Shiny! Read Online Free PDF Page B

art form and get over it. People love it, right? It… I don’t know, fills a need. It’s important. ” Will’s mood changed suddenly then, and he grew morose and a little hurt. “Just because it’s new or fantastical, that doesn’t mean it’s not important.”
    Kenny thought about moving the chatter along, changing the subject—or going back to graphic novels, because it was a favorite of his—but he paused. At first glance, the guy picking his trash up off the street had been unremarkable. Tall, stocky, with broad shoulders, Will moved awkwardly, like he was used to minimizing his size but remained fully aware he wasn’t graceful. His face was square, and if he’d been any wider for his height his features would have transcended square and broken the boundaries to round. His plain brown hair was longish, swept from a side part just like Jem Finch, and he had a straight, largish nose to match his broad face. His mouth, though… wide, mobile, and inexplicably pink, it looked somehow lush, ripe, virginal, and ready, and Kenny was prompted by his baser instincts to do something noble.
    He asked why Will got fired.
    Will’s face lit up, and Kenny felt bad. He couldn’t have listened for why the guy was so distracted he’d crashed into a garbage can?
    And then Kenny heard the reason, and felt really bad.
    “Harry Potter?”
    Will nodded. “It was like… man, I know they’re supposed to be a church school, but getting fired over Harry Potter felt—”
    “Sacrifuckinlegious!” Kenny burst out, and Will smiled at him.
    “You understand!” he said, and he sounded so heartfelt, Kenny patted his shoulder. And realized how muscular he really was.
    “I do!” Kenny said, squeezing his shoulder, and then his bicep. He moved to Will’s pec and thought, Maybe just a little more conditioning there, but really, not bad —and then he jerked his hand back. Yeah. Groping the straight guy.
    Who didn’t seem to have noticed, thank fuck.
    “You do understand,” Will said, leaning even closer to him and looking very earnest. “See, Denise didn’t understand. She screamed at me because now I’m not going to be making any money, but I didn’t want to go out with her anyway!”
    Single! Kenny’s inner voice chimed. Single guy! And then his other voice snapped, Straight guy. Single straight guy. “Why didn’t you want to go out with Denise?” Kenny asked desperately. “Skanky? Mean? Already picking out china?”
    And then Will shot him a trusting look from supposedly average brown eyes that were suddenly large, limpid pools of vulnerability right there. “I don’t know,” he said, sounding really lost. “She just… I don’t know. Kissing her was like kissing my mom’s cat.”
    “Furry?” Kenny asked, puzzled.
    “No, Mom’s got a hairless, so really, it’s just, you know. Warm and sort of reptilian at the same time.”
    “ Ew !” Kenny exclaimed, looking at him in horror. “Jesus, buddy—did you hook up with a mutant or something?”
    Will sighed. “She even sounded like Deucalion.”
    “Your mom named her cat after the lord of hell?”
    The sound that vibrated up from Will’s chest was positively filthy . “Have you ever heard a hairless cat? They all sound like the lords of hell! But no—it wasn’t just her. All girls feel like that to me. I mean, it’s why I’m not really excited about dating. I’m poor, I’m geeky, I’m sort of unattractive—it’s not like they’re going to be trying to teach me what it’s all about, you know?”
    Kenny had never actually felt his eyes widen before. Ever. But… but… he’d found one .Weren’t they, like, a myth or something? The famous gay guy who didn’t really know he was gay ? Naw… no. Couldn’t possibly exist. Asexual was more likely than a sweet guy like this not knowing he was gay. But, well… he could always check. Kenny set his cosmo down and rested his chin on his palm.
    “Well,” he said patiently, “have you ever thought