“Okay then,” he says, pulling out his chair. He sits back down at the table like he didn’t just threaten my boyfriend,my boyfriend,like a protective dad.
Iris sits down across from me and catches my eye with an expression that saysI told you so,and maybe I deserve that.
I’ve been terrified over Nate’s reaction, hurting Mike in the process, and he’s already back to business as usual, telling Mikethat he should think about playing some country music for his next show and—
Everything is okay.
Chapter 25
Keep the door open.
Nate said it at the end of dinner with his eyes narrowed, and Mike had nodded and said of course, absolutely. I think he’s been waiting my entire life to say that, and he couldn’t waste his golden opportunity to fuck with us.
I can’t even pretend to be mad.
Mike comes through theopenbedroom door wearing a black crop top that stops at his belly button, shutting the door behind him with a loud click.
“Why are you wearing that?” I ask, looking up from my phone.
He looks down at himself, pursing his lips. “What?”
“That.” I gesture at the expanse of his stomach. “That shirt. If you can even call it that.”
“Iris said I looked cute.”
“You looksomething,”I say, even though I don’t disagree.
He crosses the room, stopping at my dresser, covered in stuff from my childhood. “If Nate thinks that open-door policy is sticking, he’s lost his mind.”
“It’s been a month,” he adds.
“I know.”
“And you’re my boyfriend now.” He says for the hundredth time today. “So we should probably revisit the candles and the—”
“Mike,” I interrupt. “My brother is down the hall.”
“I’ll be quiet,” he says, with his hands on his hips, a smile from breaking through his serious expression. “Relatively.”
I drop my head back against the headboard and try to remember why I thought coming here was a good idea. It’s been a month, and I don’t want Mike to be quiet, and as much as I hate to admit it, he looks really hot in that shirt and—
“Oh my fucking god.”
I look over at him, and he’s holding a picture.
It’s my first day of senior year, Nate with a big grin, and me, with my blonde hair grown out past my ears, swept across my forehead. My old black eyeliner. A Bring Me The Horizon shirt I bought at Hot Topic my freshman year that still fit because I was skinny back then.
I was the total opposite of who I am now, and Mike is staring at the picture with his mouth open in shock. “This is you?”
“Uh, yeah?” I say, not getting what the big deal is.
“Alex.” He holds it up. “What the actual— You didn’t tell me you used to look likethis. When I met you, I thought you were a frat boy or something, and this whole time—”
“I changed.”
“Why?” He asks, genuinely distressed. “You used to becool!”
I look at the picture.
