Free Fearless by Chris O'Guinn Page A

scratching his crotch. “I have better taste than that , come on!”
    “Then which Zach is it? I can name like five—no, six—guys with that name.”
    “Beal.”
    Liam’s eyes lit up. “A senior! Wow, you really do go all out with a crush.”
    My cheeks were burning. “He’s just this really fantastic guy—like, a really nice person, you know?”
    “And the fact that he’s smoking hot doesn’t have anything to do with it?”
    I fidgeted. “You think he’s hot too?”
    “Dude, the guy is so good looking even straight guys want to do him.”
    I snorted laughter. “You’re awful.”
    “So ask him out.”
    “Okay, no. I prefer admiring from afar—really far.”
    Liam elbowed me. “Homecoming isn’t far off. You should ask him.”
    He said it in this sing-song voice that didn’t make the idea sound any smarter. “For one, he’s a senior and I’m a freshman,” I said, ticking the irrefutable points off on my fingers. “For two, he’s so far out of my league that I don’t have the slightest chance. For three, if I tried, I’d have some kind of seizure and die. And fourth, oh yeah, he’s straight. ”
    Liam grinned at me. “One, two and especially three are lame. I’m throwing them out. So, let’s talk about four. How do you know he’s straight?”
    It was a very bad idea to even consider the idea that Zach was gay. That could take my crush into places that could totally wreck me. But I knew Liam well enough by now to know he doesn’t let things go. So I really had no choice but to answer him.
    “He talks about girls all the time. And I think I saw him flirting with Brenda.”
    “Weak sauce,” Liam argued. “He might be covering, trying to keep his orientation a secret. Or, hey, he could be bi. He could just be waiting for you to make a move.”
    I remembered Hawaii saying the same thing about Liam. Did bi people really exist? I’d never met one—or had I? Totally confused, I just shook my head because no matter what Liam said, I was never going on a date with Zach—not the Beal one anyway.
    “Who are you taking to Homecoming, Mr. Player?”
    Liam’s expression told me the Zach conversation would be revisited later. He could be really stubborn about the worst things.
    “I’m keeping my options open.”
    “Oh no, you’re not going to do me that way,” I argued. “I told you who I wanted to go with, now you have to fess up.”
    “Bitch.”
    “And a half.”
    Liam actually blushed a little bit, which was a surprise and totally adorable. “There’s a girl in my bio class, Aolani, but she has a boyfriend.”
    “That sucks.”
    “Yeah….”
    What I didn’t tell him, because it would have sounded weird, was that she’d be a lucky girl if she went out with him. In spite of every single warning sign, he was turning out to be a great guy. I was really lucky he had picked me to be friends with. Who would have guessed I even knew how to get that lucky? I sure didn’t.

Chapter 8
    L IAM’S ROOM WAS WAY CLEANER than any teenage guy’s room had a right to be, which was strange since he had said it was a disaster just a couple of days ago. But seeing the various medical devices around, none of which I could name, I guessed there had been reasons for him not wanting me in his room other than tidiness. If I kept my room half as clean as his, it would stop one of the regular fights I had with my mom. Sunlight streamed in from the window, pouring over the well-made bed. An old TV sat atop a battered dresser, and beside it was a player and a stack of DVDs.
    The walls were lined with photos—some just color mementos of happy times with his family, while most were very artistic-seeming black and whites. The subjects ranged from landscapes to average people to discarded objects like tires.
    “I like to take pictures.”
    “You did these?” I stared at him. “Seriously?”
    “Why? Are they lame?”
    “Dude, they’re totally fantastic. Trust me, I know pictures. I look at a lot of them