The Locker Room Read Online Free PDF Page B

you know?
    I"ve got basketball and Chris, and you put me in services and they both
    go away!”
    And now Coach looked like he might throw up.
    “Yeah, boy. I hear you. Okay, change of plan. Kid, we can"t have
    you living like that. We just can"t. It"s going to kill you, and you need a
    safety net, and that"s just the way it needs to be. Let me make some calls,
    okay? At least let"s get you a place to sleep, okay? You"ll probably still
    need a job, but I think there"s a halfway house about a mile from here—
    The Locker Room
    23

    sort of place foster kids can go before they turn twenty-one. Let"s see if
    we can get you a spot there, okay? It"s going to be tough, and we"re
    going to have to finesse it. But I think we can do it.”
    Coach looked at Xander with a frightening amount of
    understanding in his face. “Basketball and Christian, huh? Well, let"s see
    if you can keep "em both, at least until we get you a scholarship and the
    hell out of here, okay?”

    TWO weeks later, Xander had figured out that if he got up at six, he
    could take the bus and be at Chris"s place at six thirty. Chris didn"t
    usually leave the house until seven, so Xander huddled on the porch
    under his blanket and did reading for English in the early December
    chill.
    He was interrupted when Chris himself came out, a bag of garbage
    in his hand, grumbling something about “Well, if I"d known about it last
    night I would have taken it out last… oh shit! Xander!”
    Xander scrambled up and shoved the book in his backpack, then
    tucked his hands under the armpits of his hooded sweatshirt (so short it
    rode up his middle) and turned with Chris to put out the trash.
    “Hey,” he said.
    “You got here. I didn"t think you would get here—I mean, I"m glad
    you got here, but, Jesus, how early did you have to get up?”
    Xander shrugged. “It"s easier with sleep.”
    The halfway house wasn"t bad. He"d gotten another job doing fast
    food, one that let him buy clothes (sort of) and food. He had a bed in a
    room with three other boys (his feet stuck over the edge), and no one got
    high and no one hit him, and really it was all he could ask. Well, except
    for Chris. He could ask for Chris.
    “Well, you look cold!” Chris said, dropping the trash in the can. He
    gave the can a few yanks until it was out on the curb and then turned and
    took Xander"s hands from under his arms and held them, blowing on
    them. Xander looked down at his… friend? Boyfriend? The focus of his
    life and center of his universe? Christian looked up from warming his
    24
    Amy Lane

    hands and gave a crooked smile. He reached up and tugged on Xander"s
    bangs, hanging low over his eyes from the part in the middle.
    “You still look tired, Xan,” he said softly, “but I"m glad to see you
    here in the morning.”
    “Your mom still mad?” Xander asked, and Chris grimaced,
    dropping his hands back to Xander"s. Xander turned his over and
    engulfed Chris"s in them, and then damned anyone watching in the chilly
    pre-dawn and pulled them to his chest.
    “She was mostly mad because she was worried, you know,” Chris
    told him. “She got that I was trying to help you, but—” He shook his
    head. “She just didn"t know how we could have known you for so long
    and not known.”
    The day Chris"s parents had found out that Xander had been living
    on his own for two months, they offered to help him move to his foster
    home. Chris and Xander hadn"t been able to talk them out of it, even
    though, really, Xander didn"t have any more moving out than he had
    moving in. Andi and Jed had taken one step into the apartment. That"s all
    it had taken. They had looked around at the couch with the battered
    blanket and pillow, the empty bags of their bread on the counter, with
    their peanut butter and jelly and plastic knives, and the garbage bags
    with Xander"s clothes stacked neatly inside, and Andi had burst into
    tears and run out the door. Jed had followed her.
    Wordlessly, Chris had cleaned up