Page 66 of Searching for Nova

“Mateo, I don’t think we should do this anymore.”

“Do what? Be friends?”

“No. Have sex. It’s all we do. We don’t even talk anymore. After we have sex, I just sit there and watch you play video games.”

“You get to hang out here. Eat my mom’s cooking. Have a place to crash when Ted kicks you out. You really want to give all that up?” He says it like he’s threatening me, taking away all those things if I don’t do what he wants.

“You’re saying I can’t come over anymore if we don’t have sex?”

“Listen, Nova, I like you, but you’re kind of a pain in the ass sometimes. I don’t care if you come over, but if we’re not going to do anything, I’d rather just be alone in my room. I got this new game yesterday. Did I tell you about it?”

“Yeah.” I swallow, blinking back tears. “So I guess I’ll just see you at school.”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

“Bye.” I look at my phone and see that he already ended the call.

Why does this hurt so bad? I knew Mateo and I were nothing more than friends who had sex, but I thought he’d still like me as a friend even if we weren’t having sex. But instead he called me a pain in the ass. Ted calls me that too.

I leave my room and head to the front door.

“Where you going?” Ted yells.

“Out!” I yell back. “And I don’t know when I’ll be home!”

Maybe never. I hate living here. I hate Ted. I hate my life. Living on the streets is starting to not sound so bad.

When I get outside, I see Easton’s Jeep is still here. I stop and stare at it as tears slide down my cheeks. Easton looks up from his phone and sees me. He jumps out of the Jeep and comes over to me.

“What happened?” he says, looking panicked when he sees my tears.

I wipe them away and shake my head. “Nothing.”

He pulls me into his arms, hugging me against his chest. “Let’s get out of here.”

I nod. I’d rather be any place than here. And if I had to pick anyone on earth to be with right now, it’d be Easton.

18

Easton

“Feeling better?”I ask Nova as she finishes her ice cream. I took her out for ice cream because I didn’t know what else to do to make her feel better. When I saw her walk out of her building with tears running down her face, I asked her what was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me. She still hasn’t, but at least she’s not crying anymore, and I got her to smile when I took her to the ice cream place we went to when we were kids. It’s not the same location. It’s a chain. They have them all over. But when Nova saw the familiar red and white sign as I pulled into the parking lot, I got her to smile.

“That was really good,” she says, ignoring my question. “I forgot how much I like those sundaes.”

“You want another one?”

“No. I can’t eat any more.”

“What do you want to do next?”

“Easton, you don’t have to do this. You should go home.”

“Maybe I don’t want to go home.”

“I don’t know what else to do.”

“Want to go to a movie?”

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