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She giggled. “That would be my guess. You know how these reunions are. A bunch of adults trying to relive their glory days.”
Diya snorted a laugh as they slid the bowl onto the table. “I didn’t go to my ten-year or my twenty-year reunion. I hated high school.” She’d stayed in touch with everyone she’d deemed worthy of friendship.
“Thanks, guys,” Benny said, sticking the beer cans into the ice. He sighed. “How do you make beer cans look classy?” He tried to move them around into a pattern, then gave up and turned around to pluck a flower from the large vase behind him. He placed the blossom on the edge of the bowl and nodded. “There.”
Diya hid her grimace. The types of guests who were going to drink that beer didn’t care about being classy, but he seemed so proud of himself, so she left it alone.
“You know, I kinda miss high school,” Benny admitted. “Life was so much easier when I was living with my parents, no bills, just coasting through classes doing the bare minimum.”
Delia sighed. “Tell me about it. Student loans are the absolute worst.”
It had been decades since Diya had lived with her parents, and even back then, she’d been helping pay the bills right from her very first paycheck at 15. School hadn’t been easy, and neither had living with her parents. She would take being an independent adult over reliving high school any day.
A group of four guys spied the beer and sauntered over. Diya could already tell the type—jocks. They’d probably been on the football team or something. They were all tall with broad shoulders, though a couple of them had clearly given up being athletes in exchange for a more reliable paycheck and now sported a few extra pounds around their waists. They were all wearing button-up shirts and sports jackets in various shades of blue and gray.
One, however, seemed to be the de facto ringleader. He still had the tightly packed muscles of an athlete. His buddies seemed to orbit around him, their eyes flicking over to watch him every few seconds. If he laughed, they would laugh, even if no one had told a joke. “Hey, is that beer for us?” he asked, already reaching for a can.
“Yeah, have at it,” Benny said, but his eyes widened. “Hey, you’re Eric Van Leer!”
The jock gave a practiced smile, half cocky, half shy, entirely charming. A dimple popped out on his cheek. “That’s me. Are you a fan?”
Benny bit his lip and averted his eyes. “Uh, yeah, sure. Totally. I love sports.” He was such an awful liar, which somehow made him even more endearing.
A jock. I so called that, Diya thought with a smirk.
Instead of being offended by Benny’s lack of enthusiasm, Eric laughed easily. “It’s all good, man. Football isn’t for everybody. Let me guess, you think it’s too violent?”
Benny made a face. “Nah, it’s the thirty seconds of action followed by five minutes of standing around that I can’t be bothered with. But I don’t mind the tight pants.” Now the whole group of guys was laughing, lewd grins on their faces. Delia was watching them with interest, likely comparing them to a bunch of hyenas or something.
They all grabbed a beer from the bowl of ice, popping the tops. “Cheers!” Eric said, holding up his can. “Here’s to another ten years of friendship.”
“No way! Here’s to the Comets for finally making the right trade. You’re gonna take the team all the way to the Super Bowl this year, I know it.”
Diya wasn’t a psychology student like her coworker, but she could’ve sworn there was a sad tilt to Eric’s eyes as the three other guys tapped their cans to his. He was a little slower to bring his drink to his lips.
There was movement from the door into the banquet hall, and Eric turned to check who was coming in, but he seemed disappointed. He looked like he was waiting for someone. With the crowd slowly beginning to trickle in, the DJ took his cue to put on some music, probably a playlist of all the top tunes from ten years ago. A few people cheered the opening bars of the tune.
As the former jocks headed off to mingle, Eric turned back once to say to Benny, “Hey, thanks. And I like the flower. It’s a nice touch.” He gave Benny a wink before sauntering away with his friends.
“Thanks!”
Diya reluctantly returned to her station and got back to work. For the rest of her shift, even through the kitchen chaos, she could feel the vibration of the music in her chest, and for a little while, she reminisced about the good times she’d had in high school. There might’ve been a few after all…
1
Jasper
“Iloveyoureyes,”Eric said, sliding my glasses off and setting them aside on the bed. “They’re so impossibly blue. Like depthless-ocean blue. Like sapphires…” He leaned in to kiss me, and I evaded, but just barely. It was getting harder to resist his charms—no matter how cliché his lines were. The way he complimented me like he meant every word, it made it hard to forget why I was saying no.
“Nice try, Eric,” I said, aiming for casual, like my heart wasn’t throbbing a pulse of need through my veins. I ignored my traitorous body and shoved the textbook across the bed in front of him. “But if you don’t pass these exams, you won’t graduate. And if you don’t graduate—”
He groaned, rolling onto his back on my bed. “I know, I know. No scholarship, no college, no football, no future.”
“I don’t know about that last one. Feels a bit dramatic to me,” I said, shoving my glasses back on.
“Does it?”
“Yeah. Football isn’t everything, you know.”
