Compartilhar

Becoming

last update Data de publicação: 2026-09-04 12:00:00

Chapter 74

Derek’s POV

Marcus noticed the shift in me before I said anything out loud.

We met at the park on a cold afternoon, sitting on the same bench with space between us that felt less like distance and more like respect for the rules still holding the apartment together. 

The air had a sharp edge to it. Bare branches moved overhead when the wind passed through. 

A few people walked the path with dogs or headphones, but no one stopped ne

Continue a ler este livro gratuitamente
Escaneie o código para baixar o App
Capítulo bloqueado

Último capítulo

  • PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM)   Lena’s Terms

    Chapter 107Derek’s POVThe café she had written down was three blocks off campus, the kind of place that stayed busy enough that no single conversation owned the room. I got there ten minutes early and took a table near the window. The scrap of paper with her handwriting sat under my phone until I made myself put it away. June’s gloves were at home on the shelf. I had almost brought them again and decided that was a different kind of crutch than I needed for this.Lena walked in on time, ordered at the counter without looking at me, and only sat once she had the cup in her hand. She didn’t apologize for the process. She didn’t smile as a softener. She set the cup down, shrugged out of her jacket, and looked at me like she was lining up a shot.“You showed,” she said.“I said I would.”“People say a lot of things.” She wrapped her hands around the cup. “I’m going to talk, and you’re going to answer without the diplomatic tour. If you start managing my feelings, I’m leaving and the m

  • PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM)   Chapter 106: June’s Gloves

    Derek’s POVCampus in the second week of term had the particular energy of people who still believed the semester might stay organized. Bulletin boards thick with flyers. Lines at the coffee cart. Someone from my literature seminar waved without committing to a conversation. I waved back and kept moving toward the library, the printed schedule from registration already soft at the folds in my pocket.June’s gloves were in my bag. I hadn’t planned that. In the morning I had reached past them on the shelf for a notebook and ended up putting them in the front pocket instead, the leather worn soft, the cuff still slightly stretched from her hands. They didn’t belong on a university campus. They belonged on a far-section grid with mud in the seams. Carrying them anyway felt less like sentiment and more like keeping a fact close proof that I had been someone who fixed marginal seals instead of forcing them through.The library’s third floor was half empty. I took a table near the windows

  • PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM)   Three Chairs

    Chapter 105 Derek’s POVMom set the time for late afternoon and told me in the morning, plain and without negotiation. Two hours. Kitchen table. Marcus arrives at five, leaves when she says leave. I texted him the terms before noon and got a one-line confirmation back. No questions. No attempt to soften the frame.I spent the middle of the day on campus dealing with a reading list and a librarian who remembered me from before the program and asked if I had been traveling. I said yes and didn’t elaborate. At four I was home again, washing the mugs that had accumulated in the sink, more for something to do with my hands than because the sink required it. Mom came in from the clinic at four-thirty, changed her shoes, and set three glasses of water on the table without asking if anyone was thirsty.“Don’t brief him at the door,” she said. “I want what I get, not what you’ve rehearsed.”“I won’t.”Marcus knocked at five exactly. Mom opened the door. From the kitchen I heard the short exc

  • PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM)   Across Town

    Chapter 104Derek’s POVI dealt with registration first. The university office smelled like paper and dust. I stood in line, signed what needed signing, confirmed the research credit would apply, and walked out with a printed schedule for next term folded in my back pocket. The errands after that were ordinary groceries, a new bar of soap, the kind of small restocking that made the apartment feel less like a place I had only returned to and more like a place I was living in again. By early afternoon the bag loops on my fingers had left red marks and I had run out of ways to delay what the day was actually for.I texted Marcus from a bench near the market.I can come by if you’re free. Not for long.His reply was almost immediate.I’m here. The door code is the same as before. Don’t rush the walk.I didn’t rush. The temporary building sat on a quieter street than ours, brick and narrow windows, the kind of place people lived when their lives were between definitions. I had been here o

  • PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM)   The Table Again

    Chapter 103Derek’s POVI woke to the sound of the kettle and the thin light of a weekday morning. For a few seconds the ceiling looked like the site housing and my body expected an alarm and a pack. Then the apartment revolved around me, the desk, the closet with June’s gloves on the shelf, the familiar crack in the plaster near the door and the expectation drained off.Mom was already in the kitchen when I came out. She had set two mugs on the table and a plate of toast that had gone slightly cool. She didn’t ask how I had slept. She nodded at the chair across from her and sat down with her hands wrapped around her mug like she needed the heat more than the tea.“Registration letter is on the counter,” she said. “Next term deadlines. You should deal with it today before it grows a personality.”“I will.”“Good.” She drank. The clock ticked. Outside a truck backed up with its warning tone and then moved on. “I said I wouldn’t start anything last night. I’m starting something now. No

  • PINNED BY MY STEPFATHER (MxM)   First Night Home

    Chapter 102 Derek’s POVMom stepped aside to let me in. The hallway looked the same, same light, same scuff near the baseboard but the air had the particular quiet of a place that had been running without me. She didn’t reach for the bag. She waited until I set it down inside the door, then pulled me into a brief, firm hug that ended before either of us could turn it into something heavier.“You look like you worked,” she said.“I did.”“Good.” She glanced at the bag, then at my face. “Unpack. Shower if you want. There’s food in the kitchen. I’m not starting anything tonight. I need to see you in space for more than a minute before we open the rest of it.”“Okay.”“I mean it, Derek. Land first.”“I will.”She nodded once, as if she had needed to hear the words out loud, and went toward her room. The door didn’t close all the way. I stood in the entry with the bag at my feet and the apartment settling around me in layers of detergent, the faint leftover of coffee, the soft tick of th

Mais capítulos
Explore e leia bons romances gratuitamente
Acesso gratuito a um vasto número de bons romances no app GoodNovel. Baixe os livros que você gosta e leia em qualquer lugar e a qualquer hora.
Leia livros gratuitamente no app
ESCANEIE O CÓDIGO PARA LER NO APP
DMCA.com Protection Status