Chapter 31
The following March…
Foster paced Jude’s living room, unsure what the hold-up was.
He checked his watch again. They were already late.
Much longer and the event would be halfway over before they arrived.
Not that he was in a rush. He’d said he didn’t even want to go.
It was Jude who’d been adamant that they should.
He walked over to the bedroom door and opened it a crack, to check on progress.
Jude sat on the corner of the bed, fully dressed. He hunched over, his elbows on his knees, appearing deep in thought.
“Hey,” Foster said softly.
Jude glanced up, his eyes wide with panic.
“We don’t have to go.”
Jude sat up straighter and brushed the wrinkles out in his dress pants. “We do.” He shook his head. “I do.” He rose from the bed. “They have to see they didn’t break me. Not for good, anyway.”
Foster searched Jude’s face a few seconds. “Are you ready?”
Jude straightened out the thin sweater he was wearing and swallowed. “Yeah.”
Before they walked downstairs, Foster pressed a gentle kiss to Jude’s lips and then his forehead. “I’m going to be there the whole time. Right by your side. So will our friends.”
Anton, Roan, Mia, and Cary had already planned to create a perimeter around him. All night, if they had to. Jude wasn’t aware of that plan, though likely sensed it.
“I know,” Jude whispered. He lifted his gaze to Foster. “Thank you.”
Foster gave Jude a small smile. “Nothing to thank me for.”
They walked downstairs and slipped into Foster’s SUV. It didn’t take them long to arrive at their destination. As soon as they pulled into the lot, Foster sent a quick text to Anton to let them all know they’d arrived and would be inside as soon as Jude was ready.
Jude’s breathing had quickened the minute they’d turned onto the street. He sat silently beside Foster, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“We can sit here as long as you need,” Foster murmured. “There’s no rush.”
Jude reached over and grasped his hand, sliding his fingers through Foster’s. He squeezed it tight before breathing deep. He slowly let it out and steadied his breathing. “I can do this.” He turned to look at Foster. “Let’s go.”
They exited the car and rounded the front of the vehicle before clasping hands again.
Clouds drifted past the nearly full moon, and the night brightened. Foster got his first look at Eastfield High School in fifteen years. It didn’t look any different yet somehow did. Likely, the difference was him, so far gone from the boy he’d once been.
Yet there were still parts of him there, under the surface.
He turned to eye Jude’s profile. He was the same boy who’d had a crush on the goth kid in skinny jeans. The same boy who’d wanted that kiss so desperately he could’ve lost himself to get it. Maybe he did lose himself after, when he’d hidden away in fear.
But no more. He squeezed Jude’s hand a little tighter.
There was no more fear. He was a proud gay man walking into the gymnasium adorned with crepe paper and bunting alongside the man he loved.
The man they’d almost broken.
Jude came to a halt just outside the front doors and took a deep breath.
Foster scanned around them to make sure there was no threat of Rick or his group around—not that they’d seen him since the fire station when Jude knocked him on his ass.
Foster worried, though. The reunion would be the worst time for Rick to plan some revenge, especially when Jude had been doing so well.
That was the main reason Foster hadn’t wanted to go.
No one hung in the parking lot, but he hadn’t really expected anyone to be. The event was already in full swing. Muted music, voices, and laughter wafted their way. It got louder when the front door opened.
Foster smiled when he saw their friends step outside, ready to walk in with them. He glanced over and noticed Jude staring at the ground.
“Hey,” Foster whispered to Jude.
Jude cast a look his way.
Foster nodded toward the door.
As soon as Jude’s attention turned, a hint of a smile appeared. The first one all day. He stood a little taller and squared his shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
They walked toward the door. Cary opened it.
Roan and Mia walked in ahead.
Anton and Cary took up the rear behind them. Down the hall, there was a reception table and a couple of women and a man sat there, welcoming those arriving.
Foster and Jude stopped in front of it, the others lingering near.
“Foster Price! I was starting to think you weren’t coming!” their old class president, Felicity Banyon, said before she rounded the table and stretched out her arms. “It’s been too long.”
Foster offered her a smile and a brief hug. Felicity had been one of the few people Foster had genuinely liked while there. If the rumors Foster had heard were true, she’d tried to stick up for Jude back in the day, too. If so, she earned extra points for that. “It has. How have you been?”
“Good, can’t complain,” Felicity said with a broad smile. She turned to eye Jude. “And you look familiar. Do I know you?”
“Jude Margulies,” Foster said lowly.
