Quiet and imaginative, Derek O'Reilly spends a lot of time watching a movie in his head. His fiancé Nathan wonders why Derek hasn't taken any interest in their wedding planning, and Aunt Fran -- his spiritual guru -- would like to know when her guilt-tripping nephew became a kept boy. When she drops Derek's childhood journal on his lap, he's forced to remember the name he's been trying to forget since he was twelve years old. Nicolai Lund. Nick was Derek's neighbor ... and first love. Weeks before Derek's engagement party, a chance meeting with Nick catapults Derek into the past. But Nick isn't that seventeen-year-old rebel anymore. He's a man hardened by invisible scars. A man struggling with grief. As Derek reads through his childhood diary, he realizes what Nick was to him, still is today, and yet might be ... NOTE: This edition has been expanded and substantially edited.

Split

“Oh, Nick, man, I can’t get in trouble again, you know my dad…Come on, Nico boy, don’t lemme stand here with my dick in the wind.”


Josh’s father is in the army. Josh can do a hundred pushups without breaking a sweat. His stomach is harder than a concrete block, on account of his dad’s strict regimen. “Come on, Blue. Fuck, come on! I’m fucking bailing, okay? And you shake my hand on it, man. You promise not to come after me tomorrow.”


Nick threw a finger up in Josh’s panicked face. “All right, fuck off,” he said quietly. “Get outta here.”


Josh bolted out of the street faster than Carl Lewis. “I owe you one, Lund,” he shouted over his shoulder.


David sighed. “Nick, why d’you let him leave?” David’s dark eyes shine every time he speaks to Nick. Like he has fever.


Chapter 19