Chapter 5
FIVE
THE SONG OF SNEAKING AWAY
ALEX
The higher we climbed the mountain, the louder our footsteps echoed off the stone. After only a ten-minute hike, we squeezed through a narrow passageway between two boulders. Sebastian took the lead, moving with ease along a path that didn’t look like a path at all.
“It’s right up here,” he said, placing his hands on top of the rocks and pushing down on them to heave himself up like he was climbing out of a pool. He swung his right foot up, almost kicking me in the face.
I leaned back, keeping my eyes on his legs just in case, when he landed on the rock with his feet at an angle.
His butt was right in front of me, and in the position we were in, I couldn’t help but notice his bulge.
It was just for a split second. I hadn’t even meant to look.
I just did—and lost my grip on the boulder and my footing because of it. Luckily, I caught myself right away.
Kneeling on the plateau, Sebastian spun around, his hands reaching for me. “Everything okay?”
“It’s just… my headache’s still throbbing a little,” I fibbed. “It’ll be fine in a minute.”
He held his hand out, and after a moment of hesitation, I took it.
I braced my foot against the boulder on the right and pushed myself up as he pulled.
As soon as my knees made it onto the plateau, though, I lost my balance.
I tumbled forward, trying to angle myself to the left, so I wouldn’t bury Sebastian under me.
The hard ground caught my fall. My hands scraped across the stone.
Only my legs ended up on his. The shock made us both freeze.
Sebastian’s hands went straight to my shoulders, holding me in place. “Careful. Not that you roll off the cliff.”
“That would be hard to explain, right?”
He glanced at our tangled legs, then back at me with a grin. “I swear, I didn’t bring you up here to kill you.”
I pulled my feet off him and scooted a few inches away, careful to keep a safe distance from the cliff. “Admit it, you want your room back.”
“I’d throw myself off the cliff before that would happen.”
“No. Don’t do that. Who am I supposed to talk to for the rest of the evening, then? I won’t survive any more conversations about potato salad.”
Sebastian chuckled. He crawled over to another boulder on the left that fenced off the plateau and leaned against the stone.
I shifted over to the space next to him, making myself comfortable, and took in the view of the valley before us.
The setting sun bathed the treetops and buildings of Seastone in bright red, while painting the mountains on the opposite side of town a striking orange against the blue sky.
Three eagles cried overhead, riding the wind and disappearing into the forest as quickly as they had appeared.
I leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the Draper residence, but trees and rock formations completely blocked it from view.
Only the sound of a cow mooing made it all the way up here.
“Wow, it’s deadly but beautiful,” I said. “How did you find this place?”
“I’ve lived here for nineteen years. That’s more than enough time to get to know every nook and cranny.” He angled his left foot and rested his arm on his knee. “It was also my favorite spot when I wanted to be alone.”
“Understandable.” It was close by, fairly easy to reach if you were nimble, and the view was nothing short of stunning.
“I only knew about the other overlook everyone calls the make-out spot.” I pointed to the small brown patch between the trees on the opposite side of the valley.
It sat right between the only local grocery store on the right and the closed hotel on the left.
From this perspective, you’d think they were only a few feet apart, but I knew from experience that walking back and forth between them took forever.
“Everyone knows the make-out spot.” He leaned his head against the stone and smirked at me. “Who’d you bring?”
“Oh, I didn’t bring anyone. Nothing like that.” I waved it off. “It’s a long story.”
“One for when we’re drunk?”
“Well, no. This one’s not a secret, although it is a bit crazy.”
“I like crazy.”
“Yeah, but, like… crazy-crazy.”
“You don’t have to sell me on it. Go on!”
He tapped his left hand against my thigh. It lingered for only a second before he withdrew it, but I could still feel his touch after it was gone.
“Don’t complain that I didn’t warn you.” I adjusted my seat and stared at the spot on my leg where his hand had been a second earlier. “I was part of an elaborate prank for two friends. They’re both horror-movie freaks, and, long story short, I played a serial killer chasing them through the woods.
