Page 126 of Pride High 3: Yellow

“Is this how you repay my trust?” she hissed.

“I’m sorry!” he told her. “It was an honest mistake! I never thought we would get in trouble for kissing.”

“Nor did I,” she admitted, glancing disdainfully at the principal’s office. “You already have your punishment. We’ll figure out the rest next week, when you see Dr. Sharma. Until then, please don’t give me a reason to regret placing my trust in you. I need you to think, Ricky. You’re smarter than this!”

“Okay, Mom,” he said with a swallow. “I’ll try harder.”

“Good.” She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll see you after school. Be careful, okay? I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said, feeling it more than ever.

Especially because she hadn’t tried to take away the person who mattered most to him. Instead his mother hadprotectedDiego. Ricky didn’t need any more motivation than that to stay within the lines from now on.

— — —

Anthony clenched his eyes shut against the inevitable pain, even though he knew from the first round that it wouldn’t be so bad. And if it was, his suffering would be worth it, because he’d wanted to get his ears pierced since junior high. He hadn’t, fearing that people would accuse him of being gay. Now hewantedthem to know. But that wasn’t his motivation. This was all for him.

“Oof!” he said when feeling a pinch.

He opened his eyes, knowing that it was over, and saw the ear-piercing gun withdrawing.

“Was that all right?” asked the girl working at the jewelry store they had chosen.

“Yeah!” Anthony said. “I barely felt it at all.”

“The anticipation is the worst part,” the girl said while putting on the back of the earring for him. Then she held up a mirror. “You’re all set.”

“Lemme see!” Omar said, practically shoving her aside.

“What do you think?” Anthony asked, turning his head left and right, hoping the light would catch the fake diamond studs he had chosen.

“You look pretty!” Omar glanced self-consciously in the direction the girl had wandered off in. Then he grimaced. “Not in a mean way. You’d make a pretty girl, that’s all. Is that a messed-up thing to say?”

“Not at all,” Anthony assured him. “I kind of like it.” Enough that he had felt a shiver of excitement.

“Cool.” Omar walked with him toward the mall corridor. “You also look badass as a dude. Especially with the new piercings.”

Anthony fondled them as they strolled through the mall without a destination in mind. Anytime they passed a mirror, or even a window that was polished enough, he would smile at his own reflection. This felt good! Even more than he’d imagined it would.

“Ah man…” Omar had stopped to lean against one of the rails that looked down on the first floor. A guy and a girl their age were making out on the bench below. “I miss that.”

“We can go to the record store next. I’m done here.”

“Nah,” Omar said, pushing away from the rail.

“Are you sure?” Anthony asked as they resumed walking. “Last time I hung out with Silvia, she mentioned that she hardly sees you anymore.”

“I swing by on my break sometimes.”

Which was a far cry from the guy who used to stop at her work before going almost anywhere, just to get an extra minute together. “Are you still mad at her?”

“I’m not pissed or anything,” Omar said. “I just feel…” His eyes darted to Anthony and away again. “Am I stupid?”

“What? No! Why would you even say that?”

“Because my grades are shitty, and I convinced myself I was in love with some girl who—” He shook his head. “I don’t know. Forget about it.”

Anthony wasn’t going to let him suffer in silence. “First of all, the school system sucks. There’s no way in hell that, as a journalist, I’ll ever need to use algebra. And if I do, I’ll just grab a calculator.”