Page 16 of Shaped to Be Yours

“Okay.”

“And that movie would have been ten times hotter—”

“If the alien had been a dude, I know.” Ricky said. “I’ve heard your pitch for circa ’95 Brad Pitt, and I still raise youGeorge of the JungleBrendan Fraser.”

“Wait, where have I heard that before?”

“Fromme. Freshman year. We watched it in my room, remember? You went on and on about how a male alien would have made more sense because he could have spread his seed to more hosts. Therefore, a gay main character could have saved the day, becausehecouldn’t be seduced. Or, well, not in a way that ended in more aliens. You wrote your college entrance exam arguing all the movies that could have been saved by, and I quote ‘The Queer-ening’.”

“You remember that?”

“Of course. I listen.”

“I listen!”

“I know you do.” Ricky sat up from leaning against me and squeezed my hand. “Who’s my favorite Smash Bros. character?”

“Kirby.”

“Why?”

“’Cause you’recheap.”

“The real reason.”

I did know the answer to that. “Because he was the only character you could ever beat your brother with.”

“Yep. But then ourabuela—”

“—could slaughter you both with Princess Peach!” I overlapped him. I would have loved to see that in person.

“See?” Ricky’s smile was seriously too pure, too perfect for a mess like me. “One of the best parts about dating a friend is that we are way past the ‘getting to know you’ portion of a relationship. I already know you. All your silly high school stories, like how everyone on the football team tried to grow mustaches senior year but yours looked like blond twinkie crumbs on your upper lip.” He laughed as he recounted it, whichdamn, was as pure and perfect as his smile. “And then everyone called you twink for, like, a month and it almost got one of your friends suspended when a teacher thought—”

“Hello, right?” I lifted the arm not attached to Ricky to show off my guns. “So not a twink.”

“I also know you lost your virginity to a girl who hates you now because you shrugged afterward when she asked if it was good for you.”

“I was figuring myself out!”

“I know you wanted to be a veterinarian when you were a kid, like 90% of second graders.”

I couldn’t argue with that one. Every second grader wanted to be a veterinarian at some point. Or an astronaut. Or a secret agent.

I wondered if Whitmore had wanted to be an agent back then.

“And I know we have almost the exact same coming out story,” Ricky continued. “Your mom took you out for ice cream. And mine—”

“Made homemade cinnamon ice cream with churros. So unfair.”

Ricky laughed again. I wanted to taste that sound way more than ice cream. “You know our moms are Facebook friends, right? If your mom knows we’re dating, they have so been talking about it over Messenger.”

“Oh shit.”

“Right?”

We laughed together and Ricky snuggled closer to me, but before I could try tasting that laugh, he looked forward and rested his head on my shoulder.

“Feels like rain.”

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