Page 50 of Josh’s Play

Campbell sent me a thumbs-up later that day, which I took to mean I would be seeing him at the stragglers’ party. I obsessed over how to play our meeting there. Could I pretend to be causal and uninterested, his class-project buddy? I might be able to pretend in front of the stragglers, but could I pretend in front of him?

I had days to think about it because I didn’t hear from Campbell again until Thursday, when I discovered a “Happy Thanksgiving” image in our text chain. He’d sent it early in the morning, and I pictured him up before the rest of his family to work out. Then I remembered that he lived on a farm, and that his whole family was probably awake and getting their workout in by tending to horses, sheep, and cows.

At the Marchetti-Gordon household, we had a strict no-phones-at-the-table policy, policed by one very observant seven-year-old, so I didn’t see the text until my entire family, including a somewhat-shellshocked Devon, were in the living room watching the traditional Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“Your family is very loud,” Devon whispered as my siblings bustled around us. I smirked distractedly as I responded to Campbell, cautiously optimistic that he had reached out to me.

Same to you, I responded.

I snapped a picture of my older brother Vance, sitting on a beanbag chair on the floor, my niece, Vera, in his lap and added a second one of the TV, a giant balloon filling the screen.

Our holiday is shockingly lacking in cows and crops. how’s yours going?

I was immediately rewarded with a selfie of Cam and an actual cow.

Finn: Keeping busy if not warm.

I can do this, I thought. Be friends with Campbell Ryan. I could put aside the roller coasters and the electricity and focus on two guys who just happen to be in the same class.

I could be friends with Campbell like he needed me to be.

With that new resolve, I continued to narrate our lazy Thanksgiving Day for him. Well, at least I was having a lazy day. I discovered, while sitting in a pop-up tent in the den, having a tea party with Devon and my niece, that Devon had snuck out of the living room earlier to help my mom prepare an apple pie.

“I didn’t sneak out,” Devon countered. He was prone on the floor of the tent opposite me, his legs hanging out. “There were like seventy-five people in that room who saw me leave. Just because you were too busy texting doesn’t mean I snuck out.”

“I was …” Devon and I had been friends long enough to call each other’s bullshit. “I was just checking to see who all is coming to this party tomorrow.”

“Uncle Joshy. You need to drink your tea.” I took a pretend sip from a tiny yellow plastic cup.

“Can I have a piece of Devon’s apple pie too?” I asked my niece, hoping to return to the previous topic of conversation and hoping that my snarky tone went over her head.

“It’s not my pie. It’s your mom’s pie. Jamie and I just sliced the apples!”

“It’s Daddy and Devon’s pie,” Vera said, but really, it was the bright-yellow stuffed rabbit she held in one hand telling its baby-blue twin in the other. Vera looked back up at the two of us. “You may have a piece of pie. But only because it’s a special occasion; usually it would be too early for sweets. We just had breakfast!”

I couldn’t help but lean in to kiss my niece, who I’m sure was repeating something my mother had said to her on more than one occasion.

“Yes, ma’am,” I responded before pretending to shovel pie into my mouth. Then to Devon, I tipped my pretend fork. “Good job, bro,” I joked as my phone buzzed, and I grabbed it quickly.

“No phones at the table,” Devon muttered, and Vera repeated it in a take-charge tone that reminded me of her late mother.

“No phones at the table, Uncle Joshy!”

“I don’t see a table here,” I teased, but I put my phone in my pocket just the same.

After dinner, Campbell and I texted the entire time my family watched a movie. It was a classic, and I shared funny lines with Campbell. He sent a picture of his brothers, standing in front of a barn in matching sweaters, scarves, and hats. His hand was in the picture, holding a third hat.

Finn: I may be getting a little old for this.

Shelley: I attended a tea party with stuffed animals today. YOU CAN DO IT!

I sent a hockey-stick emoji and a winter-hat emoji and ignored the fact that I wanted to send a page worth of heart emojis.

I could be his friend.

The movie ended while I was staring at Campbell’s fingers in the foreground of a picture. I looked up to find Jamie carrying his sleeping daughter out of the room. Devon, who sat next to me, was also watching my brother leave. I was about to joke that Devon should stop staring at my brother’s ass because one, he’s straight, and two, ew, too weird, but my sister, Hillary, plopped down next to me before I could get the words out. Thankfully, that was enough to distract my best friend from ogling my brother’s butt. Ew.

“So, I heard about the stragglers’ party tomorrow. You guys are going, right? Caid said he’ll come with us, and I think I’ve even convinced Vance to go.”