Page 55 of Bobby Green

“And you don’t have sex,” Dex said slowly, just to make sure.

“Well, you know. He’s straight.”

Dex pursed his lips and looked at the computer screen again. “Sure he is,” Dex muttered. “Everybody’s fucking straight. Except none of the straight people are signing on to fuck girls. That’s my life.”

Reg wasn’t sure what that meant. “I thought Bobby did girls.”

Dex shook his head. “Not so much. After Ethan, he said he’d rather not.”

Reg grunted. He remembered now. “Maybe it’s on count of his girlfriend.”

Dex gave him an unreadable look. “Yeah. Sure. You should ask him.”

“Oh no.” Reg held his hands out in front of him. “Bobby and I get along real well, unless sex comes up. For some reason that’s when it all goes to hell.”

Dex scrubbed his hands through his hair. “I can’t. I can’t even. Reg, go check on Lance and see when Billy’s coming in, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks for the help, Dex.”

Dex buried his face in his hands and muttered, “I can’t. I got nothin’. We get on the plane in a week and I can’t even.”

Well, yeah. Reg got that. He felt like that most days of the year, not just the ones before Christmas.

So Dex left him with a pretty good plan, but then Christmas came and Dex and Kane got back early from their trip, and Bobby ended up at Tommy and Chase’s Christmas night along with the whole rest of Johnnies because he came back early fromhistrip, and then Billy offered to stay with Veronica so Reg could go to the Johnnies thing ’cause Bobby was going to be there…

And the whole thing went to hell.

Hells of Our Own Making

BOBBY PULLEDup in front of Tommy’s little house in downtown and tried not to cry.

There were a zillion cars in front of the small sky-blue house with trees in the backyard and warm yellow light coming from the window. On the one hand, being around the Johnnies guys, seeing his old roommates, that might be the perfect distraction.

But Reg’s car was here too, and Bobby was at alossfor how to deal with Reg.

Keith Gilmore had tried to get him alone every second of the last three interminable goddamned days, and every time Bobby had been tempted—just for the sake of expedience—to go down on him, he remembered the look on Reg’s face when they were…

Anything.

Shopping for his sister, and he found something that reminded him of her as a child.

Sitting on the couch watching a superhero movie Bobby had personally seen with him at least three times.

Making hamburgers with fixings in the kitchen and mumbling to himself so he’d remember all the ingredients.

Opening the door as he heard Bobby’s tread on the porch and smiling—just smiling—because he was glad to see a friend.

Bobby just couldn’t. Just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t go down on Keith Gilmore. Couldn’t have sex with Jessica. He’d managed the first night, but… God. It felt like he was doing her a disservice, no matter how much she told him it was awesome. After that he just held her, three nights running, telling her that it was getting weird knowing his mom was in the next room when he’d never cared before.

Truth was, those same pictures of Reg going through his head when Keith tried to get him alone were going through his head double-time when he was alone with Jessica.

He’d opened presents with his mom that morning, and she’d been so happy. A new leather jacket, clothes he and Reg and Trey had picked out, and new leather boots. He’d wanted her to walk around in this pissant town and look good—becausehethought she was better than anybody else there.

He’d given Jessica a gift certificate to amazon.com. She’d been so excited to get it—the past two years had been an embarrassment of him buying her the wrong damned thing, and this way she could pick out something she liked.

And hedidn’thave to get too personal, because every time he touched her, even if it was just to drape his arm around her shoulders, he felt like he was trespassing or poaching or something.

He had no right to touch this girl if he didn’t mean it, and hesodidn’t mean it.