With or Without You Read Online Free PDF

but there’s a hard beauty to his features, like something that just stepped out of Tim Burton’s wet dream. As Sable shakes my hand, I catch a glimpse of the black T-shirt beneath his trench coat, which declares, “I’m the one your mother warned you about.” Of this I’ve no doubt.
    “Is Sable your first name or last?” I ask him.
    Sable brushes it off. “Your pick.” Then he gives his meaty hands a single clap and addresses everyone. “Okay, so, thanks for coming, everybody. I always hated doing this part in school, but we’re not getting very far if we don’t know each other. So let’s just go around and say our names. You don’t have to do anything retarded like say your favorite color. Just a name is cool.”
    A thin-faced, mousey guy named Ross starts off. He introduces the sour-looking guy next to him as Del. A small guy—about Davis’s size, build, and demeanor—looks at the ground and introduces himself as Micah. Next to him is a chunky Asian kid who wheezes when it’s his turn: Danny. On Danny’s left, a confident-looking tanned guy slouches in his chair wearing a backward baseball cap.
    “I’m Mark,” he asserts, “and I think this group is gonna be fucking cool.”
    Sable’s head goes back and he laughs like a demonic PEZ dispenser. “That it is, my friend, that it is.”
    The final chair is occupied by a string bean with tawny, bowl-cut hair who avoids all gazes. When he finally looks up, he’s got a shiner to rival Davis’s.
    “Will Carter.” He sighs. Sable gives him a thumbs up, though it hardly seems Sable’s style. The raised eyebrows, the overly emphatic smile … everything about the gesture comes off as awkward. He’s mocking Will’s shyness, but I think I’m the only one who sees it.
    Shields up.
    Davis and I mutter our names again. Sable nods approvingly and surveys us all slowly, face like stone. I swear Davis beams when Sable looks at him.
    Sable sniffs. “Okay, cool. So, why are we here?”
    We all look around uncomfortably; we weren’t warned there’d be a pop quiz.
    Micah’s the first to chime in. “’Cause we’re all gay?”
    Mark scoffs, throws his head back, and rolls his eyes. “I think we’d figured that much out.” I’m not a Mark fan.
    “Cut the kid some slack. He’s pretty much right,” Sable says, gesturing to Micah. “No matter what school you came from, what neighborhood, what family—it’s the one thing you have in common. On second thought, there are two things you have in common.” He sweeps the room, pointing an accusing finger at each of us. “None of you has any clue what it means to be gay.”
    Mark’s derision continues. “Gee, last time I checked, it means I get stiff for guys and not girls.”
    Sable sits up straight and reminds me, just for a second, of Erik in the lotus pose when we practice yoga. But where Erik’s face exudes tranquility and peace, Sable’s face contains a maelstrom. I can’t help but feel something bad is about to happen.
    Sable fixes those eyes and that smile right at Mark and says, “Well, hell, if that’s all it means, I’m just wasting your time. You wanna take off? Don’t let me hold you back.” He jerks his thumb at the door, never breaking eye contact with Mark. They sit there for a moment—predator and prey, but it’s hard to tell which is which. Mark shifts in his chair, then looks away.
    “So, what else does it mean?” Mark asks the wall above Sable.
    Sable looks first to Micah, then to Davis, and says in a throaty whisper, “Power.”
    I almost laugh at how dramatic he sounds, but Davis is enthralled. When he’s really into a movie or a TV show, his eyes glaze over and he’s totally in the moment. Just like now. I swear I can see him mouth “power” in a silent echo.
    Ross holds up a flyer. “So, what’s this? What are Chasers?”
    “Not what,” Sable corrects. “Who. Everybody in this room has the potential to be a Chaser.”
    Ross looks baffled. “Yeah, but I don’t