Page 58 of The Way We Swing

“Say what?”

“I don’t know. Talk about baseball. You’ve got games next week.”

“We talk at practice sometimes.”

“Doesn’t count. Maybe he wants to talk to you, too.”

“He doesn’t want to talk to me. This isn’t on me.”

Gavin stared at me, daring me to grow up.

I shook my head. “Shut up, Gav. He’s the one that ran.”

Easton walked back to the table in different clothes—the same clothes he’d been wearing the first time I had met him. A smile ran across my face as I looked him up and down like I used to do.

I realized I was staring at Easton and looked away. He had a grin on his face, possibly thinking about the same thing as me. Or maybe clocking that he still had this absurd ability to control my every move, even still. I had to look pathetic just staring and smiling. Oh, well.

I picked up my phone in the silence, fiddling with it for the hundredth time since I had walked into Ms. Cage’s office. Eventually, Gavin said, “Probably time I get you two back to school.”

We drove back, just listening to the radio. I stared at the cars around us, counting white ones against blue ones.

Gavin and I changed back into our school clothes in the school’s parking lot, and the three of us walked back into school to the air-conditioned office (the only room in the entire school with that luxury), and up to Ms. Cage’s desk.

“Easton, do you have the same dentist as the Quinns?” she asked, a bemused smirk on her face. Easton looked at us as Gavin failed to hold back a laugh.

Taking control of the situation, I said, “Sure does, Ms. Cage.”

“Not enough office chairs for Zach, too?” she asked.

“Zach doesn’t need a dentist with his smile,” Easton said.

The phone rang on her desk. Ms. Cage flicked her wrist at us, shooing us away. We walked out of the door, Gavin taking a left toward his next class before either of us could say bye, leaving Easton standing next to me.

I looked at him and nodded toward the senior high. We walked next to each other, the emptiness of the hallway vibrating around me. We were both supposed to be in journalism, so we went to the stairs leading to the second floor.

We fell into step with one another as we walked up the cement steps. My fingers were locked around the wood railing, which was smooth against my calluses. Easton pushed open the door at the top of the staircase, and I followed a half step behind. He stopped right before we got to our classroom and turned to me.

“Thanks for coming, Tanner.” They were the first words he had spoken just to me today—they were the first words he had spoken to me since Christmas that hadn’t been forced out of him.

I stared at him and nodded. He wasn’t apologizing, but he wasn’t looking at me in anger, either. A battle waged inside of me—brain versus heart—over what I should say.

I chose nothing and walked into the classroom.

Easton walked in a minute later. After he dropped off his note, he found the seat next to me. He didn’t say a word for the rest of the class. But he stayed in that seat, next to mine, like maybe silence was the only apology he could manage.

CHAPTER 21

Ireclined on our living room couch, the smell of cake drifting in from the kitchen. Zach and I were talking about baseball until I stopped mid-sentence, processing what I was seeing, wondering if my eyes were deceiving me.

“Happy birthday, Gavin!” Easton said as he entered our house. Gavin had invited Easton, but I hadn’t thought he’d come. Easton and I weren’t friends again, and I didn’t want to be…but he wasn’t hating my guts like he had been the last couple of months, either.

“Easton!” Mom said, engulfing him in a hug. “I haven’t seen you since Christmas!”

Thanks for the reminder, Mom.

“I’ve been busy,” he mumbled, “but there was no way I was missing this dude’s birthday party.”

He lifted Gavin off the floor in a bear hug, causing Gavin to giggle uncontrollably. Zach raised an eyebrow at me, that lopsided grin curling up like he smelled drama coming.