"We're going to San Antonio, aren't we?" Jason asked Kyle. "You said you wanted to see the Alamo."

"No, let's just skip it," Kyle replied, climbing into the backseat.

"But you said it's supposed to be realy cool." Nelson turned the ignition.

Kyle glared at him straight on. "I don't feel like it anymore, al right? I want to keep going." Boy, was he cranky.

As Nelson puled onto the two-lane road outside the campground, he got caught behind a dump truck.

"Don't folow so close," Kyle cautioned him.

"But he's going, like, five miles an hour!" Nelson shifted impatiently in his seat.

"You're too close!" Kyle insisted.

The next instant, a pebble catapulted from the truck, flying onto the windshield. Smack!

Nelson winced, clutching the steering wheel. The rock chipped the glass and bounced off, continuing its flight.

"Crap!" Jason reached over and felt the inside of the window where the stone had left its mark.

"He cracked my windshield!" Nelson began beeping his horn. "What should I do? Should I stop him?"

"His insurance isn't going to pay for that," Kyle said. "I told you not to folow so close."

"But it's his fault!" Nelson argued.

Jason shook his head, staring at the dime-size crack. "I just hope it doesn't grow any bigger or you're screwed, dude."

"Asshole!" Nelson shouted at the truck. This was starting to be the suckiest day of his life.

chapter 25.

Kyle stared out the backseat window at the receding Austin skyline, angry at Nelson-not for one thing in particular, but for everything: for letting the windshield get chipped, for dropping the phone into the toilet, for insisting they go dancing the night before, and for suggesting this stupid trip in the first place.

And he was even angrier at Jason for kissing Leah. He'd always worried Jason might someday go back to girls. And where would that leave Kyle? Maybe Jason wasn't The One for him after al. But how could he not be? Kyle had been so certain.

From the instant Kyle had seen him that first day of high school, he'd sensed Jason was going to have a special place in his life. And wasn't it amazing how Jason had walked into the gay youth meeting? Everything had been so perfect: how they became friends first and then boyfriends. How could Jason betray him like this?

As the car drove westward, up and down the roling hils of central Texas, Kyle felt his heart lurching and plunging. One moment he wanted to shake Jason and the next minute he wanted to cling to him.

In the front seat Nelson puled out a cigarette and Jason turned toward him, glaring.

"Don't scowl at me that way." Nelson's hand trembled as he lit up. "I'm upset about the windshield." Jason shook his head in disgust and roled down his window. In the backseat, Kyle got blasted by both the hot air from outside and Nelson's cigarette smoke from inside.

"Put it out," he told Nelson.

"Huh?" Nelson glanced in the rearview.

"I said," Kyle repeated, "Put. It. Out. I'm sick of breathing in your smoke. I don't care if this is your car. I'm sick of smeling like tobacco al the time. You can smoke when we stop."

Kyle's heart pounded as he braced for an argument. But Nelson's face puckered into a pout. He tossed the cigarette out the window, muttering something Kyle couldn't hear because of the wind.

Jason glanced over his shoulder at Kyle. "Thanks."

Kyle turned away from him, stil angry, as they reached I-10, where a sign welcomed them to WONDERFUL WEST TEXAS-DRIVE FRIENDLY. After that the landscape became flatter and the sky seemed to grow taler before their eyes. The oak trees got scrubbier, and the ground cover faded from vivid green to pale brown.

Patches of flat nopal cactus began to appear alongside pinwheel windmils.

"It looks like we're in a cowboy movie." Jason pointed at a huge flat-topped mesa and turned toward Kyle. But Kyle remained cooly silent, taking in the desert sights without Jason's help.

"Hey, look!" Nelson exclaimed, passing an RV. "They've got a rainbow flag!" He beeped the horn and waved.

Two older guys, one light-complexioned and the other cinnamon-skinned, waved back from the front seats of the RV.

That was just about the most exciting event of the next couple of hours. After awhile the monotonous landscape of washed-out creek beds and recurring mesas seemed like a film background that kept repeating. The interstate stretched boringly ahead of them, cutting through limestone cliffs. And Jason began reading mileage signs: "Fort Stockton 139 miles," "Fort Stockton 102 miles," "Fort Stockton 86 miles."

"Would you stop?" Nelson finaly shouted at him. "It's like dripping water torture. You're driving me crazy." Jason gave a wounded frown. "I need to take a-" He stopped and corrected himself. "I need to use the bathroom."

"We may as wel stop for lunch," Kyle suggested.

Outside Ozona a bilboard advertised the Halfway Cafe, and they decided to try that.

"Yeah, it looks halfway decent," Nelson quipped as he drove into the crowded parking lot.

Inside, the cafe wals were lined with a bizarre colection of paintings-of a beagle eating at a bowl, a lone brown horse grazing on a green hilside, and a goat devouring a hat. In the corner hung a photo of the World Trade Center with the caption: PRAY. And at the center of each table stood a single cowboy boot, serving as a vase stuffed with plastic flowers.

While Jason headed to the restroom, Kyle scanned the packed restaurant. Weathered-looking men in jeans, every one with either a cowboy hat, a basebal cap, or hat hair, occupied each table.

"Hi, boys," said a mint-uniformed waitress. "A table should clear in a sec."

"I wonder if her name's Flo," Nelson whispered.

