Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
“Call it concern, ya big dummy.” Emerson smirked. “We’re just different, is all.”
“Don’t I know it,” Rhys said with a laugh. “Which is why for all intents and purposes, this wouldn’t work on paper.”
Emerson sobered immediately. “What wouldn’t?”
“Our friendship.” Rhys motioned between them. “It is working, isn’t it?”
“Of course.” Emerson’s neck streaked red, like he was offended or hurt by the question. “Why would you ask that?”
“You try having your memory wiped,” Rhys groused, rolling his eyes. “It’s no fun. And you’re treating me differently.”
“What? How?” Emerson sank down on the edge of the bed, looking flummoxed, and Rhys felt guilty, but Christ, he was losing his mind and needed to get it out.
He could feel his heart beating in his ears as he said, “You’re tiptoeing around me. Like I might…I dunno…break?”
When their gazes met, Emerson’s eyes softened a fraction. Rhys feared he sounded too needy and wished he could wind back the conversation and start over again.
“You are a bit broken, and that’s hard to see.”
“Sorry.” Rhys immediately regretted bringing it up. “Guess I’m a needy contradiction.”
“It’s okay,” Emerson murmured. “You’re allowed to be.”
Did Emerson even realize what an amazing person he was? So many of Rhys’s good memories involved him. And even now, he didn’t know what he would have done without Emerson’s support. Just having him there helped so much.
Rhys was suddenly flooded with such deep fondness for his friend that without thinking, he reached out and pushed a stray strand of hair behind Emerson’s ear, like he’d done a few times before, after his parents passed. It was so pretty—thick and a darker auburn than his siblings’. More like his mom’s.
“Thanks for being here for me, Em.” He heard Emerson’s breath catch and realized he’d let his fingers linger there. He pulled them away swiftly, his cheeks heating and his chest feeling an unfamiliar twinge.
Emerson gripped Rhys’s hand. “Always.”
And then his fingers were gone, but it was enough contact to make his skin buzz with warmth. He was so fucking glad not to be alone.
Right then his phone buzzed with a text, and it was from one of his coworkers who had linked him to a cool skateboarding video he’d promised to send.
“Stay for a few and watch this video with me?” Rhys pleaded. “I probably shouldn’t ask. I know it must be hard for you to be in this room, but I just…”
“It helps to have you here.” Emerson smiled. “I definitely need to get used to it. Besides, the room has a different vibe now, which helps too.”
Emerson lifted the covers and slid beneath them, and it felt like old times, when they would sleep over at each other’s houses on the weekends.
After Rhys came out, some of the kids at school started treating him differently. The guys in the locker room would turn away, like he’d study their junk or something. It sucked, but it could’ve been so much worse. Kids would whisper shit, but he was never outright bullied, and for that he was grateful.
But Emerson always treated him the same, and though they had different interests, he was always there for him. So being vulnerable in front of his best friend now shouldn’t have thrown him so much, but somehow it still did. Emerson had been through so damned much, but he’d taken him in, no questions asked.
“So what is this?” Emerson asked, leaning toward the phone.
“It’s from the X Games, and this dude is the next big thing.”
He hit Play and listened to Emerson’s reaction to some of the stunts. His mind kept drifting to other memories from their childhood, like snapshots in time. Sometimes if he tried too hard to jog his memory, his head would swim and he’d feel pretty out of it. Which was happening now. That, along with the pain meds setting in, made him feel drowsy.
“That was cool!” Emerson exclaimed, seeming genuinely impressed. He might’ve been a pretty cautious person when it came to…well, life, but he was always a good sport about listening and acting interested in Rhys’s hobbies. “Click on that other one of this guy.”
Rhys hit Play on another YouTube video, and Emerson held the phone closer to his face, but after another minute Rhys’s eyes drifted closed and his head coasted toward Emerson’s shoulder.
Emerson tensed briefly, but then Rhys felt his arm wind across his back, most likely to keep him steady. He immediately melted into him, burying his nose in Emerson’s cotton shirt and taking a whiff of the clean scent of laundry detergent with a hint of Emerson’s musky smell. The aroma surrounded him in a familiar and comforting way.
“Hey,” Emerson said into his hair, making a warm buzz travel across his shoulders. “Let’s get you to bed.”
Still, neither of them moved. He was like dead weight, and he hoped Emerson would forgive him for enjoying his warmth a little too much.