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

I cocked my head and tensed my neck. It was Nick, and David was with him. I shot my last soldier down and went to the door. I heard Nick’s bedroom door shut and the voices became muffled, but I could still hear them talking through the wall that separated the boys’ rooms. I couldn’t make out all the words, on account of Johan doing an excellent job on the isolation in the basement.


I tried going back to preparing the second battalion for combat but couldn’t concentrate. I kept trying to hear what they were saying. Once in a while, I would hear Nick or David laugh, then it would get quiet again.


Before too long, my curiosity got the best of me and I crept out of Boone’s room. Boone was in the play room and couldn’t see me standing in the narrow hallway connecting the two bedrooms. I stood between Boone’s door and Nick’s. Now that I was closer, I could hear a little better.


I heard David’s voice first. “Why not?”


There were playing music. It was like rock music but softer.


Chapter 26