“I need to talk to Luke,” Zach said. He nodded his head to where Luke and I were pressed close and indicated we should stop doing that. I ignored him.
“I need to take a nap,” Joey said. He gave us all a wave and went to the other side of the room, putting his backpack down to use as a pillow and then paying no attention to us anymore.
Zach raised an eyebrow at me. Did I really want to keep ignoring Zach’s request? I could try to keep Luke here, but I wanted my boyfriend in one piece. I was imagining me taking one arm and Zach taking the other and us pulling and pulling, a Luke Chambers tug of war.
“Don’t rip my boyfriend in half!” I exclaimed.
Sometimes I got lucky. Apparently shouting seemingly random things with no explanation didn’t pass for weird when it came to me, so both of them took that in stride.
Zach opened his mouth.
“No,” Luke said, pointing a finger at him. “Don’t make that dirty.”
Zach looked at me. “He’s not any fun at all.”
“I know,” I agreed.
Luke’s outraged face and noise of shock, however? That was alotof fun.
* * *
Luke
Zach and I stood together in the hallway outside of the dance classroom. Ryan went to class, and Joey got cranky when he was tired and should not be disturbed, like a sleeping bear. Was that where the expressiondon’t poke the bearcame from?
Oh god, what ifpokemeant something different? Shouldn’t even need to be said not to do that kind of poking with an animal!
“I’m disappointed in you,” Zach started. Did he know what I was just thinking about? “You’re letting the team down.” Oh.
I laughed. “They let me down first.”
“Real mature.” Zach rolled his eyes. Like that was mature.
Neither of us spoke. How had we ended up here? Having another serious conversation that Zach initiated. We each leaned against a wall on opposite sides of the narrow hallway. There was nowhere to run.
My best friend crossed his arms. He had a new jacket. Fall was here, so the item was technically appropriate, even if it wasn’t that cold out. He totally just wanted to show off his new garment. All I knew about the jacket was that it was a rich brown color and it looked expensive.
“I get it,” I told him. “Give them a chance to do the right thing or whatever.”
“Yeah, that’s what I told you at lunch.” Uh, huh? He looked as confused as me, but also more righteously irritated. “Why aren’t we listening to me yet?”
“Tedtold me that.” Looked like he might protest, so I added, “Youmostly took shots at straight guys for everyone’s amusement.” And corrupted my pizza’s virtue.
“And for Joey’s horror,” he reminded me with a smile. “Can’t forget about that.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes.
“Ted, huh?” Zach asked, then thought a moment. “Well, that’s something. Summers wasn’t thrilled when either of us came out and yet he didn’t pile on now.”
Yeah, I thought the same thing, so I had nothing to counter that with. “What’s with that?” I asked instead.
“Maybe he’s just on your side. Or he needed time to think.” He thought about it. “His cousin is gay.” Uh. Okay? “Oh, don’t tell him that,” Zach added. “Pretty sure he doesn’t know.”
Was this a riddle? “If he doesn’t know, then how doyou—”
Zach’s look registered as a mix of suggestion and frankness. Right. Zach had somehow met and hooked up with Ted’s cousin. “Oh,” I said. “I get it. You still talk to him?”
“We send each other drag race memes, so he’s one of my closest friends.”
