Sixteen year old Jacob Smithson has quite a temper. He’s picked on by other kids because he likes boys, and recent fighting has kicked him out of public school. As a last resort, his parents have placed him in the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys.<br><br>It’s at his first mass at St. Thomas where he sees Avery Dendritch, a senior who serves as altar boy during the service. When they meet, the attraction between them is hard to deny. The two become fast friends, and as the school year progresses, their friendship deepens into something more. For the first time, Jacob has found a place where he belongs ... and someone with whom he’s falling in love.<br><br>But the other students gossip about their growing relationship, and while Avery can ignore them, Jacob cannot. As the rumors and slurs start up again, can he curb his temper, or will his penchant for fighting get him expelled from St. Thomas, as well?

Without Sin

But Avery wants to do so much more than what a half hour will allow.


He wonders if maybe tonight’s not a good night after all. He feels bad about Jacob’s fifty-two, as if it’s his fault his boyfriend bombed the test. It is, partly, and he knows Jacob needs to study tonight for the French oral tomorrow. Avery knows Jacob sucks at French. No,he thinks as they leave Jacob’s room, where Mike is already leaning over his desk, studying. Tonight’s not a good night at all.


They swing by Avery’s room to check the lay minister schedule. Avery hopes he’s not serving this evening. If he’s the altar boy, he needs to be at the church an hour before mass and there goes more time he should be spending with Jacob. At the next minister’s meeting, he has to tell the nun in charge of the schedule that he doesn’t want to serve more than once a month, if that.


Chapter 25