Page 92 of Ours
“Fine. The night before the split, the day I flipped out about the rumors,” Nic started to share his story, mostly mumbling it into this lap, “I got really drunk that night on my dad’s rum and showed up at Amy’s, but she still wouldn’t talk to me. So then I walked to Cory’s place.”
“What happened?” Derek hadn’t known about any of this.
“First, he helped bandage my hand.” Nic held up his now healed hand. “Then … I kissed him.”
“DUDE!?” Derek leapt up.
“I know!” Nic squeezed his eyes shut, trying to will himself invisible, but he continued. “We spent the rest of the night fucking. But like … it was different. It felt different. And we … kept making out the whole time.”
“Holy shit.” Derek sat back down exasperated by his friend.
“And then … I left in the middle of the night and pretended to not remember any of it the next day at school.” Nic barely finished his sentence before burying his face in his hands, ashamed of his behavior.
“Oh my god.” So much more of why Cory was acting off that day was starting to click into place. “How could you do something like that?”
“I don’t know! I panicked!” Nic tried to explain. “I was just so angry and sad and anxious, and I didn’t have anyone to talk to… It was raining, and I showed up at Cory’s place, and he took me inside and took care of me, and he was being so sweet, and he was right there in front of me, and I just…” Nic couldn’t finish his statement.
“Nic … I’m pretty sure you were Cory’s first kiss.” Derek stared, dumbfounded by his best friend’s actions. “Like, ever.”
“That… That can’t be right.” Nic started searching his memories.
“Can you think of a single time he’s mentionedanyonebefore, even a girl? You totally broke his heart.” Derek tried to imagine what Cory must have felt, being not just rejected butforgottenlike that. “You destroyed it.Wedestroyed it.”
“…I fucking suck.”
“Fuck.” Derek flopped back against the couch. “This fucking sucks. We fucking suck. We were botha lotof Cory’s firsts.Maybe all of them.” Derek felt like had all the answers, but none of them were tothisspecific problem.
“So what do we do, D?” Nic sounded scared, more than Derek was ever used to hearing from him.
“I dunno, man.” Derek stood from his couch and moved over to sit next to Nic. “But we’ll figure it out together, right?” He bumped his shoulder into Nic’s.
“Right.” Nic gave a small smile and bumped him back.
“Bros?”
“Bros.”
Chapter 15
“Do I really have to do this?”
“Yes, you do.”
It was Friday, a few hours after school had ended. Derek and Nic were seated in Derek’s car outside of Joe’s, a local diner that was pretty popular with students from the high school. It had been the last day of classes before finals week for seniors, and the two boys had come here together for one reason: Nic needed to break up with Amy. He was just having a hard time psyching himself up to do it.
“Can’t I just, like, wait until we both leave town for college?” Nic tried to weasel out of doing what he knew he needed to do. “That’s only two months away, and then—”
“Dude.” Derek leveled his gaze with Nic. “Webothspent the last few months cheating on our girlfriends. If Amy or Tricia knew what we had been getting up to, how do you think they’d feel? For everything we’ve gotten away with, this is theleastyou can do.”
“Easy for you to say.” Nic sighed. “You didn’t do the breaking up.”
“Yeah, it was really cool being dumped at my own party in front of our classmates,” Derek deadpanned.
“Sorry,” Nic said sheepishly.
“It’s fine.” Derek sighed. “I deserved it.”
“Fuck, there she is.” Nic watched as Amy’s car pulled into the diner. “I guess it’s now or never.”
