Shiny! (15 page)

Kenny got home at six. It was almost four. Now Will just had to pick out what he was going to wear.

And what he was going to say.

And how he was going to live with his friend and his broken heart if this did not work out the way he was desperately trying to plan.

H
E
GOT
to Kenny’s house about ten minutes early, thinking again as he drove that Kenny’s house was the only real bright spot in this neighborhood. A lot of people didn’t water their lawns or paint their gutters or plant flowers, but Kenny had done all of the above. His floor plan was a little different than the other houses on the block—his garage extended down, and much of his front lawn had been sacrificed to make a driveway wide enough for a car to turn right into the garage. Kenny made the most out of the space by planting small shrubs in a line instead of having a fence, and by putting blinds with a picture of Mickey Mouse over the window looking into the garage. He’d put a nice bench up on the little concrete apron in front of the house proper, and planted flowers in the beds in front of the apron. The entire house radiated good cheer in a neighborhood where even the private school was too poor to water the grass and there were as many For Sale signs as maintained lawns.

Kenny’s house was like a marigold in a mushroom patch, and as Will pulled in, taking the far left space so Kenny could park close to the garage and the front door, he thought miserably that maybe if Kenny
did
go on this date, Will could manage to put his broken heart in his pocket and keep coming over to work on their graphic novel.

He could, right? Like his mom said, he was letting Kenny know he was wanted—it was only fair. Being wanted was a good thing. Since Will was pretty sure he’d never been wanted like that in his whole life, he figured that it must be the most wonderful thing in the world.

He sat nervously in cargo shorts and a button-down shirt, which was sort of a compromise of casual and I-wanna-wear-my-best-courtin’-suit, because it was July in the valley, and 105 degrees was
not
comfortable, even in a button-down. He’d debated getting a gift—wine, flowers, chocolates (ugh, in this heat?)—but he couldn’t seem to find a handbook on this. So all he had was himself, his nerves, his clammy hands, and his good intentions.

And his complete befuddlement as a blue Toyota he didn’t recognize pulled up into the driveway, taking Kenny’s spot. A guy he’d never seen before got out and started opening the garage.

“Hello? Are you Kenny’s date for the evening?” Will asked, and the guy startled like he was doing something wrong.

He was tall—a few inches shorter than Will—with blond hair cut shaggy on purpose around a lean face with a square jaw and high cheekbones. He was built rangy, like a baseball player, and wearing
nice
clothes—cargo shorts and a pricey tank top—and up close Will thought he was probably the prettiest man he’d ever seen in his life. As his newly active penis sat up and said howdy-do, his bullshitometer gave it a smack on the cockhead and screamed, “Asshole alert! Asshole alert! Do
not
trust that cheesy smile, come-for-brains. This man is
not
your friend!”

“Hey—no, I’m not Kenny’s date, I’m his
boyfriend
. What? Are you neighborhood watch or something?”

Will scowled and stood up, pulling out his phone. Okay, yeah. Now the guy looked a little familiar—and so did the car—but Will had forgotten he’d ever seen either one of them before. “So you’re Gifford?” he asked pleasantly, not answering the question. “Does Kenny know you’re getting into his garage?”

Gif’s smile didn’t move, but his eyes narrowed. “Well, the ex thing is really only temporary,” he said smoothly, and Will narrowed his eyes in return as he tapped urgently on his phone.

Your ex is here getting into your garage. Lethal force?

He took a few steps toward Gif with his stomach in and his shoulders squared and for once in his life didn’t try to make himself five ten. “Now, I happen to know that’s a load of bullshit,” he said pleasantly. “A guy doesn’t take two HIV tests because he broke up with someone ‘temporarily,’ so maybe you could back away from his garage until he gets here.”

“Who in the hell
are
you?” Gif rolled his eyes in clear dismissal. “Well, whoever the hell you are, you don’t know Kenny very well. He’s
never
home before eight!”

“He has been, to work with me,” Will said evenly. “And he
is
coming home
now
,
so maybe whatever you’re taking out of his garage can wait until he gets here.”

Will’s phone buzzed angrily, and he didn’t have to see Kenny’s startled
FUCK!
to know that sleazoid ex-boyfriend was up to no good.

