Shiny! Read Online Free PDF Page A

now.
    “But… but…,” Kenny sputtered, “I’m gay !”
    Will laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, but at least you’re not a witch,” he said and reached down to gather the rest of the weirdness from the road.
    Kenny let him into the house to wash his hands (thank God— he didn’t want to face what else might have been on that big glittery thing he’d picked up from the trash), and while Kenny went to put on some clothes, Will stood in the kitchen area and looked around. Like the blue stucco exterior, the interior was pleasant, colorful, and unassuming. A white tiled floor needed a light mopping, and the battered standard-issue maple table still had three days’ mail and a place mat with crumbs from breakfast.
    But it also held a vase with some flowers that were still fresh, and the tweed-covered furniture in the living room looked used but clean. The wide-screen was set back in an entertainment center that had a colorful throw on top, with some abstract sculptures set up on it. A large framed print of José González’s In Our Nature album cover sat on the wall over the fireplace next to Loreena McKennitt’s Book of Secrets and Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More.
    It was a nice, clean space, Will decided, not too cluttered, not too spare. The carpet was a surprisingly bold blue, and there was a bookshelf opposite the television. Will wandered over and looked at some titles, surprised that he had some of the same ones. Actually, he had a lot of them in the trunk of his car.
    Harry Potter and Harry Dresden were well represented, as were Simon R. Green,Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein.
    “Wow,” he murmured, pulling out Stranger in a Strange Land ,the special edition.
    “I haven’t read it yet,” Kenny said, wandering in from the bedroom. In his arms he had a stack of sheets that looked like they’d just been pulled from the linen closet. “I was waiting to treat myself after work slowed down.”
    “Want help with that?” Will asked sunnily. He hated doing housework.
    Kenny cast a disbelieving look at him and shook his head. “That’s okay, precious—I’ll do this one on my own.”
    Will wrinkled his nose, trying to figure out what sexual innuendo he’d missed now ,when he heard the rapid spritz of the Febreze bottle. About ten seconds later, a cloud of chemical freshness roiled down the hallway, and Will grimaced.
    Okay, time line. Today. He’d caught his boyfriend cheating, ditched the boyfriend, ditched the sex toys, washed the sheets.
    And then some bozo knocked over his trash can.
    Will was all caught up now. Okay, good.
    Kenny came back out and grabbed his phone, wallet, and car keys from the charging station on the bookshelf, and Will put the book back.
    “You can borrow it if you want,” Kenny offered to Will’s surprise. “I mean, I see your car every day. You work across the street, right?”
    Will grimaced. “Not. Anymore.”
    Kenny blinked. “Ah.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Hence, beer.”
    Will smiled. “You ready for that?”
    “You go out drinking much?
    Will didn’t even have to think about it. “Never,” he said promptly. “Not even in college. I lived at home—who wants to go home to your mother shitfaced and puke on her shoes?”
    Kenny’s laugh was semihysterical. He covered his mouth with his hand and tried to push it back. “Really? Lived with your mother?”
    Will shrugged, not particularly ashamed. “Hey, my mom’s amazing. After my dad died, she started her own business doing publicity for other small businesses. And seriously, it wasn’t like I was going to just… lunge off the leash, you know? Not in my nature.”
    Kenny seemed to remember something. His face softened for a moment, and when he looked back at Will, one corner of his mouth curled up. But other than that, he seemed thoughtful. “Nothing wrong with knowing yourself,” he said as though he was thinking about it. “Do you still live with your mother?”
    Will shook his head and thrust his hands in his