Chapter 27
On Friday afternoon, Jayden ducked out of the classroom as quickly as possible after the bell rang, skipping his usual locker visit and long circuit round to avoid the smokers. He hadn’t seen Darren all week—he’d skipped Tuesday and Thursday at The Brightside, and had ignored all of Jayden’s messages. It had been lonely, trying, and kind of scary.
But this afternoon he had replied to Jayden’s invite to come over after school with a simple k c u l8a xxx so maybe the dark spell was over? In any case, Jayden wanted more than anything to just hug him, even if—especially if—he was still…off.
There was a mini-heat wave; it had been unseasonably muggy for days, and the figure by the treeline cut not a dark shadow but a white silhouette. Darren’s arms had freckled since Jayden had la
