Chapter Eighteen
SKYLAR SHOULD HAVE loved the return of his fraternity brothers. Normally the bustle of filling the house was one of his favorite aspects of the school year—rekindling old friendships, preparing to start new ones. But this time, he didn’t relish the chaos.
Some of it was that despite Unc’s shepherding of the governing board, the tone of Delta Sig had taken a decidedly different turn. The newly elected officers were more interested in hosting parties than polishing the fraternity’s image, and the new risk management officer didn’t seem to care that they still had work to do in that department. Unc kept arguing for more responsibility, pointing out the national chapter was watching and that if they weren’t careful they’d end up disbanded, but the rest of the officers only called him a worrywart and went back to plotting the most raucous rush week parties ever.
Unc was beside himself. He came to Skylar’s room after a particularly contentious meeting, red-faced and fit to be tied. “I don’t know where these fucks get off, but they’re going to run us into the ground. Because if that brand-new shrine gets screwed over after the alumni did all that work to restore it, there’s going to be hell to pay.” He paced back and forth across Skylar’s area rug a few times, then slammed his fist against the closet door. “Goddamn but this isn’t who we are.”
Skylar thought back to the spring, to how he’d run around begging for help with the mural issue. To the fall, when he’d been roped into being the risk management officer. To the year before, when he’d become president as a sophomore and everyone had been so impressed. Was it impressive? Or have they been desperate all along?
He shifted his gaze to Xander’s painting, studying the ghostly man standing in the sea of paint.
I don’t want to be desperate anymore.
Except he lived in desperation now, because every day the date of his LSAT test drew closer.
He’d begun to do more than simply snow his tutor now, his every waking hour crammed with studying he should have done all summer long, but of course it was far too little far too late, and even this marginal effort was poor at best. Skylar struggled to focus, and he couldn’t find a place where his brain would willingly digest the material. At the fraternity he felt restless. At the library he felt anxious. In the living room of the Palace of the Sun he wandered around aimlessly, then inevitably went up the stairs to visit Hokusai and Hiromu while he waited for Xander to come home from working at the studio.
If Xander was in the room with him, he could work at least for a while. If Xander gave him the occasional touch or encouraging murmur, he could work longer. But it wasn’t going to be enough.
“I should have been studying all summer.” He confessed this one hot late-August night, a week before classes started. “I took a practice test the other day, and I’m not even close to the score I need.”
His head was in Xander’s lap, and Xander stroked his hair, gentling him. “There are parts you can’t know how they’d score you, right? Essays and things?”
“Yes, but there are parts I know how I’ll do now, and it’s not good. I have to take the test the third week in September. I won’t be ready.”
“You can’t put it off for later?”
Not without earning himself another lecture from his father and quite probably some kind of dictate he not see Xander again, this time with teeth. “No, I can’t.”
Xander’s touch on his hair stilled, then resumed. “Do…you still want to go to Yale?”
Skylar shut his eyes. “Of course I do,” he lied.
“Mmm,” was all Xander said.
Skylar was sure Xander knew he hadn’t told the truth. This knowledge made him feel heavy and weary. He turned so he lay on his back, opened his eyes, and looked up at Xander. “They’re having another rush party tonight. Would it be all right if I stayed here?”
“You’re always welcome to stay with me.” Xander ghosted fingers along Skylar’s jaw. “You need to put in an appearance first, I assume?”
He did, technically. But he didn’t want to. “For a few minutes. The last one was completely jarring. They had a stripper. In our living room. And a wooden dowel and a bottle of lube, and I left before I could find out what they were for. They’re bragging this party is supposed to be better, and frankly I’m terrified.”
More strokes along his beard. “Do you want me to come with you?”
Skylar was so taken aback he sat up so he could gape at Xander properly. “Who are you, and what have you done with my boyfriend? Isn’t a fraternity party your worst nightmare?”
Xander’s jaw was set, and he had a determined look in his eye. “No, you being made uncomfortable about sexual situations around people you’re not out to, is.”
Skylar’s whole face flushed, and for several seconds he didn’t know how to respond. Eventually he managed to stammer a half-hearted, flustered, “You…you don’t have to do that.”
Xander took his hand, kissed the fingers, the seat of his palm. “I want to do that.”
Skylar was melting from the inside out. Especially as Xander kept kissing his hand, slowly, as if he had all night to do so. “But how will you manage with so many people?”
“I’ll use the social skills this amazing public relations person taught me.”
