by F N Manning
“I’ll admit I didn’t entirely make it myself,” Cal smiled sheepishly, but I kept staring at his hand and the bracelet in it. “Brendan had to help me, and we followed a YouTube video, but I thought you could wear it next to your other one.” His hand traced my wrist above the bracelet April made.
Several emotions had slammed into me all at once, and now they were all muted while I struggled to breath and think and do anything but be completely floored. He looked nervous, watching my face carefully, and I held my hand up without words so he could tie it on. A simple, perfect gesture that nearly knocked me off my feet. Who knew Cal could be so romantic? Who knew I was into that shit?
The band from April was blue, a pop of color in my monochromatic wardrobe. The bracelet from Cal was red, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out the sentiment behind that.
It was like he read my thoughts. “Not that I’m trying to presume. Pink might have been a better color but. I don’t know, it’s something to look forward to maybe?”
Yeah, maybe. “I like it,” I told him simply.
“It looks good on you,” he said.
I smiled.
“That looks good on you too,” he said, touching my smile with a finger as a smile formed on his own face. My lips went to kiss his.
What did the future hold? I had no clue. For now, it was enough that Cal and I would face it together.
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About the Author
Finn Manning did go to a prep school with a parlor. He never went the distance in spelling bees, but he’s watched them on TV since he was a kid. He is still waiting for a surly biker to sweep him off his feet. Finn lives on the West Coast, loves books and tv shows and dreams of supporting himself and his dog as a self-published author. You can also find Finn at his author blog and gay YA lit blog.
You can learn about free books and Finn’s latest releases by signing up for his mailing list here.
Other Works by Finn Manning
One Little Word
Free Story - Entirely Too Gay
The days of being picked on and beat up were over for Alfonso Flores. Instead of being the scrawny nerd everyone remembered, he returned to high school bigger and buffer. He just wants to be left alone in peace. How does he end up joining the wrestling team?
A guy, of course.
To get closer to Dallas, he’ll go where no gay boy has gone before: the wrestling team. Even if he doesn’t receive a warm welcoming. What’s the saying? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Alfonso’s going to do both. He’ll try not to get killed in the testosterone filled, macho world of groping other guys for sport all while getting closer to Dallas and dealing with his overprotective father. If he doesn’t survive, at least he got to feel Dallas Archer's muscles. Definitely worth it.
This is a humorous, light hearted story about getting out of your comfort zone and getting the guy.
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One Little Word
An excerpt from Chapter 6 of One Little Word
Luke stared down my grinning form, his arms crossed against his chest, a reverse of our earlier position. Except his arms were more impressive, muscles bulging and straining against the material of his shirt. I teased him to avoid the distraction.
“Now you’re the one who’s a sore loser,” I said. I held a cake wrapped in plastic in my hands. It was white frosting with sprinkles and funfetti cake. Luke tried to get me to pick brownies instead, he was so weird. Funfetti was the best.
He wasn’t impressed. “That was entirely luck based.”
“There was no rule there had to be skill involved.” The possibility of winning sweet treats kept him from complaining when I selected the cakewalk, but he probably didn’t expect me to win. Maybe I had good karma stored up because I always won cakewalks.
“You’re at least sharing that cake with me,” he argued.
“Keep dreaming.”
Luke had given me a root beer when he won the ring toss, which was unexpectedly sweet. He was probably trying to bribe me into the dunk tank, but he remembered my beverage of choice. I might share, but he didn’t need to know that yet.
We did basically every event, jostling and trash talking each other at every opportunity. Things that weren’t even really a competition we turned into one, like the duck pond. Except we got into an argument about what actually constituted winning, getting a higher number or drawing a duck that earned two candies instead of one.
It was almost time to head back to our booth. We had time for one more game, where the objective was to knock down cans with bean bags. This was another game where Luke had an advantage, but Alicia was manning the booth for community service credit, so maybe she would help me out.
She just stared at us when we stepped up to her table. “Isn’t this game a little too easy for you?”
Luke nodded. “For me, but I have to give Ryan a fighting chance.”
“Tell that to duck pond, jackass,” I told him hotly.
“I won the duck pond, not you.”
Before we could get into it further, Alicia held up her hand. “Yeah, this and the duck pond are for kindergarteners. You know that, right?”
We looked around. The cans were regular empty pop cans, and the bean bags were about half their size, so it did seem pretty simple. Unless you were six and could barely aim. And the people in this line were especially young, and all of them had parents holding their hands who were looking at us in exasperation. The little competitive bubble Luke and I were in burst.
“Oh, I guess we shouldn’t do this one then,” Luke said, sounding as silly as I felt. It had been so easy to get absorbed in trying to beat him, everything else was in the background. There was a lot of trash talking and bragging when one of us won with petulant whining from the loser. I wouldn’t admit I hadn’t minded being in Luke’s presence for the moment, that it was almost fun.
“No, don’t let that stop you. By all means, play the angriest game of Can Knock Down the world has ever seen.” Her sarcasm skills were almost as good as mine. We retreated from her booth as she laughed at us for being giant children. I wished I hadn’t drank the root beer Luke gave me, I could have chucked it at her.
“So, who won?” I asked. I’d stopped keeping score at one point, just wanting to beat him so he wouldn’t be so smug. Plus, maybe he had this ridiculous pout whenever he lost that I wanted to kiss away. Ugh. Being attracted to someone I hated was difficult. I’d feel the urge to punch him one moment and want to shut him up with my tongue in his mouth the next.
You can find the full book Amazon here.