Page 27 of Dire Straights

I hadn’t spoken to Maddox in six days, since we’d kissed after hanging out on the boardwalk on Monday. He’d been so upset when he’d stormed out… I didn’t know if I should apologize or saythanksoryou’re welcomeor what. It was definitely a situation I’d never experienced and didn’t know how to navigate. But it really sucked. I’d planned on forcing him to talk to me in class, but he hadn’t shown up Wednesday or Friday.

“Did you get a bad grade on that writing project?” Aspen asked.

“No,” I said. “It’s due tomorrow, actually.”

“You’re finished, right?”

“Uh… Not exactly. My, um, partner is kind of… Not talking to me.”

“Maddox?”

“Yeah.”

Aspen scoffed, giving me a wry look. “Told you jocks are assholes, dude. You should have known he wouldn’t do his fair share on a group project.”

Che frowned, looking concerned, but didn’t add further comment. I had a feeling someone like him probably hadn’t had the best experience with jocks either.

“It’s not really like that,” I explained, feeling defensive even though he was kind of right. My grade was getting screwed over. “We didn’t have a fight or anything.”

“So what happened?”

“Uh…” I hesitated. “Nothing, really.”

“He’s not talking to you because nothing happened?” Aspen asked, raising a pierced eyebrow. “Yeah, that sounds legit.”

“Well,somethinghappened,” I conceded. “But it wasn’t really bad or anything. I mean, it was good. I think it was good. It was good for me.”

Staring at me for several moments, Aspen blinked. “So are you going to say what it was or not?”

“It’s kind of private.”

“Did you accidentally pop his favorite basketball or something?”

“No!” I sighed. He obviously wasn’t going to let it go until I said it. “We just… Kissed.”

“What?!” Aspen gawked at me. “You kissed Maddox? The Maddox you brought over the other day?”

“Actually, he kind of kissed me. But I, you know… I reciprocated.”

When Aspen looked over to Che, like he needed someone to share his shock with, he frowned. “You don’t look all that surprised,” he pointed out.

Che pursed his lips a little, in thought. His lips were really pouty and puffy and cute. I could definitely understand why Arie liked him so much.

“Well, not really,” he admitted, then turned to me. “He was all over you that night we all watched the movie, so… I thought maybe there was something going on between you guys already.”

“What?!” Aspen cried out again. “And I’m just now finding this out? How come you didn’t say anything?”

“Why would I?” Che answered. “Plus, it’s not like I knew anything for sure.”

“I didn’t know anyone could see that,” I admitted. I wasn’t sure if I should feel embarrassed, but I didn’t. Maybe it was egotistical and shallow of me, but… Maddy was unreasonably hot, so… The fact that I’d even kissed him was kind of a flex. “It was dark.”

“It wasn’t that dark,” Che said. I took a mental note that Che had eyes like a hawk and noticed everything.

“Also, I thought you were straight. What happened to that?” Aspen asked.

“Uh… I thought I was, too.”

“And Maddox?” Che wondered, tilting his head. “Well, actually, you don’t have to talk about his feelings. It’s not polite to talk about him when he’s not here.”

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