Skylar had goose bumps from all the kissing. His voice broke when he tried to object. “I never taught you anything. All you did was paint me. And make love to me. I was a terrible teacher. I only gave you some social media pages that don’t match your personality.”
Xander paused his erotic assault enough to smile wickedly at him. “I watched you work the campus president. And Jacob. And me, when you wanted something. I took notes.”
“And you think that will be enough?” Skylar shivered and shut his eyes, jerking as Xander’s lips traveled above his wrist. “That’s a little too much stimulation for me tonight, please.”
Immediately Xander withdrew, smoothing the places his lips had touched with his thumb. When he spoke, he didn’t sound troubled at all for being asked to stop. “Did I read you wrong, though? You seemed like you could use some sensory time. Do you want me to get the fan brush?”
This was too much. Skylar gripped Xander’s wrist and squeezed. “You’re seriously offering to go with me to the rush party? But first you’ll get me off via paintbrush, to calm me down?”
Xander pressed his forehead to Skylar’s and stroked his beard with both hands. Skylar stared at Xander’s chin, at the stubble on the divot in the center.
“Am I going as your boyfriend or your friend?” He trailed a hand down Skylar’s nape. “I’m okay with either way. I promise.”
Skylar played with the hem of Xander’s collar. “There’s discomfort either way. So I should choose the truth, where at least I’m myself, yes?”
“Only you can decide that. It’s in your own time.”
“They’ll assume I’m gay. I still don’t know how to sort that one in my head, if I am or not.”
“I don’t know that it’s important. Mostly I care that you want to be with me.” Xander massaged the back of Skylar’s head gently. “Perhaps we play it by ear?”
Skylar was hit with a fearful sense of loss as he thought of what his life would be like when Xander inevitably moved on to somewhere else and Skylar went to Yale. He felt cold, nauseated, and strange.
And sad. So sad.
Xander drew Skylar to him, tucking him into his body, wrapping himself around him. “I’m coming with you. Or you’re not going.”
Skylar buried his face in Xander’s neck and focused on his breathing. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing is wrong with you.”
“There’s so much wrong with me.” Skylar clung to him. “I don’t feel like I fit anywhere anymore. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. How I’m supposed to be.”
“You fit with me.” Xander tucked him in tighter, as if to prove his statement. “You’ll always fit with me.”
And what about when you’re not here? When I’m not with you anymore?
But he couldn’t bring himself to ask that.
He kept thinking he would find a way to excuse Xander gracefully from the rush party, to prove it would be a quick in and out and he’d be fine on his own. Xander, however, ignored him. And he teamed up with Unc.
It was basically Hotay & Moo, the live-action version.
Unc was staying for the entire party, but not because he thought it would be a great time. He planned on filming and sending documentation of any infractions back to the national organization, hoping to head off a disaster that would end in the fraternity being disbanded. He was all for Xander playing Skylar’s escort, though. To the point that when Skylar approached him privately to try to end-run the arrangement, it backfired. Unc doubled down.
“Not a chance. He’s right. You need him there.”
They were in the Lucky 7 office, just the two of them, but Skylar glanced around nervously, fearing Xander might walk in on them at any moment. “It’s only a rush party, for heaven’s sake. I’ve been to a million of them. I’ll dip in and out, make an appearance as a senior member, then leave. He’s overreacting.”
Unc shut his laptop and turned to Skylar. His normally sparkling eyes were sober, his expression serious. “Okay. We haven’t talked about this yet. I don’t know that you want to, and that’s okay, but I feel like we have to, a little.”
Warning bells went off in Skylar’s head. “Talk about what?”
“You told me, before you showed up at the frat glowing and holding Xander Fairchild’s hand, you weren’t gay or bi. I decided you weren’t ready to tell me and didn’t think much of it. But then Zelda got up in my face about asexual rights and sexual-normative assumptions. I’m still not sure that’s the right word, but I know what they mean. And they got me thinking about a lot of things.”
Goddamn Zelda. Skylar held up his hands. “You’re right, I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Hear me out a little longer, okay?” Unc rested his elbows on his knees. “They talked about how for some people sexuality is gray. Like it’s almost not there. Or only there sometimes, or under certain conditions. Or how they can only develop a sexual relationship once they have a close emotional relationship.”
Skylar wanted to end this conversation so much. “Why are we discussing this?” God help him if Unc brought up starfish…
“Because the more they talked, the more I looked back and felt like I understood you. Except if I brought it up, I knew you’d make that face you’re making now, like you want to get up and leave but I haven’t been rude enough yet for you to justify it.”
