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“You need to get laid!” Middle-schoolers spun around to stare at him, mouths agape with shock, then quickly covered to stifle giggles. As the woman rushed them onto the bus, Nelson turned to Kyle and Jason. “Can you believe her?”
    “Maybe if you wouldn’t dress so weird …” Jason replied, feeling no sympathy for Nelson. “Why do you always try to be so different?” Nelson perched his dark glasses back onto his nose, his blue eyes peering across the top. “I don’t try to be different, Jason. I just am. Try it sometime.” Jason wasn’t sure what the heck Nelson meant by that, but he didn’t care. “You always have a comeback for everything, don’t you?”
    “Guys?” Kyle stepped between them. “Why don’t we get something to eat?”
    Jason stood glaring at Nelson, unwiling to back down as Nelson stared back.
    “Guys, stop it!” Kyle insisted, and pushed them away from each other, toward the car.
    As they left the mama bear and cubs, Jason considered sitting in back, but he didn’t want to appear intimidated by Nelson. The fact was Jason could beat the crap out of him anytime. Didn’t Nelson realize that? Then why didn’t he act like it?
    When they reached Big Meadows they stopped for lunch at the cafeteria and then continued toward the southern end of Shenandoah.
    “So was the park worth it?” Kyle asked Jason as they exited the gate.
    “Yeah.” Jason nodded. In spite of his tiff with Nelson, he’d enjoyed it. “Those bears were the best part. My old man never took us anywhere.”
    “Neither did mine,” Nelson said, turning toward I-81. That might’ve been the first time Jason could recal Nelson mentioning his dad, but Jason didn’t feel like asking more about it.
    Instead he watched the apple orchards and fields of baled hay pass by, as the sky began clouding. Around five o’clock they approached the exit for Tech, the university that had awarded Jason’s scholarship. He watched the ramp lead off the highway and wondered, What if they hadn’t retracted their invitation?
    Kyle must’ve had the same thought, because he laid a hand gently on Jason’s shoulder. Jason turned to look at him, thinking how different his life would be if he hadn’t come out. He certainly wouldn’t be driving across the continent with his boyfriend.
    And he wouldn’t be stuck in a car with Nelson.

chapter 12
    As they drove past the exit for Tech, Nelson watched Kyle quietly rest his hand on Jason’s shoulder. That was just like Kyle: always knowing the right thing to do or say. Unlike himself, who seemed to constantly screw up.
    “It sucked how they took your scholarship away,” Nelson now told Jason, trying to be consoling. He lifted Melissa’s Barbie off the seat beside him and imitated a little girl’s voice: “Bad Tech!”
    Jason turned and gave him a dirty look. “I’m over it, okay?”
    Nelson put the dol down and glanced in the rearview mirror. Kyle was glowering at him, shaking his head. Nelson let out a sigh. Once again he’d messed up.
    The three of them were silent after that, listening to the stereo and watching the clouds darken overhead. As they approached Pulaski, Kyle suggested they set up camp, “before it starts raining.”
    They checked into the High-N-Dry Campground, choosing a site near the basketbal court. Kyle and Jason began unpacking the tent and sleeping bags, while Nelson grabbed a pine branch, sweeping the ground, clearing away sticks and rocks. “Let’s put the tent down over here …” He pointed. “And the picnic table over there, so we’l a have prettier view of the mountains.”
    Kyle laid the tent where Nelson suggested and began assembling the poles.
    “This is supposed to fit three people?” Jason stared at the tiny dome.
    “Wel …” Kyle shrugged. “I thought there’d only be two of us when I bought it. But the carton said ‘Two to three people.’”
    “It’l be cozy.” Nelson winked at Jason, smiling.
    Jason didn’t smile back. Without