“Daniel!”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“Define ‘worked.’”
“I had to tell him I was running away from home.My family hated me because I was gay.I didn’t have any relatives who would take me in.But it worked.He wanted to meet.And he said he had a friend who might be able to help me.”
For a moment, Jem had a visual of this fifteen-year-old making himself into a walking target.He fought the urge to shout or sigh or slap him upside the head.But all he said was “And you used Brennon’s phone.”
“I had to.They took mine away.”
“Right.So, what was your plan when this guy finally showed up?”
“I had a knife.”
“Apparently, so did he.”
Daniel grimaced.“I never even got it out of my pocket.”
All Jem said was “And what happened when he got there?”
With a shiver, Daniel hunkered down again, chin on his knees.“It was so fast.He kissed me, and he started pulling my clothes off.I couldn’t get to the knife because it was in my pocket, so I said I wanted to talk, but he didn’t want to do that.And then he got on top of me, and he was kissing me again, and I still couldn’t reach the knife.He was…he was moaning.And rubbing himself on me, you know?And I said I wanted a condom.That’s when he got mad.”
“What do you mean?”
Daniel opened his mouth, but then he frowned.“I don’t know, I guess.He was just—I could tell he was mad.He was kind of into it until then.I could feel him.But when I said that, maybe it was something about his breathing.I could just tell he was mad.And he grabbed me—” Daniel’s hand floated up to his throat.“I tried to—but he was so strong.And I couldn’t breathe.And the next thing I remember is later, with the paramedics.Kind of.I guess the next thing Ireallyremember is the hospital this morning.”
“What about this guy?Did you get a good look at him?Did he say anything?”
“He said I was gorgeous.”Daniel pinkened.“I don’t know.He didn’t really talk a lot.He said hi, you know?And then he started touching me.”
And Daniel, who was fifteen and had no idea what he was doing, who had been scared and alone and on unfamiliar ground, had defaulted to what most people did—at least, in Jem’s experience: they let the other person take the lead, and they tried to keep up so that no one would realize they were out of their depth.Which was how Daniel had ended up on the ground, shorts around his thighs, instead of stabbing the man he’d come to kill.
“What did his voice sound like?”
Daniel’s brow furrowed.“I mean…” But he caught himself and said after a moment, “Soft.Not high.But I thought it would be deeper.”
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know.It was dark.”
“Anything, Daniel.Was he White?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Don’t guess.”
Anger sparked in Daniel’s eyes—another sign of life that, in its own way, eased some of the tightness in Jem’s chest.“He was White.Or maybe Hispanic.His hair was dark, and I think his eyes were too.”
“Good.What else?”
“I don’t know!”
“You two were playing cowboy, Daniel.You’d better know something.”
“He had a big dick!”
The thin-skinned teenage annoyance, as much as the words themselves, startled a laugh out of Jem.“There you go.”