“Why are you bringing this up?” Why wasn’t Skylar leaving, that’s what he wanted to know?
Probably because Unc looked so earnest. “Because I’m trying to tell you I support you. To apologize for all the years you had to stand by and watch the brothers be gross jerks and I didn’t know it upset you.”
Skylar opened his mouth to say being asexual didn’t make him necessarily hate watching other people be sexual, that this wasn’t how it worked—then he shut it, because while that was true, he did hate how the brothers always attempted to lure him into joining them. To the point that when he saw a stripper show up at a rush party, whether or not he was hosting, he got nervous, because he knew eventually someone would try to get prim Skylar Stone to let a half-naked woman sit on his lap.
Unc was clearly remembering this too. “All I can think of is last year with that woman who mashed her tits in your face. Everyone thought you were being a gentleman and a good sport. Except you weren’t, were you? You were fantastically uncomfortable.”
Skylar thought about lying, then gave in. “I took a shower for an hour afterward.”
“And you were sick the next morning, you said.” Unc looked pained. “Does it…repulse you? I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer. I’m trying to understand. I only want to know, so I can help you. If you want help. In situations like the rush party.”
Skylar picked at imaginary lint on his shorts. “With…Xander, and Xander only, certain things that are somewhat sexual in nature are acceptable, some of the time. But they’re pretty mild by everyone else’s standards.” He smoothed his thumb against the fabric. “It’s not exactly about sex for me, either. It’s hard to explain. And…I don’t really want to.”
“Sure. Sure, it’s cool.”
Skylar said that…then kept talking anyway. “I’m not repulsed by sex, but I get tired of having it pushed at me. It would be like, for you, everyone assuming you were gay and always shoving cock in your face. You don’t have anything against gay men, but it’s not what you want every time you go out to a club, I assume. Maybe once would be tolerable, or a thrilling diversion, but after a while it gets to you. Especially if you feel like you can’t tell anyone it’s not what you want. That you’ll be considered sick or a freak for it.”
“I don’t think that about you, for the record.”
“I know.”
“It’s just, you look so tense. I thought I should reassure you or something.”
Skylar looked down at his hands clenched in his lap. He unfurled his fingers, though it took more effort than he would have thought. “I’m not…used to talking about this. And now it seems like I talk about it all the time.”
“Is that bad?”
“No. It’s different.” He glanced up at Unc. “I can’t tell the brothers. Or rather, I don’t want to.”
Unc nodded. “Are you going to be open about your relationship with Xander?”
Everything kept circling back to this. “Let them think what they will about what it means about me, about my orientation. If they ask you, you can be vague.” He rubbed his beard. It was comforting, because it made him think of Xander. “The frat, people on campus—they’re not who I worry about.”
“It’s your dad.”
Skylar tucked his thumbs inside his fists, stared at his knuckles. “My dad thinks he’s a bad influence, because of the fundraiser. I shouldn’t have let him talk to Patricia. But probably it wouldn’t have mattered.” He wiped his mouth, feeling his stomach churn. “I can just hear my father telling me Xander doesn’t fit the image of a corporate spouse.”
The air was heavy between them. “You’re thinking of things like spouses, are you?”
Skylar blushed. “I meant it as an example.”
“I don’t think you did, actually. But that’s okay. For the record, I think he’s willing to consider things that seriously too.”
“Yes, but it wouldn’t work, would it? Because I’m going to be some stuffed suit in a horrible law office and—”
“But why, Sky? Why are you doing it, when you so clearly don’t want to?”
Skylar stood abruptly. His heart beat too quickly, and he felt as if he were caged. He paced the edges of the room. “Did I say I didn’t want to?”
“You called it a horrible law office. I’d say that’s a sign that—”
“I’m frustrated, is all. Besides, life isn’t always about doing what we want.”
Unc rose, followed him. “Okay, you’re right—but it’s also not about suffering through things for no fucking reason. Why do you need to do this even though you don’t want to?”
“Because it’s a good firm, and we represent good people—”
“For fuck’s sake. It’s not a charity case. It’s a business. Your dad’s firm represents saints and sinners alike, whoever has the cash in their hand. And don’t counter with your parents’ charities. Those are mostly excuses to hang out and have parties. I’ve been part of those things for years. I know the drill.”
