Chapter 17

“I thought these were called the dog days of summer because it was so hot and dry? Dry?” said Ned.

Peter just smiled. “Will you be my date for the reunion dance this weekend?” he asked.

Ned frowned. “But you’ll out us both. Is that what you really want to do?”

Peter took Ned in his arms. “Oh, hell yes. It’s about damn time, isn’t it?”

“But you get to leave right after that! I live here!”

“But you don’t have to live here, do you, Ned? I mean, oh shit, you have to work here, don’t you?”

Ned rested his head on Peter’s shoulder, thinking hard. Getting hard, too. He had tears in his eyes when he pulled back. Even the mention of work did not remind him of where he was supposed to be at the moment.

Their lips met and they were pressing together and lost in each other’s lips when a truck full of local kids went by, jeering out the window, and for some reason, cackling like chickens.

“Oh shit,” said Ned, “what if they recognized me?”