Page 49 of Only Mostly Devastated

“It was a red Skittle. A sweaty red Skittle is worth three green Skittles.”

“What kind of bodily fluid would bring a single red Skittle below the net worth of a green Skittle?”

“It’s less about the bodily fluid, and more about who the bodily fluid comes from.”

She cackled. “Touché.”

Emerson paused in his argument long enough to give us a withering glance. “You guys are really killing the mood.”

“Your lyrics killed the mood,” Sayid muttered. “You took it from a love song to a song about overthrowing the establishment.”

“Ooh, I think you just sold Emerson’s version to me,” Izzy said, stroking her chin like a supervillain. “I do love overthrowing establishments.”

Sayid held his hands up. “Seriously?”

“My vote’s with Emerson, too,” I said. “Sorry, man.”

Sayid scowled and went to pack up the keyboard. “You guys never side with me,” he said.

“They can’t help it if I’m a lyrical genius,” Emerson said.

“Ohyeah,we got a regular Lin-Manuel Miranda over here.”

I grabbed my phone just as a text came in from Juliette.

Hey, the game just finished. We’re heading to You Got Soft-Served over on Hamilton Street if you want to come grab a shake?

Wait, so I could go consume some sugar, see Will again,andsupport a local pun-appreciating business? It’s not like I could say no to that, now, was it?

Everyone was already there when I arrived. Five basketball guys formed a row of black-and-white varsity jackets, crowded around a booth against the wall. They all had damp hair from their post-game showers. Will’s hair was the longest out of all of them, and he kept sweeping it back off his forehead with an impatient hand. He paused when he noticed me coming, his hand midsweep, and then ducked his head with a shy grin.

Across from them, Lara, Niamh, and Juliette sat, already sipping on milkshakes. Juliette beckoned me to sit next to her on the light blue pleather. “The guys haven’t ordered yet,” she said. “We’ve been waiting here a while.”

“We had to get ready, didn’t we?” Matt asked. “Do you think looking this good happens by accident?”

Lara raised an eyebrow. “Oh, God, girls, I think this is what they look like when they’retrying.How tragic.” She looked down at her phone and smiled at something onthe screen. I tried to catch a peek of it but she was too far away.

“So, uh, how did we do?” I asked in a small voice. I wasn’t used to talking in front of the basketball guys. Honestly, they intimidated me a bit. They always seemed so confident, and loud, and judgmental. Not really the best mix with people who weren’t also confident, and loud, and judgmental.

One of the guys I’d never spoken to before, Ethan, started thumping his hands on the table. The other guys joined him, in a four-by-four beat that got louder by the second. Except for Will. Will just folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking damned pleased with himself.

Darnell jumped out of his seat and grabbed Will’s shoulders. “This man right here,this man, won us the game.”

“We’re even footing the whole way,” Matt added, holding his arms up in front of him, “then in the last quarter we start dropping. We have, like, two minutes to go, Will’s one-on-one on the wing, he makes the shot, then he steals the inbound pass and hits another contested shot absolutely out of nowhere, and suddenly we’re in the lead.”

Will was grinning, but it wasn’t gentle like his usual one. It was the harder, smug smile that kept crossing his face whenever he was around these guys. I’d seen him look like this across the cafeteria a few times. So self-satisfied. It didn’t suit him.

“That’s the kind of play I’m used to seeing from you, man,” Matt said. He had what must’ve been his “captain” voice going on. Like a teacher congratulating an apprentice. It had such a warm tone to it, I could imagine guys busting their asses to have Matt talk to him with that kind of appreciation in his voice.

Darnell nodded. “Yeah, we worried you might’ve gone soft on us, with all those music lessons,” he said, nudging Will. Will’s eyes flickered toward me. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

Matt nodded. “Yeah, man. No offense, Ollie, but we thought you were turning him into a freaking goth or something.”

Right. Because I was totally a goth.

“Try emo pussy,” Darnell added, then wilted at Niamh’s fierce glare.

“Do youneedto be a sexist pig?” she asked, before sucking on her straw like it’d done her some great wrong. “That’s foul.”

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