Page 140 of Saving Sparrow
“Can hereallystop us from graduating?” I asked nervously.
“Fuck no. The ceremony is just a dog and pony show. We’re Locklier graduates, pretty girl.” He slung his arms over our shoulders. “Let’s ditch last period. I’m suddenly in the mood to suck some cock.”
“Have you been inspired by Debbie Suck-’em-Down?” I asked as we strolled down the now-empty hall.
“I totally made that up,” Quentin whispered with a wicked grin.
Miguel entered the closet with Quentin right behind him. They looked between me and the packing box I knelt in front of. I’d left them watching TV downstairs, saying I needed to get something—code for I needed time alone. “Sorry, five minutes without you was all we could take,” he said sheepishly.
“What’s that?” Quentin asked, lowering to the floor next to me. Miguel did the same.
I showed them the small Bible. “I thought I’d finish packing some things, and I came across this. I’m thinking about throwing it away.” I’d moved all my stuff here from the Lenox House months ago, right before Amelia sold it and disappeared for good.
We’d been slowly organizing and packing everything we were taking with us to Wembly and tossing out whatever we weren’t. This was the junk box from the back of the closet I’d been avoiding.
“Do youwantto throw it away?” Miguel asked.
“Yeah,” I said absently, staring down at it. There’d been no prayers, no reciting of scriptures, and no mention of God for so long I’d forgotten there ever was. Even my nightmares were a thing of the past. So, why was I sitting here holding on to the thing that had only ever caused me pain?
“You don’t have to,” Miguel said. “Keep it. At least until you’re completely sure you don’t want it.”
“I am sure. Holding it reminds me of the person I wasbefore. I don’t want to be that person or think about that person. I’m so different now, but sometimes it’s hard to forget that the boy who once needed this was me.” I shook my head. “It’s stupid. Forget it.” I dumped the Bible back in the box.
“It’s not stupid.” Miguel pulled me onto his lap. I straddled him, my silk nightgown pooling around my thighs. Quentin scooted closer to us.
“I’m not the same since meeting you,” Miguel said, fixing the strap on my gown, his fingers lingering there.
“No?”
“No. I didn’t really care—or know—what I wanted to be. I just knew I belonged to Quentin, knew I wanted to be with him. I still do, but I want to be with you too, and now I think about finishing college, not just attending for the sake of being close to Quentin—although that is top priority,” he inserted when Quentin shot him a look. I grinned, leaning over to kiss Quentin’s frown.
Miguel shrugged. “I imagine becoming an English professor and coming home to both of you. I think about our kids and—”
“How many?” Quentin asked him, biting my shoulder playfully.
“Five,” Miguel said as if he’d plucked the number from his head without thought.
“I don’t think I could share you two with that many.” Quentin’s tone was pensive.
“Aren’t you the one always trying to get us pregnant?” I asked, chuckling.
“Yeah, you keep bragging about havingtwobaby daddies now,” Miguel added.
“You know I’m never serious about that,” Quentin griped, and I kissed his pouty lips.
“Fine,” Miguel conceded, “for the sake of this conversation, we’ll go with one kid. Point is, I want more for us. So long as we were together, I’d be down for anything.”
I kissed them both, rubbing the tip of my nose against Miguel’s before pulling away.
“What about you?” I asked Quentin. “How have you changed since meeting me?”
“I want to punch more people in the face,” he deadpanned, grabbing Miguel’s wrists when he tickled him in reprimand. “I love you,” Quentin said to me, then turned to Miguel. “I love you, too.” His rare blush crept up, blotting out his freckles. He’d just proven how having me around changed him, and I couldn’t have loved him more for it.
“We love you too,” Miguel and I said at the same time.
I reached over to dig the Bible out of the box, taking one last look at it before tossing it like a football toward the trash bin. The sound of it going in made Quentin whoop loudly.
“That’s my girl!”
