Thin Ice
Genre: Contemporary / Young Adult
Length: 5,490 words
Publisher & ISBN
Queerteen Press / 9781611521146
Jessie and David have been friends since childhood. But some time during high school, their friendship deepens into something more and Jessie's father grows alarmed his only daughter is hanging out with a boy from the wrong side of town. An incident between their brothers drives them apart.
Unwilling to just let Jessie go, David follows her to the lake where she likes to sit after school. What starts as a casual meeting soon turns into secretive trysts as their feelings deepen into love.
Theirs is a small town, and Jessie knows she's skating on thin ice. But there are worse things than her father finding out about David.
Excerpt
Suddenly Jessie hears footsteps coming her way, swishing through the tall grass.
It’s David.
Her heart speeds up as he sits beside her and she can’t tear her gaze from him, yet he only stares out over the lake. Her mind tells her to run -- she’ll catch hell if her father knows he’s here with her -- but every other part of her refuses to listen. “It sure is pretty here,” he says, looking from the lake to her. “Nice scenery.”
Locked in the prison of his dark eyes, Jessie forgets her father’s warning. “Hello, David.” Her voice remains level despite her surprise at seeing him here, beside her.
He laughs, a boyish sound that still haunts her dreams. He doesn’t answer, simply takes off his leather jacket and spreads it out behind him on the ground. Lying back, he stares up at the sky, and Jessie searches for the gull over the lake, desperate to divert her attention. She doesn’t want to lie down next to him. She doesn’t even want to be sitting here -- it’s too dangerous. She repeats this litany over and over again in her head, reminding herself she doesn’t care about him, not anymore. It’s the only way she keeps her itchy hands from brushing the hair back from his furrowed brow.
“Why’d you stop coming around?” There seems to be a hint of sadness in David’s words.
She shrugs. “You know why.”
“I only heard the rumors,” he persists. “You never told me yourself.”
She shrugs again, and he continues. “You said you loved me.”
“Don’t do this,” she warns, clutching her knees close to her chest. She can feel his fiery gaze burn into her back but she refuses to turn around. “Please don’t.”
He runs a finger down her spine, which trails liquid fire in its wake. Through her cotton T-shirt she can feel his flesh, warm in the cooling air. “I understand,” he says, mirth teasing in his voice. “Your father never liked me.”
“My father never likes anyone. Don’t you remember what happened?”
“I want to hear it from you.”
She sighs. “When I came home that night, Daddy was yelling into the phone. Chris stood in the middle of the living room, his arm wrapped in towels. Red towels. We don’t even own red towels -- my mother used to say they bleed in the wash.”
David’s touch is ticklish. Jessie tries to ignore it. She takes a deep breath, hoping to steel herself for what she’s about to say. “It was my brother’s blood. His arm was all cut up. Daddy was so angry -- he just kept saying, ‘Look what they did to your brother! Look at his fucking arm!’ David, he needed thirty stitches!”
“You know I didn’t do anything to Chris.” That finger slips down lower and Jessie suppresses a shiver. “It was Ritchie -- I’ve never done anything to anybody.”
Jessie looks over her shoulder at him, and he lets his hand drop from where it hangs in the air, about to trace her spine again. “Nobody cares about that. They see Ritchie; they see your father. That’s what people see when they look at you, David, and nothing you can do will ever change that, not here. Nobody cares if your only crime is association.”
He looks into her eyes sadly. They sit like that a long time, neither daring to touch the other, neither daring to speak. “Do you want me to go away?” he asks finally.
Jessie surprises herself when she shakes her head no.