Page 13 of Summer Skin

THERE WERE THIRTEENcans of spray paint and three stainless steel Thermoses in the backseat of Andi’s car. “Aven’s meeting us when his family’s done at the restaurant,” she told Chase.

“Right,” he answered, trying to think of anything but the minutes until he saw Aven again. Images from last night and the way they’d both come had been rattling around in his head all day.

He was still a bit muddy with the need for sleep, unlike Aven, who’d crawled back into bed after a quick shower and gone out like a light. But Chase remained stiff as a board for most of the night, replaying what they’d done in his mind, not wanting to disturb Aven with any tossing or turning. He finally crept out of bed at dawn, returning home. Though his thoughts continued to wrap around Aven like ivy.

Once she’d parked the car, Andi put Chase in charge of the Thermoses, leading him along the beach by the shine of her phone’s flashlight to an ancient, abandoned lumber mill.

Trailing her down the pathway, he was glad he’d decided on a heavier jacket. It was the first night of November and chilly, cold in a way Chase had yet to experience since moving from California.

“Okay,” Andi said once they’d reached a concrete shell of a building. Graffiti stood out on every wall in bright, spray-painted colors. The work of numerous people weaving together into one big, collective piece of art.

Chase’s eyes moved over the imagery, taking in the various styles. “Where do we start?”

She shook a can of paint. “Just pick a spot that looks right to you.”

He watched her for a moment as she evenly covered the image of an enormous daisy, starting over with a blank canvas. The idea was bittersweet, Chase thought. Layers and layers of stories crusted to this building. Artwork that could last hours or months, depending on who next came along.

Unlike Andi, he’d never used spray paint as a medium. So he was drawn to the idea of freestyle. Something that would be more relaxed in feeling and wouldn’t require precision.

Paint in hand, he got lost in the work, the rest of the world fading away so thoroughly that he didn’t even notice Aven sneak up behind him until he’d clapped a hand on Chase’s back, causing such a shock that he nearly jumped in the air.

“Fuck!”

“Me,” Aven said, and then laughed, turning towards Andi. “Please tell me you brought something to drink.”

“Yep. Hot cider.”

“With whiskey?”

“Nope.”

“That’s incredibly wholesome, Andi, but I have just spent the last two hours crammed into a small booth with my parents, who think after college I should attend law school.” He snorted. “Can you imagine?”

She paused, capping a bottle of paint. “Not really. You’d be miserable.”

Aven’s face formed a deep scowl. “I don’t even want to go to college in the first place.”

“I know.”

But that was something about Aven that Chase hadn’t known, and hearing it was a surprise. Chase viewed Aven the same way he saw a lot of their classmates—as someone who would be eager to get a degree, make his mark on the world. Earn a shitload of money because that was what mattered most.

His viewpoint tilted a little, more pieces of Aven falling into place.

Andi handed a Thermos to Chase and one to Aven before twisting open her own. She took a sip of cider before her face grew serious. “When was the last time you really felt like yourself? Like you knew what you wanted and acted that same way.”

Aven’s eyes flicked to Chase and then back to Andi. “Last night. Why?”

“Painting just now …” she started, then shook her head. “I can’t remember ever feeling that way for any long period of time.” Her brows drew together. “Not even as a kid.”

Aven’s mouth opened and closed, and with a concerned look he asked, “You feel like you’re being pushed somewhere you don’t want to be?”

“Like, there’s so much pressure senior year, and demand from my parents to get into a good school. And lately? That feeling of being distanced from who I want to be is getting worse. Sometimes it’s like I don’t feel connected with my body anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Do you ever feel like how people see you isn’t at all who you really are?”

Aven reached a hand towards her, and she took it in her own, giving him a squeeze. “Yeah, I get that,” he answered. “You give people what they expect, but they always want more. It’s never enough, they’ll demand something else as soon as you’ve finished the last trick.”

Andi gave a quick nod of agreement. “It’s like my entire life was planned out for me before I was even born. I’m a doll my mom wanted to play with, not a human being. And my dad? The guy’s never even considered that I don’t want to fuck off to another state. Like I even care about his alma mater! I want to stay here. I’m a Pacific Northwest person. I need the gray and the smell of the sea and the annoying Steller’s jay birds who never shut the fuck up.” She huffed out a breath, on a roll now. “And I don’t want … I don’t want to only date people my mother approves of anymore.”

“Emi Hayashi,” Aven said, and it wasn’t a question.

Andi melted, her mouth twitching into a smile. “Did you hear her answer about Sense and Sensibility in class the other day?”

“You get that she might accept a date with you if you actually spoke to her, right?”

“She’d never want me,” Andi insisted. “I’m cheer captain and she’s on the bleachers!”

