Page 34 of Brad & Finn (Gomillion High Reunion #3)

Chloe gripped him tightly, but shook his hand off her neck so she could press their foreheads together.

“I cherish every memory I have of us. I know there were some bad memories from high school, just like there were in college and since then, but I don’t ever want to forget how we got here.

Because I am so happy with Christian and with you and our lives.

I know things are going to keep changing, just like things changed when Kendall moved away, but I’m so excited for you! ”

Something twisted in Finn’s stomach. Chloe did this a lot, adding caveats to their friendship, differentiating between what she expected from Christian and what she expected from Finn.

As far as Finn was concerned, his love for her was unconditional, unmatched, and would last the rest of his life.

Kendall had always been a bit more sparing in her love, but Finn always tried to give all the platonic love he had to his friends.

He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but that rock was back in place.

Chloe squeezed his shoulders and kept talking in the absence of Finn’s words.

“I hope you know I genuinely mean that. I’ve gotten to watch you grow up and blossom into this amazing person, and it’s like being here with Brad has let you finally show all your colors.

You’re so vibrant, it’s almost hard to look at, and—” She pulled away, and her smile changed but didn’t dim.

“And speak of the devil. What you got there, Bradley?” she asked louder as Brad jogged up to them.

Finn had to take a moment, so he turned his back on them and idly began flipping through the yearbook again.

He wasn’t anywhere near as certain as Chloe that “things were going to keep changing.” There was a very real possibility that nothing would change when they went back to Indianapolis.

He’d return to his warm, safe apartment with his dog and his quiet job.

He’d spend weeknights with Chloe and Christian, and maybe one weekend sometime soon, they would visit Brad in Chicago… or maybe not.

His fingers skimmed over the pages until he found his photo. He heard Brad’s heavy footsteps a moment before his familiar hand landed on Finn’s shoulder. Brad stepped up behind him and grabbed the corner of the yearbook with his other hand so Finn was almost, but not quite, cradled in his arms.

“You never liked that photo, even back then,” Brad said.

Finn glanced around and saw that Chloe was walking towards Naomi and Mariana a dozen or so yards away, her two yearbooks in hand.

Brad’s were still on the table, and next to them was Chloe’s polaroid camera and a roll of tape.

There was no one anywhere near them, which Finn now realized Chloe must have done on purpose.

“Yeah,” Finn said slowly, working his jaw back and forth to try and limber up his tongue.

“I hated pretty much everything about it. I told my dad I had yearbook photos coming up, and he bought me this hideous dress, even though I never wore dresses and openly talked about how much I hated them to anyone who would listen.”

Brad snorted and slid his hand up along the edge of the yearbook until he could thread his fingers together with Finn’s where he was holding the other corner. “You know, I do seem to recall hearing that once or twice.”

Finn could remember at least seven times he’d subjected Brad to his thesis on how annoying it was to have to be aware of how he sat, walked, bent over, and existed when wearing a dress.

That wasn’t even to mention how he felt wearing pinchy ballerina flats, which seemed designed specifically to destroy the arches in his feet, or high heels, which only made it harder to walk, harder to drive, and harder to chase after Chloe when she set off on one of her hairbrained adventures.

“So, I had an idea,” Brad said, his breath on Finn’s cheek almost as good as a kiss—but not quite.

“I heard.”

“Oh…did Chloe tell you?” Brad asked, a definite note of hurt in his voice.

Finn turned out of his grasp, clutching the yearbook to his chest and looking up into Brad’s concerned face.

“No, I meant Chloe said you ran off to chase down an idea, and that was why she was carrying five yearbooks.”

Brad’s face cleared, like clouds parting over the sun, and Finn knew immediately that he was going to go along with whatever Brad’s plan was.

As Brad retrieved the camera and pulled the film out of his pocket, Finn marveled at the way his hands deftly ripped open the foil around the film and slotted it into the back of the camera.

“I don’t remember ever seeing you with a Polaroid in school. How do you know how to do that?” Finn asked, breaking the easy silence between them.

