Taught: A City's Secrets Novella Read Online Free PDF

bitch!” Dillon yelled, and the security guard gave him a bemused look. I guessed that wasn’t his first inappropriate comment.
    “Dillon! My savior,” I said, full of sarcasm. I looked at Jim and he grinned back. I cursed Dillon for his awful timing, and wished he had showed up maybe ten minutes later than he did.
    “Let’s get you out of here,” Dillon said. I stood and walked down the steps, and Jim followed.
    “Who’s this tall drink of water?” Dillon asked.
    “I’m Jim,” he said, and they shook hands. The four of us walked outside and onto a small side path along an alley. We thanked the guard profusely, and he just shrugged and walked off, probably on his way back to reading from an old paperback. Security gigs at Temple weren’t known for being high stress situations.
    We stood in the cool, dark night under the Bell Tower. I looked at Jim and wanted to say something, maybe ask if he wanted to go to dinner, but Dillon made things weird. I knew there was a moment back there between us, but that moment was suddenly gone, lost in the wash of the real world we had walked out into. Trapped in a staircase with a handsome stranger, I could let myself indulge in fantasies of my lips pressed up against his, but out in the real world I had obligations and studying to get to.
    “Well, it was nice getting trapped with you,” Jim said.
    “Yeah, you too. Let’s never do it again.”
    “Maybe see you around?”
    “Yeah, sure.”
    “Bye guys.” He gave us a wave, and then headed off toward Broad Street. Dillon and I stood and watched him for a second, before heading off in a different direction, toward my apartment.
    “You totally want that cute ass,” Dillon said.
    “Stop, he’s a teacher.”
    “Oh fuck yeah, are you kidding me? How hot is that?” Dillon was beside himself with excitement. Part of me figured that if I weren’t into Jim, Dillon would take a crack at him regardless of whether he was gay or not.
    “He’s just a nice guy, that’s it.”
    “Coming from you, that’s practically admitting you want to carry his babies.”
    “Seriously Dillon, cut it out. It’s not like that.” I punched his arm and he laughed at me.
    “Fine, I get it, first crushes are always the most awkward. You do know what to do with a boy, right?”
    “One more word and I’m banning you from our place.”
    “Okay, okay, keep it together. I’m dropping it.”
    He changed the subject for the remainder of the walk home, and told me about a new boy crush he found on Grindr, but I was barely listening. I kept thinking back to that interrupted moment in the staircase. I thought he was leaning in to kiss me, but I wasn’t sure. More than that though, I realized I wanted him to kiss me, and wouldn’t have stopped him. It was nuts, I barely knew the guy, and had thought he was a total loser not an hour ago, but there I was suddenly ready to suck face with him. I had to pull myself together.
    As I kept walking, and Dillon kept blabbing, I realized I hadn’t smiled that much in a long time.

Chapter Five: Jim
    W e got to the bar early to set up our equipment. Andy and George came with me, and we all hoped Tom would show up, but we never knew anymore with him. We had been discussing whether or not we should replace him for weeks, and if he missed the gig, it was a done deal. Johnny Brenda’s was a really good venue, and the 10p.m. slot was the second best of the night. Granted, it was only their local bands show, but still, there were plenty of Philly bands that would have killed to get on stage that night. We were all excited and hoped that there were some talent scouts out in the crowd, but nobody was talking about it. Instead, it was all fine-tuning our gear, chatting about the list, and stressing about the crowd.
    After the amps were plugged in and the guitars tuned, I sat at the bar with George while Andy went outside to call Tom. I glanced around the crowd, thinking about Emma; I hadn’t seen her since that