Page 88 of Ours
“I was! They snuck up on me, I swear,” Jackson tried to explain. “One second we were alone, and then I looked again and two girls are loading stuff into their trunk.”
Cory said nothing but rolled his eyes.Bullshit.
“I’m really sorry.” Jackson put his hand on Cory’s shoulder. “I swear it wasn’t on purpose.”
Cory looked at Jackson. He had such cute puppy dog eyes.Ugh.Fine. “It’s okay.”
“So does that mean you’ll still come to the party next week?” Jackson gave him a hopeful smile.
“Yes. I’ll still come to the party next week.” Cory couldn’t help but return the smile.
“If you’re hoping I’m going to tell you he’s unhappy, I’ve got bad news.”
“What? No, that’s… That’s good.” Derek sat across from Stephanie at the Bella Cafe, the local Italian and pizza place. Stephanie had agreed to meet Derek over dinner to talk about Cory. “I’m happy he’s happy.”
“You don’t look happy.” Stephanie bit into a breadstick as she watched Derek squirm.
“Well, I’m nothappyhappy, but I’m glad Cory’s doing okay.” Derek was being honest, not that he had anything more to lose if he was otherwise.
“Mhmm. And this hasnothingto do with the new guy Cory’s been seeing?” Stephanie crossed her arms.
“No. It’s not like that,” Derek defended a little too quickly.
“So then what is it like?” Stephanie was not about to blab about her friend without making sure it was safe first.
“I just want to make sure he’s okay.” Derek couldn’t quite bring himself to meet her gaze. “I screwed up a lot. Nic and I both did. I’m not trying to get him to forgive me, or even talk to me again. I just… I want to make sure he’s safe.”
Stephanie silently studied Derek for a moment. “You don’t trust the new guy.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” Stephanie took another bite of a breadstick. “I don’t either.”
“You don’t?”
“No. But Cory does,” Stephanie added pointedly. “I don’t know anything about him. I suspect you don’t either.”
“I don’t.” Derek was again truthful. “But there’s just something about him.”
“Well, unless Cory says something, it’s not my place—and certainly not yours—to do anything about it,” Stephanie pointed out. “Why do you care so much about who Cory is seeing anyway? I know he was your best friend, but it’s not like you weretogethertogether.”
Derek let the question hang in the air, still unable to look at Stephanie directly, hoping that the silence would speak for itself. He was still trying to figure out those feelings.
“Oh my god.” Stephanie narrowed an annoyed look at Derek. “I swear, you straight boys are so fucking stupid sometimes.”
“Yeah, we are,” Derek agreed.
“He won’t stay mad at you forever, Derek.” Stephanie sighed, her features softening. “But he does deserve his space for a while. He’ll come around one day to talk. But even if he doesn—”
“I know,” Derek half mumbled into his dinner. “It’s not about that. I just want—”
“—to make sure he’s happy.” Stephanie gave Derek a sad smile.
“Thanks for talking to me.” Derek smiled back.
Stephanie waved her half-eaten breadstick in his direction. “Thanks for dinner.”
Nic dropped his duffle bag on the bench behind his locker. Like everyone else, he had to clear out his locker, including the one he used for gym and football. He had been putting it off for a while now. Something about the locker room brought back some recent bad memories. Nic looked over to still see a slight dent in the locker he had hurt his hand on. Yeah, bad memories.
