Page 63 of Follows with Intent

“Hand to fucking God,” North said. “He had to wear diapers.”

“There’s no way that’s true,” Jadon said.

“I’m sorry we’re not all ass experts like you, you big poof.”

“You’re gay too!”

“But I’m not Supergay.”

“I knew it!” Jadon stabbed a finger at him. “I knew you knew what my costume was!”

North scowled and took a long pull of his beer. Then he flipped Jadon off.

“And we’re watching a scary movie,” Shaw announced as he opened a vanilla Tootsie Roll. A pile of wrappers suggested he was picking them out of the bucket. “Jung Frankensteins.”

“Young Frankenstein,” North snapped. “And it’s a comedy, fuckwit.” Then he looked at Jadon over his beer and said, “What the fuck is wrong with you? You look like shit.”

For a moment, the world had almost felt normal again: the shit-talking, the general upside-down sensation of being around these two, the rhythm and routine of their friendship. North’s question popped that bubble. Jadon’s mouth felt grainy with the sweetness of the beer, the taste of cloves overpowering now. He set the bottle on the coffee table and wiped his mouth.

“Hey,” Shaw asked, his voice quickening. He even abandoned a Tootsie Roll mid-wrap to grab Jadon’s hand. “What’s wrong?”

Jadon was surprised to find himself squeezing Shaw’s hand, as though he were holding on. A wave of emotion crashed over him, and he struggled not to go under, to keep his breathing slow and deep. “I, uh—I fucked up.”

He waited for the zinger from North, but all the blond man did was sit forward, both hands around the brown glass bottle, and watch. Shaw scooted closer and rubbed Jadon’s knee with his free hand.

“He’s not here, is he? I thought maybe—I mean, I guess you would have said something if he was.”

“Who?” Shaw asked.

“Nico.”

North shook his head.

“I didn’t even know Nico was in town,” Shaw said. “What’s going on? What happened?”

Jadon tried to start at the beginning, but he botched that too. He started with the fight, and then he had to jump back, and then he got sidetracked to the assaults on campus, and then he found himself talking about, of all things, Chuck Berry. North and Shaw mostly listened, although at one point, North left for a while, and when he came back, he had a couple of burritos on a plate and a glass of water. He handed all of it to Jadon. He had wrapped a napkin around the fork, and for some reason that little detail made Jadon almost start crying again, and he had to hold himself together as his voice tried to dissolve.

“Do you think he’s in danger right now?” Shaw asked with a glance at North.

North rose again. “I’ll call Emery.”

“I don’t know,” Jadon said. He cut one of the burritos with the side of the fork, and the smell of carnitas, smoky and sweet with cumin and orange juice and a million other delicious things, rose to meet him. His stomach rumbled, and he tried a bite. It was amazing—the blend of flavors, the meat and tortilla falling apart in his mouth. He ate several more bites. It seemed impossible that he could be eating, but then, it seemed impossible that he could be here, having this conversation, that anything from the last few days could have happened. Through another mouthful of food, he said, “I don’t even know where he is. That’s the worst part.”

Shaw made a soothing noise and rubbed Jadon’s knee some more. “It’s going to be okay. He’s upset, and you’re upset, and you’re going to work it out. Emery will call him, and then we’ll know more. He’s probably at a hotel, like you talked about. He’s probably hoping you’ll call him.”

“He’s not. He’s furious at me. And he’s right to be furious. I said—God, I said some awful things.”

North, leaning in the doorway to the kitchen, said, “Give me a break.”

“North,” Shaw said.

“What? He’s being dramatic.” To Jadon, he repeated, “You’re being dramatic.”

“He feels guilty.”

“What’d he do? Tell Nico he was having a bad hair day?”

“You heard him. He said awful things. Really awful things. Like, monstrously awful. Like we wouldn’t even recognize Jadon, we wouldn’t even know who he was, if we’d heard the things he said.”

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