Read Grown-up for Free Online Page A

Let’s see.” He slid the paper closer. “Go to bed at a reasonable hour on weeknights. I can try that. Um… do laundry properly. You can tell?” he asked.
    “Just a good guess. Sometimes you look a little… wrinkled. And that white T-shirt you wore yesterday had some pinkish blotches near the hem. You have to separate your colors from your whites.”
    “Okay. Early to bed, better laundering… a good beginning. What’s this?” Ben had started to write something near the bottom of the list, after start a Roth IRA and before read the news regularly , but he’d decisively crossed it out.
    Ben’s cheeks pinked. “I… uh… wasn’t sure about that one.”
    “What was it?” Austin asked, now fully intrigued.
    “It was… get married. But maybe you don’t want to,” he added hastily. “Maybe you’re not interested in marriage or monogamy or… things like that. Not everyone is.”
    Austin folded his arms and leaned back in his seat. For the first time in… well, maybe ever, he truly thought about a long-term relationship. Hooking up was okay, he supposed. It was easy and it scratched an itch. Sometimes it sucked—not in the good way—but usually it was fun. And then you went home and woke up alone. Nobody to hog the blankets or snore in your ear. No weird misunderstandings, no having to change your routines to please someone else, no having to explain to anyone exactly what you’d been up to at three in the morning.
    But.
    No cuddling. No moving together with easy familiarity, knowing exactly how to please your partner and knowing your partner would please you. No spur-of-the-moment weekend getaways. No silly jokes or surprise gifts. No somebody waiting for you when you got home after a hard day—at least, not someone who gave a shit about making you smile.
    Without saying anything, Austin grabbed the pen and scrawled a new item at the bottom of the page: Fall in Love .

Chapter Five
     
    I T TURNED out you could register to vote online, and the process was no big deal. Austin did it as soon as he got home from the Den. Feeling accomplished, he eyed the clothing scattered around his bedroom. He had just begun to sort it into piles when his phone buzzed.
    Where r u? Randy texted.
    Home .
    Randy replied with his favorite emoticon. :-p Boring. Meet us @Edge. Bret’s already down to his undies.
    Austin snorted. Big deal. Bret stripped at the slightest provocation. He’d probably walk around in his Andrew Christians 24-7 if he wasn’t worried about getting arrested. Not tonight , Austin tapped out.
    But there’s live music. And Pax is here!
    Pax was tall, blond, and very, very flexible. He and Austin had fucked a few times, but not for a couple of years. Austin had been under the impression that he’d moved away.
    Apparently Randy decided Austin needed more encouragement. He’s asking 4 u.
    What the hell. Austin could deal with the list in the morning.
    Edge was farther away than JayJay’s, so Austin had to take a cab. As he paid the driver, he reminded himself that his father’s money wasn’t going to last very long if he kept going out. As it was, he’d probably be eating a lot of ramen by the end of the month. And if he didn’t get a job really soon… well, that was on the list too, and he could face that problem tomorrow.
    The crowd at Edge was generally younger, raunchier, and nakeder than at JayJay’s, and tonight was no exception. The first thing he saw under the pulsing lights was a row of boys dancing in their skimpy underwear atop the long bar. He’d danced there himself a few times when he was younger and hard up for cash. For a wild moment, he considered climbing up there again. But then he remembered that he wasn’t in as great a shape as he’d been when he was barely legal, and nobody was going to stuff bills into his briefs.
    He had to text Randy in order to track him down, and they met at the far end of the bar. Randy was shirtless and sweaty, but he still had his pants on. And