gavin’s expression became slightly guarded, and Adam wondered if the boy thought he was going to pump him for ammunition so that David and Ted could use it later. Adam would never reveal to them what he’d learned, but he could understand Gavin’s trepidation. He decided he would press a little and let things go if the smaller boy gave any indication of discomfort.

“You don’t have to answer them if you don’t want to,” he prefaced gently and noted the shrug in reply. “What’s it like at home?”

Gavin’s face tinged with a light pink shade and he looked away sadly. He scratched at his arm self-consciously and Adam was about to remind him that he didn’t need to answer when he spoke.

“What’s there to tell?” he said in a very small voice. “It’s a place to sleep when I’m not here or at work.”

“Work?”

Gavin nodded.

“Where do you work?”

At this question the small boy suddenly perked a bit and smiled. “At the bookstore. I work there four afternoons a week and on Saturdays.”

“The bookstore! That’s cool! Do you get any discounts?”

“Yeah,” Gavin’s face fell again. “But I can’t use them. All of my money goes to my dad when I get paid.”

Adam raised an eyebrow at that. Why did Gavin have to give it all to his father? The man sounded pretty strict. But he knew instinctively that he shouldn’t push the issue or he risked upsetting the smaller boy, so he decided to lighten the moment.

“But you could give your discount to a friend?” he asked with a small conspiratorial smile. “Say someone who loves to read as much you?”

“I don’t know,” Gavin grinned back. “Do I even know such a person?”

“I think you might. Someone who devours books,” he prodded. “Someone willing to … share?”

Gavin laughed and shook his head at him. Adam kept the smile on his face but his mind was racing through past dreams he’d had of the boy. Dreams where Gavin had laughed as freely … in Adam’s bed after making love. Oh, crap! There’s that hard-on again. Keep the smile in place and don’t let him know what’s going on below the desk.

“I think I can arrange for that,” the black haired boy finally sighed. “Thirty percent, too.”

Adam whistled. That was quite a generous discount. He could stop begging his dad for loans when the good stuff came out. His paycheck from the record store would go much further now.

“Cool,” he said to Gavin, placing his denim jacket in his lap to cover the evidence of his attraction. “Now you’re my accomplice.”

A small shiver of excitement went down Adam’s back as he said that. Telling Gavin he was his … his anything … thrilled the hell out of him. Gavin’s silver eyes lit up, too, showing he didn’t mind it either. Hmm. Curiouser and curiouser.

“Tell me about your job,” Adam prodded. “You must meet some interesting and odd people at the bookstore.”

“Oh, yeah,” Gavin rolled his eyes. “Odd covers it. That’s for sure.”

The boy launched into a story about the idiosyncrasies of his regulars, not to mention his supervisor. It seems the man had a penchant for romance novels and read them in the back office especially on nights that Gavin worked. The boy described one night in particular during the Christmas season when he’d had a line of customers stretching almost out the door. He and the only other cashier there worked furiously to ring up the sales as the assistant manager worked the floor assisting customers in finding books. The store’s manager sat in the back office with the door tightly closed. He’d told them all he would be working on the time sheets, but they all knew he was reading the new Judith Krantz hardcover that came in.

Adam laughed and smiled in all the right places, letting some of the information drift into his brain. But the focus of his attention was the boy’s voice as he spoke. The gentle cadence washed over Adam and soothed him like no massage or hot tub could. And Gavin’s eyes literally lit up when he talked about something he enjoyed. It was a completely new and different expression than the one he was used to seeing on him. Of course those other expressions were caused by what Dave and Ted were doing to the smaller boy at the time. The thought of those two was beginning to ruin the mood, so Adam pushed them to the back of his mind where they belonged.

“And what about you?” Gavin asked suddenly. “Here I am going on and on about me, but I know practically nothing about you.”

“I’m an open book,” Adam shrugged in amusement, tossing a lock of chestnut brown hair back. “Let ‘er rip.”

“Really?” Gavin smirked sexily.

Adam nodded and it took everything in his willpower arsenal to keep from groaning right where he sat.

“Okay then,” the smaller boy purred. “Tell me about your family.”

Oh, this would be easy, Adam sighed to himself. At least this was a subject he could tackle without worrying about how Gavin would react.

“Well, both of my parents are super brainy,” he began.

“Which is why you’re in the science club then, right?” Gavin asked then widened his eyes as if he’d let out a big secret.

So, you’ve been curious about me, too, huh, Adam thought with barely concealed elation. Oh, the dreams he was going to have tonight. He couldn’t wait until the sun went down.

“You know about that?” he asked nonchalantly.

“Um, yeah,” Gavin blushed and looked down. “The school paper did an article on it last semester.”

They did? Adam laughed to himself. He knew they didn’t but he wasn’t about to call the smaller boy on it and embarrass him anymore than he already was. He liked knowing that he was affecting Gavin in some way even if it probably wasn’t the same way he’d affected Adam.

“Cool,” Adam replied. “Yeah, I’m in the science club. It’s a lot of fun, really. And it gives me and my dad something to connect on.”

“Yeah?” Gavin asked, slowly returning to his normal pallor. “What does he do?”

Adam could see by the way Gavin asked that question he already knew, but he wanted to let the boy return to normal so he acted oblivious.

“He’s a paleontologist.”

“Really?” Gavin looked impressed. “Do you get to go on digs with him?”

“Sometimes. Mostly in the summer, though.”

“That must be awesome.”

“It is,” Adam nodded. “I have a whole collection of fossils from small dinosaurs at home.”

“You do?” now the smaller boy looked awed, and Adam knew he’d given him a new piece of information he hadn’t known about him.

“Yep.”

“They let you keep them?”

“Yeah,” Adam chuckled. “If they come from a well-known species and they already have enough for research.”

The awed expression on Gavin’s face was priceless and Adam was enjoying this conversation immensely.

“I am so jealous,” the smaller boy finally sighed.

“Don’t be,” Adam grinned. “You can see it anytime you want.”

“I can?” Gavin gasped.

“Sure,” Adam nodded. “My dad would even be thrilled to have someone new to tell his stories to. I’ve heard them all already, you know.”

Gavin’s eyes were sparkling and Adam was falling into them again. Suddenly having Gavin over his house, in his bedroom became an irresistible prospect. He had to make that happen.

“How about this weekend?” he asked. “You said you work Saturdays, so that leaves Sunday right?”

“Um, yeah,” Gavin murmured. “You sure your parents won’t mind?”

“Mind?” Adam laughed. “They’re going to flip. They love finding new people to tell stories to.”

“Okay, then,” Gavin smiled. “Sunday it is.”