Todd has harbored a secret love for his best friend Riley for years. But Riley has signed up to join the military, and soon he'll leave the small town he calls home -- and his best friend -- behind. The fact that Riley decides to spend his last evening home with Todd instead of with his girlfriend Charlene tells Todd something ... and a few beers later, he decides to confess his feelings for his friend.

Best Friends

Without warning, Riley snarls and punches me


in the shoulder. I press back against the window, terrified. Here


it is, then, where he beats the shit out of me. Here it comes—“Why


the fuckdidn’t you say something sooner?” he wants to


I rub my shoulder, confused. “What?”


“This is my last night here,” he reminds me,


“in case you forgot. And nowyou decide to let me know


what’s going on in that thick skull of yours. Nowyou decide


to let me in on what you’re feeling for me, when it’s almost too


late to do anything about it. Why didn’t you tell me before, huh?”


I shake my head, I don’t know. “All this time,” Riley mutters, half


to himself. “All this time, and I had no clue…”


He lunges across the seat and grabs both my


shoulders like he’s going to shake some sense into me. I close my


eyes and flinch, waiting for the fist to my jaw, the blow upside my


head, the second punch that never comes. Instead an uncompromising


Chapter 5