Page 43 of Every Broken Thing

My voice returned to normal as I said, very seriously, “Yes. All straight men are constipated. It’s the biggest problem facing our world today.”

“My God,” he said, clutching his chest, “we have to invest in more laxatives.”

“I’ve been petitioning UNICEF, but they’re all, ‘No, save the children!’ But at what cost, Ben?” I grabbed his arms and shook him. “At what cost!”

“What is happening?” Harris asked, and Ben and I looked over at my friends, who were all standing there staring at us.

“I think it’s flirting,” Jordan said.

“Yeah,” Kim added. “Definitely flirting.”

My face flamed as I sputtered a barely coherent, “Your mom’s face is flirting!”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Caroline said.

“Ben!” Ronnie called, saving me from the horribly uncomfortable situation, and Ben stepped away from me as Ronnie leaned in and spoke in his ear.

I glared at my traitorous friends and made a shooing motion to get them moving toward the bleachers before they said more inappropriate bullshit.

“Wait, Si.” Ben grabbed my hand and tugged until I started following him. “There’s someone I want you to meet.”

“Okay,” I said absently, my attention stuck on my hand in his.

He didn’t release me until we’d stopped walking. I missed the touch the moment he let go.

“She’s shy, so be nice,” he hissed in my ear, and I smacked him in the chest.

“When am I not nice?”

His responding silence was, honestly, offensive.

“Esther, this is Silas,” Ronnie was saying, and I turned away from Ben with thenicestsmile on my face.

The girl standing next to Ronnie was a little shorter than me, but not by much. With her short, purple streaked hair and dark clothing, she exuded an emo-punk kind of vibe that I was instantly digging. She wore black plugs in her earlobes and a barbell through the cartilage of her left ear, and her smoky eye was on point.

She removed a hand from her hoodie pocket and tentatively offered it to me, her nails alternating black and purple. Was she ace, or did she just like the colors?

“Hi,” she said in a husky voice. “I’m Esther.”

“Silas,” I said, taking her hand and shaking it. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she said with a hesitant smile.

“You don’t go to our school, right?” When she shook her head, I waved my hand superfluously around the room. “Well, welcome to our pool.”

“I’ve been here before,” she said.

“Oh. Well, I haven’t. So I guess you should be the one welcoming me.”

Ben snorted, and Ronnie rolled his eyes. Esther’s mouth twitched, like she was fighting a grin.

“Welcome to your pool?” she said, voice lilting at the end to make it almost a question.

“That is so sweet of you. Thank you. I’m happy to be here.”

She laughed, a pleasant rasp bubbling up her throat, and I grinned. Yeah, we were going to be friends, I could already tell.

“How do you know each other?” I gestured between the three, and Ronnie wrapped a possessive arm around Esther’s shoulders.

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