Why was Unc’s argument making Skylar so angry? “I owe my parents. They’ve given me this education. This privileged life.”
“Key word there, they gave it to you. It wasn’t a contract negotiation.” He snorted. “Though, with your parents, it probably was. My point is, you can do other things. You don’t have to go to law school. Or you can go to law school but not Yale Law School. If you’re determined to sacrifice yourself to a greater good, there are other ways you can get there. Plenty of them.”
Skylar’s head was starting to hurt. “How did we get from me telling you I could handle going to the rush party on my own to career counseling?”
Unc laughed. “I dunno. Sorry about that.”
To Skylar’s surprise, he found he wasn’t sorry. He was still worried about Xander coming to the party, which Xander noticed and got annoyed over, which meant in the end when he came to pick him up he collected a very grumpy boyfriend who glowered at him while also appearing quite handsome in, of all things, a crisp, bright-blue polo and brick-red cargo shorts.
“I didn’t know you even owned such things,” he said, admiring the view.
“I do know how to dress up, thank you.” Xander glanced self-consciously at himself, then at Skylar. “Do I look okay?”
“You look wonderful. Also comfortable, like yourself.” Skylar even appreciated the scowl. It added a certain something.
At the party, Skylar worried about how they would be received as they worked their way through the crush of guests—the crowd was 90 percent male, as this was meant to be a chance for the fraternity to interview potential pledges. If Xander was nervous, however, he didn’t show it. He stuck close to Skylar, scowl firmly in place, scanning everyone who encountered them, like a bodyguard.
He hadn’t shaved and had a bit of scruff around his jaw. He was handsome in his awkward, perfect Xander way. Skylar forgot to be nervous for him and simply enjoyed him, especially when the crush got thick and Xander captured his hand…and didn’t let go.
“Yo, Stone!” A sophomore pledge wearing a hat with plastic breasts holding two cans of beer and elongated nipples as straws staggered toward him. He saw Skylar and Xander’s joined hands and paused. “What the hell? This a new pledge? You hazing him or something?”
Xander’s eyes went cold and steely. He laced his fingers through Skylar’s. “I’m his boyfriend.”
The pledge blinked. Repeatedly. Then laughed. “You guys. You’re hilarious.”
Xander grumbled and tugged Skylar away from the drunk, taking him onto the main floor.
There were more people here, some Skylar knew, most he didn’t. Normally this wouldn’t faze him. He’d weave amidst them, smiling, shaking hands, making connections. It was what he did. It was who he was. Except tonight, he couldn’t do it. It wasn’t because of Xander, either.
What was happening to him? Why was he looking at a roomful of people and feeling nothing but unease? Why did he cling to Xander’s hand as if he couldn’t handle it if Xander let go?
“Stone.”
A hand clapped him on the shoulder. He startled, then tried to cover his reaction, especially when it put Xander on ultra-glower. The president of the fraternity had come up to him. Raiden already had his shirt off and the red cord signifying his position as president of the fraternity tied around his head. His dark eyes glinted with trouble. “Ready to party, brother? Oh, and who do we have here? Are you pledging? You need a lanyard. I’ll get you one.”
“This is Xander,” Skylar said before Xander could bite Raiden’s head off. “He’s here as my guest, not a pledge.”
He wondered if he should have followed Xander’s lead and been more declarative about their relationship, but it turned out there wasn’t a need. Raiden’s gaze fell on their joined hands, and he raised his eyebrows, then elbowed Skylar with an accompanying heavy wink. “Got it. Your guest. But look at you, you sly dog. You never brought one of your dates here before.”
Xander leaned around Skylar and fixed Raiden with a truly god-awful smile. “Excuse us.”
Raiden laughed as they walked away. “Stone, I think your date needs to get laid and lighten up.”
“I’m sorry,” Skylar whispered.
“Don’t worry about it. Just tell me what else you have to do here before we can leave.”
Skylar wasn’t sure. Normally these parties were a little raucous but had some form—there was a point at which the officers would stop and make announcements, old officers would be introduced, the house would be toured, and so on. Would that happen? He could see Unc across the room making his video, the riotous dancing, half-naked and in some cases underwear-clad young men swaying from too much beer. And the party had barely begun.
Jay, the vice president, got on top of the study table and clapped his hands. “All right. Pledges with blue lanyards, on your knees in the middle of the room.”
The music still pounded, but the room erupted in cheers and chants as ten grinning young men waved at the crowd before taking their position in the center of the mob. Jay walked over to them, holding a portable mic in his hand. A spotlight had appeared from somewhere.
