by John Goode
“Why would you do that?” he asked, inching toward the bars.
“You are free to go, Mr. Stilleno. You are free to walk out of here and do whatever you want to do. Of course, the people who are after you will have access to you as well, but one must take the good with the bad.”
“You’ve killed me,” he realized, his hands gripping the bars tight.
“No.” Her voice sharpened, and she skewered him with a gaze that could have cut through corundum. “You killed yourself the second you came into my town and threatened people I care about. This is what is going to happen. You’re going to go get out of here and run far away. If you try to talk to Kyle, if you try to talk to Linda, if you stay one second longer than you need to in Foster, I will make sure ‘those people’ find you. This is your only chance to run, Mr. Stilleno. I suggest you take it.”
“You can’t be this heartless,” he pleaded with her. “Why are you doing this?”
She gave him another smile. “I have been reminded lately that I am not a very nice person. As it turns out, I’m quite all right with that. People like you can’t be reasoned with. You put a woman’s life in jeopardy to force your own son to give you money. You are beneath contempt. This is your reward. Run and never stop.”
“Please, have mercy.” Billy had honed his wide-eyed suffering look to perfection, but he realized a heartbeat later his best efforts weren’t going to help in this case.
Dolores rolled her eyes as she turned around and walked toward the door. “Mercy is for those who deserve it.” She paused and looked back at him. “Trust me, Billy, this is exactly what you deserve.”
And with that she walked out.
THE STUFF at the End of the Book
So that happened, huh?
There are a lot of people I want to thank in this book for making sure it got where it was supposed to on time and all that. I first want to thank my editor since, without her never-ending attention to detail, I could never get a word written.
What?
Why are you looking at me like that? Mind if I finish?
Also I would like to give a shout-out to Gayle, who once again really helped flesh out….
You seem upset. You sure everything’s okay? Hey now, that language is not necessary. I mean, why are you so mad?
The what?
Oh, the ending? Really? That has you so mad you’re white-knuckling your Kindle right now and want to throw it at my pumpkin-sized head?
Wow, that was mean even for you.
Okay, fine, but what do you want me to do? The story is over. Yes, it is. Look back and read again; there was a resolution and….
Okay, one, you don’t even know my mom, so that was uncalled for.
Wow, you’re really mad. I can tell by the way your one eye twitches a little when I talk. So what do you want? Another ending? Oh, come on, the only way that could happen was if we….
SIGH. FINE, will this make you happy?
Epilogue Three:
Time, Your First Heartbreak,
and True Love
Name three things that never end.
Kyle
“DID YOU put the Kansas vs. Staler ruling in here?”
Teddy looked over at me with a withering stare. If I hadn’t become immune to it over the last three years, I would have fallen down and collapsed into a ball of screaming pain. I was being anal-retentive, which was okay because that was who I was, and he was trying to deal with it because that was who he was, but from the look, I was pushing it.
“So that’s a yes?” I asked as the elevator opened into the lobby.
“You know, one of these days you’re going to have a heart attack and just die, but your body will still run around for a couple of weeks finishing errands.”
“Well, duh,” I said, giving him a smile. “I mean, why let a little thing like death stop me?”
He sighed, which meant he understood I was joking but in no way thought I was funny.
“What do you care?” I asked as we headed toward the lobby. “If I drop dead, then you’re a shoo-in for the next job that opens up here.”
We were both interning for Adam Kardia, the youngest full partner of the law firm Lupus, Ovis, and Kardia. Teddy and I had both been awarded internships based on four years of academic brilliance and a glowing letter of review from Professor Madison, our freshman civics teacher. If we did well on our LSATs and lived at the top of our classes in law school, then it was a mortal lock that they would hire at least one of us to join the firm. That action alone pretty much ensured a future for one of us.
Of course, I had to get into law school first, but you know me; I like to worry about things in advance.
“Like I want to win like that,” he scoffed. “When I beat you and take that job, and I will, it will because I’m the better man and a full Jedi and you were the deluded but well-meaning Padawan who lost.”
“You are such a nerd,” I said as the elevator opened on the lobby.
“And yet you understood every single word. That sure makes you a nerd too.”
We walked across the tastefully decorated lobby of the firm. The tile was Italian, the sculptures were from Rome, and I was pretty sure the gold in the inlays was real. Getting in here, doing this? This would be my ticket to a life I could have never have dreamed of growing up in Foster.
“’Sides, if I wanted to cheat to win, I’d pull the minority card on your ass.” I glanced over at him. “Bitch, please; I am a gay black man who was raised by two adopted lesbian mothers. I am, like, one bad day away from my own reality show, and you are still a skinny white boy from Nowhere, Texas.”
I shook my head, knowing he was trying to make me smile.
“If you’re so sure you’re going to win, why don’t you let me drop those papers off?” he asked with a sly grin.