“So just out of curiosity,” Will said, taking a few bold steps closer, “what were you planning to steal? Just so we know who to ask when it comes up missing?”

Gif laughed like Will was cracking a joke, and made a go at brazening it out. “I left my bike here when I moved out.” He smiled disarmingly. “I just thought I’d come by when it wasn’t a big deal and get—”

“The twenty-inch frame that would be ridiculously small on you?” Will said, crossing his arms. “Because you, you’d be okay on a twenty-two inch, but you’d probably want a twenty-three inch like I’ve got.” He’d been riding it a
lot
lately since gas was so expensive and he was so partially employed.

Gif’s smile finally dimmed like it suddenly occurred to him that he wasn’t going to bullshit his way through this. “Look, man, I don’t want a big hassle, I was just coming for my bike—”

“Which isn’t here,” Will said stonily. And hey, hello, there was Kenny, parking behind Will, and Will thanked God because it meant this guy could finally leave.

“Jesus,” Kenny snapped as he got out of his smart car. “Are you really trying to steal my stuff?”

“It’s not stealing when it’s yours!” Gif snarled, grabbing the handle so he could throw the garage door open. Will shoved his hand down, catching the handle on his palm and sending the door smashing to the ground—and right on top of Gif’s sandal-shod foot!

“Ow-ow-ow-ow!” Gif hopped backward and leaned against his car, cradling his foot and looking damned ridiculous. “Jesus, Gigantor, could you
be
any clumsier?” He scowled up at Will and Will scowled back.

“You
so
earned that,” Kenny snapped. “Now get in your car and drive away before I call the police and produce the damned receipt for whatever is in that house that you think you own.”

“Your bike,” Will said, folding his arms and making a human blockade of himself in front of Kenny’s garage.

Kenny gave his ex-boyfriend a look of pure, undiluted loathing. “You were going to pawn my bicycle? That was a gift from my
parents
!”

“And thus, the only thing in the house without a receipt,” Will supplied, and Gif turned all his venom on Will.

“Who in the fuck
are
you!”

“I’m the guy you have to go through to hurt Kenny
ever again
.
Now go. Away.”

Gif scowled at Kenny. “I hope he’s hung like a frickin’ donkey, Kenny, because he’s not much to look at!”

And Kenny slapped him across the face.

Will winced. He’d actually been in a couple of fistfights as a kid—he remembered his father telling him how to hold his hand so he didn’t hurt his thumb. When he saw Kenny’s hand lift, he was expecting a full-out punch. The slap, though—that was just demeaning.

What was even more demeaning was Gif’s self-satisfied smile. “He must be more butch than he looks if you’re gonna bitch slap me over him,” he gloated, and
that’s
when Will tried to plow his fist through Gifford Boyle’s eye. They were standing pretty close, though, and Gif’s car was at his back, so he went stumbling back into his car, bounced off, and landed on his hands and knees.

Gif howled and collapsed, holding his hands over his eye, and Will shook out his hand and hissed. “Damn! Everything from my knuckles to my shoulder! What is he made out of, concrete?”

“You hit him!” Kenny protested, and Will tried not to whine like a complete loser.

“Not a good idea,” he muttered. He toed Gif in the side a little. “If we get you some ice, will you go away?” he shouted like he was talking to a deaf old grandmother.

“No! Ow-ow-ow-ow—I’m gonna press charges!”

“And tell them what?” Will demanded, prodding him with his flip-flop again. “That you tried to steal your ex-boyfriend’s bicycle?”

“Augh!” Gif shouted. “Go-the-fuck-away!”

And then, to complete the merriment and turn the whole can of worms into a bucket of snakes, another car pulled up.

“Oh fuck,” Kenny said, his voice taking on that dreamy quality of someone who feels like he’s in way above his head. “There’s Cliff. He’s early.”

Will’s adrenaline was still up, and he glowered at the trim guy jumping out of the teal-blue Hyundai like
he
was responsible for all that was wrong in Will’s life.

“Cliff the date?” he asked, his growliness not going away.

“Yes, Cliff the date—”

“Gifford and Clifford—Jesus, Kenny, were you going for bookends? A gift set? Can you not date losers for just a fucking nanosecond?”

“I don’t know he’s a loser! What’s wrong with you?” Kenny slapped ineffectually at Will’s bicep, and Will grabbed his hand.