Brad lifted the peephole to his eye and pointed the camera at the ground, adjusting something on the side.

“My mom had one I would take with me when I walked along the creek or hiked out to Yellow Branch Falls. I never really cared for nature photography, but she loved it. She kept several albums of all the dumb photos I took over the years.”

Finn’s heart trembled for the boy who just wanted to make his mom smile after fate had dealt her—and him—one shitty hand after another.

The night before, Brad had told Finn in the shower, where the only ones who could hear his secret were the leaky shower head and the rusty shower curtain rings, how he’d been sending his mom money for years.

It seemed like Brad had spent his entire life caring for everyone around him.

“I’m sure she didn’t think they were dumb,” Finn said, placing his yearbook on top of the others.

Brad pulled the camera away from his face and peered at Finn. “You look incredible today.”

Finn’s brain tripped over the subject change. “Uhm…I…Chloe picked it out—I mean, not this morning, obviously, we were in a bit of a rush, but?—”

Brad pointed the camera at him, and his mind went blank.

Apparently, after having cameras pointed at him for most of the day, his body took over, and he crossed his arms over his chest and tried to smile as naturally as he could.

The camera flashed, and they both watched as the film slowly printed out.

With a gentle hand, Brad laid the photo on the picnic bench, where it was cast in shadow from the tabletop.

He lifted the camera back up to his face. “Do that pose from your cheer,” Brad said, the corner of his mischievous smile barely visible past the bulk of the camera.

Finn chewed on the side of his lip, his cheeks burning pink, and Brad snapped the camera again.

“Hey! I didn’t even start to do the pose,” Finn complained.

Brad grabbed the photo and quickly snapped another picture.

“Brad!”

“That one was perfect for Chloe. Now give me sweet.”

Finn glared at him, and Brad laughed but kept the camera raised.

“What do you mean it was perfect for Chloe?” Finn asked. “And what about the other two? Should you be using all her film?”

Brad lowered the camera, placed the two photos in his hand on the seat, and gave Finn a flat look. “I said, give me sweet , sweetheart.”

Finn’s blush spread, creeping under the neckline of the short-sleeve button down Chloe had picked out for him. “I…don’t even know what that means. Or why you call me that. I’m not sweet.”

“You’re incredibly sweet and kind and caring—even when you’re sleep deprived and breathing fire.”

Finn pouted, and Brad snapped another photo.

“Bradley!” he shouted.

It sounded so ridiculous coming out of his mouth that he couldn’t help but laugh. Brad was laughing, too, and the second the photo printed out, he snapped another, and a few seconds later, a third.

“God, you and Chloe are too cute,” he said, as he snapped a photo which captured Finn with his eyebrow halfway to his hairline.

“I wouldn’t let her catch you calling her that. You haven’t seen ‘breathing fire’ until you see her pissed at a man trying to compliment her.”

“I know. I mostly said it to get a rise out of you.”

Finn would have stomped his foot if it wasn’t at risk of being photographed.

Brad finally lowered the camera and set down the rest of the photos.

There were seven in total, and Finn still had no idea what they were going to do with them.

He walked over to inspect them, and Brad slid a hand into Finn’s back pocket, below the level of the picnic table so no one would be able to see if they happened to glance over.

“Brad…” he whispered.

Brad pressed in against his side. “Is this not okay?”

“N-no, it is… I…”

Finn had no idea what he was trying to say.

I like it. I need it. I want to do this forever . But was forever even real? Both of their parents were proof that it wasn’t, for one reason or another.

Brad pressed his chest into Finn’s back and squeezed his butt once before retracting his hand.

He collected the photos and laid them out on the table, and before Finn could miss Brad’s hand in his pocket, he wrapped his arm around Finn’s shoulder and wheeled him around the table so their backs were to the rest of the alumni.

He remembered Brad being tactile back in high school. He’d gently slap Finn on the back when they shared a laugh or lean his head on Finn’s shoulder on the bus. This near-constant desire to have an arm or a hand on Finn was new, though, and he couldn’t say he minded.

