Page 67 of After the Siren
‘I think it’s a pretty common experience for queer people to feel like this,’ Priya said, not teasing anymore. ‘Jake wasn’t a dick about it, was he?’
‘No.’
That was part of the problem. If Jake had been even just a little annoyed, Theo might have been able to stop thinking about the whole situation. But, instead, he’d been sexily sympathetic. Now, rather than putting the whole experience in a box labelledembarrassing, do not open, the memories were just roaming unchecked around Theo’s brain. ‘He was chill about it. We ... managed.’
‘I’ll bet. So what’s the problem? It sounds like it was fine.’
‘I’m being weird about it. Weird around him.’
‘You? Never.’
‘I don’t like you.’
‘How are you being weird about it?’
‘I think about it every time I see him!’ he blurted. He lowered his voice. ‘It’s so fucking distracting.’
‘Mm,’ she said. ‘And?’
God, her eyebrows were cruel. ‘When I texted him to say we shouldn’t do it again, I said I had a good time, and that I hoped he had a good time. When he replied, he didn’t say he had a good time.’
‘When you ...textedhim to say you shouldn’t do it again,’ Priya repeated, slowly. ‘Can I see the messages?’
Theo handed over his phone. Priya perused the messages while Theo finished his daiquiri and wished for death.
‘Well,’ she said finally, ‘I think I like him after all.’
‘Why?’
‘I mean’ – she tapped the phone – ‘he gave you what you wanted, right? You said you wanted to forget about it, and he didn’t bring it up after that. It would have been a bit much if you’d been like,I think we should forget about it, and then he’d followed up with,I had a really good time sucking your dick, I’m sorry you don’t want to do it again.’
‘I guess.’
Priya narrowed her eyes at him. ‘You’re so salty about this. Why?’
‘I’m not.’
‘Yeah, you are. Are you all sad because he wasn’t like,Oh em gee, that was the best sex of my life, I’m so pleased we fucked and then you told me we shouldn’t do it again over text, I just want you to rip all my clothes off and put your mouth all over my —’
Theo threw half a maraschino cherry at her. He missed, which was for the best, because her blouse was definitely silk.
‘I didn’t want him to saythat,’ he protested. ‘It just would have been nice if he’d said he also had a good time.’
‘But youknow.’
‘I guess.’ Theo nudged disconsolately at the remaining cherry. The paper straw had lost the structural integrity required to act as a skewer.
Priya was watching him. Her eyes narrowed, and then she grinned. ‘Youlikehim,’ she sing-songed, as though they were back in the mall after school, drinking iced coffee and gossiping.
‘Of course I like him, we’re friends.’
Priya’s eyebrows had become a fully-fledged participant in the conversation. ‘Uh huh.’
‘Ican’tbe into him, Priy. He’s my teammate.’
‘Yes, nobody has ever been into someone theycan’t be into.’ She did a very uncharitable impression of his voice.
‘Sometimes people have casual sex with their friends,’ he tried. ‘And then go back to being friends who don’t have sex. That is a thing that people can do.’
