Love Lessons (21 page)

Kelly took his hand and pulled Walter from his stool, toward the corner where they’d left their jackets. Walter followed Kelly all the way outside, where Kelly led him to a snug alcove against the side of the building, pressed him against the brick and hugged him tight. Kelly’s head tucked in on Walter’s shoulder, his face against Walter’s neck in the same place it had been that night at Luna’s, and everything inside Walter went still and quiet, desperate to keep Kelly right there. Forever.

For a long time they stood there, embracing and breathing slowly. Eventually Kelly spoke. “I don’t want to screw this up either. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. You…you’re everything.”

The words cut Walter open, both what he longed to hear and what he feared to hear at the same time. Everything about Kelly undid him, made him feel lost and found at the same time. He stroked Kelly’s hair, letting his thumb catch on his ear. “So what do we do now?”

“I have no idea.” Kelly shivered. “Maybe we start by heading back to your car and turn on the heater?”

Walter didn’t want to leave that spot, didn’t want to break the moment, but it
was
cold, and it was still quite a drive back to the house. He nodded and took Kelly’s hand as he led them back to the garage, telling himself they could talk on the way back to Northbrook.

Except as they pulled onto the streets and aimed for the interstate, no one spoke, not for several miles. Walter didn’t plug in his phone to play music, because he knew nothing would cut his anxiety, not right now. He was on the verge of babbling, blurting out anything to stop the damn silence, and then Kelly spoke.

“I know what you mean about not fucking this up. I didn’t get what you were saying at first because you’ve always said you don’t
do
relationships.”

Walter swallowed hard. “I don’t.”

“But you’re saying you want to with me?”

He took a deep breath, focused hard on the road and nodded.

In the darkness of the car, Walter could see Kelly turn toward him, felt his hand touch Walter’s own against his leg. He said nothing, only held Walter’s hand.

Walter soaked that up until he could breathe normally, until he didn’t feel quite like a rubber band about to snap. “You have no idea how long I’ve been trying not to go here.”

After he said that, he worried it came out wrong, but to his surprise, Kelly laughed. “I’ve been trying not to go here longer, I bet.”

“How long?”

“The night Cara and Greg went out with us. When I had my stupid reaction and had to go to the hospital.”

Walter glanced at him. “You figured out you had feelings for me while you were having an allergic reaction?”

“
No.
At the hotel. When I was on the floor and you helped me up.”

Walter didn’t remember this. What had he done? “Was I particularly gallant or something?”

Kelly shook his head. “No. I just…that was when.”

Walter found Kelly’s fingers, lacing their hands together as he soaked in the knowledge that Kelly hadn’t crushed on him, he’d felt like
this
since the beginning of October. It made him feel good, and it inspired him to make some confessions of his own. “Honestly, I’ve been going crazy every time you start talking about dating. Then there was goddamned Mason Jar.”

“Mason—wait, I never told you about him. On purpose. But you mentioned him before too. Did Rose tell?”

“Uh, no. That would be me scamming your texts.” When Kelly tensed and he could feel the outrage coming, Walter lifted his free hand off the wheel in a quick
stop
gesture. “I know. I shouldn’t have. But I could tell it was going to go to shit, and I couldn’t stand it.”

Kelly frowned. “How? How could you possibly know that anything was happening?”

“You looked dopey, like you were in one of your damn Disney movies.”

“You read my text messages because I was
happy
?”

“No. I read them because you were…because…” He sputtered a few more seconds before giving up. “Because I was jealous.”

Jesus, confessing had been a stupid idea. If thinking about being the right person for Kelly was bad, talking about how he felt and why he’d behaved the way he had was ten thousand times worse. Walter would have been more comfortable naked in the middle of campus with a dunce cap on his head and a searchlight highlighting his location. He changed lanes because his exit was coming up, and the fact that they were almost back to the house made him realize the next awkward moment was going to be what they did when they got there. Did Kelly expect them to sleep together now? Or no, because of the virgin thing? What the fuck did they do
now
, as in not just tonight when they got back but tomorrow in the morning and back at school and—

“Walter, are you okay? You’re shaking.”