Hell, if he tried to say anything other than that he was eating it up like a starving man finding food in the desert, he’d be downright lying.

“So, here’s my idea,” Brad said. “Since you hate your yearbook photo, there’s no reason why you, me, Chloe, and her mom should keep it as is. I thought we could tape these photos over top of it, so we have a real picture of you instead.”

Every single train of thought in Finn’s head stopped running. The conductors deboarded, and there was no hope of them moving anytime in the foreseeable future.

Brad’s fingers tightened on his shoulder. “If…that’s okay with you, of course. If you hate the photos, we can take more, or if you’re tired of taking pictures in general, we don’t have to do this at all.”

Finn swallowed thickly and counted to ten as he slowly fought to say something. Anything. “Wh…why are there seven?” was what he finally managed.

Brad picked up the first photo. “Well, this one was to get you warmed up and to make sure the camera worked. We can put it in your yearbook over another photo if you want.”

Finn shrugged, barely able to lift Brad’s heavy arm an inch. He looked at the other six photos and picked up the second one, where he was biting his lip, his eyes glancing askance at the camera. “We definitely can’t put this in anyone’s yearbook.”

Brad took the photo from his hand, almost reverently. “No. I was actually planning on keeping this one for myself.”

Finn didn’t think anyone had ever done such a good job of capturing him in a photo. Everything he felt was clearly written across his face. Finn had never liked photos of himself, for a multitude of reasons, but this one felt different.

Not only had Brad been the one to capture the photo, but he also wanted to keep it for himself. He wanted to take those parts of Finn home, and maybe—just maybe—he would want to take Finn home as well.

They both turned to look at each other, and this time there was no almost collision.

They leaned in, completely in sync, and their lips met in a tender kiss.

Finn lifted his hand to cup his beloved cameraman's face. He’d always seen Finn for who he was, and these pictures were the final proof of that.

“Thank you,” he whispered for the second time in less than an hour. “I had no idea you saw me this way—or any way other than as your former high school bestie.”

Brad absently rubbed his bristled cheek against Finn’s palm. “I think I’ve always been looking, but you’ve never truly let me see you until this weekend. I should be thanking you for inviting me into your hotel room and back into your life.”

Finn couldn’t help but smile as he thought of the faded logo that hung behind the hotel check-in desk. “I hope you’ll stay a while.”

Brad’s eyes widened, and he swooped down and stole all of Finn’s thoughts, his worries, and his next breath with a toe-curling kiss.

They spent the next fifteen minutes taping the photos into Finn and Brad’s yearbooks.

When they waved Chloe over, she shrieked with laughter at the two sassy photos of Finn for her and her mom.

They signed each other's yearbooks, and Finn signed one for Mrs. Abernathy but not Ms. Willson. Maybe one day he’d get to meet her officially, but today was not the time.

They needed to get ready for prom, which started in a little over three hours.

As they walked back to Chloe’s car, Brad asked if he could get a ride with Chloe to her house because he’d forgotten his wallet there that morning.

Chloe tried to protest, saying she could bring it with her, but he said he needed to run an errand, and all his credit cards were in there.

Finn offered to walk to the hotel, so they didn’t have to drop him off.

Brad and Chloe exchanged a loaded look before Chloe nodded and waved goodbye to Finn as she headed down the hill to her car.

Finn raised his hand to wave to Brad, holding his now precious yearbook to his chest, but Brad stalked over to him and wrapped him up in a bear hug.

Finn was pretty sure his yearbook was stabbing Brad in the solar plexus, and Brad’s yearbooks were jabbing Finn in the ribs, but he didn’t try to adjust or pull away. He buried his face in Brad’s neck, planting a soft kiss on that scar from football.

“I’ll see you soon?” Brad asked.

Finn nodded and clung twice as hard to his yearbook as he turned to head back to the hotel. Maybe he would get to keep more than memories after all.