He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Different, how? What did you think I would be like?”
“I dunno.” I knew I was in dangerous territory, warning lights flashing all around me, but I forged ahead. “You just seemed — um, cool. Good-looking. And I’m — me. I just — never thought we would be friends, I guess.”
What was I doing? I knew I was being dumb. But Cole was blushing too, leaning against the rear wall of the house as he peered into my face. His eyes flicked down to my mouth, and for a split second I thought — butterfly wings battering against my ribcage —
But then he was turning, wrenching open the back door with a laugh and ushering me inside. “You think I’m good-looking?” he cackled.
“I mean, youknowyou’re —” I pushed my way past him. “You’re a nightmare, you know that?”
“That’s what my dad says,” Cole quipped, and we headed into the kitchen to warm up.
***
“Ezra, are you home?” Cole called from the kitchen.
“In here!” I was sprawled on the couch in the living room, reading a book in the fading afternoon light.
There was a bit of fumbling in the kitchen, and then I heard Cole’s footsteps echoing through the house. When he walked into the living room, I swung my legs to the side to make room for him to sit down.
“I just came to charge my phone,” he explained, and pulled out his sketchbook and pencils, settling on the other end of the couch. We had been without power for nine days and out of school for almost two weeks, and even I was starting to get restless.
“Mmhmm,” I replied, and turned the page, completely engrossed.
We sat there for about five minutes, no sound but the scratching of Cole’s pencil and the occasional crinkle of a page turning. Then, Cole sighed dramatically.
“You know, you’re hogging all the good light,” he pouted.
I lifted an eyebrow. “You can come over here andshare it if you want.”
With a great deal of huffing and muttering, Cole reoriented himself, nestling against my side and nearly shoving me out of my seat in the process. When he was finally settled, I laughed, draping my arm along the back of the couch.
“You’re like a fucking cat,” I teased, and he hissed playfully.
I tried to go back to my book, but with Cole so close, I found my eyes drifting to the crown of his head, lingering over the fine blond hairs there, listening to the sound of his breathing. He must have felt me looking at him, because after a minute, he tilted his head back against my shoulder, his blue eyes seeking mine.
“Hey, Ezra, I was thinking about school next week.”
“Yeah?” My voice was light, but I could feel the tension settling over my shoulders. Of course, what we were doing was too good to last, and Cole would want to go back to the way things were before the storm.
“You ride your bike, right?” When I nodded, he went on. “I was wondering — would you want to stop by for me in the morning? So that we could head up together?”
Something like relief flooded through my body, and something else too, something warmer. “Oh! Um — yeah, I guess I could do that.”
“Good.”
We settled into silence once more, but even as thesun sank lower in the sky, wrapping us in darkness, the air shimmered gold in my mind.
Five
No Strings
May 2025
“EZRA,WHAT THE FUCK?”
His blue eyes are like ice as he strides across the bar toward me, and I’m pinned to my seat, because in twelve and a half years since the day I met him, Cole has never looked at me with so much anger.
“Cole— I didn’t — I mean —”
