Go Your Own Way (13 page)

Will nodded. “Yeah, it’s due in early November. I started the application for Sarah Lawrence.”

Mrs. Martinello smiled and made a few more notes. “I’ll make sure to get you more information on in-state schools with good English programs for our next meeting, okay? See what their requirements are: essays and writing portfolios. Your file says you’ve been working on the school newspaper. Is that still correct?”

“Since freshman year. I’m editor this year,” Will said. Roxanne had been the only other senior to run, and nobody had wanted to give her any more control than she already had. “My dad’s always saved my articles and stuff I’ve written since I was little. He’s got them in folders, so I’ve basically got a lifetime portfolio already.”

“Great. Just read through these and fill everything out for next time, okay?” Mrs. Martinello turned next to Lennox. “Now, your file, Lennox, is quite… extensive.”

“Don’t bother.” Lennox raised his leg and waved his ankle monitor around for all of them to see. “Gonna be on a leash for the rest of my life. No college,” he said firmly as he stood up. “Waste of time.”

Mrs. Martinello eyed his ankle monitor for a minute. “All right, um, here are the forms for your coming graduation. Robes, diplomas, announcements. That sort of thing.” Her eyes stayed on Lennox. “I’ll have you back in as well, Lennox. Just for one appointment, since you aren’t planning to attend college. Ms. Tanner will give you passes back to class.”

Did everyone react like that to Lennox? Will racked his brain as they got passes and left. He couldn’t think of one instance—one person—who hadn’t assumed the worst about Lennox. Everyone stared at Lennox, or mocked him, or taunted him for one thing or another. Even the faculty—hell, his own father and Karen too—assumed the absolute worst after they met Lennox. Will did, too.

The thought lingered with Will for the rest of the day. What must it be like to go everywhere and be monitored? To be watched with suspicion and ridiculed for everything he couldn’t change? Will had some experience with that, but it was different, too. He could throw on a dirty shirt, baseball cap and torn jeans to blend in with the other boys, but Lennox couldn’t. Skin color wasn’t something he could hide with a wardrobe change.

By five o’clock, Will was exhausted and ready to go home. Conditioning was not his favorite time of the year. He much preferred getting out on the field in the spring and playing. They had a few scrimmages before it got too cold, but that wouldn’t be for another few weeks. He was just pulling on his boxer-briefs after a shower in the locker room when Lennox appeared around the corner.

“Tight ass,” Lennox said. His hand reached out for a squeeze and Will leaped away. “Aw, come on. It’ll help you pop another boner. You’ve only been sporting one all day.”

How did he always notice? It wasn’t as if Will wore sweatpants to school so nothing could hide it. Jeans weren’t the most com­fortable clothes with an erection, but at least they held him in place and his shirt covered the bulge.

“Get lost,” Will said as he grabbed his shirt. “I’ll meet you by my truck.”

“Why? I can blow you right now.”

One of Will’s teammates, a sophomore who was new to the team, ducked his head around the row of lockers. “You gonna grow breasts, too?”

The boy flung a cleat at them. Will dodged it, but it clipped Lennox’s elbow before it banged into the lockers.

“Price, leave him alone or I’ll have you running laps until the first game,” Aaron Saunders called. He appeared a second later and threw the cleat back at Price.

“Bullshit.”

“I’m captain this year, so you’ll fuck off or get cut from the team,” Aaron told the boy. “Stick your foot up his ass, Will.”

“No thanks,” Will said, but he nodded a thanks at Aaron before turning to Lennox. “Wait outside.”

This time, Lennox went, but not without a pat on Will’s ass and a thrust of his tongue against the inside of his cheek. Face burn­ing, Will dressed quickly and headed out to his truck. Lennox was waiting, his skateboard under one foot as he leaned back against the driver’s side door. Will tried to dodge him and unlock his car. Instead, he was spun around and pressed against the door.

“Ouch. I don’t—”

“Like it rough?” Lennox murmured. He peeled back Will’s collar and pressed a kiss to his fading hickey. He shivered, waited for Lennox’s fingers to brush under his shirt the way he kept imagining. “I bet you do. So rough your ass has bruises afterward.”

“That’s not—
oh
.”

