Sunset Park Read Free Page B

battles. He gave me one last regretful look and left me standing alone in the dark, cluttered room.

Chapter TWO
     
     
    Raymond
     
    MY PLAN had been to slip out of the house undetected to avoid the inevitable conversation with Michael because I knew it would devolve into a screaming match. My brilliant strategy was shot to shit when I slept well into the morning after a busy night of moping and watching porn to cheer up. I could have slept even longer, but the doorbell jolted me out of a weird dream about being lost in a department store. The sound of a familiar voice floating up the stairs chased away the last traces of sleep.
    I had no idea why David was in my house. From upstairs, I could hear him talking to Michael by the front door. After a moment of Michael sounding increasingly dismayed, I heard David’s quick footsteps bounding up the stairs. My door burst open—because even upper-class kids from Connecticut didn’t knock—and with a sunny smile, David stepped into my dungeon. Between the blond hair, tanned skin, and tight white-and-blue ensemble, he looked fit for a yacht rather than my bedroom.
    I groaned and rolled over, covering my head with a pillow. “Why?”
    “Why not?” My door clicked shut, and the bed rocked as David plopped down next to me. “I’m not teaching summer school, so I have nothing better to do than coming to see your charming face.”
    “Go away,” I muffled out. “I’m busy.”
    “You look super busy.”
    “I’m busy willing multiple people to be hit by cars.”
    “Am I on the list?”
    “No. But you could be.”
    He snickered. There was a rustling sound and two thumps that sounded suspiciously like shoes hitting the floor. Then David wriggled under the sheet to cuddle up to me. I tensed. David plastering his body all over mine wasn’t new—the guy was like a heat-seeking missile and seemed to constantly crave physical contact—but I was normally fully clothed for our impromptu cuddle sessions. Now, I had on nothing more than a pair of briefs. Not that he cared. He rubbed his face against my shoulder like a cat.
    “Wake up or I’ll do the lamprey thing all day. I don’t have anything else to do.”
    “I’m fucking naked, dude.”
    “I don’t care. I’ve seen naked men before. Lots of them.”
    “Ugh.” I peeked at him from under the pillow. “I need a rape whistle.”
    David removed the pillow from my head and shoved it under his own, making himself right at home. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’ve given up on us ever playing hot-intruder-and-innocent-twink sex games.”
    “What the hell?”
    He smoothed my long hair back so he could get a full view of my grumpy, sleep-creased expression. “You know—role-playing. You’re the scary but smoldering intruder, I’m the defenseless gay boy, you came for the goods but help yourself to my ass….”
    “Why do I have to be the intruder? That’s some racist bullshit.”
    David smirked. “I like how you’re more worried about my fantasies being PC than the fact that you bang me in them.”
    “I already knew you were a sick bastard considering….”
    Bringing up his one-night stand with my brother and Nunzio was just awkward. We both knew it had happened, but we never talked about it, even if I had no idea why it was such a big deal. It wasn’t like I cared what the hell they’d done a year ago while almost blacked-out drunk. As far as I knew, Nunzio was the only one with a lingering problem. But judging by the way David’s mouth tightened, it seemed as though he didn’t like hearing about it either.
    I pinched his side and changed the subject.
    “Did you lock the door?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good.”
    David settled on the bed and looked around my room. He’d been over several times in the past couple of months, but only when Michael was staying with Nunzio. They didn’t know a lot about our friendship, and I liked it that way. David seemed to understand. Maybe he knew Michael would question how we had