“Well, I’m heading back to my dorm, but I’ll see you around,” Jessie says, starting to walk past me.
“Wait,” I say and reach out. My fingertips graze her skin, and my perception narrows to this. All my other senses dull like some kind of superhero montage, my sense of touch powering up tenfold. Like making contact with a hot stove, all I can feel is where I grazed her arm.
When the world goes back to normal, I try to read Jessie’s face.Did she feel that too?
“Listen, about the Shakespeare—” I start.
“Can we not?” She holds up her hand. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Jessie, it’s—”
“Seriously. Stop.”
“Sorry,” I say, and she must hear the sincerity in my voice because she looks up at me with apologetic eyes.
“No, I’m…I’m sorry. There was no reason to snap at you.”
“It’s fine. I didn’t mean to push.”
“It’s just, like, if Will wanted to text me, he would have done already, right? He got my number. It’s been a week. It kind of…hurt my feelings. And I don’t love talking about that.” She mumbles the last words and averts her eyes again.
“Will?”
“Yeah, his name was Will. Sexy Shakespeare is just…like a me and Jade…” She waves her hands around, vaguely gesticulating.
“Will…as in…Will Shakespeare?”
She obviously doesn’t want to talk about it, but if I can lead the horse to water, maybe it’ll figure out the stream is for drinking.
“Oh my god,” she says as it dawns on her. “He gave me a fake name.” She whispers those words, hiding her face in her hands. “I swear if you’re laughing at me, Mackenzie Baldwin, so help me god…”
I pinch my lips together, trying to hide my smile. I gave her the fake name because I thought it was clever. Her costume didn’t hide her identity, and I didn’t think my mask or wig was that good, so I thought the fake name was a clever idea.
Apparently, it was too clever.
“Okay, well, that is exactly the amount of embarrassment I can handle for one day, so I’m going to go now,” Jessie says with a groan as she drags her hands down her face.
“No, wait. I—”
“Hey, bro!” Brody yells at that exact moment, jogging up to the gym. “I’m so sorry.” He slaps me on the back in greeting.
When I turn back to Jessie, she’s already gone.
* * *
By some miracleour court is still reserved despite it being forty-five minutes past our time. I guess most people don’t care about playing racquetball this late on a Friday night, but Brody and I have had a weekly standing racquetball appointment on Fridays since I quit soccer. I play a few times a week by myself but enjoy the time with my friend.
“What held you up this time?” I ask. “Grandma need help with her Nintendo Switch again?”
“That was a real thing that happened. Nana really likesAnimal Crossing, okay?”
I raise my eyebrows at him as we collect a ball and racquets from the front desk.
“Nah, I was talking to my girl.”
“How is Mandy?”
Brody has always seemed like the kind of guy who sleeps around, but he’s been with his girlfriend Mandy since our junior year of high school. He started looking at engagement rings about a month ago.