Swallowing hard, Walter gave a wooden nod and moved into the exit lane. His head hurt. His hands felt clammy. Jesus fucking Christ, he wanted out of this.

Except he didn’t.
Fuck.

“Walter?”

Swearing, still shaking, he pulled off onto the first side street, put the car in park and collapsed forward onto the steering wheel. His initial plan had been to stay curled up until he either died or got over whatever the hell was going on with him, but when Kelly touched his back, he started talking. And talking. And talking.

“I don’t know what to do.” Walter opened his eyes and stared through the gaps in the steering wheel to the floor of the car. “I don’t know what you want to do. I don’t know what I want to do. I don’t know how to behave, what to say around you now. I think I thought back at the bar if I just gave in, things would be better, but now every single thing I think of saying or doing seems like it could fuck us up, and I can’t take that. I don’t want that. But I can’t be sure that won’t happen, which makes me crazy, and I’m not making sense and talking too much and this can’t be helping my cause
and I can’t stop
—”

Kelly grabbed him, hauled him upright and kissed him hard and fast on the mouth, stopping the rest of the verbal vomit. It wasn’t an artful kiss, or even a particularly passionate one—it was simply Kelly, keeping him from tripping over himself, pulling him back to the ground.

Walter eased into the kiss, part of him thinking how he could turn it deeper, use it to move them into something familiar and sexy and less vulnerable, but that part got drowned out fast. Yes, part of it was that this was only Kelly’s second kiss, but it was for Walter himself that he let Kelly keep leading, let the kiss be untutored and clumsy but oh so sweet.

Yes, this,
that deeply buried part of him whispered.
I want this. Sweet and simple and Kelly.
The kiss wasn’t just something he’d never had before—it was something he’d never allowed himself to yearn for. It felt like a dangerous door opening to a land of tigers and demons and darkness.

Kelly was there, though. That truth alone made opening that door worth the risk.

They kissed like that for a long time, the car idling, Walter’s pulse beating at the back of his skull, quieting his headache, bleeding out his tension as Kelly kept making more and more space for him to be okay. Eventually they did pull apart, though, Walter heavy lidded and soft as Kelly smiled against his lips and nuzzled their noses together.

Walter nuzzled back, only a little hesitant. “Sorry. Lost my shit there for a second.”

Kelly’s laugh was soft and tickled the base of Walter’s spine, making him come unspooled just a bit more. “Is it bad that I’m glad you did? You’re always so put together. Nothing ever bothers you.”

“That’s because I work like hell to avoid things where I can’t fake it.” He stroked Kelly’s cheek. “I’m not going to be able to be that guy in this instance. Sorry.”

Saying that out loud made Walter feel like he’d peeled the skin and muscle away from his chest, exposing himself all the way to brittle bone. Kelly only smiled and kissed him again, softly, which was a relief. He’d worried Kelly was going to say something about how that wasn’t what he was attracted to. Because that was bullshit. Nobody was attracted to a hot mess.

Walter would simply have to work hard to not be a hot mess when it came to being with Kelly.

Brushing one last kiss across Kelly’s lips, he shifted back into his seat. “We should probably head back to the house.”

“Probably so,” Kelly agreed, reaching for his seat belt.

Walter still didn’t know what they were going to do when they got there, but he wasn’t as panicked about it now. Must have been the kiss that lightened him up.

Good to know,
he thought, and angled the Mazda back toward home.

Walter’s mother was in bed when they tiptoed into the house from the garage, which was good on the one hand because Kelly wasn’t feeling like making small talk, but on the other hand it felt like it made the awkwardness between himself and Walter that much bigger and more awkward.

