Page 3 of Summer Lessons

Oh, speaking of…. “Hey, isn’t it snack day?” Mason said, brightening. His mom usually took them to a fast-food place for a soda or a cookie on Thursday.

“Yes, it is,” his mother told him. “And if I get through today, I’m orderingextracookies for Mommy!”

“How about Kool-Aid,” Mason said helpfully. “We just made some yesterday.”

“And I just bought a fresh bottle,” his mother said under her breath. At that moment, the teacher came in and his mother stood up and rolled up her sleeves.

She drank three giant glasses of Kool-Aid and vodka that night.

And Mason got another eighth-grade teacher when he went back to school in the morning. This one was very, very careful to say it was okay for two men to be the daddies.

Twenty years ago

“SORRY, MOM.”

“Mason….”

“He was kissing me and it just sort of slipped out.”

“That word slips out a lot, Mason. What were you doing kissing in the middle of school?”

Mason looked up from the slick gold-brown surface of the table in the conference room and tried to gauge his mother’s expression. She would have looked happier with a Kool-Aid in her hand. He went back to studying his fingers as he tried to eraseFuck Hopefrom the table with just his spit alone.

“Mason…,” his mother warned.

“It was lunch,” he said defiantly. “We were making out under the bleachers.”

“That’s nice,” his mother said, her voice dry. “Do we even know this boy? Have we met his parents? Do we have their phone number? Or, hey, hisname?”

Mason fidgeted. “Kyle,” he muttered.

“That’s a nice name. Are we ever going to meet him?”

Oh God. “No,” he said, squeezing his eyes tight.

“Why not?”

Oh God. To hismother? “Because I asked to touch his penis and he punched me in the face.”

His mother let out a breath. “Uhm, was there…” He could hear her thinking. “…contextfor this request?”

Mason sighed. “He had his hand down my pants?” And it had feltgood. Really good. Mason couldn’t lie—Kyle had been squeezing and stroking and…damn.

“Oh.” His mother sighed. “That’s not what he told Principal Curtis.”

“Yeah. I think he was okay with feeling me up, but I said the magic word and he freaked.”

His mother rested her forehead against her hand. “Mason?”

“Yeah?”

“How would you like to go to private school?”

“Do I have to hide the fact that I’m gay?”

Her sigh shook the world. “No, no—gay is fine. Just… maybe tell them you’re celibate?”

“God, college can’t come soon enough.”