Page 116 of Friends Like This

“Yeah. I know. Aaron…”

“Yeah?”

“I get why our friends see it. They watched us have romantic moments growing up, but Davey and Marisol… they’ve seen something, too. Everyone we know seems to think there’s something more between us. We don’t. At least, we don’t think there is right now. But it begs the question… Are they wrong? Or are we?” I’m almost breathless as I ask the question. Maybe because I’m slightly afraid of the answer.

He doesn’t answer for a minute, but he does squeeze my hand.

Finally, he turns his head toward me and I look at him.

“I don’t know. I… I wish I had an answer. Weareclose. We always have been. And there’s always been,” he pauses and swallows hard before continuing, “somethingthere. But, at the same time, we haven’texploredwhat that could be.” He shakes his head. “All I know is that you’re my best friend, always.”

I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding and smile softly at him. “Always.” My voice is quiet, almost a whisper. My emotions are haywire.

He smirks and elbows me. “You were worried about what I was gonna say.”

I roll my eyes and give him a little shove. “I don’t need any more drama in my life.”

He chuckles. “Here’s to that.”

We lie in silence for a moment until realization hits, and I jolt upright. “Oh, shit.”

“What?” he asks, suddenly concerned.

“I gotta get back to Miles’s to study. I know it’s shitty timing, but that test in Emerson’s class is gonna be the death of me.”

“Crap,” he groans. “I forgot about that.”

“Come study with us. You might not be in the same period, but it’ll be the same test.”

“You’re right, let’s go.”

He pulls me up from the bed, and we hurry back to Miles’s house.

When we get to his room, he and Joel are sitting on the floor, books and papers scattered everywhere, and they both look a little ragged.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I ask.

“Shitty,” Miles says. And he’s supposed to be the one who’s good at math. “Geometric proofs are going to be the death of me.”

I climb onto his bed and start massaging his shoulders. “Clearly, jeez, your back is like one big knot.”

He tilts his head back slightly. “How are you so good at that?”

“Simple. I find the worst part of the knot and then massage it.Hard.” Then I jam my thumb hard into one of the knots in his shoulder.

“Ow!” he yelps.

“Yeah, well, payback for your sass earlier,” I say, cuffing at his head, which makes Joel laugh.

But I decide to be nice and keep massaging his shoulders, because someone has to be good enough at this to teach the rest of us.

“Speaking of, how are you doing, man?” Joel asks Aaron.

Aaron shrugs. “Sucks, but I’ll live. If I survive this test, anyway.”

I slide my fingers up into Miles’s thin black hair, gently massaging his scalp. His whole body relaxes.

“Fuck, that feels good.” Then he tilts his head back, looks at me, and grins. “You trying to make me hard?”

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