“He was an introverted kid, so I didn’t send him to his room as punishment. No, I took him to a party.”

“He opened the back. “Well, at leas let me carry them to the door.” “Okay.” I walked with him to the doorway and took the bags from him, and then I reached in and took out the gum. I didn’t know what to say, so I handed it to him and his face lit up. A smile I remembered from the photos of him as a little boy appeared on his face. It wasn’t a smile the world ever caught a glimpse of in magazines. “I take it I was good.”

“He kissed her then, not gently, not tenderly. He didn’t kiss her to comfort her. He took her mouth hungrily, almost savagely, wanting to punish her for having a body that tormented him, for telling him that his last kiss had meant nothing, needed to punish her for letting scum like Jack Caldwell call her honey, and for ever thinking about a man who wasn’t him.”

“I had waited so long to touch him. I was like a kid in a candy store. I backed him into the cabinets and pressed myself against his lean body. Gabe was breathing hard and he grinned.“Goodness, Purdie Magee.”"What?" I said."I'm a little surprised."I took his hands into my own and kissed his palms then his fingers. I placed his hands on my hips and pushed a little harder against the part of him that made us significantly different and he took it from there.”

“He was just a kid. He didn’t care. He was like, “I’m getting in my mom’s van and I’m going home.” I was just a kid, too. But I cared. With him gone, who was I going to play Plato and Socrates with?
”

“I squeeze my eyes shut and try to reach for him across the hundreds and hundreds of miles, to send my thoughts into his mind, to let him know he is not alone. But he is. And I can't help him.”