The Snow Prince - Raleigh Ruebins Page 0,4

Adults included.”

I looked down at the ground. “I don’t feel that pressure when I’m here in Berrydale,” I said.

“Yeah,” Henry said. “Only pressure you have here is me, pressuring you to break all your little rules.”

“Hey, tonight was my idea,” I said.

“Well, I’m glad you had it.” He squinted as he looked out into the distance. “And at least your parents care. Your mom cares, your aunt and uncle care. I swear half of the time my mom forgets she even has a kid.”

“That’s not true,” I said.

My family was a big, sprawling tangle of so many aunts and uncles and cousins, and my mother, of course, at the center of it all. She was the engine that kept the family running. Or, sometimes, kept the family afraid of her. She seemed to follow my every move, even when she let me spend time down here in Berrydale.

Henry’s family was small. His parents had been uninvolved ever since Henry was old enough to grab his own food from the fridge. His mom worked long hours at the hospital and his dad had passed away. Sometimes it felt like the only thing Henry and I actually had in common was that our fathers had both died when we were young.

I was massively envious of the freedom Henry had, even if my heart broke for his situation.

“Your mom cares, she just knows you can take care of yourself,” I said.

He shook his head. “Doesn’t seem like it, sometimes.” One wayward lock of his sandy brown hair came down across his forehead and I reached out to tuck it back behind his ear.

That wasn’t something I’d do so easily without alcohol in me. Henry glanced up, surprised but not bothered, his eyes looking particularly big underneath his thick lashes.

“Okay, well then, let’s swap parents,” I said, getting back to the conversation. “I’ll gladly take your mom over mine.”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. The queen wants nothing to do with me,” he said. “She’d kick my ass out of the castle on day one.”

I giggled. “Probably true. Half the time she wants to kick my ass out, too.”

I could feel the alcohol in my blood, and it felt so much nicer than I could have expected. I wasn’t even worried about the fact that I was sneaking out of my house, even if I hadn’t gone very far.

In fact, all I wanted to do right now was stare at Henry’s face. The small cluster of light freckles he had on the side of his cheek stood out to me even in the dark. I wanted to reach out and brush my fingertips over them, but I’d already touched him too much tonight.

I had always loved Henry, but it had only become more apparent in the last couple of years how much I loved him.

When Henry had told me he was gay, almost exactly a year ago, right before the holidays, my heart had jumped up and lodged itself in my throat.

I had always been so afraid of how attracted I had been to other boys. Henry specifically. I had never told a soul on earth that I liked other guys.

And I had never in a million years expected Henry, Henry of all people, to come out and tell me he liked boys, too. I was the first person he had ever told, which I held in my heart like a warm secret. Of course, a few months after, he ended up saying fuck it, in usual Henry fashion, and coming out to the entire village.

Now everybody in Berrydale knew he was gay, and Henry was proud.

Nobody knew about me, of course.

It was another example of Henry’s boundless confidence. Another reason to love him way, way too much.

“You’re cute when you’re drunk,” he said suddenly, a lazy smile on his face as he gave me a shove.

“What?” I said. I’d been in a daze for who knew how long. “I’m not even doing anything. I’m just sitting here.”

“Yeah, but like… usually you’d be sitting there bouncing your leg or tapping your foot and checking on the cottage every two seconds because you’d be so scared you were out past your bedtime,” he said. “But tonight you’re just being a weirdo and looking at my hair instead.”

“I’m not being a weirdo.”

“I like it, Sebastian.”

“Please.”

“It’s adorable. You’re adorable.”

“I am not,” I said. My cheeks were burning.

“You jealous of my luscious locks, Sebastian?” he asked in a singsong voice, standing up and doing a little twirl, shaking his head.