Read Online A Wealth of Unsaid Words by R. Cooper - Free Book Online

vague feeling that
    Robert was trying to take some of the pressure off, though he
    didn"t know why. Though he had graduated by then and
    hadn"t been in school with them, he had once been on their
    high school football team and had never had much in
    common with Alex except for a willingness to physically
    defend Everett whenever necessary.
    “Mystery. That kept getting repeated too. Like it was
    really all about secrets.” Ty seemed to be ready to write his
    thesis on the topic. Alex didn"t feel especially flattered. He
    did not know how Everett felt. Everett turned away, working
    perhaps, but Alex now knew the lines of him and how they
    looked under his clothes, with his eyes if not his hands. He
    pictured the muscles of his back, the tension in his
    shoulders, and the jut of his shoulder blades.
    Ally stretched to take his hand again and perhaps to
    draw his attention, and Alex"s throat tightened. He couldn"t
    have answered Ty if he"d wanted to, not in that moment. He
    thought, wildly, frozen, that if Everett was his, he would
    have him naked every moment of the day, every moment that
    was theirs, so nothing would be hidden from him ever again.
    58

    A Wealth of Unsaid Words • R. Cooper

    Then he thought Everett had never hidden anything
    well, and if he had wanted to know, he should just have
    asked.
    “I can"t always track the way my mind works.” Alex
    dismissed the subject once he could talk again, and took
    another cookie though his mouth was dry. “You liked the
    poems, I take it?” He raised his eyebrows. “Our dear Everett
    didn"t.” Everyone looked at Everett, which Alex hadn"t meant
    to happen, but as Everett wasn"t the only tricky one here, he
    was quick to take advantage of it. “He"s never said a word
    about them, at least not to me.”
    Everett raised his head and turned back. His frown was
    for Alex.
    “I liked them, Alex. They were….” He paused as though
    his chest hurt and he couldn"t draw breath. He turned to the
    side and went back to working with strips of dough. “They
    were beautiful. I"ve read them many times.”
    That was somehow worse than Everett"s silent rejection,
    Everett rereading them to reason them out yet afraid to
    speak to Alex about them, Everett afraid. But Everett didn"t
    give him a chance to reflect, though Alex"s body was
    pounding with tension.
    “But they are… they"re too… sad.” From his hesitation,
    Alex could tell Everett was altering what he"d been about to
    say. Then he shook his head and said it anyway. “They"re
    without hope.”
    “Melancholy is the term preferred in academic circles,”
    Alex informed him slowly. He meant it to lighten the mood,
    59

    A Wealth of Unsaid Words • R. Cooper

    but the words echoed in all the empty space between them.
    Everett lifted his head. Alex stared back at him.
    “ Sweet seconds but stolen ,” Molly exhaled, bringing
    Alex"s attention to her, bringing everyone"s attention to her.
    Everett straightened with a jerk, and Alex closed his eyes,
    just for a moment, at hearing those words.
    “Of course they were sad,” she went on. “They"re about
    despair, how it"s wanting what you can"t have, or think you
    can"t have, or don"t deserve.” Molly was superior. English
    majors often were. Alex should know, he taught enough of
    them. “They"re about love , obviously. Well, and desire…
    pressed against the wound / into you long beneath me /
    inches waiting to be crossed by the span of my hands pull me
    down / I am blind to stars / you beg to see constellations ….”
    Alex lifted his head and stared until his eyes burned at
    the side of Everett"s face.
    “Which is why they"re so popular, I suppose.” Molly
    thankfully chose not to finish the poem and spared them all
    countless lines of yearning for a trace more breath, the taste
    of sweat at a swallowing throat, the stabs of pleasure at a
    brave hand sliding over denim, and made a rude sound in
    her throat. “That and who hasn"t wanted something they
    haven"t