Page 10 of Dire Straights

“She got a little too excited when it was her turn in spin the bottle,” I muttered, jerking my chin towards the inebriated girl. She was practically in tears now, incredibly grateful that the candle hadn’t lit her hair on fire. “It was just an accident,” I said, granting her some grace. He groaned, rubbing his palms over his face.

After all, that was the reasonable and logical explanation for what had happened. It’s not like I’d had some kind of issue with the idea of Ren Suzuki kissing a girl or anything. Why would I care about that? But anyone could tell he wasn’t into it. I’d done him a favor, really. If anything, he owed me. But because I was a nice guy, I didn’t need his thanks or recognition. I’d just keep my good deed to myself. After all, real character was doing the right thing when no one was watching. Some old colonial guy had said that. Probably.

A handful of people, mainly the guy who lived in the house and the ones who seemed to be his actual friends who knew him, got to work on trying to get up the hot wax. Other people in the room, the ones who weren’t totally traumatized by theexperience, started brainstorming on where to move the game to. When Ren and Kelani approached me, I feigned a huge yawn.

“The vibe is kind of ruined now,” I said, noting Ren’s still apparent look of slight misery. “I’ve been up since 5:00, so I’m going to head out.”

“You’re leaving?” He asked, his eyes widening a bit. “I’m going to leave too!” He was like a puppy that liked to follow me so closely behind me that I had to be careful not to step on him.

Kelani heaved a deep sigh, but waved him off. “Fine, whatever. You came out, at least,” she said to Ren, giving him his dues. Still, he looked slightly apologetic.

“Sorry. I’ll do better next time, maybe.”

“We’ll keep working on it,” she said, laughing a little. He was too innocent to be mad at. Like a fluffy marshmallow that would melt if exposed to any amount of criticism. But when she glanced over to me, her affectionate look faded. She didn’t even tell me bye before walking off. Whatever.

We didn’t talk much at first on the walk back. It was starting to get cooler at night, and the ocean-scented breeze whipped our hair around as we made our way down the lamp-lit streets. The neighborhoods around campus were nice and quiet.

“Um, so that was really kind of lucky, that table falling thing,” Ren eventually piped up. “Honestly, I wasn’t that happy about the whole kissing deal, anyway.”

“Yeah,” I grunted. “Lucky timing.”

“It was a good thing that table was so… Unpredictable,” he decided on the word. But his tone of voice was weird, almost teasing. When I glanced sideways over to him, his lips were squeezed closed like he was trying not to laugh. Did he know I was the one who’d tipped it over?

“… Yeah,” I agreed again. “Definitely an accident waiting to happen.”

“An accident,” he repeated. When I looked over again, he started laughing. He definitely knew it was me. But I wasn’t admitting anything.

“A tragic, tragic accident which couldn’t have been prevented,” I said, which only made him laugh harder. It was a really nice laugh. He didn’t hold back or try to sound cool, he just gave it all his energy and let it come rolling out.

We just made small talk the rest of the way, about the nice weather and how the leaves were starting to turn colors. But when we got to my door and he told me bye and kept walking toward campus where his dorm was, I felt a vague sense of loss, like when you’re a little kid playing with your friends at the park and it’s time to go.

And then about twenty minutes later, when my phone lit up with a text from him that just saidmade it back in one piece, with a lame smiling emoji next to it, I stared at it for a really, really long time.

REN

I GOT TOthe library early, only because I didn’t really have anything else to do. Arie had some studying to do too, so he came along with me, his laptop in a bag at his hip. As we walked, we chatted about our plans later that night with Aspen and Che. Just a casual hangout with snacks and board games and a movie.

I’d gotten used to these easy little social gatherings. I was actually starting to feel like I belonged somewhere, a feat I’d never quite accomplished in high school. My anxiety still messed with me sometimes, making me worry that people didn’t really like me or that I was bothering everyone with my presence. But it felt like all of that was slowly fading out. Slowly.

I sat at a table and started unpacking my textbooks and stuff out of my bag, while Arie propped his butt up onto the table in front of me, still on a tangent about the horror movie series he wanted us to start tonight.

“Listen, it’s not about the gore,” he promised me, tucking a strand of his hair behind his ear. When I first met him, his hair had been pink, but it was currently cotton candy blue. I was pretty sure he’d said he was going to try lilac or something next time. Which I was pretty sure was purple? “The storyline issogood across all the movies. I swear.”

“I don’t mind gore,” I told him honestly. “I think the movies sound kind of cool.”

“Take my word for it, you will love them,” he promised, putting his hand lightly on my shoulder. Arie was definitely a touchy-feely kind of person, which I’d had to get used to at first,but now I didn’t mind. It was nice, and I was pretty sure it was a good sign he didn’t secretly hate me.

At that moment, Maddox walked into the library. He scanned the area until his eyes landed on me. When they did, I smiled and gave him a small wave. I expected him to smile back at me, but his eyes flickered to Arie and then down to where Arie’s hand was on my shoulder. He definitely didn’t look thrilled. Did they know each other? When Arie saw who I’d waved at, he looked over at Maddox and then whipped his face back toward me, eyebrows raised.

“Uh, you didn’t tell me you were meeting Zac Efron Jr.,” he said, giving me an odd look.

“Huh?” I asked, confused. “No, his name is Maddox.”

Arie stared at me for a few seconds, unblinking. “Oh, Ren,” he sighed, giving me a pat on the head like I was a braindead puppy. When Maddox got up to us, he didn’t bother waiting for me to introduce him. “I’m Arie. And you must be Troy Bolton.”

I didn’t have a clue what he meant by that, but when Maddox rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, I figured he must have.

“Not quite,” he answered, looking a bit wry, like he’d heard this bit before. “I’m on the swim team, not basketball.”

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