Skylar glanced at Unc. Unc was frowning, filming furiously.
Jay gestured to a corner of the room, where the other fraternity officers stepped aside to reveal a woman, draped in a shawl, though she let one shoulder peek through to hint she was not clothed beneath. She was voluptuous, heavily made-up, and from all indications appeared to be a sex worker.
“This wonderful young lady,” Jay went on, “is here as our guest. She would like to entertain a few of our pledges for a half hour. But since we have more than two pledges here…” Jay grinned. “We’ll have a contest. Gentlemen?”
Ten fraternity members, all of them the ones Skylar considered the less-desirable members, took their position in front of the kneeling pledges.
They began to undo their pants.
Skylar froze. His stomach lurched, knotted, turned over.
“The first two pledges to get their potential brothers off get half an hour in heaven with our lady guest.” Jay tossed a wink over his shoulder at Skylar. “I should have offered you a shot in the game. Come on over and switch with someone.”
The whole room turned to look at Skylar.
Everyone was staring at him.
Everyone waited for him to speak.
For the first time in his life, Skylar didn’t know what to say. What to do.
“We’re good, thanks.” With that, Xander tugged Skylar’s arm and began to plow his way through the crush toward the door.
“Come on.” Raiden’s voice echoed like thunder in Skylar’s head. “What’s wrong with you two? We’re just having a little fun. You don’t like fun?”
“Can’t stand it. Move.” Xander was all but snarling now, and the party guests began to part like the Red Sea for him as he stormed forward.
Skylar didn’t know what was happening, only knew he wanted to get out of there, to breathe air that didn’t smell like sweat and beer, to be able to drop the mask he was so carefully holding on to his face and shudder in revulsion over the image of those young men who had been lured into Jay’s game. What if that had been him? What if he had been trying to pledge? What if he would have had to choose between backing away and being mocked or taking it, literally—and what if he would have accidentally won? He wanted to throw up just thinking about it.
He wanted to cry.
Xander’s grip shifted slightly, his fingers stroking his palm, a soothing gesture.
Just before they got to the door, Raiden swooped in, blocking their exit. “Guys, there’s no need for dramatics. Stay. Enjoy the party. Skylar, you don’t want our guests to think you’re against the leadership of the fraternity, do you?”
The ice of that statement had barely penetrated before Unc appeared, his smile like a knife. “Speaking of leadership. You got your phone on you, Ray? It ought to be buzzing something fierce. I just sent a video of Jay’s speech to the national president. He really wants to talk to you right now.”
Raiden paled and fumbled for his pocket.
Unc nudged Skylar. “Go on. I’ve got this.” He glanced at Xander. “You got him?”
“And I’m not letting go.”
Unc held out his fist. Xander met the bump. Then he led Skylar around the council president and into the night.
XANDER GOT SKYLAR away from the fraternity house as quickly as he could. They’d come in Skylar’s car, but it was in the back of the house, blocked in now by a million other cars. Plus, he didn’t want to go one step closer to that place ever again.
He was never going to get the sight of those guys on their knees out of his mind. Especially the one on the end who’d kept glancing at Xander and Skylar’s joined hands. Who had gone white with terror at Jay’s announcement. Xander was counting on Unc not to let that nightmare of a “game” continue. His priorities were elsewhere.
Skylar held on to his hand as if it were the only thing keeping him from falling into the pit of hell. He didn’t say anything as Xander led him out of fraternity row, but as they passed the auditorium, at the painted-over wall where his mural used to be, Skylar’s legs buckled and they had to sit down while he rested his head on his knees.
“I don’t understand. I knew the new leadership was weak, but…why? And why was everyone going along with it? That’s not who we are, it’s not…”
Xander spared a cold glance for the house on the hill, which was lit up and buzzing with sound even from this distance. “What normally happens at these parties?”
“Some drinking, possibly a little inappropriate sexualization of something or other, but never…never were potential pledges asked to…” He shuddered.
Xander switched which hand joined Skylar’s, taking care never to leave him without contact, and rubbed his back in soothing circles. “Will they get in trouble?”
“I don’t know. Probably a scolding from the national board. A reprimand not to do it again.”
“Jesus, that’s it?”
Skylar sagged against him. His grip on Xander’s hand was so tight it almost hurt. “That’s how it goes.”
