13. Max’s Party #2
“Oh! Hotshot’s finally crawling back to me?” Max laughed. “Where is the fucker?”
“I think I saw him go upstairs,” the skater replied.
“Uh oh! Naughty Bridge!” Max cooed with a shit-eating grin. “Did he take a girl up there?”
The guys all chortled as Max parted their crowd and eagerly jogged up the stairs to find Bridger.
The moon cast a soft glow above Gus and Bridger on the roof, giving the sense once again that they lived within their own secluded paradise under the stars. They spoke about everything and nothing all at once, their hands entwined between them.
Both boys jumped when glass shattered somewhere inside and incited a collective cheer. They caught eyes and chuckled.
“These parties aren’t really my thing,” Gus admitted with a reluctant wince. “I prefer spending time with people one-on-one.”
“I know. Sorry.” Bridger sighed. “I’m realizing they’re not as cool as I always thought. But I had to come for Max.”
Gus paused. He shook his head.
“Everyone seems to owe Max something,” Gus remarked.
Bridger shrugged, but then slowly nodded as he glanced up.
“If there’s one thing Max is, it’s loyal,” Bridger explained. “If he cares about you, he’s obsessed.”
Gus bobbed his head back and forth, thinking.
“Are you gonna tell Max about us?” he asked.
“No way. He’d kill me,” Bridger said, “and you.” He squeezed Gus’s hand and gave it a shake. “Let’s just work on convincing him to let you skate with the crew first.”
The boys both laughed gently, but then Gus shook his head again. “But I only have a few weeks before I leave. So, no way that’s happening.”
Bridger sat up, swaying with the light breeze above the neighborhood. “About that… I’ve been thinking. If I got a job and saved up. Could I come visit you at your school?”
“You’d do that?!”
Gus almost couldn’t breathe. A glowing golden warmth flickered inside his body, like Bridger was starting to truly care about him. It was healing. It was comfort.
Is this… love?
Gus swallowed. “You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” Bridger pressed. “I still have senior year and I’ve never been on a plane, but… I gotta try at least.”
Gus’s eyes darted between Bridger’s. He softened at the sweet gesture. “Then… yes. I’d like that. Because I’ll really miss you.”
“Good.” Bridger squared his shoulders in a put-on show of strength. “Because you can’t get rid of me just by moving states, you know.”
The boys shared a smile. Gus bit his lip as his gaze slowly shifted from Bridger’s amber eyes to his ruby lips.
Bridger’s eyebrows raised as he smirked.
He leaned in and kissed Gus gently. The laughter, drunken shouts, and punk rock of the party all drained away as the boys embraced, high above it all.
Free of the noise, Gus felt only Bridger.
Gus pushed deeper into the kiss and pulled Bridger toward him as their tentative contact began to heat up on the roof.
“Bridger! You in here?” Max pounded on a closed door down the hallway, his tone oddly more nervous than intimidating. “You screwing some chick?” he added with an unconvincing snicker. “Want me to join?”
“FUCK OFF, MAX!” a deeper voice than Bridger’s growled back. It was his college friend.
Max flipped the bird at the door, then stumbled farther down the second-floor.
“I know you and some girl are hooking up around here, Bridge!” Max called out as he peered into the lit empty bedroom with the open window. He moved on. He was on a mission.
A few steps away, Max paused, processing. He took a few steps backward and looked into the lit bedroom again.
There. Bridger’s new flame board—it sat side by side with that Gus kid’s pansy-ass mountain board.
Max’s eyebrows furrowed as he stomped into the room. He could see someone through the moving curtain and he leaned out the open window.
What. The. Fuck?!
He squinted in anger and confusion, transfixed on the two boys kissing. On Bridger. On Gus.
Fucking Gus.
Their limbs were so fully tangled that Max couldn’t tell whose was whose. With their bodies pressed so close to swap spit, they couldn’t even see him.
Max wanted to explode.
What broke him was the innocent giggle Gus let out as the boys took a moment to breathe.
Erupting with rage, Max stepped backward. Looked around. His arms were heavy with a need to act. He peered down at Bridger’s board leaning against the wall. After hesitating for a moment, he snatched it and tucked it under his arm. Then he reached for Gus’s board.
A lamp crashed as Max’s knuckles knocked into it, sending it out of the window.
Shit!
He backed hastily out of the room and dashed down the stairs.
Gus and Bridger whipped around as something shattered behind them and the bedroom went dark. They shared a distressed look and immediately clambered back through the window to investigate.
“Shit! Someone took my board!” Bridger cursed.
“What?!”
Bridger bolted out of the bedroom, leaving Gus behind.
Party music blasted in the living room as people danced and drank. Max raced through, shoving people out of his way.
“Max!” Bridger called out from the staircase.
Max fully ignored him as he chucked Bridger’s board into the living room’s roaring fireplace.
“What are you doing?!” Bridger screeched. “My board! Fuck!”