—
Twig’s door was open, but Greg knocked on the doorframe.
“Hey,” Twig said. He was in his underwear, rifling through his closet. “Door’s open.”
“I know,” Greg said. “Can I come in?”
“Of course. Sorry I’m so naked, I’m just trying to find the pants Dante likes.”
Greg nodded, came in and sat on Twig’s bed. “Dante likes all of your pants,” he said. He didn’t mind that Twig wasn’t dressed; it was his room.
“Yeah, but there’s this one pair that’s really tight and he always talks about how he wants to rip them off and stuff and I figured I’d let him tonight since I have so many clothes now, but I have so many clothes now that I can’t find them.”
Greg nodded, resisting saying that Twig would find it easier to find his clothes if he’d put them away properly. “You’ll find them.”
“Yeah, eventually.” Twig sighed, pulling things out of his closet and tossing them onto the bed. “Oh, sorry, I’m not throwing stuff at you.”
“I know. It’s okay. I was actually wondering if I could borrow something,” Greg asked.
“Sure, what do you need?”
“I don’t need it, I’d just like to wear it tonight. It’s that vest you have that has the studs on the shoulders.” Greg’s heart was pounding even though he knew Twig was going to say yes.
“Oh, that?” Twig looked around. “Yeah, I just saw that. It’s in here somewhere, hold on. You can have it if you want.”
“I don’t want to take it from you. I’d just like to wear it tonight. Darby and I are going to…”
There was another knock on the doorframe, and Greg jumped, but it was just Owen. “Hey, oh, hey, Greg,” he said, poking his head in. “Sorry. I just wanted to let you know that my parents are going to be dropping by in about ten minutes, so if you don’t feel like being dressed, stay up here.”
“Okay,” said Greg, who was dressed at the moment. “I was going to have a shower, but I can wait until they go.”
Owen shrugged. “Up to you. Twig, you might want to put pants on for your date with Dante so he has something to rip off. Just a suggestion.”
“I’ll take it under advisement,” said Twig. “Aha, here it is.”
“You found them?” Greg asked.
“No, but I found the vest. Here you go.”
“See you guys in a bit,” said Owen, heading downstairs. He pulled the door so that it wasn’t shut, but was only just ajar.
“Thank you,” said Greg, taking the vest.
“I have some jeans that look good with it,” Twig said. “If you give me a minute. Oh, did Owen shut the door?”
“A little. I guess he thought we might like some privacy.”
Twig nodded. “That was nice of him. It’s nice of him to be all respectful and junk.”
“Yeah,” Greg said. Sometimes people in the family were more overtly sexual or naked than Greg liked, but it was very easy for him to go into a room and shut a door when that happened, and he could—and usually did—always be sexual or naked with his door shut. “I appreciate that.”
“Me too,” Twig agreed. “It’s a nice place to live. Listen, I found the undies I was looking for so I’m going to ditch these in a second. You can stay if you want, but fair warning.”
Greg nodded. “I’ll stay until you find those pants you mentioned. I don’t mind changing in here if that’s okay with you.”
“Of course. Shut the door if you want.”
Greg nodded and did. It was strange, he thought. The fact that he had so many boundaries available to him made him only feel like he needed some of them.
He knew Twig felt the same way, and that felt like one boundary that didn’t have to exist between them.
—
How Best to Use a Sword 