MASON DARROW- crazy, sometimes seemingly vain and bewildered by the world around him, he is the steady center who holds his best friends together. ADDISON CROMPTLEY and THOMAS DWYER- Mason’s best friends since childhood. They all attend Saint Vitus Men’s College Preparatory High School LINCOLN BALLIOL- their schoolmate and heir to the Balliol fortune. He has the heart of a lion; he just hasn’t learned to prove it until now. SULLIVAN REARDON- his best friend, a poet, a writer… a...

NONE OF IT MADE ANY SENSE. Afterwards it was difficult to connect it to anything else. For a very long time it was hard to say if it happened in the morning or the afternoon. In Matt Mercurio’s mind it was night and the whole sky was black except for a blood red sun. It happened in the late morning. First lunch period. They were laughing and showing off new clothes, swapping stories after winter break. Hardesty and Chris Powers had broken off into a wrestling match and Dick Rathko was talkin...

“Oh, good, they get on my nerves. I’m sorry Sid,” Keisha said. “They’re too white for me. I feel like I should be eating cornflakes and mopping the floor in pearls and high heels like Donna Reed.” “I don’t think you’ve ever mopped a floor,” Sidney told her. “in or out of heels.” Keisha cocked her head to think about this, and then said, “No, I think you’re right. I tried once. But the soap was actually floor wax. That was a disaster.” “Sit down, Mom,” Mason dragged his mother to the cou...

“From what the report says,” Mark told him, “he wasn’t crying out that much, and Rick, if their parents couldn’t even tell, how could you?” “I could have. I could—” Rick looked for something he could have done. “Well, you heard what Kerch said about Jedd. What if it was lots of students saying that day after day? I could have stopped that. That could have led up to what he and that girl did.” “Laura Wyler was weird too,” Sully said. They all looked at him. “She was,” Sully said. “Yo...

“HOW ABOUT YOU GET OUT of my way, Riley!” Matt Mercurio snapped, coming down the senior steps of Saint Vitus and slamming into the boy. “Dude, are you even a senior?” Mercurio demanded. “I’m talking to your pimply face, are you?” Mason Darrow was in the main hall of the school and he didn’t hear anything, but he saw. He saw Matt Mercurio being a bully, as he was to people he could bully, and he saw some other football players, all lounging on the stoops or the sides of the senior porch,...

There was a knock at the door, and Rick looked up from the homework he was grading. People didn’t come to visit. The knocking was more insistent and Rick looked around the house realizing it wasn’t anywhere near close to clean. He sighed, resigned, and got up to answer the door. “Rick, I have to talk to you,” Mark barged into the house. Rick stared at him, a riot of emotions, most of them unhappy, running through him. Mark stopped, looked around and said, “This place is a mess. It c...

Saint Patrick’s was crowded for High Mass, but everyone was more or less in their usual seats so it wasn’t hard to find Joel. Seth, of course, was not there. Mark was pretty sure Seth didn’t even believe in God. When Mass began Mark tried to pay attention, tried to be reverent, tried to lose himself in the service. He’d always been serious about church even if, in his own mind, he wasn’t the greatest Catholic. And he needed to be serious right now. He needed to pray. But even when he prayed...

A year ago I wanted to write a book about men. Well, not only a year ago, but many times. And this would have been a book where I got many men, most of them straight, to tell the truth about many questions. But men are liars and so this never really panned out. I thought, how will I tackle this subject? But then doesn’t it make more sense to address the subject of one man instead of all men and that man be me? Doesn’t it make more sense to answer my questions and tell my story? And maybe so...

Rick Howard’s prom was his eighteenth birthday, and he remembered taking Marcia Ryan and kissing her politely, but feeling nothing when he dropped her off. For a very long time Rick had lived with the idea that a proper young man wasn’t supposed to feel lust for girls anyway, so this was a mark of his superiority. Only, he did feel lust. His mind did go in certain directions. He did have certain wonders. They’d started out idly enough, but lately they’d grown more and more. He tossed and turn...

AFTER THE DEVASTATION OF HIS first serious relationship, Mark Powers thought he would never love again, and for a very long time he didn’t. When Vanessa Londgren broke up with him he was twenty-one and getting ready to graduate. He became more serious than usual, shaved off his hair, quit wearing tie-dye and slipped into sensible shoes. He’d never been very loud or boisterous around anyone but his close friends, and there weren’t many of those. Now he was quieter still. Life went on as normal...

Hold on to me and no one else tonight you never have to fear again tonight you don't have to go to anyone else no other man all the empty hours where you craved the touch of skin to skin of love to love are fulfilled now in me

“No,” Mark said. “It just... it wasn’t… anything.” “And now it is, and now you’re trying to understand. And I’m your guinea pig. I’m your coming to grips. I suppose you feel like you have something on me because I told you how I felt. About you.” “Look,” Mark said, suddenly angry. “I never asked you to have anything for me, and quite frankly, I think I’m dealing with it a lot better than most people would. Most straight men would have... they would have never talked to you again.” “You ...

When it was done his seed was on the bed sheet. The patch they’d made love in was soaked. He undressed her slowly and sucked on her nipples, he sucked on her throat. They made love again. He felt so good. She knew that she felt good. She kept coming. She’d never come so many times. When it was over, in the darkness of the night he whispered into her ear. She could feel his beard against her. “How do you feel?” “I feel like this is the end of everything,” she told him. She hooked an arm ar...

SAVANNAH DARROW SAT IN THE PASSENGER seat of the car and waited for Bobby to realize she was still there. He needed to cut his hair. The afro would never come back, not like that, not uncombed with a pick in it, not with slouched shoulders. How did she always get that? The slouched shoulders. He was halfway down Beckett Avenue when he turned around and headed for the car. He stood at her window and finally Savannah cranked it down. “What? he said. “Why can’t you open the car door for me...

“We went to the quarry lake,” Mason told his dad as he paced about the room throwing off his cape, taking off his black jacket. “The one near the Pennsylvania border?” “Yes. Seth drove. Dad, Seth skinny dipped.” “Seth Seth?” “No, Dad, Seth the Egyptian God of the Desert.” Sidney cocked his head. “You really ought to read more, Dad. Anyway, yes, Seth McKenna. As in Joel’s son. Anyway, we almost got arrested. We were trespassing.” Sidney’s eyes went wide. “What happened?” he s...