Page 75 of The Locker Room

would meet eyes and yearn for a time to be alone.

Apparently, Christian couldn"t take it anymore after a while, and as

Xander walked by the back door, he was surprised when it opened, and

Chris grabbed his hand. He"d been drinking almost steadily for two days,

and Xander was a little concerned by the bobble in his walk and the lack

of awareness in his smile. But he followed him anyway, because he"d

follow Christian to hell or, well, all the way through the meandering

brick paths of Chapel Hill, right? And he was more than surprised when

they came up in the middle of Coker Arboretum… and then Chris kept

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going and pulled him back through the wisteria to a big tree, surrounded

by shrubs and undergrowth. This time of early early morning this was

the most deserted place on campus—a coed had been killed there in the

sixties, and in the morning, when the mist came off the ground, or in the

dark of the night, even the most stoic avoided it like the plague.

Apparently being gay and in love trumped some of that

superstition, at least now.

“Remember last summer?” Chris murmured as they walked.

Xander grunted, “Yes.”

They"d rented a tiny cottage on Bald Head Island, one with two

bedrooms and a couch. Chris"s family had come to visit for two weeks,

and Xander and Chris had spent an hour before they arrived trying to

figure out how to make it look like Xander had been using the other

bedroom, while they were moving all his shit into the front room to make

room for his parents, with Penny on a cot in Chris"s room.

The night after they arrived, after Andi and Jed had taken them to

dinner at probably the nicest restaurant Xander had ever been to outside

a booster dinner at the school, they were all getting ready to go to bed,

and Andi and Jed had looked at each other meaningfully.