Ellis:No worries. Is everything okay?
Jett:Yeah. Just thinking.
Ellis:About?
The cursor blinked and held. The subway car rattled through a tunnel, fluorescent lights stuttering.
Jett:My friends want to meet you.
Three dots. A pause that lasted two stops.
Ellis:I’d like that. Whenever you’re ready.
Whenever I was ready. He was patient and steady about it, which was somehow worse than impatience would have been.
I leaned my head against the cold subway window and closed my eyes.
Jett:Soon. I promise.
Ellis:No rush, Jett. I’m not going anywhere.
His words cracked something open inside me.
I rode the rest of the way home with my phone pressed against my chest, the screen dark.
Chapter eleven
My phone dinged. It wasThe Chaos Covenchat.
Calliope:So is Ellis your boyfriend or what?
I read the message three times while standing in line at a bodega on Atlantic Avenue, a protein bar in one hand and my phone in the other. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. The guy behind me sighed loud enough to let me know I was taking too long.
Raven:Asking the real questions.
Sierra:Leave it alone, Calli.
Calliope:It’s been six weeks! At what point do we upgrade from “this guy I’m seeing” to actual terminology?
I paid for the protein bar and walked outside into a gray October afternoon that made Brooklyn look like a movie set. Wet pavement, coffee steam curling from a cart on the corner, pigeons fighting over a pretzel.
My thumb hovered. The word boyfriend hovered on the screen, daring me to type it.
Jett:We haven’t talked about it.
Calliope:WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN’T TALKEDABOUT IT?
Raven:Six weeks and you still don’t know if you’re a couple? That’s a record.
Sierra:Maybe they don’t need a label.
Calliope:Everyone needs a label. Labels are how you know where the exits are.
Raven:That’s a deeply unhinged metaphor.
Calliope:Thank you. I worked on it.
Jett:He has a sleeve tattoo. Knows how to make banh mi.