Adam was heading up north for a party that weekend, and there were some cases I thought he should go over in his spare time that might help with the case he was preparing for. It was busy work, but he had asked me to do it, which meant I got to drop them off and get some valuable one-on-one time with him.
Something Teddy and I knew was worth its weight in gold.
“I’m sure I’m going to win because I don’t fall for cheap-ass Jedi mind tricks like that one.”
We both laughed as we headed toward the front desk to check messages before we left. It was one of Adam’s immutable rules: check in and out with the front desk to see if there were any instructions waiting for us. Of course, he could have just texted us, but I think he liked the routine because it was a pointless rule and he wanted to see how strictly we would follow it.
We followed it like it was handed down from on high.
“So you want to come out with us after you drop that off?” he asked.
“Nah, I think I’m going to stay in.”
“Big shock,” he said under his breath.
“What? I’m fine.”
“Fine and you have never met,” Teddy said, pausing to check messages. “I bet you don’t even know what fine looks like. You may have written a book report on fine and even went to fine’s Wikipedia page, but you and fine have never even sexted, much less got it on.”
“Um, I’m okay, then?”
He gave me another withering glare, and I had to laugh.
“What? I’m focused. You can’t say you’re any different.”
“I can say I’m different,” he said, giving the secretary a small wave as we walked away. “I’m in a relationship and go out and socialize all the time, while you are worse than a monk most of the time.”
“Oh please,” I said, pushing the door open. “Just because Colt likes you for the one black stereotype you do possess does not mean you’re any less focused than me.”
“All work and no play makes Kyle an asshole,” he said, squinting as the afternoon sun blinded us walking out. “Fuck,” he exclaimed, digging in his satchel for a pair of sunglasses. “I swear, I always forget walking out of that building is like walki
ng out of a darkroom.”
“I am fine,” I said, continuing the conversation. “It’s just this job is the most important thing in my world right now.”
“And that is my point,” he said, head still stuck in his bag. “It’s just a job. There’s more in the world, you know?”
“Not to me,” I said under my breath.
While he kept looking for his sunglasses, he asked, “This is because you have a gigantic stick up your ass and not because you still hate my boyfriend?”
“Wow, so many things wrong with that statement,” I said, sighing. “One, I do not have anything stuck up my ass, which I believe you think is the problem; two, just because I don’t want to go out to a club, it doesn’t mean there is something wrong with me; and three, your boyfriend is a major douche.”
“That was then. He’s changed.”
“‘He’s changed,’” I muttered under my breath. “Words said by every single shallow gay guy who doesn’t want to believe his stripper boyfriend is a douche.”
Teddy said nothing back to that.
I waited, knowing his bag and the TARDIS had more in common than being from the UK, so this could take a while. I looked around, part of my mind noticing how beautiful a day it was in San Francisco and the other part wondering how much time we were wasting. I was so preoccupied that I missed him at first. My eyes moved right over him leaning up against a light post, just waiting.
I glanced back at him and stared for a long time.
If I was in a cartoon, I would have rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t imagining him, but I knew better. His hair was still short and he wore a dark brown leather jacket that looked like he had robbed Indiana Jones for it. The gray shirt under had the word Navy stretched over a pair of pecs that looked like they were drawn for a comic book hero. He was fully dressed, but the clothes did nothing to hide the incredible body underneath.
All that was logged instantly, but what stuck with me was his smile. That same smile he’d had when he was eighteen, leaning against the locker next to mine, waiting for me to notice him. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t budge. He just stood there, staring at me, waiting.
“Make sure Adam gets this,” I said, pushing the briefcase into Teddy’s hands. He fumbled with his bag and the briefcase and both fell to the ground as he cursed.
“Kyle, what the hell?” he asked, looking over to where I’d been.
But I was no longer there.
“Hi,” he said as I got closer.
“Hey,” I said, still moving toward him.
“Wanna spend the rest of our lives together?” he asked, the twinkle in his eyes telling me it was taking all his concentration not to just explode with happiness.
“Thought you’d never ask,” I said, putting my arms around him and kissing him hard.
He kissed me back and for the first time in a long time… the world stopped moving for a second.
And I was okay with that.
NEVER THE end.
The Stuff at the
Real End of the Book
BETTER? I had you convinced it was over and you know it.
This was a challenging book to write because what it started as and what it finished as were two different things. I set out wanting to tell a story about that time when you’re first out on your own. You know, the apartment that had milk crates for shelves and you ate a lot of ramen for meals? Yeah, that one. The one place that, if you had to live there now, you’d most likely throw up but at the time was just perfect.
It’s also that time in life when you realize that the person you were in high school has very little to do with the person you’re going to become one day. I wanted to write a story about those moments just before you break out of that cocoon youth wraps around you and you take flight on your own. I thought it would be a cool time to look in on our guys.
Which was the moment I realized there was something wrong.