Will shut his eyes as Lennox kissed up his neck. A mystery was hidden under the skin here, and Lennox had all of the clues. He took a step into Lennox, let another kiss breathe over his skin and took another nibble up under his jaw.

“Get lost, queers!”

A football slammed into the hood of Will’s car and broke them up. Will started his truck as Lennox climbed in and Will pulled out onto the street before the group of football players could catch up to them.

Lennox’s fingers crept up his thigh, inching higher with every revolution of his tires.

“W-Where am I going?” Will shifted and took a shaky breath. Lennox’s hand was now at the apex of his thigh, rubbing slowly. Will grew dizzy with the rush filling his stomach, and his cock twitched in his jeans.

“There on the right,” Lennox told him as he sucked at the skin under Will’s earlobe. “Like that? It’ll be better once we’re at my place.”

Will turned into the parking lot, almost clipping the gate because of Lennox kissing his neck. He jerked the gear­shift into neutral. He caught sight of the sign for the place—Olsen’s Motel—as his hand fumbled for the parking brake and found Lennox’s thigh instead.

“Shit.” Will gasped as Lennox climbed across the gearshift and straddled his lap. Hot breath tickled his cheek as Lennox nipped along his jaw line and ground into his lap. The buckle on his seatbelt dug into his hip, his foot was stuck under the brake pedal and the engine had sputtered out because he hadn’t shifted properly. But Lennox was in his lap, rocking his ass against him as he sucked greedily at a spot on his jaw and fumbled with the buttons on Will’s shirt.

This was everything Will had been craving. Lennox’s warm body against his, friction against his cock and those lips searing his skin. Marking him, owning him, singeing his skin until it blistered from the heat.

“Does it feel good, Osborne?” Lennox’s ass arched down and Will choked on a moan as his hips jerked. This feeling was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Will whimpered as Lennox rose out of his lap. He couldn’t let this go—couldn’t lose this sensation and the beauty that seeped into him with every touch and with every bit of skin Lennox revealed.

A rough growl brushed over his neck as Lennox shifted. His fingers dropped to Will’s belt buckle. It was too simple to give in to Lennox, and yet this was all he’d dreamed of for years. A boy who wanted to touch him and kiss him, to share body heat with until he got lost. A boy to open his life to, one to fall in love with and around and in between. But could Lennox be that? If they went further, would Lennox want more than something physical?

“Fuck, you’re so hot,” Lennox groaned. His hips rolled down again and then something heavy slapped against his window. Will grabbed the steering wheel by instinct. His car horn blasted and Lennox pulled away, a pocketknife suddenly in his hand.

“You two better get inside before Milton catches you out here. He’ll throw you out if he does.”

A tiny woman stood outside the door. Her voice was high and her dark hair was in a long braid down her back. She tapped on the window again and Will saw a leather bracelet around her wrist. Lennox shoved his pocketknife out of sight.

“Fuck off, Lucy.”

She shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. At least he’s cute.”

Lennox flipped her off as she went into one of the rooms. A fierce and ragged growl filled the car as Lennox got off his lap, threw the truck into reverse and nudged Will’s thigh until he restarted the car and hit the gas.

“Corner spot’s for visitors.” Lennox pointed out the cracked space filled with broken glass labeled
Visitor
.

Will killed the engine as Lennox got out. He stomped away toward the building; Will scrambled to grab his backpack and follow.

Will hurried after Lennox. This was a side of town he only drove through, and his dad never let him linger. Places that were dangerous for a boy like Will dominated this town, and this small section of mobile homes and motels was one of the worst. Will couldn’t believe Lennox lived here. Surely, it wasn’t safe for Lennox. His parents had to realize that. It wasn’t safe for anyone.

Olsen’s Motel was a one-story building with a drooping awn­ing covering the strip of sidewalk between the building’s face and parking lot. Will had never been here before, although they’d driven past many times. It was a crumbled place, filled with aban­doned locals—the ones with no money to stay some­where well-kept and safer. Most of the residents were drifters, sometimes a few truckers stopping for the night. According to his dad, “Anyone who lives there is never leaving, Will. They get a trailer or a house, sure, but they never step outside this town. They are never going to see the world that you will.”