“If they so much as cause you to have a bad afternoon, I’m painting a caricature of them with tiny penises on the front door of that fucking frat. In the paint that’s really hard to cover up.” He slid his arm around Skylar, drawing him close as he kissed the hair above his ear. “Let’s keep walking, okay?”
As they stood, Skylar glanced behind them sadly at the blank wall. “I did love that mural. I miss it every day.”
“I don’t. I thank the gods for sending the assholes who ruined it.” When Skylar looked at him, startled, Xander winked and kissed his nose. “Because that’s how I met you.”
Skylar stared at Xander for several seconds, then reached up and stroked his cheek. “Sometimes I think about kissing you again,” he said at last.
Xander’s heart skipped a beat, lurched sideways. They hadn’t kissed on the mouth again, not since that day. His gaze slid involuntarily to Skylar’s lips. “You do?”
“I do.” Skylar’s thumb brushed the corner of Xander’s mouth, catching the seam. “Sometimes I think about doing more than just brushing my lips over yours. It makes me a little nervous, but…excited too. I never thought I’d think about something like that. The problem is, I don’t know if I’m ready to do more than simply think about it.”
“I’m fine with either timeline.” Xander laced their joined hands more firmly together, swayed them side to side. “I loved the kiss you gave me. I’d love trying another type of kiss too. But either way is fine.”
A car went past, honking loudly, someone leaning out the window and yelling at them. Xander couldn’t quite catch it, but he assumed it was a homophobic slur. It annoyed him, but it jarred Skylar. They moved off the main road as quickly as they could and into campus proper, where it was largely quiet, with only the Greek students and hopefuls returned. Mostly rush party attendees were milling about, laughing drunkenly, but as they went deeper into campus, fewer people were around.
“I wish we could go onto the roof of one of the buildings.” Skylar pointed to the top of the science building, which happened to be nearest to them. “They always go up there in anime. I wonder if they go on the roof that much in Japan in real life? I hope so. It would be so disappointing if they don’t.”
“Well, I know the after-dark code to get into Art Building West. But I can’t promise about roof access. I’m game to try if you are, though.”
It took them half an hour, but they found a door that led to the roof. It was, however, not what they were hoping for. The roof’s surface was full of asphalt pebbles, impossible to so much as stand on. They stood in the doorway nonetheless, looking out across campus.
“It’s a pretty view,” Xander remarked.
Skylar nodded his agreement. He kicked at the pebbles. “This is for insulation, I suppose.”
“They should let us draw up here, though. Or eat lunch. Or something.” He held on to the door and stepped onto the uneven surface, taking in the expansive wasteland. “I mean, it’s a huge area, we could totally—” He stopped, squinting in the darkness. “Hey, there’s something in that far corner.”
Skylar climbed onto the rocks to stand unsteadily beside him and peer as well. “I see it. It’s like…a chicken coop?”
“Nobody would keep chickens on this roof. Look, it’s on the old part of the roof. I think they used to actually let people up here. Remember, this building is over eighty years old. It’s been remodeled at least three times.”
“Let’s go over and see what it is.”
They held on to each other and fumbled across the rooftop, laughing when they almost fell, though Xander doubted they’d find it funny if they landed on this gritty, sticky stuff. When they got close to the small shed, however, they sobered, because they both realized immediately what it was.
It wasn’t a shed at all. It was a shrine.
Dusty, decaying, and unattended, it had been clearly ignored for decades or better, and yet it felt more poignant and real than the one in the bowels of the fraternity. Xander was sure he was being fanciful, but he thought he could feel Benzaiten here, at least a little.
Skylar reached into his pocket and placed something on the small, dusty altar. It was a nickel. He clapped his hands twice, held them in front of his face. He gave a nickel to Xander too.
Xander placed the nickel down slowly, trying to think of what he wanted to pray for.
Beside him, Skylar began to tremble.
Xander glanced at him. “Skylar?”
Skylar shut his eyes, shaking his head as he closed himself off. “I’m fine. It’s just…been a long day.”
As lies went, it was pretty bald, but Xander didn’t press him. He did, however, know exactly what he wanted to pray for.
Please help me help him. He clapped his hands twice to get the god’s attention and sent the prayer on its way.
Skylar ran a hand down Xander’s back, and rested his head on Xander’s shoulder. “Let’s go home. Please?”
It took Xander a second to realize Skylar meant his apartment—that Skylar considered Xander’s place his home. His heart constricted, then swelled. “Yeah. Let’s do that.”