Page 66 of Nights Without Night
“Oh,” Iva says, rolling her eyes. “Good thing it was obvious, or it would have taken Isadoro another bazillion years,” Iva snorts. Jack raises her eyebrows, making a gesture toward Iva as if to say,see?
“You guys are not understanding the severity of this situation,” I grind out.
“Hey. Is everything okay?” Ezra says as he walks up with Joaquin. I cover my face with my hands
“He knows!”
“Who?”
“Isa-”
“Oh my God. We’re not doing this again. Isadoro found out the very well-kept secret of Iván’s totally-secret-not-at-all-obvious, madly in-loveness.”
“Oh. He onlyjustfound out? Don’t they…live together? How could he not know?” Ezra says.
“That ishilariouscoming from you,” Iva says.
“Hey! We weren’t living together!”
“You practically were! Not that it matters! I just — oh Jesus, I am surrounded by dumb boys. So many dumb, dumb boys.”
“Just you wait. Just you wait until you fall in love,” Ezra says.
“When I fall in love, I’m going to tell them straight away.”
“Ha! Oh, I can’twaitto throw that in your face!”
“Excuse me!” I cut in. “Hello? Remember me? Having a crisis here?”
“A crisis? Wait…what? What’s the crisis?” Ezra asks.
“Isadoro.Knows,” I whisper-scream in frustration.
“Uh…yeah? Not seeing the crisis here. Aren’t you already fucking?”
“No!” I say. Everybody looks at me incredulously. “Notanymore,” I correct. I’m subjected to a Mexican-wave of eyerolls.
“Okay, this is even dumber than the Ezra-and-Joaquin thing,” Iva says. “Just talk to him for the love of God! Is that really so hard?”
“Yes!”
“Urgh. Boys,” Iva says, throwing her hands in the air. Jack pinches the bridge of her nose before putting her palms towards me as if to calm me down.
“Okay. Iván. He already knows. He’s your best friend. You’ve been through a lot of shit together. It will be fine. Concentrate on the fucking fantastic exhibition you’ve put on and when it’s over, talk to your friend and sort it out. It won’t be worse than what you’ve gone through before so…pull yourself together,” she says. I look at her, opening my mouth, before closing it with a sigh.
“Fine.”
“Good. Up and at ‘em,” she says.
It’s going to be a long night.
**********
The light is off in the entryway, but I see the glow of a lamp in the living room. I press my back against the front door for a moment, breathing. I can’t catch up to my emotions. They’re the streaming streak of headlights in the dark, one beginning before the last one ends, until the colours run together and blur.
The living room is an orange, transparent cocoon. I stand in its shadow, stilling as Isadoro gets up from the couch and turns towards me.
“Hey,” I say.
