Page 15 of Wandering in Darkness
“He was into you.”
“Was he? Maybe he was going to confess but I tossed him into the bro zone so hard that he was at a loss for words,” Lane says.
Antonio laughs. “Poor guy. When I was in high school, I was really good friends with this girl and we did everything together—family get-togethers, dances, you name it. After a month, my mom told me that this girl was obviously under the impression that we were dating. I don’t even know how it happened or when I agreed to it.”
“How’d you break up with her?” I ask.
“I just didn’t. Don’t even ask me why. I thought maybe she’d break up with me, but no, we dated for around two years, andthen she was all, ‘I just don’t know how we’re going to do a long-distance relationship, but let’s try,’ so instead of using that as aperfectexcuse, I was like, ‘Of course.’ And then about five years ago I got an invite to her wedding. She was marrying another woman… I think we both realized that we really were just friends and were using each other as an excuse back in high school.”
“Did you two ever kiss or anything?” Felix asks.
“Once. We did the eyes squeezed shut, fish lips going in to meet thing. And we were so proud of ourselves that we kissed someone yetneverdid it again. It was so ridiculous. What about you, Cal? Any high school romances you’d like to embarrass yourself about?”
“No, my life was pretty boring. No mystery girlfriends, no wrestling with the guy I liked instead of just telling him. I went out with guys a couple of times but never dated. Felix?”
“I wish I had a secret girlfriend,” Felix teases. “And I bet I would have been amazing at wrestling.”
“You would’ve definitely had to wrestle girls,” Lane tells him.
“NO! I was huge in school. They called me Behemoth because I was taller than all the other kids,” Felix says.
I grin. “Oh wow, I really need to see pictures of this.”
“Enough of that nonsense about me being fantastic. Soooo, are we going to that address, then?” Felix asks.
“What address?” I question.
His scrutinizing eyes latch on to mine. “Don’t ‘what address’ me.”
Lane’s interest is immediately piqued. “Explain.”
I point my fork at Felix. “Don’t explain.”
Felix is far too eager and not at all threatened by my fork. “So… there I was… in a face-off with an unlocked drawer. Deep in my mind, the good part of me was all, ‘Felix, no, don’t break into someone’s private information without their permission,’but another part of me was like, ‘You know you have to.’ It’s a disease, Lane. You have to understand.”
“Of course,” Lane says, agreeing with this statement for absolutely no reason at all.
“So then… I was innocently leafing through things when along came Cal, snatching up a photograph with an address on it. He was so suspicious of the address he immediately searched its location.”
I wave the threatening fork around a little. “I was just being nosy. It was nothing of interest.”
“Do you have the address?” Lane asks.
“Of course not,” I say.
“Of course I do,” Felix says as he whips the Post-it note out.
“When the fuck did you grab that? I put everything back and closed the drawer!”
“Magic.” Felix wiggles his fingers to show them off.
“So what’s at that location?” Antonio asks as he takes the note from Felix.
“It’s probably nothing, but even if it is something… I don’t want to get involved,” I say, my mind drifting back to that photograph. I’m glad Felix didn’t grab that too. I really don’t want to see that face again.
“I’m just saying that if we happened to drivebythe place… it’s not far from here.”
“Not far? An hour is not far?” I ask as I pull my glasses off and rub my eyes.
