Page 76 of Together Again

I left the cups in the sink and went to our room to run the shower, got undressed, and got in knowing Max wouldn’t be too far behind. I was right.

We didn’t speak as we took our time washing each other. Our bodies reacted as usual, but we didn’t do anything about it. I justwanted to comfort Max. Even without having the full picture, I could tell he was hurting a lot.

“Do you want to tell me your side of the story?” I asked when we finally went to bed.

We were facing each other with our hands interlocked against our chests.

“Not much to tell. I thought I had the perfect upbringing, perfect parents, perfect life until I told my parents I was gay. Joel had told his parents, and I foolishly thought mine would be okay with it. They weren’t. They told me to get out of the house. I was fourteen. Looks like Lucy went to live with them a few years after I’d been gone.”

Max said it in such a detached way, as though he wasn’t talking about himself, and I couldn’t help the tears that escaped my eyes.

I had so many questions.

Max had also been kicked out of his home by his parents, but he’d been so much younger than me. How had he survived? Had he moved in with Joel? The way he’d talked about their time together as teenagers made it sound as though they were occasional sleepovers. Where had he stayed when he wasn’t there? How did he feel knowing his parents had kicked him out for being gay but had allowed Lucy to stay? Why had Lucy run away as soon as she found out she had a half-sibling?

All the answers had to wait for another day because Max’s hands roamed my body as he said, “Isaac, please make loveto me. I need to feel you inside me.”

I knew what he was asking for. The escape of focusing on nothing else but the way in which our bodies connected. He was hoping for the pain, the pleasure, and the search for that magical high that was going to make the whole world disappear. There would be nothing else but me and him until exhaustion claimed us.

I would gladly spend the rest of my life giving him that.