Beneath the Stain - Part 1 by Amy Lane Read Free Book Online

quite real for them when they’re split up,” Mackey said, meaning it. The story was, Mackey’s mom had been pregnant with Mackey himself and cleaning houses between shifts at the restaurant to pay her medical bills. Kell had met Grant, and Jeff had met Stevie while she was scrubbing their parents’ toilets and getting paid out of pity. Grant lived in one of the big “dragon houses”—as Mackey thought of them—outside of town: the places of money, what usually people like the Sanderses only saw when scrubbing toilets. Later, much later, Mackey put together the cost to Grant for being friends with the Sanders kids. But when you’re a kid, that doesn’t really come into play. When you’re a kid, all that matters is that your brother’s friend is part of your life and nothing seems to stop him from riding his bike or running away to visit your two-bedroom apartment. To Mackey, Grant was like Kell, Jeff, and Stevie. Everything outside his brothers had no bearing on his life.
    But Grant was part of his band of brothers, and Grant was being pulled away by Samantha, outside through the back door of the gym. Mackey couldn’t help but watch him go.
    Before the door closed, Grant’s eyes sought his out in the darkness, a look of uncharacteristic bleakness on his face as the door closed behind him.
    “He does not look happy,” Tony murmured by Mackey’s ear, and Mackey jerked back, startled.
    Tony sighed and took his own step back.
    “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, and Mackey fought irritation.
    “Man, why you gotta do that. It’s not like I got any real friends, you know?”
    Tony looked up at him, sudden pain aching in his eyes. “One guy on campus who knows how I feel, and he wants to be friends? Fuck that!”
    Tony stalked away, leaving Mackey surprised at how much that hurt as well.
    Fuck that? Oh fuck this. Home was two miles away—Mackey could fucking walk.
    He found Kell, dancing in a corner with a girl whose dress was doing a worse and worse job of covering her tits.
    “Goin’ home,” he muttered, just loud enough for Kell to look up distractedly and nod.
    Good. Mackey had done his job. He slid out the same way Grant had gone, because that was the only way he could get out without six teachers jumping his shit and making sure he wasn’t getting drunk or stoned or fighting in the parking lot or something. The door Grant had taken led to the dark and silent loading and unloading parking lot. Anyone who didn’t want quiet and dark might have been intimidated by how black the countryside was after it cleared the circle of the one lamp the school had up back there.
    Mackey wasn’t. He slept on the bottom bunk, tight in the corner, ignored and unbothered. He liked it that way. The darkness reminded him of that space, private and safe, and he stuck to the shadows, letting the shaking fade as he calmed down.
    He made the mistake of passing Grant’s mom’s car, though, and he heard it, Sam’s voice, plain as day.
    She was moaning, muffling sex noises against something, probably Grant’s chest.
    “God, Grant, please… not just… can’t you…? Please?”
    “Don’t got no condoms.” Grant’s voice was harsh. “C’mon, Sam… c’mon… you can do it….”
    Her repressed scream of orgasm made Mackey’s eyes burn. Oh God. Really? He had to listen to this?
    But he couldn’t get out of it, he realized. A hurricane fence ran along the side of the school, and the minivan was blocking the gate. Oh hell.
    With a little whimper, he sank deeply into the shadows, tucking himself in a corner between the gymnasium and the locker rooms, staying out just enough to be able to hear when they left.
    For a long moment, there was silence, punctuated only by what must have been their breathing.
    “But Grant,” Samantha complained, “you didn’t even… don’t you want….”
    Mackey had known Grant most of his life. He knew the way his voice sounded when he lied.
    “No worries, darlin’,” Grant murmured. “I