Here for You Read Online Free PDF Page A

rang, I stayed at my desk, gazing at the back of Matt Hathaway’s shoulders, where a smattering of freckles—
    “Eggs? Hey, pass me the soda. I’ve only been asking for two minutes.”
    “Oh, sorry.” Cole snapped out of it and passed Marc his Coke. For years Cole tried to stick to a journal and ignore the weird voices that came into his head. He really needed to focus more on what was in front of him and stop daydreaming.
    Brendan smiled across the table at him as if he knew exactly what Cole had been doing. “So, Cole, no crushes? Really? Never?”
    Cole broke into a sweat as the thought of Ian entered his mind. “Nope. Never.”
    “I remember my first crush,” Tomas said.
    His eyes locked on Marc’s. Cole waited to see if either of them would say more, but as usual, Marc and Tomas remained quiet on all the history between them.
    Tomas and Marc had been best friends since they were twelve years old. They’d survived their childhood in the rougher areas of Miami, and if there was anything more between them aside from friendship, it appeared long over by the time Cole had moved in. Occasionally Cole had caught them looking at each other, their faces troubled, their eyes hungry, like now…. But the looks never lasted, and they never spoke of it.
    At that moment River saved them from the awkwardness as he burst through the door.
    “You made it!” Brendan got up and clapped his back.
    “Yeah.” River, never one for many words, sat down. He smiled at them all briefly and then grabbed a piece of bread.
    “We were just talking about first crushes,” Tomas said. “Who was yours?”
    “The Hulk.” River chewed his bread, but after he swallowed, he said nothing more.
    “The Hulk?” Brendan mused, shooting him a sweet smile. “You like them big and built and green?”
    “And angry,” Cole added. “Or have you moved on to other superheroes in your more mature years?”
    “Maybe.” River ate a second piece of bread.
    “I’m all for superhero porn night.” Cole grinned. “Bring it on.”
    “You’re for any type of porn night,” Tomas said.
    River chuckled, drawing surprised looks, because he rarely laughed.
    River had been the last to move in. Brendan posted a room for rent at school when they’d realized money was tight. They had turned what had been a loft into a small extra room and charged some rent, after getting permission from Evie, the owner of the house, to do it. Evie rented places all over town, and she liked “you boys,” as she referred to them, because they paid their rent on time… usually. Evie, a single mom in her late thirties, was a looker too. She’d chopped her hair off and wore no makeup. She was mouthy and tough talking on the exterior, but still couldn’t completely hide her delicate features. She and her kids lived a few blocks away. When her ex had deserted them, Evie kept her family going financially—with the few properties she fought her ex over in court along with his back child support—and emotionally too.
    River was the hardest to bond to in their tiny family. Shy and exotic-looking, with light green eyes and a mop of unruly dark curls, River barely spoke. He didn’t seem to think too much about his looks either, always buried under the hood of a car or joyriding on his motorcycle. All Cole had learned about River in the first six months since he’d moved in was that he disliked sharing his cereal and he worked as a mechanic. Keeping to himself, River never offered any information about his past. Cole didn’t resent him for that, as he understood River’s reticence. They had all shed their backgrounds. Cole had done it too. But it did make him curious, and it bothered him that River remained separate.
    “Give him time. He’s only been here a few months,” Brendan had said.
    River did soften when Brendan was nearby, but overall he remained a mystery. River was a person of few words and capable of deep silences. However, he fixed Marc’s broken-down car for