By Any Other Name

By Any Other Name Read Free

Book: By Any Other Name Read Free
Author: Tia Fielding
Tags: Gay & Lesbian
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final and he had no say in it.
     
    The relief he felt at hearing the words took his breath away for a while. The name of the boy, now a man, who had been the first person ever to capture his elusive Dru’s heart had always made him feel slightly uncomfortable. There was history there, even if nothing sexual had happened between the boys. Thom knew Dru had never truly been able to get over the loss of Skye, no matter how serious his relationship with Thom became or how much time passed. Seven years was a long time not to know why the person you loved, and who you thought was your best friend, never contacted you again.
     
    “I’ll go put the coffee on. We need caffeine. And something to eat. Takeout?” he asked while getting up from the couch.
     
    “Yeah… okay, sure… Italian okay?” Dru asked, clearly wanting comfort food. He had gotten the idea of Italian being comfort food from Thom’s mother, who was half Italian and liked to cook for her family, especially if there was a crisis.
     
    “Sure, I’ll be right back, babe,” Thom said and kissed Dru’s cheek before retreating to the kitchen to think about the possibilities the fax would open up for them.
     

Chapter 2

     

     

     
    Dru
     

     
    Dru sat on the couch, his legs folded next to him on the seat as he looked out of the large windows. The view was one of the reasons they had bought this house together. His life with Thom was… perfect. There were occasional issues, but didn’t every couple have those? Now—now his secure life with the man he loved with all his heart was being threatened by a ghost from the past.
     
    Skye. Just thinking the name made his heart beat faster.
     
    If he let himself think about what had happened, he could still feel the emotions like it had truly been yesterday and not all those years ago. It had started one day when he was thirteen and lasted until he was seventeen, and then it had all been taken away from him again.
     
    He let himself think, just this once, about the past. Just for this moment, when he was still secure with Thom in the kitchen, he’d think about it and then let it go again… maybe.
     
    It had been early February when the scrawny kid in too-big clothes had walked in the doors of Dru’s school. Or he hadn’t really been Dru then, he’d been Andrew Junior or, as his mother seemed to like to call him, Andy. He had loathed both names and didn’t really like any of the variations, either.
     
    The expression on the new kid’s face was one Andrew had seen before; it was almost apologetic, like the boy was embarrassed to be there. It had been clear what he was from the first moment Andrew laid eyes on him: trailer park kid. “Trash,” as his parents liked to call “those people.”
     
    Andrew was an observer and a mastermind. He could make anyone do his bidding, and the other kids, even the older ones in the school, knew it. It wasn’t so much that Andrew was better than the others; he was just richer than most of them. A lot richer. Money could buy you anything, or so he had learned at the mature age of thirteen.
     
    The new kid, Skye, who mumbled his name in front of Andrew’s math class, intrigued him somehow. He didn’t know what it was about the boy that held his interest for more than a few moments, but when the other kids made fun of his name, Skye Walker, Andrew felt enraged. It was the stupidest name he had ever heard, but it was actually quite cool too. So when he heard the other boys trying to pick on Skye in the cafeteria, he went and coolly told them to back off.
     
    The strange awe in Skye’s eyes as he looked shyly at Andrew melted his reservations. Someone needed to make sure this kid was safe. Naturally, the fact that Andrew’s parents were appalled at dinner when he told them about his new friend didn’t hurt. The Becketts didn’t socialize with trailer trash, his father said. “What will the women in the book club think?” his mother wondered.
     
    It got even

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