Wild Summer Read Free Page A

under her wing during his first time on the street, kept him safe and out of trouble, and he was so grateful and starved for affection, he’d thought he loved her.
    A young woman had scattered a bag of breadcrumbs between the goalposts a few meters away, and twenty to thirty seagulls were wheeling the sky and diving for the food while another thirty pigeons and doves were pecking at the ground. Without thinking too hard, Christopher grabbed Summer’s hand and pulled him, running into the midst of them. A chaotic storm of bird wings beat the air as the whole flock took off at once, as one. Christopher tipped his head back and grinned as they stood among the breadcrumbs, birds glaring down at them from on high.
    At first Summer looked startled, but then he seemed to find Christopher’s grin infectious, albeit reluctantly so.
    “You’re a puppy,” he said, rolling his eyes, but that only made Christopher’s smile wider.
     
     
    “Y OU WERE right about it being a debt,” Summer stopped and told him as they reached the edge of the field. “But it’s complicated.” Summer sighed. “God, I’ve got to learn to keep my mouth shut.”
    “How much have you got to pay off?” Christopher didn’t know him well enough to push too hard for details.
    “It’s not just about money…. Like I said, it’s complicated.”
    Though Christopher was more than willing to hear about complicated, when people said things like that, it meant they didn’t want to talk about it.
    “How old are you?” he asked instead, trying not to be obvious about the subject change.
    “Old enough,” Summer replied wryly, his eyes briefly flicking over Christopher as if he knew something of the reasoning behind the question.
    Christopher looked away.
    The main street of the town they’d run through earlier was off to the right. When Christopher looked back he saw Summer had started walking toward it. Seeming to realize Christopher wasn’t with him, Summer glanced back and inclined his head. With a sigh Christopher followed, thinking how no one in his entire life had ever got to him like this before.
     
     
    T HE FRONT of the club was on the high street, the entrance boarded up with a few plywood sheets covered in flyers advertising circuses and bands, months out of date. The place didn’t look as though it had been open in quite a while.
    Summer led them to a rubbish-strewn alleyway around the side.
    “I want to go in with you,” Christopher said, careful not to let any uncertainty into his tone. He hoped he sounded like this wasn’t up for negotiation.
    Summer frowned, sucking his lip ring into his still bloodied mouth, and leaned back against the wall, rubbing the heel of his canvas shoe against the greasy-looking brickwork. The shadows of the alley darkened the contours of his face, making his blue hair black and giving him a certain haunted look — such a contrast to his luminosity of earlier.
    “I won’t let them hurt you,” Christopher said, meaning it.
    Compared to Summer, it would take a lot more to intimidate him.
    “Look, I don’t even know you, but I don’t want to drag you any farther than I have to into my pathetic little life,” Summer said eventually. “They’re men, and you’re… a boy. I don’t mean that in a bad way—it’s just a fact. I’m going to get your stuff back for you, okay? Wait for me here. Don’t come after me. Please.”
    Without looking back, he put his head down and walked quickly away down the alleyway.
    Drawing on all his resources and gathering his resolve, Christopher took a deep breath, glanced around, and followed.

Chapter 2
     
    Now… (four years later)
     
    W HO ’ S S UMMER ? Romeo signed carefully across the kitchen table.
    Reeling his thoughts back in, Crash tried to compose himself. And failed.
    He’d dreamed again last night.
    Vividly.
    Intensely.
    For the past ten days, it had been the same, and when he awoke, it left him bereft, as if he were cursed to relive those hours