Micah Johnson Goes West (Get Out, #2)(27)

His mother rubbed his shoulder. “Did you think you would be able to pick up where you left things?”

He didn’t want to talk about it.

“Micah, talk to me.”

“Do I have to?”

“It might make you feel better.”

“I doubt it.”

“It can’t be any worse than keeping it all in. Don’t you remember how that made you feel last year?”

He didn’t need that thrown in his face either. Especially when it would be another thing she was a hundred percent correct about. So he counted to three in his head before answering. Exploding was the old Micah’s way. “Yep.”

“Okay, one word. Progress.”

“Is it wrong to have hoped maybe we could?” Micah broke his three-word-maximum responses, and immediately hated the way he sounded—his voice cracking, reeking of desperation and loneliness.

“Not at all,” Joanne said. “It’s just probably unrealistic. You both made a very mature decision last year in an effort to avoid prolonging the pain.”

“And he did it very easily.” Micah chose to ignore that he had been doing the same, just on a less emotional and more physical level.

“What, did you want him to be miserable and single for the rest of his life?”

“Is that too much to ask for?” He couldn’t help but grin a little. But he couldn’t feel any warmth behind it.

His mother, however, seemed relieved that he was slipping back into his usual form. “Well, I think he should have been unable to live without you as well. But I’m your mother, so I’m biased.” She paused, and asked hesitantly, “Is there not anybody in Perth that you’re maybe interested in?”

“Mum!”

“I’m just asking.”

“There’s no one. I’m either surrounded by straight guys with their WAGs, or they’re single and shagging every weekend. It’s either shagging or long-term commitments and marriage and babies. It’s all so… straight.”

“I’ll try not to be offended by that.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Maybe there’s like, I don’t know, a gay book club or something you can join?”

Micah had to really hold in the bellow of laughter threatening to erupt.

She read him anyway. “Okay, laugh at your poor mother.”

“I’m sorry, Mum, but a gay book club?”

Shaking her head, she looked a little defensive. “I’m sure there must be one somewhere.”

“Maybe here. But not in Perth.”

“What? You’re saying Perth people don’t read?”

“I’m sure they do,” Micah agreed, feeling that he should defend Perth people a little bit at least, seeing he was now considered one of them. “But the gay scene there is small enough without hoping for a book club to be part of it.”

“I just want you to be happy.”

He repressed telling her that it was an impossible task at the moment. He didn’t want her to worry, which he knew she did anyway. Three thousand kilometres between them only made it worse. It was kind of ironic to think that he was incapable of running away to Lorne last year, and that was in the same state—and now he was three thousand kilometres away without even trying. And being paid for it.

“I know you do,” he said. “And I will be.”

He hoped it would come true.

“Okay,” Joanne said. “I choose to believe you.”

So maybe he wasn’t hiding it as well as he thought he was. He knew his mother probably felt just as helpless as he did—after all, what could she do about it? Put a call in to the AFL CEO, requesting a special transfer for her baby boy? When he was just having to do something heaps of boys his age did every year across Australia, and thousands more would kill to be one of the privileged to do so?

“Believe me,” he lied.




MICAH STRETCHED out on his bed and checked his phone. Kyle had stopped trying to call him; there were no more missed calls from his number. Part of him was disappointed, even though he knew he shouldn’t be. What right did he have to expect Kyle to keep chasing after him?

However, there was a message: I wish you would talk to me. You might not believe it, but I still care about you and I’d hate it to end like this.

But Micah had to be ruthless. Pining wasn’t getting him anywhere—it was just making him even more depressed. He had to be proactive.

He reached for his iPod and scrolled through the list of artists. He found the Pet Shop Boys and didn’t even listen to the song Kyle had gifted him with such love only a couple of months ago. He swiped to the left and the delete button appeared.

One simple press, and “Go West” would be gone.

If only his thought of Kyle could be erased as easily.

His thumb hovered over the delete option.

Remember. Ruthless.

He swiped to the left, and the song disappeared.

Closing his eyes, he fell back onto his bed. Kyle immediately appeared, and no matter how much he wished him away, he was there until Micah fell asleep.




IN A way, it was a relief to go back to Perth. Sam picked him up from the front of the airport, looking flustered as a parking inspector hovered menacingly around his window.