Status Updates From Our Last Summer

I am in your summers.

XXX--XXX it is this month. And FYI: I can now spend an hour staring at Maria's rack in History and not even get a hard on. She's hot! The reply is surprising--both in that it comes at all, and that it shows a thought process of Alex's that Ryan would never have guessed at. Next Tuesday. Thanks. And FYI: she can't have been that hot, then.

He jumps when Alex's hands--cool, too cool for the heat of summer like this--suddenly cup around his neck, the long fingers twining and knotting at the back, just under the curve of his skull. His head snaps down to find Alex's face barely an inch from his and then…

What happens then?? :))

Alex's voice changes--it goes cold. The summer heat is gone; Alex's voice is the icy calm of a frozen river, with that same danger of drowning and death lurking underneath, waiting. Good beginning!

I love Matt's writing and this book was his debut. So let's see…

I'm not special to anyone, never have been. It's not what I am.
I'm everyone's summer. I'm the kid that they can mess about with, have a fling with, know for a bit, whatever, then move on and out and up and not have to worry about any backlash or anything. I'm that kid, to everyone. And that should include you.
-Alex

This is love, he thinks. Maybe it won't last, maybe this isn't the forever kind of love, but it's love now, and surely that is just as important?

He's never been so hot before; it's worse than being burned alive, and Alex is the only way out of it.
Later, he will remember what instinct is like and how it took him over. But now, all he knows is the salt-tang sweat on Alex's skin, the shuddering gasps (and he doesn't know who makes them) and the frenetic, stuttering motions.
-They're playing ping pong. These boys get INTO it.

He twines his fingers into Alex's hair, wraps a leg over his to get him even closer, and manages to mutter, "Missed you," in a brief break for air, the words passing between them with barely a chance to find the outside world.
Alex smiles, and says nothing.
-Awwww
Alex, you damn mute, I know you missed him too.

Something in Ryan's chest shivers at the sight of him, and he knows-knows-that he is lost. Alex has caught him, and without even really trying.
-Alex is an X-man, he has psychic powers. That's why he says NOTHING; he doesn't need to converse. Possibly he's a Ninja Turtle. Or maybe just a regular turtle, all stuck up in his shell.

Danny has what Ryan has-a conviction in someone else that carries the haunting shadows of permanence, of devotion, of commitment to something other than friendship and oneself.
And Danny is brave enough to stand up for it.

"You'd be surprised how many people seem to jump straight from straight to gay at the first sign of liking the same sex. It's like bisexuality doesn't exist."
-Hmm

Alex isn't easy. In any sense. Alex is anything but....Alex is like a ghost-he doesn't interact with the world.
-Evasive fucker. He feels very distant as a character. Hope that changes.

The problem is too big, too pervasive, for them to do anything about, and so they look the other way.
Toleration? It is perfectly tolerated.
And now Andy Sutherland has killed himself.
-So much suicide in this book!

He is drowned out by his sister. She is everywhere, her presence practically living in the room with her pictures, and Alex is nowhere.

"It’s not something accompanied by a swooping feeling in his chest, and he doesn’t say a word or do a thing to mark the discovery. He just lies there, pressing wet kisses into damp skin, content to watch and hold and listen, even if Alex goes to sleep or ignores him, or whatever.

Because this, here, is love."

This book is a little gem.