“Oh, did you like it?” Gracie says. “It’s so pretty over there.”
Nate leans back in his chair. “It’s got good bones.”
“Do you even know what that means?” Calvin asks with his mouth full.
“Of course I do—” Nate argues, sitting up straight.
“The kitchen was huge,” Iris cuts in before Nate starts, pulling her phone out to show the pictures she took.
I stare at my plate.
“What did you think, Alex?” Ben asks, making everyone turn to look at me.
“It was nice,” I say. “Perfect for them.”
The conversation moves on without me, to upgrades and adding a pool and whether the backyard is big enough. I nod when it seems right, and I laugh when Nate says something that makes Iris roll her eyes.
I’m having a good time.
Liz refills my water without being asked. Ben gives me the last of the rolls even though I already got one. Nate glances at me while he’s talking. They’re all being extra careful not to let me slip again. Not to let something go unnoticed.
But they don’t even know the whole truth, and I have to live in that loneliness. Because if they did know, I’m not sure they would look at me that way anymore.
I don’t know how they would look at me.
There’s a buzz in my pocket while Noah is telling a very long, detailed story about something that happened at school, so I figure it’s as good a time as any to glance down at my phone.
Mike Pierce. Two notifications.
The first one is a text.
Miss you ;)
The second is a video.
I lock my phone so fast I nearly drop it, while my face goes the color of a tomato.
“You okay?” Liz asks, from right next to me.
“Fine,” I say. My voice doesn’t come out right at all.
The thumbnail of the video he sent will be burned into my brain forever, his finger, the one with the heart tattooed on his knuckle, halfway inside that tight pink hole—
I make it to the bathroom at the end of the hall before I totally lose it, locking the door behind me. I turn on the fan and the sink and flush the toilet for good measure before I press my phone against my ear.
He picks up on the first ring.
“Hey, you.” He answers, more breathy than usual.
“What the hell, Mike!”
His laugh comes through the speaker, unashamed. “Did you like my video?”
“I opened it at the dinner table!”
“Did anyone see?”
“No, but—” I lower my voice even though there’s no way anyone can hear me. “That’s not the point. It’s Thanksgiving. I’m at my brother’s—”
