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Contents ( 42)
  1. The Art of Breathing
  2. Part One: How We Became Who We Are
  3. Prologue: Or, Where the Kid Hears the Word of the Day
  4. 1. Where Tyson Learns to Breathe
  5. 2. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
  6. 3. Where Tyson Graduates and Bear Freaks Out
  7. 4. Where Tyson Says Good-Bye
  8. 5. Where Tyson Gets the Mail
  9. Part Two: Coming Home
  10. 6. Where Tyson Comes Home
  11. 7. Where Tyson Gives a History Lesson
  12. 8. Where Tyson Attends the Most Awkward Party Ever
  13. 9. Where Tyson Plans Attends a Protest
  14. 10. Where Tyson Gets Arrested
  15. 11. Where Tyson Gets His Ass Handed to Him
  16. 12. Where Tyson Writes Bad Poetry and Gawks at Frat Boys
  17. 13. Where Tyson Decides to Man the Fuck Up
  18. 14. Where Tyson Asks Some Questions
  19. 15. Where Tyson Remembers Theresa Jean Paquinn
  20. 16. Where Tyson Learns the Benefit of Therapy
  21. 17. Where Tyson Meets the Man Who Becomes Helena Handbasket
  22. 18. Where Tyson Gets Screwed at His Own Birthday Party (And Not in a Good Way)
  23. Part Three: Just Breathe
  24. 19. Where Tyson Goes to Helena Handbasket’s Sex Dungeon
  25. 20. Where Tyson Beholds the Awesome Wonder That Is Paul Auster
  26. 21. Where Tyson Receives Advice from the Six Sages
  27. 22. Where Tyson Makes a Phone Call
  28. 23. Where Tyson Hears the Inevitable
  29. 24. Where Tyson Meets His Match
  30. 25. Where Tyson Says Hello, Where Tyson Says Good-bye
  31. 26. Where Tyson Touches upon the Inevitable
  32. 27. Where Tyson Faces the Music
  33. 28. Where Tyson Breathes
  34. 29. Tyson And Dominic
  35. 30. The Art Of Breathing
  36. Epilogue: Or, Bear’s Perspective, As It Were (Yeah, He’s Gonna Freak)
  37. Author’s Note
  38. Excerpt
  39. Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door
  40. More from TJ Klune
  41. Readers love the Bear, Otter, and the Kid Chronicles by TJ Klune
  42. By TJ Klune

I breathe in. I almost don’t make it. But I do.

Good. Hold.

I can do this. I know I can do this.

One.

Dominic pushes past the bar.

Two.

Someone bumps my arm.

Three. Exhale.

I breathe out.

Hold.

Somehow, I do.

One.

Dom is almost to me, and I’ve never been more scared in my entire life.

Two.

He’s never looked bigger than he does right now. I’m just a little guy.

Three.

The roaring sounds of the bar come back.

“I d-didn’t mean to i-i-interrupt,” I tell him as he reaches me. My voice breaks. “I’m s-s-sorry. I’ll g-g-go and—”

He kisses me.

In my tiny little world, in my tiny little brain, everything explodes in colors and shapes and stars, and all I see are stars, and they fill the world until I’m sure everything around us will blow away like so much dust. He moves his lips over mine, gripping the side of my face, and it’s him, it’s him, oh my God, it’s Dom, and he’s got a hold on me like he’ll never let me go, he’ll never let me leave again, and I think to myself, filled with so much wonder, This is nice, but I should probably kiss him back so he doesn’t think it’s like kissing a dead fish. And I do, and it’s awkward and wet and oh so perfect, and when he touches his tongue to mine, I understand fireworks and supernovas and life itself for just one brief, shining moment. This is what life is, these moments of fireworks and exploding stars and synapses blazing. These are the moments that lift us up when we think we can’t take another step. These are the moments that put us back together when we’ve fallen apart. These are the moments that make us whole.

It’s not a matter of breathing.

It’s who we are.

He pulls away, but barely. His eyes fix on mine. “I’ve been waiting,” he says almost angrily in that beautiful broken voice, “for the look you just gave me. Is this clear enough for you, Tyson? Do you understand now?”

Well, no, I don’t understand anything at all because I’m pretty sure I’m brain-dead and have an erection in the middle of a gay bar fifteen hundred miles from home after having the first kiss to end all first kisses. “Flarg,” I say rather eloquently. “Gah.”

“Good,” he says. “Just so we’re clear.”

He lets go of my face and turns on his heel, disappearing into the crowd.

“Gah,” I say again. No one seems to notice.

THE FINAL Sage:

It’s hours later and I still haven’t quite recovered from what I’ve determined to be a life-altering event of a magnitude that I can’t even begin to understand.

Dom and I haven’t said much to each other since we left the bar. To be honest, I haven’t said much to anyone as my speaking ability appears to have been temporarily destroyed, and I can do no more than make grunting noises to questions that I’m not quite hearing. It probably doesn’t help that whenever I look at Dom, he arches an eyebrow at me, asking me a question I cannot remotely comprehend.