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“Of course not.” Her vehemence seemed to surprise him, and honestly, it surprised her a little too. Not that she had been thinking she didn’t want to be seen with him, but rather the extent to which she suddenly did not want him to even entertain that idea. “I’m just dreading questions about Cameron, you know? Everyone’s going to wonder where he is.”

“Fuck him.”

“Theo, now is not—”

“No, this isn’t about how I don’t like him. I mean, I don’t, but you don’t have to cover for him. People want to know where he is? They have phones, they can ask him. Make him answer for his shittiness.”

Avery snorted. “It’s not that easy.”

“Sure it is. ‘Hey, Avery, why are you here with Theo and not Cameron?’” he said in a high-pitched voice that made her lips quirk up. He switched to his regular voice. “‘I don’t know, Taylor, ask him yourself.’ See? Piece of cake.”

Avery let out a breathy laugh. “Okay, fine, let’s go in.”

Theo paused with his hand on the door. “Are you sure? We can always go in separately, if you want. Pretend we just met there or something.”

“It’s fine, Theo. Really. Come on,” Avery said, and climbed out.

And then Theo did something that shocked her to her very core.

He took her hand and held it all the way to the door.

Chapter Eighteen

Theo

“Tommy, if you pick the toilet level again, I swear to God I will kill you with my bare hands,” Grace said. Up on the TV, Tommy scrolled through the various options for their game.

“Counterpoint, it’s funny as hell,” Tommy said, but in deference to Grace’s wishes and the fact that she probably would at least try to seriously maim him, he clicked past the MarioKart course that went through a bathroom, settling on the volcano level instead.

On the surface of things, playing MarioKart with a bunch of friends immediately after Thanksgiving dinner should be a wholesome good time—the sort of thing a modern Norman Rockwell might paint if he were given to painting college freshmen hanging out on a plaid couch in a wood-paneled basement with half the lights off.

Except what even Norman Rockwell wouldn’t have been able to capture was the incredible bloodthirstiness of each and every one of them. This wasn’t just MarioKart—this was war. Harper had started a shared doc that kept track of everyone’s wins in each individual race, dating back two solid years. The document had to be shared, because otherwise there would be accusations of sabotage, but if everyone had access, they could watch her put the scores in and then check time stamps for any later edits.

It was, as Theo was well aware, completely bananas. It was also his favorite competitive activity. Half of that was because of watching the way Avery would exploit everyone else’s weaknesses. She could be manipulative as hell when she wanted to be. She would taunt Tommy when he was losing (because he got flustered) and she would egg Grace on to try and take out Harper, a tactic that generally cleared the path for her and Theo. She hadn’t yet figured out an efficient way to trick Theo, although it wasn’t for lack of trying. She had tried pouting (didn’t work), looking sad when he won (definitely didn’t work), and pointing out that Tommy was gaining on him (like that would work on Theo). As a result, generally Theo and Avery traded off between first and second place, although every so often one of the other three would blow them out of the water.

Harper always said MarioKart was how they all got their aggression out, and there was a certain logic to that. They would yell and bicker and accuse each other of cheating, and then Tommy’s dad would holler down the stairs that the pizza was ready, and they would wolf down several frozen pizzas while laughing. The fact that they’d all already eaten Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t deter them from the pizza part of the ritual either.

Avery had suggested during their conversation earlier that they should go easy on the couple-y, PDA-type stuff, if only because it might throw off the dynamics of the group. Just enough to make it real, but there’s no need to lay it on thick. Theo was both relieved and oddly bereft and decided he was better off if he ignored both feelings. But they couldn’t do nothing, so they were pressed up against each other on the left side of the couch, and from time to time he would casually drape his arm across the back of the cushion. Every so often Tommy would throw a look his way and Theo’s gut would tighten. He knew what Tommy was thinking about, and he really, really, really didn’t want him to bring it up.

It had just been some drunken ramblings. That was it, and Tommy had no reason to take it any more seriously than that. Sure, Theo had gotten a little emo that night, and yes, Avery had come up, but Tommy was acting like what Theo said was a way bigger deal than it really was.

Harper won the race and everyone else groaned. She spiked her controller on the couch and began her victory dance, which they knew from painful experience would last at least five minutes. “Really thought I had her there,” Avery said, leaning against him.

“You always think that,” he muttered, pressing a mindless kiss to the top of her head. It was the first real PDA they had done since the kiss in his car, and he had to admit—it felt nice.

“Guys, you cannot believe how weird it is to see you two like that,” Grace said. “It’s not, like, unexpected, but it’s still weird.”

Theo shifted a little uncomfortably at not unexpected, but after all, that was part of why they had started this whole charade. But while he knew the rest of the town saw them as destined, it felt strange to have that land closer to home.

“We already know none of you were surprised,” Avery said, still resting her head on his shoulder.

“Of course I wasn’t,” Tommy said loudly, and Theo’s stomach churned even more. “Not since Theo—”

“Who gets to pick the next race?” Theo interrupted. Tommy’s eyes widened, seeming to realize what he had almost just done.

“Since Theo what?” Harper asked, finally done with her victory dance.

Theo panicked, but he was saved by Tommy’s mom yelling that the pizza was done, which was fortunately enough of a distraction that by the time they were settled, no one seemed to have remembered it. But Avery was still sitting close enough that he could feel the heat of her skin, so he definitely wasn’t out of the woods yet.