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“You mean…” he says slowly.

“Yes, maybe not…right now, but yes.” I smile softly.

Those tears in his eyes start to leak out. “I don’t need it. All I need is you, but if you want to, I want to.”

“Oh, come on, kiss already!” Lena blurts out, seeming to have gotten over her disapproval fairly quickly.

My face turns red, but that has never stopped Dante from kissing me, and it doesn’t now. He leans down and presses a soft kiss to my lips. It feels tingly and warm, and I giggle softly.

“I think…these pain meds are really good,” I whisper against his lips.

He smiles and kisses me one more time.

“I need to call your father again,” my mother says, but I hear emotion in her voice, even more than before, and she disappears rather quickly.

“I’ll get the doctor,” Lena insists, making herself busy and finding work to do no matter where she is, as always.

Nathan sits down in the chair beside the bed.

“Just so you know, I’ll kill you if you hurt him,” he tells Dante.

Dante nods. “The same goes for you.”

I roll my eyes. “Please just get along.”

They seem to do a decent enough job for the remainder of the day. Nurses and doctors come in to examine me, explain the severity of my shoulder fracture, and make sure the medicinethey gave me is working. My mother repeats what they say about how important using the sling is and making sure not to overexert myself.

By the time I’m ready to leave, Nathan and Lena have already left.

“I’m so ready to go to bed,” I tell both my mother and Dante as my mother is wheeling me out of the hospital.

“As you should be. And stay in it for at least a few days,” she tells me. “Dante, are you planning on coming to stay with us when Ethan is?”

Dante shakes his head. Disappointment cuts through the hazy, medicated cloud of my feelings.

“I have a family wedding to go to,” he says.

“Aww, man, I’m missing the wedding!” I groan, and slump down in the chair.

“You wouldn’t have a good time in your shape,” Dante tells me. “People get way too drunk.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. I can’t say I’m glad I met you this way, but I’m glad we know each other now,” my mom tells Dante.

I smile at them. “You’re cute.”

“And you’re high,” Dante says. “Let’s hope that lasts.”

It does, at least until later that night when I’m crying out in pain, and Dante helps me take a couple more pills.

What a way to start winter break.

Spending the rest of December and the first week of January recovering in my childhood home isn’t actually so bad. By the second week it’s exhausting having other people do everythingfor me. I can only sit, lie down, watch TV, and read for so long. I never though relaxing would be so difficult.

Starting physical therapy is a relief. I finally get to move around and get out of the house. It’s painful, though, and that pain never fully goes away. Even at the end of January, I’m still lacking a lot of my range of motion.

That doesn’t stop me from calling Dante late at night and asking him if he’s alone. Stroking my dick in my childhood bedroom with my hot boyfriend on the other end of the phone makes me feel like a teenager, giddy and sneaking around.

Eventually, being back in class and getting into a routine with Dante is starting to feel normal.