Chapter 22
The space under the high school was larger and more useful than Alex expected, and much cleaner than he’d feared. Unlike the neglected mess under the cannery, the maze of rooms, hallways, and closets was mostly empty. Everyone who’d been there for the disturbing masked strangers’ visit to the cannery pitched in, and the whole space was clean in a few hours.
Shrinking class sizes left this part of the school abandoned a few years ago, but Alex couldn’t help imagining Etan trudging through the purple and gold tiled hallways. Maybe when they got home from this late night supply run, he’d ask his lover about that.
He walked up the narrow concrete steps, playing the scenes and questions out in his mind. Was your first kiss with a boy or a girl? Where was it? Alex stepped out into
