Free Near & Far by Nicole Williams

eyes glimmered. “Birds of a feather, you know?”
    “Bye, Jax.” I didn’t dim the irritation in my tone.
    “You heard back yet on that internship at the museum?”
    Only because his voice was clear again did I pause. “Not yet. I probably didn’t get it. I think they would have let someone know by now.” I’d applied to a summer internship position at one of the most prestigious museums in the Seattle area. I hadn’t told anyone I’d applied, not even Jesse, because frankly, I felt silly. The paperwork stated clearly that they were looking for senior-level students, not to mention the mega-talented piece they’d said in a Human Resources friendly kind of way. Jax had learned about it because the museum had called to check my references and he’d been the one checking Professor Murray’s messages that day.
    “If they haven’t called to tell you you’ve gotten it yet, then the position hasn’t been filled.”
    I wished I had a hundredth of the confidence Jax had in my work. “Over-confident much?”
    “I have to take up the slack for your utter lack of it,” he replied, sliding his hands into his pockets. “You’re talented, Rowen. You’re a hell of a lot more talented than I was at your age.” I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Jax was a T.A. for so many art classes because the professors were hoping even a smidgen of Jax’s talent would rub off on the students. “You’re the real deal. Don’t let anyone, especially yourself, tell you you’re anything less.”
    Since we were breeching into another topic I liked avoiding, I continued toward the door. “Bye, Jax.”
    “For real this time?” He started the morning with that smug smile, and he was ending it with the same one. I heard the damn thing in his voice.
    “Bite me,” I said with a bit more good-naturedness than I’d intended.
    Jax chuckled. “Bye, Rowen.”
     

 

     
     

     
     
    “HEY, EARTH TO pussy-whipped Walker. Would you please stop leaving your balls in Seattle? I’ve been having nightmares ever since I saw those guys going at it in a tent in Brokeback. You gazing into a fire across from me with a dumb smile on your face while a tent looms off to the side isn’t doing anything to ease my fears of getting Brokeback’ed out here.”
    I’d been in the middle of a daydream about Rowen and me in a happy place free of dickheads. Two seconds later, I was shaken free of that daydream to find I was across from one. “Filters.” I picked up a twig and tossed it at him. “They’d make you a hell of a lot more pleasant to be around.”
    “Fuck filters,” Garth said. “Filters are for guys who leave their testicles on their girlfriend’s nightstand when they get up to leave.”
    I sighed and chugged the last of my Coke. Thanks to the unseasonably warm temperatures, calving season had started a few weeks earlier than normal which meant all of us at Willow Springs had to start our night watch rotation. I’d been the “lucky” one paired up with Garth, although I didn’t think coincidence had anything to do with us being paired up like Dad had told me. I knew he hoped Garth and I would get back to being the kind of friends we’d been growing up, and against what I’d expected, Garth and I had made some progress in that whole forgive-and-forget thing. However, I guess Dad didn’t think we’d made enough progress. Camping out with Garth Black a couple miles away from anything resembling human life was his way of forcing progress, I guess.
    Dad and Mom still didn’t know why Garth and I had fallen out. I hoped they’d never know. What was done was done, it was behind all of us, and the only thing that would come of them finding out about Garth and Josie was disappointment and maybe a bit of grudge holding.
    That was all beside the point anyways. What had started as a tragedy had ended as a victory. I’d lost Josie. I’d lost my best friend. I’d found Rowen. Everything had worked out.
    “Oh, and nice throw by the