“Could you not go out with Cliff the date tonight?” Will said, all of his carefully rehearsed awkward words burned away by the stupid ex-boyfriend and the fact that Will had actually
hit
someone, leveled him, and he was still writhing on the ground.

Kenny grunted. “Here, Will, help me get him in the car.” Kenny bent over, tugging on Gif’s arm, and Will sighed.

“Move over,” he muttered. “I’ll get him.” He bent at the knees, because he
did
work out, and grabbed Gif under the arms and then straightened up, bearing all the weight in his thighs.

“Jesus God, you are fucking strong,” Kenny said, eyes big, and Will grunted.

“Open his door, would you?”

Fortunately, Gif had left the door unlocked, so Will could drag him around the car and drop his sorry ass in the seat. After the first couple of steps, Will realized that the asshole was fully capable of walking all on his own, but he was making himself limp so he could whine more.

“I will drop you,” he snarled. “I will drop you and you will bruise your ass, and we will leave you lying on the concrete.”

Gif straightened up and Will changed his grip so he could
steer
the guy into the car.

“If you come back again, I will kick your ribs into your heart,” Will threatened. Given that he’d seen Kenny
draw
that scene in their graphic novel, he was pretty sure it could be done.

Gif groaned and leaned his forehead against the steering wheel. “Fine. Fucking fine.” He sat up and screamed, trying to get in one last shot. “See if I come back, bottom boy! You’re going to be
screaming
for a guy with an IQ over sixty-five!”

“Cliff!” Kenny called, and the guy who’d gotten out of the car paused as Kenny held up a hand. “Hold on a minute.” He turned to Gif and said, “Will’s brilliant—he makes you look functionally brain damaged. Now go.”

Will made sure Gif was clear from the door before slamming it, and then he turned to Kenny and, out of desperation, grabbed both his shoulders and turned him.

“Here, are you focused?” he asked, and Kenny glared over his shoulder as Gif turned the ignition and started to back out. Will gave him a little shake and said it again. “Are. You. Focused?”

Kenny shook his head and stared at him. “Will, did you really just beat up my ex-boyfriend?”

“Did you really make a date for tonight?”

Kenny waved at Cliff over his shoulder. “Yes, so?”

“Tell him you can’t go!”

“What? Why?”

“Because—”

Will felt a tap on his shoulder, and he completely lost his patience with a total stranger. “
What
?” he yelled, and Cliff took a step back.

“Kenny, are you okay? He’s not threatening you, is he?”

Kenny was staring at Will like he’d lost his mind, and he shook himself and answered his date. “No—
no
.
Cliff, he’s fine. He’s the world’s nicest guy, he was just helping me out of a jam.”

“He looks like he’s bullying you,” Cliff said, and he took a step toward Will like he was going to be a big man. “I don’t like bullies—who are you and what are you doing here?”

And
God
,
Will was tired of being asked that.

“
I’m
the guy who’s been crushing on Kenny for a month, asshole, and I’m here to ask him to give me a fucking chance!”

Cliff squinted at Kenny. “I thought you said you were single?”

And Kenny—oh, the look on his face was not good. “Cliff, could we do this another night?” he asked, and Cliff held up a hand and rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, princess—you know my number.” And he was forgotten before they even heard the slam of his door.

“Will, you can’t say things like that,” Kenny said. His face was pale, his lips white, everything about him cold and bloodless.

“But—but I
want
you,” Will said, remembering what his mom had told him. “I want you—isn’t that a good thing? Even if you don’t want me back, don’t you like knowing that I want you?”

Kenny hauled both hands through his short hair and tried to back up, but Will wouldn’t let him. “I liked knowing you were dependable
,
that’s what I liked knowing. God! You can’t want me! You can’t! You’re not—”

“Gay? But I
am
!” Will’s hands were still on Kenny’s shoulders, and he softened his grip. “You taught me that—you told me what to look for, and the only person I can see after that is you!”

Kenny broke away from him and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “But don’t you get it? If we were friends, then that would be us for life! But if you want me, you’ll just drop me. I’m all shiny and pretty now because I’m the first gay man you saw, but the shiny will wear off, and I’ll just be the slutty guy who first slept with you, and you won’t even want to come work on the project or—”