Felicity’s eyes widened. “Jude? All I remember is black clothes and all that hair covering your face.” She smiled up at him.
“I wouldn’t have recognized you if I’d passed you on the street.
” She turned her attention to Foster. “Although, I haven’t recognized half the people who walked through that front door tonight.
I haven’t been back since graduation, and it’s wild how much people have changed. ”
Her gazed drifted to their clasped hands and back up to Foster’s face. “Oh, have they changed.” She smiled at Jude. “I didn’t expect to see you tonight, but you’re one who’s come to mind from time to time over the years. I’m glad you’re here.” She hugged him again. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” Jude said, a hint of a smile on his face. “Real good.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Felicity said. “Well, I need to head back inside and see where my husband has run off to. I’d love to catch up with you both later, though, once you’ve made the rounds.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jude said.
Felicity gently tapped Jude on the chest with her palm before turning to the table. “It was nice catching up with you, Cath.”
“You, too,” Cathy Giovanni—Cathy Giovanni Pulaski according to her nametag—said to Felicity before turning to Foster and Jude. “Welcome, guys.” She looked through a box, flicking past name badges and handed one over. “Here you are, Foster.”
Foster eyed it. Along with his name was a color copy of his senior yearbook photo. He released Jude’s hand for a second to pin it to his jacket.
Cathy went back to her box and flicked through some more. “Let me find Jude’s and you’ll be all set.”
“I didn’t graduate. I’m a plus-one tonight,” Jude said, eyeing the sheet of blank nametags lying on the table.
Foster reclaimed his hand and squeezed it.
Cathy looked up from her box. “A little birdy told me you were coming with Foster, so I printed one up for you.”
“Oh,” Jude said, one brow rising.
“You were with us for nearly all of it,” Cathy said. “You belong here, too.”
Foster smiled to himself and glanced at Jude.
Jude eyed Mia. “A little bird?”
“Tweet-tweet,” Mia said with a grin as she flapped her hands like wings.
“Here it is,” Cathy said before handing the second badge over.
Foster took it and turned to carefully pin it on Jude’s sweater. He eyed the senior photo with the mass of dark hair tumbling over Jude’s leaner face. “Hey, I remember this guy.”
“I sometimes wish I didn’t,” Jude muttered.
Foster glossed over the comment, sure it was just nerves talking. He pressed the pin into the lock. “I feel like it’s prom night and this is your corsage.”
“Well, I never went to either prom, so I suppose this will have to fill that void.”
“Save a dance or two for me, hmm?” Foster said, lowering his hands.
“You can have them all,” Jude whispered.
“Have fun, guys,” Cathy said.
“Thanks,” Jude said, smiling at Cathy.
Foster nodded and smiled at her, thankful for the small gesture. He was sure it meant a lot to Jude.
Before they walked into the gym, he gazed at the man at the table—a huge guy who didn’t look familiar. His nametag said Jim Pulaski. Probably Cathy’s husband. He nodded and smiled before collecting Jude’s hand again. The band joined around them and headed for the entrance.
Ashley walked out before they could walk in.
Foster stiffened. There stood the other reason he hadn’t wanted to come.
Ashley looked the two of them over—their hands clasped—and her eyed went wide for a second. Her gaze locked on Foster’s.
“Hi.”
Foster sighed inwardly. “Hello.”
“I was wondering if you were going to show,” she said.
“Here I am,” Foster replied.
Jude squeezed his hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb.
“I was hoping we might have a minute to talk?” Ashley said.
“We just got here,” Foster said. “Maybe later.”
Maybe never.
“Sure, sure,” Ashley said. “I’m sure you want to make the rounds and see who all is here. Come find me before you leave, if you can.” She gave their clasped hands another look before her gaze whipped to Jude’s.
She walked away, headed down the hallway, without another word.
“What do you think she wants to talk about?” Jude asked.
“No idea,” Foster replied. “She didn’t want to go to the last one. I was hoping she wouldn’t tonight, either.”
“And here we thought Jude was going to be the center of the drama,” Anton said. “Might be you, Fozzie.”
“I really do hate that nickname,” Foster said to Anton.
“Which is why you never should’ve told me,” Anton said before grinning broadly before urging them all inside.
As soon as Foster and Jude walked in, hand-in-hand, half those in attendance turned to look their way. Whispers spread around the room. Roan and Mia sidled up on one side of them. Cary and Anton on the other.
Slowly, those on the dance floor stopped to look, as well—a few straining their necks to see.