Page 57 of High

Manny

“Fuck, más despacio,” I wheezed, chasing Thio along the sand. My calves burned with the effort, and no matter how hard I pumped my arms, it seemed harder to do this than swim against a rip current. The morning sun blazed into my eyes and I had to squint. He hadn’t slowed down enough to let me catch up, and he hadn’t since the first day we went running together nearly three weeks ago. If it wasn’t for the fact that he ran shirtless in tiny gray shorts, I would have given up a long time ago. My thin T-shirt stuck to me with sweat. “Thio, it’s too hot. Let’s swim. Why do we have to run? Eshorrible.” I would have pouted at him, but he didn’t stop to look at me.

“You have to get used to this!” he called into the ocean breeze.

“Wh-when you s-said you were training me, you asshole, I thought you meant teaching me to shoot targets or something.” I slapped a hand to the growing stitch in my side. “I can swim forever. This is torture.” Off to our right waves rolled, and I stared at them longingly.

“Your first line of defense might be running away. Or you might have to chase someone.” He slowed down, but not enough to let me run beside him.

Gritting my teeth, I put on more speed, but he stayed stubbornly ahead of me. “Fuck that. I’d shoot them before I did this.”

Thio laughed and slowed down, finally, so that I was at his side. The sunshine glittered in his dark blue eyes and he grinned at me. “Now you are sounding like you belong in the business.”

“It’s probably a good thing we’re running. All your mamá will do this afternoon after we go shopping is feed me. She wants to take me shopping in San Diego. Why don’t you get dragged into these things? Or Arlo?” I glared suspiciously, afraid I already knew the answer.

He laughed. “She likes you better than us.”

“Probably. That seems right.” And she thought I was least likely to complain. I was the “good son.”

He ruffled my hair and dripped sweat onto my face. I tried to smack him, but he dodged away faster than a football player. “She misses you, too. She wasn’t happy that I took you out of town as soon as you got back. She wanted her boys all in one place.”

“Are you coming with us?”

He shook his head, and I got a sharp stab of delight when I realized he was breathing harder than he was letting on. I was starting to make him work for his lead. “Not today.”

“Are you getting me my birthday present?” I said and sped up, trying to run ahead of him, even though I knew I didn’t have a hope in hell. Our next-door neighbors were absolutely insane, and they were out running too. I waved at them, but still didn’t know their names. They waved back and seemed like the nicest people.

“Not this again. You can’t have one for your birthday.” He sounded exasperated, but not angry, so I grinned to myself. I still had a chance.

“You have Preciosa! I want my own pet. I’ve never had one.”

“She was a rescue. Get a puppy,” he snapped, but he was still smiling, so I thought maybe he wasn’t angry yet.

“I would be rescuing a fluffy, cute tiger cub, too! Please! I want one!”

He darted in and shouldered me until I stumbled, and my right foot went into the cold water. I shouted and he laughed. “Manny, we’ve been over this how many times now? Tigers eat people. They need a lot of land. We just can’t. It wouldn’t be right.”

“You don’t love me is all.”

He growled, sounding a lot like a tiger himself, and I laughed and tried to outrun him again, but he caught up with me and wrapped one strong arm around my waist. Using all his might, he swung me around and grappled me. We unbalanced together and fell to our sides in the sand.

“Cheater!” I kicked at him without any desire to hurt him.

“The other guys who want you dead will cheat too.” He bumped his forehead against mine and tried to roll me underneath him.

I grabbed a handful of sand and slipped my other hand down the front of his shorts, waggling my eyebrows. He glanced around to see if anyone was watching us, and that’s when I struck, thrusting the entire handful of sand down his shorts. He gasped, and I pushed him off me and sprang up, running again.

“Eres un mocoso!”

Glancing over my shoulder, I laughed again as I watched him shaking out his shorts. I nearly beat him back to the house, but he pulled it out at the last quarter mile to overtake me, and was waiting for me outside of the sliding glass door in the back with a glass of water when I finally arrived, sucking wind.

“I should dump this on you.” He was scowling, but his eyes were bright and happy.

“Please, may I have it?” I slung my arms around him and leaned against his chest. He spilled some of the water on the ground and cursed, but ended up wrapping an arm around me and laughing.

“I have something for you,” he whispered in my ear, and I snuggled tight to his front and kissed his salty neck. I licked there and he let out a happy hum.

“Do you?” I felt him, hard and pressed against me. “Can I have it?”