Kyle ignored him, watching out the window. The RV they'd passed earlier was puling into the parking lot. Once parked, the two older guys climbed out and walked into the cafe. Their hair was graying and tiny wrinkle lines showed at their eye corners.

"Hi." Kyle gave them a friendly nod and the men smiled back.

"Aren't you the boys with the rainbow flag?" the darker man asked and introductions folowed. "I'm Miguel and this is Todd, my partner." Todd's gaze moved between Kyle and Nelson. "And are the two of you ...?"

"We're just friends," Kyle clarified.

"Best friends," Nelson corrected. "His boyfriend is ... this guy." Nelson pointed with his thumb as Jason walked up. Todd and Miguel introduced themselves again.

"Y'al together?" the waitress asked.

Kyle turned to the men. "You want to sit with us?"

After spending so much time around people his own age these past few days, Kyle eagerly welcomed the opportunity to be around adults.

"We'd love to," Miguel said, and Todd smiled. "Are you sure it's okay with you guys?"

"We don't want to intrude," Miguel added.

"It would be great," Kyle assured them.

The waitress led them to a freshly cleared round table. Kyle was glad to be sitting with the guys. It took his mind off Jason and Nelson, even though Nelson hardly let anyone else say anything as he recounted tales of the Faerie Sanctuary, Graceland, the Britney contest, the windshield crack ...

After the waitress returned and took their orders, Kyle seized the opportunity to jump into the conversation. "How long have you two been together?" Todd and Miguel gazed at each other, smiling.

"Twenty years," Todd said softly.

"Twenty years today," Miguel specified, nodding happily at Todd.

Kyle realized that these two guys had been together as long as his parents had.

"This is our anniversary trip."

"Touring the West."

"We've been planning it for years."

"Since the first night we met."

"We talked about our dreams."

"Twenty years?" Nelson's jaw dropped. "I'm lucky if I can get a guy's attention for twenty minutes." Jason moved the boot with the flowers aside to get a better view of the guys. "So, like, what's your secret?"

"Our secret?" Miguel asked.

"Yeah, you know, for staying together."

Miguel glanced at Todd. "I don't think there's any one secret, do you?"

"We share the same values," Todd replied. "Trust. Communication. Commitment."

Miguel chuckled. "We like the same food."

Kyle had noticed they both ordered the tuna salad platter, whereas Kyle had ordered griled cheese with coleslaw and Jason ordered a burger with fries. Was that a sign that their relationship was doomed?

"We not only finish each other's sentences," Todd continued.

"We also answer each other's questions-"

"Before we even ask them."

As the food arrived, Nelson argued, "But I always heard opposites attract."

"Yeah." Miguel grinned. "But similars stay together."

Kyle swalowed a bite of his griled cheese and asked, "How'd you each know the other was The One?"

"I knew the moment I laid eyes on him." Todd poked his fork into a tomato. "I swear my heart leaped inside my chest." Kyle recaled the first moment he'd laid eyes on Jason. He'd been rendered speechless.

"In my case," Miguel contrasted, "I didn't have a clue. I'd kissed so many frogs that I'd given up ever finding Prince Charming." Nelson laughed at the joke, though his laugh had a nervous ring.

"And how about you two?" Todd's gaze shifted across the table between Kyle and Jason. "What attracted you two to each other?" Jason looked across the table at Kyle. Kyle glanced away uneasily, stil too miffed at Jason to admit anything.

"His smile," Jason answered.

"My smile?" Kyle blurted out, incredulous. "What're you talking about? I wore braces."

"I know," Jason replied. "And you always tried to hide them with your shy little smile." Kyle narrowed his eyes at Jason, refusing to let himself be sweet-talked.

But Jason stared right back at him. "And I liked how smart he was-I mean is-and I liked his body."

"His body?" Nelson protested. "He's skinnier than I am!"

"And what did you like about Jason?" Miguel asked Kyle.

Kyle frowned, answering reluctantly, "His eyes ..." Even now, furious at Jason, he stil loved those brooding deep brown eyes. "And his strength." Kyle always felt protected around Jason, with good reason: Jason had rescued him from a fight during senior year.

"And his passion ..." Kyle admired the unwavering determination Jason showed toward basketbal, the same steady persistence with which he'd approached Kyle, and that he demonstrated each time they made love. How could he not feel infuriated at Jason for sharing that passion with some girl at a bar?

"I'm not sure I could spend twenty years with anyone," Nelson interjected.

"At first I couldn't imagine it either," Miguel responded. "You just take it one day at a time."

"And before you know it," Todd said, "twenty years have passed." He smiled at Kyle and Jason. "You guys are lucky to be getting such a young start." Kyle clenched his jaw. He wasn't feeling very lucky today.

When the bil came, Todd and Miguel insisted on paying for the boys' meals. The boys thanked them and said good-bye. Outside, beneath the shade of the front awning, Kyle watched the RV pul out of the parking lot.

While Nelson smoked a cigarette, Kyle returned inside to cal his mom colect from a pay phone next to the rest room.

"What's happened, honey? Why aren't you using Nelson's cel phone?"

"He dropped it in the toilet."

Kyle's mom was quiet a moment, then asked, "Wel, is everything al right? Where are you?"

"I don't know. Somewhere in Texas. I got into a fight with Jason."