You see, this is one of the problems I have with romances that are made for entertainment reasons: they don’t really capture the complications of real life. It was a conversation real-life Robbie and I had about Disney characters once. You can watch those movies as a kid and think it’s incredible, but in real life those princesses are messed in the head. I mean, some guy comes and kisses your seemingly dead body in the middle of the woods and you think that’s cool? Really? My first question would be, “Dude, why were you kissing a corpse anyway?”
There’s something comforting about reading these fictional relationships, but they ingrain this impractical belief that that is how things should be, and they aren’t. Music isn’t going to play the first time you see that guy, and the lighting won’t get all soft and focus in his eyes as you make your way across the room. That’s not how you meet people in real life, and even if you love someone wholly and completely, it doesn’t ensure that things will work out.
Of course, that doesn’t mean give up; it just means be ready for some hard work.
Brad and Kyle, if they kept on their prospective tracks, would have never worked out because Brad would have always been the last part of “Kyle and,” and Kyle would have never stopped doubting if they were supposed to be together. They needed to grow up if I was going to write more of them, and I do want to write more of them.
So you get this book.
First loves are incredible things, and you will never forget your first. Never. No matter how many people you may be with, how many you fall in love with, that first is always the one your mind comes back to. That doesn’t mean it was your best love; it just means it was your first. I wanted to give Kyle and Brad both. I wanted to give them their first love and make it their best, because it does happen in real life, and those two boys deserve each other.
I don’t know what is next for them. I really don’t. As I write this, I have no earthly idea what comes next. I just know one thing.
They will do it together, and in the end, isn’t that the happiest ending you could ask for?
Drinking a coke while I use Tyler’s laptop
Foster, Texas
2014
Keep reading for an exclusive excerpt from
A Way Back to Then
A Tales from Foster High Story
By Robert Halliwell
Snarky yet good-hearted Robbie DeCaro made his first appearance in the pages of Tales from Foster High: End of the Innocence, years after the loss of his first and only love. A New York transplant, Robbie now decides that his work is done in the town of Foster, and the time has come for him to leave Texas.
Returning to his childhood home on Long Island, Robbie reunites with his family members. Each using their own unique methods, they try in vain to help Robbie reset to a life he knew before he left it all for the fairy-tale love he found, then tragically lost.
As he remembers some of the darkest moments from his past, Robbie wonders if he’ll ever find the “after” in “happily ever after.”
Coming Soon to
http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Preface
I ADJUSTED the rearview mirror and saw the reflection of a blond-haired boy wearing a graduation gown grow smaller as I drove out of the high school parking lot. When I knew I was a safe distance away, I pulled the car to the side of the deserted road and cried for what seemed like hours. Luckily, most of the town was at Foster High, so there was very little chance that someone would spot a grown-ass man bawling his eyes out in a lime-green VW Bug.
I opened the glove compartment for some tissue and a stack of napkins from the Bear’s Den fell out. I watched them fall to the car floor. Each represented a memory I had of that place. Good, bad, and horrific. I met some of my best friends at that little hole in the middle of nothing where I could be the real me without any judgment.
It was also the place where I experienced the worst moment of my life.
I stuffed the napkins back into the glove compartment, not wanting to lose the memories or even the smell of the Bear’s Den. I wiped my face and nos
e, thinking not about the one bad night that happened a lifetime ago, but instead to last night when I went there for a mini-bon-voyage party that my friends Tom, Tyler, and Tyler’s boyfriend, Matt, were throwing for me.
“To Robbie,” Tom said as we all raised our glasses, “one of the biggest bitches and best friends a man could ever want.”
I was about to protest the bitch part, but the tearful wink Tom gave me told me he was joking and serious at the same time.
We each took a sip of what passes for champagne in this godforsaken part of town. Tyler downed his glass in one gulp.
“Slow down there, babe,” Matt said to his boyfriend. “I don’t want to have to roll you out of here tonight.”
Tyler smiled slightly and looked at me before quickly turning back to Matt.
“So.” Tom cleared his throat. “What time are you leaving so the munchkin parade can start?”
I flipped him off, and he laughed.
“The moving company is coming to pick up my car late tomorrow afternoon to be shipped up to New York, and my flight is the following morning.” I looked over at a rather uncomfortable and slightly intoxicated Tyler. “I’m going to have to cut out before the end of graduation.”
Tyler looked like I just kicked him right square in the balls.
“You can’t do that to the kids!” He tried to get up but slumped back down with Matt’s help.
“They’ll live, Tyler,” I said calmly. “They’re young and will get over it quickly.”
“But…,” Tyler said as the tears started to flow. “But what about the kids?”
Matt looked at his boyfriend like he was a five-year-old complaining about the socks he got for Christmas, while Tom was wiping his own wet face. We all knew this wasn’t about the kids; this was about me and him.