Page 27 of Icarus

Luca walked beside him, uncharacteristically quiet. Icarus gazed out at the other kids, playing softball on the diamond while Mr. Collins yelled.

They weren’t the only ones walking the mile. A few goth kids were about 500 feet in front of them, talking and smoking.

Icarus glanced at Luca again, but said nothing. It didn’t feel right to break a silence that he didn’t start.

After a while Luca sighed.

“Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“No, go for it,” Icarus replied.

“Are . . . you and Celestina dating?”

Icarus stopped walking entirely to gape at him.

“What? Why do you think that?” Icarus demanded.

Luca stopped as well. He rubbed his temples, then pushed his hair back in what Icarus was starting to believe might be anguish.

“You guys are just . . . hanging around all the time,” Luca said. “You go places with her that you wouldn’t go with me . . .” He trailed off.

“Dude, what?! She makes me. She’s always grabbing me and dragging me here and there when she thinks I look tired or sad or whatever and I’m not just going to push her away or anything. She’s nice. She’s just really nice,” Icarus tried to explain. “And it’s not like I didn’t ‘go somewhere I didn’t really want to go’ when you asked me to come with you to lunch.”

Luca looked flustered and embarrassed.

“Who even told you we were hanging out?”

Luca shrugged and turned to gaze into the wind.

Oh. Oh.

“Hey, Luca,” Icarus said, softer, even as his heart picked up speed. “I’m not dating Celestina. We’re friends. Just . . . just like you and me?”

Luca turned back quick; dark eyes bright. “I didn’t know we were actually friends either. I thought you were just . . . tolerating me.”

Icarus’s heart was doing somersaults in his chest. He wanted this, he wanted this so bad. But he couldn’t have it.

“Look, man—”

“Hey you two! Start walking or pick up a bat!”

It broke the spell. Luca waved to Mr. Collins and they both picked up a quick pace.

“You should have said you had a crush on me,” Icarus joked tentatively. “You want to go steady? You wanna take me to the dance?”

Luca knocked into him. “No, dude. You’re just playing with my bro-emotions. My bromotions. Sometimes I think we’re tight and other times you make me feel like you secretly hate me or something. You never hang out with anyone, but then suddenly you’re hanging out with Celestina—who is the weirdest person you could ever be hanging out with anyway. I don’t even get how you guys met.”

Icarus smiled at Luca fondly. “People think that about us, you know.”

Luca began to laugh. He laughed so hard it turned to a wheeze and he had to slow down and put his hands on his knees.

“Do you do this on purpose?” Luca asked once they started walking again. “Manipulate supply and demand to make being with you feel like a luxury good?”

“You think I’m a luxury good?” Icarus replied in the most saccharine drippy voice he could. “Oh Mr. Luca, I do declare . . .”

“Nooo, you dick,” Luca guffawed, pushing Icarus again. “Don’t start with that.”

Luca’s cheeks burned pink as sunset at the teasing.