Page 44 of Pride High

SKYLAR99: Wow. How’d you know?

CAMERONX: Because you always seem so chipper. The only time you don’t is when you miss him.

SKYLAR99: It’s scary how well you know me.

CAMERONX: I wish that was true. You still haven’t told me much about him.

Because dredging up all those old memories made him feel vulnerable and raw. Which was how he already felt at the moment, so why not? It wasn’t likely to get any worse.

SKYLAR99: You really want to know?

CAMERONX: Don’t make me beg. Although it wouldn’t be so hard with copy and paste.

CAMERONX: Please!

CAMERONX: Please! Please! Please!

CAMERONX: Please! Please! Please! Please!

SKYLAR99: Okay okay! Ha ha. I’ll tell you.

SKYLAR99: It all began at computer camp.

CAMERONX: I’m sorry to interrupt already, but COMPUTER CAMP? Is that really a thing?

SKYLAR99: Yeah, but it’s not cabins in the woods or anything like that. We stayed on a college campus. They put us in the dorms. Which smelled like socks.

CAMERONX: This is already getting romantic. Jeremiah was your bunk buddy?

SKYLAR99: Yeah. We had a room to ourselves.

He still remembered how intimidating it had been to share such a small space with a complete stranger. Jeremiah seemed just as uncertain while unpacking his things. Ricky had arrived earlier and was sitting on the edge of the bed while pretending to read a magazine, when really, he kept sneaking peeks at the guy he would be spending a month with. Jeremiah was taller and broader than him, with skin like dark chocolate and big brown eyes that kept darting over to his side of the room. Ricky couldn’t stop staring, which paid off when Jeremiah pulled a Gameboy out of his duffel bag.

“Oh wow!” Ricky had exclaimed. “I keep asking my parents to get me one of those. Do you have many games?”

“A few,” Jeremiah had replied. “Hey, thatNintendo Powermagazine you’re reading… Does it have any hints for Castlevania?”

“I think it does!”

SKYLAR99: We hit it off. By the end of the first day, it felt like we were best friends.

CAMERONX: When did it become more than that?

SKYLAR99: Really quick. You know how, when there’s a guy you like, you make little excuses to touch him? Nothing pervy. Just little things, like you might put your hand on his shoulder when congratulating him or… Never mind. It’s too weird.

CAMERONX: No, I get it. When most guys sit next to each other and their legs touch, they make sure to move them. But you didn’t?

SKYLAR99: Exactly! He seemed to like the physical contact. We’d horse around in the dorm room at night. Wrestle each other. Play truth or dare.

CAMERONX: By yourselves?

SKYLAR99: Yeah. How obvious can you get, right? And then one night, we stopped making excuses.

Ricky swallowed. That had been so exciting in the moment. And so very terrifying afterwards.

SKYLAR99: He was quiet the next morning. I figured he hated me and would ask to be moved to a different room.

Ricky wouldn’t learn until later that Jeremiah had felt the same way, fearful that judgment and public humiliation were bound to follow. He always struggled with that more than Ricky did.

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