Dreaming in Color by Cameron Dane (mobi reader .TXT) 📗

up, Marek affected his best indifferent walk down the driveway and came to a stop at Colin's side. He forced himself to make eye contact, and tried not to notice how attractive Colin was or that he had the nicest green eyes Marek had ever seen.

Marek tore the connection away before Colin could accuse him of staring. “Hey.” He gave his standard greeting.

“Hey.” Colin looked up at Marek, using his hand to shade his eyes from the late afternoon sun. “How's it going?”

“Okay, I guess.” Marek shifted his weight from one leg to the other, and the tentacles of discomfort within burrowed to the point where he blurted out, “What are you doing here?”

Colin's stare narrowed and then grew big and round. “Oh God. I wasn't stalking you or anything. Sorry. I was studying with a friend.” He pointed at the house two down and across the street. “I'm heading home now.”

“Oh. Okay.” Suddenly, Marek didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed. A cute boy checking him out wouldn't be a bad thing, especially if he had the same kinds of fantasies Marek did. Don't even think about that unless you want to get the crap beaten out of you the second you walk in the house. Marek's gaze slid back to the red door, and his chest squeezed at the safety and acceptance he knew existed for those kids inside.

Colin tapped his sneaker against Marek's boot, gaining his full attention. “You heading home?”

“Yeah.”

“Me too.” Colin's smile halted midway, and his face filled with color. “Which…I said already. Duh.” He laughed and rolled his eyes. “You cool with us walking together?”

Marek didn't exactly hang out with Colin, but… “Uh…okay.”

“Cool.” Colin started walking, and Marek fell in step beside him. “So”—Colin shoved his hands into his pockets—“what were you doing over here? Are those people family or something?”

Glancing to the side, Marek traded a look with Colin. Their attention caught and held for a moment before they both looked away. “No-I'm-the-babysitter,” spilled out of Marek in a rush.

“Really?” Colin's voice rose comically high. “Sorry,” he said again quickly. “I wasn't laughing.”

“I didn't start out doing it,” Marek covered quickly, defending himself. “I did their lawn, which I still do.”

“Seems like you do more than that now.” Colin looked Marek's way, and they made fast eye contact again before jerking away and staring straight ahead once more. When Colin spoke again, his voice dropped, and wavered a bit. “I was staring earlier,” he admitted. “I stopped because I could hear the kids all the way from the street. They sound like they like you.”

Marek shoved his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders forward. “I guess they think I'm okay.”

“It was just surprising, you know? Because…” With a quick look in Marek's direction, Colin darted his focus straight ahead again and shrugged. “…I don't know. You seemed different back there.”

“Yeah.” Marek knew what Colin meant, but he didn't know what else to say. He knew his brother's reputation as a jackass rat bastard smeared onto him because of their two-year age difference and similar physical features. Marek tended to keep quiet, and his head down low, on his own, just as a general rule. A few years ago, when Marek realized he liked other boys, he kept to himself in an effort to hide his attraction to his own sex. He knew the picture people had of him wasn't entirely his brother's fault; he accepted his own behavior added to the distant, cold person others thought they saw in him.

“How'd you go from mowing the yard to taking care of the kids?” Colin asked, pulling Marek's attention back to him.

“I was there mowing one Saturday, and the Sumters' sitter cancelled on them at the last minute. They were going to a wake or a funeral or something. I came to the door to let them know I was finished and to get paid, and they asked me if could help them out and said they would pay me extra for the inconvenience. I'd already been mowing their lawn for almost a year, so I guess Peter and Joan trusted me. I was nervous to be alone with the kids, but I did it. It went good. I liked helping them out.” Marek shrugged, out of steam. Christ, he hadn't spoken so much to one person, without his nerves constantly sitting at the alert cautioning him to silence, ever before.

“So you got a new job out of it. Yeah?” Colin smiled, and Marek found himself doing the same.

“Next time they needed a sitter, they just asked me instead of the girl.” Pride filled Marek, as it had done the first and every time since the Sumters trusted him with the protection of their children. Fear of nasty comments and reprisals kept Marek from talking about his part-time job with other people, but right now, with Colin, the words just spilled out of him. “About three months ago, Joan went back to college, and they asked me to make it a regular gig after school. When I get out of class, I take a bus and go pick the two older kids up from school. We walk home together. They're right over at Blake Elementary.”

“Right, I know it,” Colin said. “That's where my little sister goes.”

Both boys paused at a crosswalk, waiting for the go sign. One road in Henderson—this road—separated the upper-middle-class homes from the lower-middle-class ones. For Marek, so much more than just a street made his life drastically different from what he knew existed for the Sumter kids.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, damn it.

Marek shook himself out of his pity party and chanced another glance at Colin. “The kids don't mind walking,” he shared. The crosswalk sign shifted to green, and the two boys booked it across the busy street before the red stop signal started to flash. “The little one goes to daycare so I don't watch him unless it's a special occasion and Peter and Joan are