In the middle of Des Plaines Illinois three boys find themselves in a tangled knot of angsty lust and amateur love.
Evan Webster has an average American life. When he isn't at swim practice or the movie theater, he's trying to make time to study bi...
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"What about this one?" Bones asked.
"That's a box of tampons," Danny told him. Bones dropped the box onto the grimy, mopped-streaked linoleum.
The two of them stood in the feminine aisle, utterly clueless. Evan had stayed with Nadine while Danny and Bones hurried to the store.
Danny had sisters, but they were way too young to worry about womanly issues. He was still naming teddy bears and finding broccoli behind the couch. He thought he had another decade before he had to walk through the girly section.
"What the Hell does a pregnancy test even look like?" Bones asked.
Danny scanned the shelves, trying to avoid the strong scent of mothballs burning his nostrils. There were a lot of pink-colored packages and floral products on display, and he was not impressed with the unvarying advertising. Most of the items promised things like clear skin or a tiny waist or less wrinkles. He hadn't realized he walked down the magical aisle of false reality. Danny made a mental note to himself to never let his sisters shop alone, worried that they'd fall into the marketing traps.
"Here," Danny said, reaching for a light blue box with daisies on it. "This one looks nice."
"Is it accurate?" Bones questions, examining the back of the box.
"I don't know," Danny said. "But it's the smallest. It'll be the easiest one to hide under your jacket."
Bones looked over his shoulder and whispered, "We can't steal this."
"You want to pay for it? Wait in a line? Talk to a cashier?" Danny asked, grabbing the box. "The whole town will know she's pregnant by tomorrow morning if we parade around here like it's a God damn baby shower."
If someone would have told Danny a week ago that he'd be stealing a pregnancy test for Evan's older sister, he would have thought they were higher than the moon on a ladder.
Love was...complex. Danny didn't even know how to describe it, and perhaps, that's exactly how he knew he was still in love with Evan. He was willing to set aside his hurt feelings to help Nadine...because helping Nadine meant helping Evan too.
Evan was still his top priority, and he hated it. He wished he could erase him completely.
"She's not pregnant," Bones replied defensively.
Danny gave him a look. "With Kenneth's reputation...I highly doubt she isn't pregnant."
Bones's jaw rippled.
Danny blinked and then jerked his head. "Go grab a bottle of Ranch and some Ding Dongs. When you're paying, I'll walk out the door and wait across the street."
"You think that'll work?"
"Of course," Danny said, turning around to conceal the blue package under his leather jacket. "No one will ever – "
Danny stopped when he saw the store owner standing in the aisle, phone in hand – dialing the police.
"Ay dios mío," he sighed quietly to himself, dropping the box.
