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“You okay?”
What a loaded question. “Yes?”
“Good,” Seth said. “Come on.”
Oh no. This was a date.
It wasn’t a date.
It was just two bros walking side by side down the sidewalk. They’d done it a billion times before. Sure, they’d never done it after Seth’s uncle had flapped his lips, but still. Two bros doing bro stuff.
“Just being bros,” Nick said aloud.
Seth stared at him strangely. “You’re acting weird.”
Nick shrugged and looked away. “It’s been a very weird forty-eight hours.”
“Yeah? How come?”
Nick liked that. He liked that a lot. Because regardless of what else was going on between them, regardless of how uneven their footing, Seth gave a damn. He always had. “Had a fight with my dad.”
“You told me. Sucks.”
“Yeah. And I didn’t take my pill this morning.”
“I thought as much. You’re a little more jittery than normal.”
Nick sighed. “I dunno. I was mad, and he bought me Cinnamon Bread-Shaped Chomps because that’s how he says sorry, and I ate it, but I still wasn’t in a forgiving mood, so I didn’t do anything about it.”
“Is this about what he said?”
Nick looked away, unable to answer, Dad’s voice still ringing in his head.
“Is that why…” Seth shook his head.
“Is that why what?”
Seth swallowed thickly. “Is that why yesterday you—I don’t know. You were agitated. We didn’t leave things okay.”
“Maybe. I’m sorry I acted like a jerk. I’m glad you feel better.”
“Yeah,” Seth said, and actually looked up at Nick. “I’m feeling okay now.” Then, “Did my uncle say something to you?”
A bright flare of panic roared through Nick, and he said, “Not really. I barely saw him.”
“That’s… that’s good.”
“Yeah. Oh, hey, look. Train’s on time. Hurry up!”
He could barely ignore the stutteringthumpthumpthumpof his heart.
It didn’t help, later, when they were sitting side by side on the train, that Seth opened his backpack and pulled out the package of Skwinkles Salsagheti. “I thought maybe we could, you know. Share them.”
This was totally maybe a date. Right?
Nick cleared his throat. “Uh. Sure. That would be—that’s cool.”
“Okay. I’ve never had these before.”