“No way.”
“I wore a fake mask and everything. You wouldn’t have known it was me underneath.
Wait.” I fumbled my phone out of my pocket and pulled up a photo.
I was in a bathroom, wearing a theater mask of an old, wrinkled man with long white hair and a black bomber jacket.
“It took us weeks to prepare everything.”
“That’s you?” Sebastian wrapped his hands around mine, bringing the phone closer to his face without taking it from me. Leaning forward, he brought our heads within a few inches of each other as we both stared at the image. “This is crazy.”
“I tried to warn you! I had lived here for less than six months when they asked for my help. But the whole experience is also part of why I started liking Seastone. There’s a video of everything on MyTube.”
“Oh my God, show me!” He pulled both his legs up, tucking them close to his chest.
I searched for the video online and was lucky to have a strong enough signal to load it. I held the phone between us so we could watch it together as he scooted closer to me. His thighs brushed against mine, offering some warmth against the cold stone.
The video showed me pretending to threaten my friends with a knife, all filmed by hidden cameras in the trees.
Nicholas, the guy we’d done all this for, narrated the video.
A brief interview scene was followed by a supercut of me chasing him and his husband, Jason, through the woods.
An upbeat techno track played in the background—one I had composed for the video and later turned into a full song.
“I can’t believe something like this happened in boring old Seastone!” Sebastian’s eyes were fixed on the screen, eager not to miss a second. The longer we watched, the more his head bobbed to the beat. “Not to change the subject, but you have to send me the video. I need to look up that song.”
“Oh, uh…” I blushed. “You won’t find it online.”
“You’d be surprised. I’m a pro at finding tracks.”
“Well, definitely not this one.”
He looked up, his brows curling. “Why not?”
“Because… I kind of wrote it? And since it’s still missing some vocals, I haven’t uploaded it anywhere yet.”
He leaned back, his eyes widening. The video played for a few more seconds, but as he wasn’t watching anymore, I paused it.
“You wrote it?” His head flopped back against the rock as he closed his eyes and shook his head. A chuckle bubbled up from his chest. “Does Mila know that?”
“Everyone knows.”
“Damn,” he said, smiling at me. There was a tiredness to it, almost as if he had been proven wrong. “Okay, we have to talk about that once we’ve finished the video.” He nodded toward my phone and leaned forward again.
I restarted the clip, feeling his eyes on my face before they drifted back to the screen.
The scene where Dany played a police officer came up, sending chills down my spine. I had completely forgotten about that part.
“Is that my dad?” Sebastian asked, leaning closer to the screen.
“Yeah, and I might, uh, pretend to kill him in a few seconds.”
“You’re shitting me.” His face shot up, only an inch away from bumping against my forehead, but the screams from the video forced him to watch as I fake-stabbed Dany. Sebastian’s mouth fell open. I wouldn’t have believed it either if I were him. “My Dad?”
The video played on, showing the two guys we did all this for kissing and falling into each other’s arms at the end.
“For two gay guys? Wait. I know the one with the eye patch. He’s…” He snapped his fingers as he racked his brain for an answer. “Yes, right. He’s the gas station dude, isn’t he?”
“That’s Jason, yes. But he and Nicholas run it together now.”
His mouth still hung open as the video ended. “I still can’t believe Dad agreed to be part of something like this. And that you got to kill him!”
“Pretend-kill him. Very important distinction.”
Sebastian’s bright laugh echoed through the mountain until he bit his lower lip to rein himself in. “You were right. This was crazy. Especially considering my dad…” He shook his head as if the revelation had unsettled something inside him. “Was that really him?”
A flock of birds rose from the trees in the valley, their wings beating loud enough to draw our eyes. They circled above town, weaving around each other in a mesmerizing pattern. We both watched, letting the moment settle.
“Can I ask you, why you and your dad…?” I trailed off.
“…why we don’t get along?”
“Yeah. But we’re not drunk. So technically I can’t ask that.”