Thick as Thieves (Aster Valley 4)

I pulled his face out of my neck and held him by the cheeks. “You listen to me, Parker Ellis,” I hissed. “You never, ever need to sleep outside when I have a warm, safe place for you here. Okay? Don’t you dare think you have to stay there alone when you can stay with me. My parents love you. They wouldn’t want you to stay there by yourself, even if you had a key.”

He sniffed again. “Yeah, I know. Okay.”

I grumbled about his asshole parents while he nestled back against my shoulder.

“I like staying with you,” Parker admitted softly a few minutes later. “Everything’s better when I’m with you.”

I let out a snort. “You just like the snacks my mom gets.”

He pinched my side. “Yeah, so? I also like that I don’t have to care about what I say and do when I’m with you. I can just be… regular me.”

“Same. It’s more fun when you’re here. I wish you lived here all the time.” And I meant it. Parker was my favorite person, and if I could have him with me every minute, my life would be just about perfect.

“Yeah.”

“No matter what, we have each other, right?” I said. “No matter what, it’s you and me, together.”

“Always,” Parker added with a nod.

He got out of bed, grabbed my math notebook and pen from my desk, and scribbled something on it before tearing off half of a page and handing it to me with a flourish.

You and me. Always.

“Remember what we learned in English? Once you make a pledge in writing and agree to it, it’s pretty much law,” he said before settling back down under the covers. “At least, it will be for us.”

My dad had always implied he wanted me to get a law degree one day and join him in running our family’s mining business. I definitely didn’t know much about the law yet, but I was almost positive there was more to a contract than just writing it down. There were supposed to be signatures involved. And a judge, maybe.

But I didn’t say any of that, because this promise was about something more important than laws; it was about friendship. And intention. And love.

After reading the words several times over with reverence, I put it on my bedside table. “I agree.”

We got quiet again, but after a while, Parker started talking. This was normal for him. I called it the daily download. He needed to get all of the thoughts off his brain before he could fall asleep.

“What did Hazel mean when she said Erin was her best friend?”

“Huh?” I’d started to fall asleep again, so it took me a minute to try and figure out what he was asking.

“Tonight at dinner. She called Erin her best friend. It just seemed weird.”

“It’s not weird. They’re close like we are.”

He let out a snort. “Not like us. They’re not best friends. They’re…”

“Erin is Hazel’s closest friend, and Hazel is Erin’s. That’s what it means, Parks. Best friends.”

Parker sat up and peered down at me. “If they’re best friends, then you and I are more than best friends. You’re my… my…” He paused while trying to think up a word.

“Go on,” I teased. “I’ll wait. Pretty sure it’s just called best friends.”

Parker got an evil grin on his face. “You’re my lil’ Peanut.”

“Oh, no you didn’t. That nickname needs to die, Shortbread.” I launched myself at him, pinching and wrestling and yanking his hair, all the while laughing and secretly coveting every moment of close contact with him.

When we finally pulled away from each other, both of us breathing heavily and me half-hard, I scrambled off the bed toward the bathroom. “Gotta pee.”

I closed the door behind me and shoved my hand down my pajama pants to squeeze my dick. This had happened before. Both Parker and I had gotten hard around each other, but we’d ignored it or joked around about it.

We’d always been closer than most friends. When Parker first spent the night at my house in second grade, there had been a really bad thunderstorm. After a scary crack of thunder, Parker had scrambled from the other twin bed into mine, and we’d held hands until the flash of lightning lit up the entire room. We snuggled together, holding each other tight until the storm finally went away.

The next morning, Mom had found us tangled up together in my bed for the first of what had turned out to be many times. After that, it was easy being physically close to him. He was touch-starved anyway, according to my mom. So we all made a point of giving him lots of hugs, and I used every movie night as a chance to hold his hand or snuggle with him on the sofa.

When a birthday sleepover with six guys last year had resulted in us breaking both of my beds, my parents had replaced them with one queen-sized bed.