Free Where the Road Takes Me by Jay McLean Page B

directed his glare at Blake. “And you, dickface . You get pussy whenever you want. It’s as if she’s an open door, and you can just walk in freely. Here, Hannah,” he mocked. “Here’s my cock.”
    “Oh my God!” I couldn’t contain the laugh that escaped.
    Blake took a drag, then offered it to me. I declined. If I smoked, I did it to lose myself, and I didn’t want to do that tonight. Only certain nights, like the night I met Blake. “It gets worse.” His words were weak as he tried to hold the smoke in his lungs.
    “And you, Chloe,” Josh continued. “Chloe. Pshh . Dumb name. I’m calling you Chlo. No. Dumb name, too. C-Lo!” He laughed to himself, but for only a second before his eyebrows furrowed. “C-Lo, I bet you’re the same. You can probably get all the cock in all the world.” He threw his arms out to his sides and spun around dramatically. “But not Joshua. Joshua gets no pussy.” He looked back at Blake. “Hunter. Dickface. Free pussy.”
    “Dude, random words are not sentences.”
    “Fuck you, Free-Pussy Hunter.” He paused. “Hunter? It doesn’t even suit you. You don’t hunt for pussy. It’s like they scream for you!” His voice changed to match that of a whiney girl. “Take me, Hunter. Take me now !”
    Blake’s embarrassed laugh made his head fall forward and onto my arm.
    Josh took the joint from his hand and walked away. “I’m Hunter,” he announced, grabbing on to his junk. “What’s that, tree? Oh, you want my dick? Sure! I’m Blake-fucking-Hunter. Take all the dick you want.”
    “Quit it!” Blake yelled. “You’re making me sound like an asshole in front of Chloe. You’re breaking bro code. Not cool, dude!”
    Josh ignored him. Opting, instead, to start humping the tree.
    “Oh my God,” I laughed.
    Blake looked up at me with embarrassment. “Kid’s lost it.”
    “He’s allowed.”
    “Yeah,” he said sadly. We watched as he moved away from the tree and started pacing again. “So what about you, C-Lo ? What are your plans after high school?”
    I looked down at him. His eyebrows were raised and his head tilted lazily . . . but his eyes . . . his eyes held a depth in them that knocked all sense out of me. For a second I wanted to tell him everything. The truth about me and my future. “The Road . ”
    Blake’s eyes narrowed slightly. “The road?”
    “Yeah.” I turned away. His eyes had the power to wreck not only me, but also the walls I’d spent my life building. “The Road,” I repeated, as if saying the words again would make him understand. Lying back, I leaned on my elbows so we were level. And I waited. I knew the questions were coming, and even though Clayton was the only one who knew my answers, for some reason, I didn’t feel the need to hide them from Blake. “After graduation, I’m taking off.”
    “Taking off?”
    “You keep repeating my words, like they’re questions.”
    “Yeah, well, your answers aren’t really answers. They’re just words.”
    “How are answers formed, if not with words?”
    “By words that form explanations.”
    “Explanations are the same as answers.”
    He laughed. “Shut up and explain.” He poked my shoulder with a single finger. “Properly.”
    I sucked in all the air my lungs could handle and then let it out in a whoosh. “I’m just gonna get in my car and drive. No destination. No maps. Nothing. Just drive.”
    “For the entire summer?”
    I turned to him, finding it difficult not to look at him when he was that close. “Kind of like an endless summer.”
    I could see the question in his eyes before his mouth opened, but before he had a chance to voice it, I cut in. “It’s kind of the plan for the rest of my life.”
    “The rest of your life?” he said incredulously.
    “And there you go, repeating my words again.”
    He shook his head as if clearing a thought. “I’m confused.” And he looked it. Which made him even cuter. “Are you going on your own?”
    I