“Okay, flipside-Taylor, but come on, anyone would be attracted to you.”

“How can you say that?” Andi threw her arms in the air, a look of pure exasperation on her face. “You don’t want me that way, and neither does he!” she accused, pointing a finger at Chase.

Before things could get any more awkward, Andi’s phone lit up, and she thumbed at the screen, eyes glancing over a text. “Piper says Hank sat down with them at the diner and Elena just laughed at something he said. Friend-mergency, I gotta go.” Her gaze locked on Aven. “Can you drop Chase off at his place?”

“Yeah, no problem,” he replied, throwing a grin to Chase.

“I fucking love you guys!” Andi called out, darting off with a backpack full of paint and a determined mission to put a man in his place.

There was a long stretch of silence after she left. A bite of time where Chase and Aven stared at each other in the moonlight, asking what now with their eyes.

“You wanna hang out on the beach?” Aven suggested, and Chase nodded, following Aven down to the shore.

The dazzling lights of Seattle danced across the sea, reaching out to the dark, sleepy night of the island. Chase dropped down next to Aven, backed against a beached log, sifting his fingers through sand as he stared out at the city.

“You snuck out early this morning,” Aven said, knocking his knee against Chase’s.

Chase blinked at him. Okay, so they were going there. Aven wasn’t going to pretend like last night never happened. Looking over at the sharp, beautiful lines of his face in the moonlight, Chase gave him the truth, “I had a lot to think about.”

A few heartbeats went by, and Aven shifted on the sand—his gaze going from Chase’s eyes to his mouth, and in that instant, Chase knew he was going to get kissed. He could sense it in the echo of the need radiating from the other man, see it in the tension along the line of Aven’s shoulders. In the way he leaned in, his hand splaying across the muscle of Chase’s thigh.

“And what did you think about?”

Chase’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I was wondering if you were a good kisser.”

A slow, hopeful grin grew on Aven’s mouth. “You wanna find out?”

“More than anything.”

One blink of time, and Aven leaned in, cupping his hand across Chase’s cheek, and all of the hours Chase had spent imagining this, knowing it would never really happen, boiled down to this very moment—now—and the way Aven was staring at him like he wanted it just as bad.

Chase shuddered, and Aven smoothed a thumb across his lips, and then he was leaning even closer, so close that their noses brushed, and Aven said, once, softly, “Chase,” and then nudged in gently with his mouth.

He kissed Chase quickly, sweetly, like he was asking for permission, and when Chase reached up to snake an arm around Aven’s neck, he made a low, happy noise that traveled straight to Chase’s gut.

Aven’s tongue darted out, tasting Chase’s lips, and Chase opened for him, and then they were kissing kissing, and it felt real and intense and needful in a way Chase had never known before. It wasn’t a kiss for the sake of human touch, or to please someone else. It was a kiss that sang of feeling, of wanting more. Of wanting Chase. Slow and deep, echoing each other’s desire, and Chase’s thoughts could no longer keep pace with the beat of his heart.

When they pulled away for breath, Aven swiped his tongue over his lips, like he could still taste their kiss. “Damn,” he said, widening his eyes.

“What?” said Chase, still a little breathless.

Aven watched him for a moment, staring in a way that made Chase’s stomach flip. “I’ve got no clue how kissing you is even better than I’ve been imagining all this time.”

“You’ve thought about kissing me?” Chase asked. The idea of Aven Sinclair fantasizing about him was truly surreal.

“All the time,” Aven confessed. “Since that day you told me your mom was in prison. I was so heated and I couldn’t understand why I felt so angry at you for existing. You’d done, like, nothing fucking wrong.

“That night, I couldn’t get you out of my head. I kept flashing back to our fight. Picturing how badly I wanted to shove you up against those locker doors, and then …”

“Yeah?”

“I imagined myself backing you against the lockers to kiss you. To take your mouth, to feel the heat of your body against mine.”

Chase swallowed, the image Aven shared spreading fire through his veins. “And all of a sudden, I got it. I never hated you … I was into you. I’d never been attracted to another guy before is all, and I was confused as hell—no one had ever caught my eye like that. Until you.”

All of these curious feelings. Those were shared. Chase wasn’t alone in wanting this.

He wasn’t alone.

“Thank you,” he said, trying not to let his voice waver.

“For what?”

For kissing me at the beach under starlight, for looking at me like I matter, for wanting me in a way I never thought I could have.

“For giving me a ride home,” he said, keeping it light.

“Well, I’m happy to, and it’s not like you can teleport back.”

“Yeah, but if we could do that, and you could go anywhere, where would you be?”

“I don”t know, Chase.” Aven’s hand found his in the dark, brushing a thumb over his knuckles. “Right here with you is pretty damn good with me.”