Page 63 of Old Acquaintances

“It’s like a mating ritual,” Wyatt says.

Jen raises her hand. “Um, why do you call him Elijah?”

“That’s my name.” He plops himself back on the wood floor.

“We call him Tucker,” Johnny explains, “Because Eli sounded too similar to Ella when we were kids. I had speechproblems and I kept getting tongue-tied. No one knew who I was talking to. Too many l’s.”

“We have the same middle name, too,” Tucker adds. “Francis with an i.”

I say, “Frances with an e.” I push up the sleeves and tuck my feet underneath me.

Jen understands, “So you’re the only one who calls him Eli?”

Ritchie leans forward with a playful smirk on his face. “Yeah, that’s what she calls him when they’re -”

“Arguing.”

“Fighting!”

Tucker and I quickly finish his sentence with two words that might mean the same thing but are not what Ritchie had in mind. He tips his beer back, humor twinkling in his eyes.

I finger-comb the ends of my hair. Tucker scratches at his knee.

Callie blurts out, “Have any of us secretly fucked?”

Ritchie spits out his beer.

My face burns. I wouldn’t have pegged her for the psychic one, but it looks like I’m wrong. Tucker coughs and stands up. “I’m going to get some water.”

Relaxed into the crook of Serena’s arm, Callie continues, “Statistically speaking, the trio must have. You guys have to have kissed at least. Two straight men best friends with a straight woman - come on. It has to have happened.”

Wyatt questions, “What statistic did that study come from?”

“The one I made up for this question.”

Johnny crosses his leg, leaning back in the couch. “Well, Ella and I have kissed before.”

“What?” Tucker’s voice echoes in the kitchen.

“Ryan’s Rice’s twelfth birthday, do you remember, Ell? Seven minutes in heaven.” He laughs.

Tucker marches back with a water bottle in hand. He stares at me. “You told me you didn’t kiss him that night.”

I turn my palms up. “That’s what you wanted to hear.”

“I wanted to hear the truth!”

“I didn’t want you to be weird about it.” I rub my nose. “We had to dosomethingin that closet.”

“You could have done what you said you did - just sit in silence.”

Johnny admits, “It was mostly silence. We kissed for, like, one hot second before we both got grossed out.”

Jen bites her lip. Her short, clean nails run along her wine glass stem. “You told me you never kissed her.”

“Yes!” Tucker points to Jen. He points to me. “There’s lying going on. We would like thetruth. We deserve the truth.”

I hinge forward. “I just told you the truth, jackass.”

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