Obviously the big question hanging over their heads was whether or not they were going to go to Walter’s room and continue what they’d started on the dance floor and renewed in the car. Or rather, what Walter had started on the dance floor and Kelly had renewed in the car. He still felt a little thrill when he realized that not only had he been the one to kiss Walter, but his kiss had calmed Walter down and given him something that he needed. Kelly kept playing that over in his head, not only because kissing Walter was awesome but because he’d just sort of reacted, not thinking, and he wanted to work out what about that had worked so
well
so he could do it again.

Right now as they milled around uncomfortably in the kitchen, Kelly knew he couldn’t start anything at all because he was so self-conscious he wanted to stick his head in the oven.

“You want anything to drink?” Walter asked as he opened the fridge door. “Looks like we have Diet Coke, lemonade and vitamin water. Oh, and soy milk and flax milk.”

“You have soy milk?
And
flax milk?”

“Well, I got the soy milk for you, and Mom has some pancake thing she wanted to make for tomorrow morning that takes flax milk.” He leaned back out of the fridge and waggled his eyebrows at Kelly. “Would you care for a glass, sir?”

It was funny—Walter was trying hard to go back to his usual carefree self, so hard that Kelly could see the gears turning. That realization made Kelly smile, and ironically it eased him a little bit. “I’m good, thanks.”

Walter shut the door, and now that Kelly knew to watch for it, he tracked the fleeting glimpse of panic as Walter tried to redirect. “I suppose we should go to bed. With the drive and all tomorrow.”

He said this, but he also glanced sideways at Kelly, his gaze searching to see if this was what Kelly wanted, or if he was expecting something else.

Kelly found helpless Walter achingly endearing, and he couldn’t stop a smile. Funny too how the more nervous Walter got, the more confident he felt. “I’m not super tired yet, I have to confess.”

“Oh?” Walter stilled, those visible gears trying to shift and predict the new direction. “What…what did you have in mind?”

Good question. Making out sounded like fun, but coming out and saying that was more than Kelly had in him just then. What else could he say to do that would let him subtly move them in that direction? Or let the evening play out longer? “Um…well, I have a couple movies on my laptop.”

Walter’s slow, knowing smile made Kelly’s heart constrict and his pants get tighter. “These wouldn’t happen to be
cartoon
movies, would they?”

Busted.
Kelly faltered, then ducked his head to hide his embarrassed smile. “Yeah. Though
Enchanted
is only partly a cartoon.”

“I love that you’re a Disney nut.”

That made Kelly look up, his expression dubious. “You do?”

Walter had closed the distance between them, his sly smile no longer forced. “Yeah. I do. It’s so…Kelly.”

Kelly wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not. “I still can’t believe you want to be with me when I’m the one who was scamming on animated Tarzan while you were getting off to Tom of Finland.”

Something went soft and almost sad in Walter’s face. “Kel, that’s
exactly
why I want to be with you.” Kelly frowned, but Walter didn’t say anything more, just reached up and stroked his cheek. “Let’s go watch
Enchanted
. I hear Amy Adams is pretty good. If you tell me Susan Sarandon chews up the scenery, it’ll probably be my new favorite film.”

Kelly didn’t have high hopes that Walter would enjoy even a minute of the movie—mostly he figured they’d laugh a bit at Kelly’s expense, snuggle on the bed and start making out. Which was why he was so surprised when Walter laughed, but in actual enjoyment. He was in tears during “True Love’s Kiss”, and when Sarandon’s cartoon character walked onto the stage, he flipped onto his belly, elbows buried into the mattress as he settled himself in front of the laptop.

“I had no idea this was a
farce
. Do they seriously keep up with this, making fun of their own genre?”

“Oh yeah. You should see the singing and dancing scene in Central Park.” Kelly repositioned himself on the bed so he could lie beside Walter. “It’s about to shift to live action, which is when it really gets good. Also, Giselle meets Robert.”