Every porch light had cracked glass panes and more than half of the posts were splintering. One room didn’t even have a light fixture next to the door; a paler square of brick revealed where it had once been. One of the huge windows had a puncture in the top left corner and the glass was cracked in jagged lines from that point. Had it been shot at? Will gulped and moved closer to Lennox as they stopped at a door halfway down the building. Half of the little bronze room number was missing, but the faded outline told Will this was room 5B.

“Look, this is a great joke, but I’m not going to hook up with you in a
motel
room.”

Lennox gave the doorknob a funny twist and it popped open.

“Y-you don’t lock your door?” Will followed him in. Was this Lennox’s home? It took Will a moment to recall what the woman in the parking lot had said, but Lennox couldn’t get kicked out unless he did live here. He lived in this dank, unsafe motel with his family. Will couldn’t believe the door didn’t have a row of extra locks to replace the broken doorknob. Or a vicious guard dog. Maybe two dogs and a stun gun, in case the dogs were cowards like Oyster.

“Lock’s never worked the way it should,” Lennox muttered. He shut the door and shoved a heavy trunk up to it to barricade them in.

Will watched with a queasy feeling. It was a makeshift defense, built with the furniture in the room. Lennox tested the door and seemed satisfied when the large floor-to-ceiling pipe groaned a little.

“How are your parents going to get in?” Will asked.

Click click click.

Lennox flicked his tongue ring a few more times. “Don’t have to worry about that.”

Did they work evenings, or overnights as Karen did at the hospital? But that didn’t make any sense to Will. If Lennox’s parents were doctors or nurses, they could afford a better home than this room. Maybe they worked as overnight stockers or something? That would explain living here.

Lennox shifted and cleared his throat. Will had never seen him act so awkward.

“I don’t have chairs, but we’ll have lots of fun on the bed.”

Will stared at him and then around the room. Thick curtains blocked the enormous window. A mini-fridge was on the wall opposite along with a guitar case. A mattress and mattress frame were stacked on the floor and a shadeless lamp sat on the rickety nightstand beside it. From where he stood, Will could see an open door in the back corner. As he took it in, Will couldn’t imagine how Lennox and his parents lived in such a tiny space. It wasn’t much bigger than his old bedroom. Then Will realized the most obvious thing about the room.

Everything reminded him of a teenage boy: the old guitar; the pile of crumpled chip bags and taco wrappers littering the dresser; a heap of textbooks at the foot of the bed; another hill of dirty clothes in the corner under the window; and the tangled mess of pillows and blankets. None of the personal possessions seemed as if they would belong to an adult. Will swallowed and his chest grew tighter, as if something had grabbed his lungs and was trying to squash them. Lennox plopped down on the bed and opened a hard plastic water bottle. He didn’t offer Will anything, but another glance around convinced Will that Lennox didn’t have anything else to offer.

“Let’s get this novel stuff over with, Osborne. Or should we get right to the fucking?”

Will ignored the vulgar words, but so much more of Lennox’s cockiness was making sense to him now. It was the only thing that did make sense anymore.

“Do you—” Will hesitated and bit his lip. “Don’t you live with your parents?”

A stupider question had never left his mouth. Lennox was in high school, a
teenager
. Of course he lived with a parent. Or a relative or guardian of some sort. Especially if he had an ankle monitor.

Lennox snorted. “No.”

This was illegal. It had to be, in some way or another, even if Lennox was eighteen as he was. With a record and that monitor, he must need someone to watch him. How could anyone call this place home? For Will, home was where his dad was, where Karen burned cookies and Oyster tracked mud inside. It was warmth and life and an unspoken safety Will had never thought to be grateful for. As he caught sight of the doorknob, he suddenly found he was thankful indeed.

“But how—”

“My grandfather.”

“So, you live here with him?” Will put his backpack down on the dresser. That made a little more sense. He pictured a retired grandfather, too crippled to work, using what little money he had to support his troublesome grandson and himself.

“No.”

“Um, do you live with that woman? From the parking lot? Is she, like, your sister or something?”

“No,” Lennox said again, and this time an edge was in his voice

None of this made sense. The only thing he was certain of was that Lennox lived here, and he was probably on his own. A sharp prickle coursed through Will’s chest. For the first time, he forgot every crude word Lennox had spoken, forgot the boy who had been nothing but a nuisance since they’d met. Lennox was more than that simple façade.