Touch Me
James Moloney
 Summary appearing on the 2000 paperback edition: For Xavier McLachlan, Rugby is life. Winning a 1st XV jersey means everything... Until he meets Nuala Magee. Has there ever been a girl like her? She's feisty, she's troubled, she's dangerous. What will his mates think? Does he even care? Everything looks different now. Xavier McLachlan is in love. Copyright James Moloney 2000. Touch Me tells the story of a young Australian named Xavier McLachlan, who is in his final year of high school. A keen sportsman, his aim for the year is to be selected in the school Rugby team and help his friends and team mates win the first premiership in twenty years. All is going according to plan until he meets Nuala Magee, an unusual girl with her own agenda. (She is cross-dressing and acts in a deliberately confrontational manner towards boys.) Xavier is intrigued by her and against the advice of his friends, becomes very close to her, eventually starting a relationship with her. Xavier also befriends a new boy, Alex Murray and this friendship helps Xavier begin to change his ideas about what it means to be a man. The tension between Xavier and his friends begins to isolate him and when he betrays Nuala out of weakness, and a tragedy befalls Alex Murray, he is faced with difficult decisions about who he is and what he holds most dear.