Page 38 of College Town

Noah didn’t respond. There was silence a beat, then a crackling, and Noah said, curtly, “Here he is.”

“Tha–”

“Hey,” Tommy said, breathless, before Lawson could get out the “nks.”

“Hey,” Lawson responded, thankful as ever that he’d come into this room, because his smile bloomed quick and automatic, and he knew he didn’t look like a guy talking to his buddy, but like a lovestruck sap.

“Hold on a sec.”

“’Kay.”

Tommy’s voice grew distant, as though he’d pulled the phone away and covered it with his hand. “Go away. Dude, no.Get out.”

Little dictator. Lawson’s grin widened.

Noah said something he couldn’t make out.

Tommy said, “Noah,” sharp and insistent.

Mumble, mumble, mumble, and then Tommy’s hand must have slipped from the phone, and Noah came through loud and clear, his voice grave in a way Lawson had never heard it before. “…know you can’t keep doing this. If Mom found out – if Uncle Frank knew you were fucking–”

“Shut up, Noah,” Tommy said. Low, urgent, furious. “Shut up.” He sucked in a quivering breath, and he soundedhurt, and Lawson jumped to his feet, already thinking about where he’d left his keys, and his hat, and his jacket, because he had to get to Tommyright now. A gut-deep, instinctual reaction to get to the person he loved and shield him, warm him, take all that hurt out of his voice.

And then, with a drop in his stomach, he registered the words themselves, and realized why Tommy sounded hurt.

Know you can’t keep doing this…

If Uncle Frank knew you were fucking…

There was only one possible end to that sentence, and it squeezed Lawson’s insides until he thought he might be sick.

“Shit,” he breathed, and sat back down, hard. The chair cushion let out a dusty wheeze of protest.

“Lawson?” Tommy asked, close again. “Hey, you okay? Law – shit, hold on.” There was asnickof a door closing; the familiar squeak of bed springs. “Lawson?” Tommy asked, terribly gentle.

Lawson had to clear his throat before he answered, a thick knot of emotion wedged at the base of it, suddenly. “So.” He made a sad play at unbothered. “That’s what Noah thinks of me, huh?” He choked out a pathetic laugh. “Can’t fault him, really. I’m not–”

“Law,” Tommy said, firmer. “Noah’s an idiot.”

Lawson’s eyes stung. He said, as teasingly as he could muster, “Hey, now. That’s my friend’s boyfriend you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, well, he can get fucked if he’s gonna say stupid shit aboutmyboyfriend.”

“Oh,” Lawson said, before he could help it, and then bit his lip so he wouldn’t do something as pathetic as sniffle.

“Noah’s so stupid, ignore him.” Then, softer, “Please.”

“Yeah. Okay.” It was impossible to ignore; the words flashed like hot brands across the front of his mind, but he would try to pretend they hadn’t shaken him.

The bed springs squeaked again, followed by a soft thump, and he could picture Tommy flopping backward across his bed. He’d only seen his room once, a few years ago, and so he didn’t know if theStar Warsposter was still hanging on the back of the door, or if Tommy had packed away his model cars and his model T-Rex skeleton. Was High School Tommy’s room a whole different world than Middle School Tommy’s room? Or, like Lawson’s, was it frozen in time?

Such wonderings helped him wrest his emotions back under control.

“How was New York?”

“It sucked,” Tommy said on a gusty exhale – it was a sigh of relief, and Lawson patted himself on the back for moving on, because Tommy had worried he wouldn’t, and was so audibly glad that he had, Lawson could hear the smile in his voice. “My uncle sucks. But. We’re back, now.”

“Did you get to seeRent?”

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