Page 67 of The Story of You

“Aren’t you wondering how I ended up with Shane?” Ash had tried to pair me with Jennings.

“Nah. I assumed you worked your magic. That’s what I would have done.”

“Magic? I don’t have magic. We are very different people, Darius.” I told him what happened and what didn’t happen.

“That sounds more like you,” he admitted. “I didn’t think you’d go through with it. Still got your boy though and that’s all that matters. Knew you would, Simon.”

Did I have him though? I wasn’t sure. “What about you? Did you…?”

“I sure fucking did. That piece of shit. No way I was going to get what I wanted from him without showing him I was mature enough.” That’s what we thought mature meant. “But I showed him.”

And Darius was smiling too brightly for it to have meant nothing.

* * *

Simon

From there the order of things changed but it only meant more work for us. We still did our jobs, but we helped with the bigger kid stuff too. I left Shane’s shirt folded on his bed after I saw to it getting washed. It ended up back on my bed with a note—stay warm or else. I wanted to know what “or else” meant.

Shane and I didn’t talk. He worked and I goofed off with Darius only half-working. There was a good reason why we weren’t given these jobs until we’d hit a certain age.

Eventually, we annoyed Shane enough that he told us off. “You two better quit it before I come down there.”

Darius turned his severe Randall eyes toward Shane. “You can’t tell us what to do.”

But he could. Aside from the fact he could hold us both down and bust our asses at the same time, the farm depended on a disciplinary hierarchy, so Terry and Lars did less hollering at us. The older of us took care of the younger of us in all ways. Even though it wasn’t a hard and fast rule on the list of house commandments, it was expected. “Try me, Darius.”

Darius was not willing to try him—yet. But later he approached me about it. “It’s time,” he said to me.

“Time to what?”

“Time to dostuffwith him.” And it’s safe to assume he was way more vulgar than that.

“No. No way dude.”

“He’s cramping our takeover. Trust me when I say the way to a man is through his parts. Asher’s wrapped around my little finger.”

That wasn’t remotely true. Asher did give into Darius sometimes but not because he was wrapped around Darry’s finger. “Even if I wanted to do that, which I don’t—”

“Don’t fucking lie. Maybe you’re not going to because of some kinda morals you have but you want to.”

I did. I wasn’t admitting to it. “He’s not into it, Dar.”

“Make him into it.”

“He hasn’t said two words to me about it since that night.” That amazing night I sat baking against his hot skin.

“What are you talking about? He just said several to us out there.”

Oh boy. “You know what I mean.” I considered Shane telling us off as Shane doing his job, not talking to me. Darius saw it as an invitation.

“At least talk to him. He’s not going to make the first move.”

I knew Darius was right, but I didn’t know how to make “moves”. Nor did I want to. I mostly just wanted to be near him.

Darius smacked my ass. “Well, I’m going to hang out with Asher tonight. We’re drinking beer down at the dock. You in?”

“So, I can watch you two making out? No way.”