Free The Holiday Hoax by Skylar M. Cates

something inside me softened too. I knew, if I let it happen, JD would leave me changed forever.
    “Show me your favorites.”
    “Okay. But I have a lot of favorites.” JD grinned. “Be ready for a long lecture.”
    “I’m ready.”
    JD shared the stars with me, pointing out the Pleiades, The Big Dipper, Capella, and Orion. As I moved close to JD, sharing the telescope, I heard Christina Perri’s voice declaring she was “only human.”
    “I love that song,” JD said, taking his gaze off the telescope a moment.
    “Oh!” I gasped. “You are gay!”
    “Fuck off,” JD said, and we cracked up.
    “I love her too,” I said. “She sings with such feeling.”
    We listened to the lyrics a moment as Christina sang of falling down and then finding her way. As JD turned to fully face me, I experienced a lightness filling my head and heart, a hopefulness that was new to me. I licked my lips and then bravely reached for JD and put my arms around his neck.
    “This is so….” JD whispered, not finishing his thought.
    “Right?”
    He smiled. “That’s the word.” He brushed my bangs back from my face and then ran his knuckles softly down my cheek.
    With the music still playing in the darkness and the stars above us, we kissed. I clung to him, lost in the feel of JD’s tender lips, his warm mouth. There was nowhere else I wanted to be in the world.
    We lay down on the blanket, our shoulders nearly touching as we gazed up at the stars. I breathed in the crisp night air and caught JD’s sweet scent. I could float right off the ground then. If a heart could sway like music, mine was. I had no words for it all, but I kissed JD hard.
    We ended up in my room. It was some time after midnight. We’d left the blanket and telescope at the garage door and fumbled our way in, exchanging touches as we went.
    With the door firmly closed, we began to kiss once more. JD’s mouth was still soft and warm, and I wanted it so badly.
    “Ev—” He pulled away, panting. “—wait.”
    “What’s wrong?” My heart stopped. “Was I too aggressive there?”
    “Fuck, no.”
    “Oh. Okay.” Relief swept through me that I hadn’t somehow messed up. JD was smiling at me, in fact, if a bit nervously.
    I wanted to capture JD’s smile and keep it with me always. “So then, what is it?”
    “Nothing.” JD looked at me with his dark, vulnerable eyes. “But… I’ve only fooled around with Heather. And that was for show. I’ve never….” JD covered his face with his hands. “God, I can’t. I feel like such a dummy.”
    I pried his hands away. “If you’re a dummy, so am I.”
    “But you and Tyler—”
    “Not really.”
    “No?” JD’s eyes widened, his lips parted. “But everybody said?”
    “Everybody’s wrong. Yeah, we did fool around some. A few times in his room. But Tyler passed out drunk once, and the other times—mostly groping before things happened fast. Too fast , if you get me.” I fought off a blush. “We never finished anything. I thought he was my boyfriend and all that would happen eventually, but I was telling myself stories, as usual.”
    “So you haven’t either?”
    “Not totally, no.”
    “Oh.”
    JD looked at me, his gaze as intense as that first time we’d spoken. He stroked the nape of my neck with his fingertips.
    “JD, I—”
    He leaned in and kissed me, and the rest of my words became a groan. Our mouths were hot and clinging, and I melted into the kiss. Fucking melted .
    Shuddering, JD finally pulled back. His mouth looked bruised and swollen.
    We nestled together on my bed, kissing some more, exploring each other’s bodies a little and talking a lot. We talked about everything. We talked and kissed, and talked again, often laughing. Somewhere in the night, we dozed off, curled in each other’s arms.
    And that was exactly how my mom found us in the morning.

Chapter Nine
     
     
    “O H MY God!”
    “No, Mom, it’s not what it looks like!”
    “I trusted you to have Tyler in the