Page 68 of The Beta Test

“So do you still… consider him your boyfriend?”

“Why does that matter?”

It could be my imagination, but I swear a blush creeps up Jake’s neck as he shrugs and glances away.

“I guess it doesn’t. Just curious.”

Do I consider Braden my boyfriend? He’s been present in my life for so long it seems strange to realize that I… don’t. I don’t feel the urge to call him or text him like normal. When something happens in my life, he’s not the first person I think to talk to about it. It’s been happening so gradually over the past few months that it’s like I didn’t notice.

“No,” I say emphatically, more to myself than to Jake. A weight lifts off my shoulders. “I don’t. At some point I’ll need to have a conversation with Braden for closure or whatever, but I feel like that conversation with Mrs. Patel was the final nail in the coffin for me.”

Jake glances up at me and smiles. “I’m glad.”

Before I can question why that makes him happy, he tosses another question at me.

“How are things at your dad’s new apartment?”

“How do you know about that?”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Oh, well Hunter mentioned it last week when I was here to study, and Jenna also told me some things.”

Huh. The urge to bristle rises—but that's silly. Jake is my friend, and my parents' situation is my new reality. It's not like it was my choice.

“It’s good, I guess,” I say with a casual shrug. “Hunter loves his room, and mine’s fine. The whole thing still feels a little weird, but what can we do, ya know?”

“I’m glad that’s going ok.” Jake drums his fingers on his leg with nervous energy. “I think we need to go make some chocolate-covered popcorn before we continue studying. What do you think?”

He stands and heads to the door. Alarm bells start ringing in my head. Isn’t that something Mr. Pi mentioned months before?

By the time I catch up with him, he’s already in the kitchen opening the cabinet we keep snacks in.

“Do you have chocolate we can melt for this?” he asks, placing it in the microwave and starting it.

I grab a bag of chocolate chips from the freezer and toss it on the counter.

“Jake, are you on Connection Services?”

His hand hovers mid-air over the chocolate chips. “That ridiculous beta program the school is running because our principal has a crush on a tech billionaire?”

“How do you know she has a crush on him?” I shake my head and slash a hand through the air, annoyed I’m letting myself get distracted. “Never mind, doesn’t matter. You didn’t answer my question.”

“Are you on it?”

“Of course I am. But you still didn’t⁠—”

“Talk to anyone you like on there? Do you think the service works like it’s supposed to?”

My mind immediately jumps to Analiese. Do I like her? I mean, I understand her. I’m trying to be friends with her. It’s too hard to immediately set aside years of thinking of her as my ultimate rival to jump to using a word as strong as ‘like.’

“… maybe? I think it’s all been more hassle than it’s worth. Just look at all the stuff that’s happened at school because of it.”

Jake pours some into a glass bowl he’s taken out of a cabinet, then fills a pot with water. The pot of water goes on top of a stove burner.

“But isn’t there anyone on there that you’ve, you know, connected with or enjoyed talking to?”

I roll my eyes at his obvious choice. “I don’t know, maybe. You still haven’t answered my question—are you on it?”

He sets the bowl of chocolate on top of the now-boiling water so the steam can melt the chocolate. How did he know how to do that? Seconds later, he opens the microwave and carefully pulls the hot bag out.