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“Maybe lame isn’t the right word.” More likeembarrassing. I studied him. He’d taken the bandage on his upper lip off since leaving school, but the skin was red and puckered from Shaving Incident #4. “Never mind.”
Alex let the topic go as easily as it’d come, but then again, I wasn’t totally convinced he’d really been listening. Readjusting my grip on my book, I turned to the videogame on the TV, but the gunshots and blood splatters barely registered. And then I thought of something that would get his attention. “You’ll never guess who came up to me today and asked me to tutor them.”
“Are you coming to the game on Friday?” Alex asked suddenly, and though he still focused on the TV, his voice became a bit more animated. “It’s an away game.”
“When do I ever go to football games?” I readjusted my legs so his heels weren’t digging into my skin. The soles of his white socks were dirty, as if they were several days without a wash.
“You know, you’re turning into a recluse, Brain. I was talking to Nate Tulane, and he told me he didn’t even know I had a girlfriend.”
“Nate Tulane is a terrible friend, then, because we’ve been dating for almost a year.”
“My point.” Alex emphasized each word with a vicious swipe to his controller’s joysticks. “Brentwood is a big school, but if my own friends don’t even realize we’re dating, that’s not a good thing.”
I wanted to tell him a relationship wasn’t a one-way street. If his friends didn’t know we were dating, Alex could’ve said something. He could’ve posted more pictures of us together. Could’ve invited me to hang around his friends more.Myfriends knew we were dating.
“Do you ever just…” He slumped deeper against the couch arm, shoulders losing some of their tension. “Feel like we’re different?”
“Of course we’re different,” I said without hesitation. “We’re different people.”
“I meanttoodifferent.”
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been expecting this conversation to surface at some point. As if we’d both tied an anchor to the topic and threw it in the ocean, but sooner or later, the tide would bring it back in. His voice sounded neutral, though. Maybe a bit curious to hear my answer. It wasn’t a serious enough question for him to pause his game for. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“No, no,” he rushed to say, and finally, blessedly, he paused his game. The raging gunfire abruptly stopped. Setting down the controller, he worked a hand over his eyes. “I’m not. I’m just making conversation.”
An odd subject to make conversation about, but I mulled the words over. No emotion surfaced from them. Almost as if my brain couldn’t really compute their meaning. “I don’t think we’re too different,” I said to his socked foot, placing my hand on his ankle, where his pantleg had risen and a sliver of skin was visible. “I think we complement each other.”
Alex and I weren’t total opposites, anyway. Sure, he was more obsessed with the whole “Top Tier” realm than me. Always refreshed Brentwood Babble for the latest updates, whereas I couldn’t care less. He liked sports, while I liked the more scientific side of things. But we both liked country music and hated pineapple on pizza. We were both introverted—albeit me a little more than him—and preferred nights in rather than going out.
When he’d asked me to homecoming last year, kicking off the start ofhim and me, it’d been fun. New. I’d been excited to have another half, to have someone else to think about. And a cute boy, at that. The honeymoon period had melted into this, though. Quiet nights, smelly feet, and few words exchanged between us. But that was normal. No relationship could stay in the honeymoon period forever.
Alex reached over and placed his hand on top of mine, and it became a weird hand-hand-foot sandwich. It took me a second to realize he was stopping me from popping my knuckles. “Maisie, I don’t think it’s lame you’re on the list,” he said, and his words held a soft, rare quality.
Relief washed over me because hehadlistened to me, and he wasn’t judging me. “Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, I was voted Most Likely To: Never Get A Girlfriend last year, and here I am.” He gave me an awkward half-smile, one that kind of tugged on one side of his mouth. “And it’s not too late, you know? You can find a new hobby, Maisie, and it’ll be okay.”
His words took several moments to sink in, for my brain to understand the full meaning behind them. He patted my hand before leaning back. The rare softness in his eyes was gone as he went back to the TV screen, almost as if that’d never happened.
My thumb bookmarking the page in my math workbook twitched.Find a new hobby. Like it was something to fix.
I leaned my head on the back of the couch, staring up at the ceiling. There was a water spot near the corner, one that’d been there since I’d come over to his house the first time. It was shaped like a heart with a fissure down the center. “Did you know that I’m top in the class?”
“I mean, it makes sense. You live and breathe academics.” Alex moved his foot to knock against my book. “You even have homework with you right now.”
I slid my thumb out ofMath Challenges for Future Mathematicians, setting it on the couch arm.
Alex swore viciously at the TV, slapping his controller. “How does this keep happening? Why isn’t my team helping me?”
I wanted to say something, but his attention had already been recaptured when his character respawned. Alex slammed his feet on my lap as he sat up, cursing at the TV again as the screen took a red tint. He hadn’t even lasted a minute.
My cell phone buzzed where I’d left it on the coffee table, and I swiped it up, grateful for a distraction. It was an email attachment from Ava, subject line:MLT PROOF.
As soon as I opened it, I wished I hadn’t.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Brentwood High, the Most Likely Tos are upon us again! And let me say, this year? It’s DRIPPING with drama! Three new labels were added to the roster this year—Stay A Prude, Marry a Math Book, and Peek in High School. Ouch! Which one do you think is more embarrassing? And I spy with my litttle eye a few football hotties on the list too. Landon Settler, never to get a girlfriend? Nate Tulane, branded a cheater?
Time will tell if anyone’s going to break free of these awkward titles, but let me know—who do you think will spread their wings first?!
