Conrad came back into the room then, wiping his hands on his jeans. He said, “What are you talking about, Jere? Don’t you have a girlfriend?”
I looked at Jeremiah, whose cheeks were flaming. “You have a girlfriend?” I heard the accusation in my voice and I hated it. It wasn’t like Jeremiah owed me anything. It wasn’t like he belonged to me. But he always let me feel like he did.
All this time together, and he never once mentionedthat he had a girlfriend. I couldn’t believe it. I guessed I wasn’t the only one keeping secrets, and the thought made me sad.
“We broke up. She’s going to school at Tulane, and I’m staying around here. We decided there’s no point in staying together.” He glared at Conrad and then glanced back at me. “And we’ve always been off and on. She’s crazy.”
I hated the idea of him with some crazy girl, some girl who he liked enough to go back to over and over. “Well, what’s her name?” I asked.
He hesitated. “Mara,” he said at last.
The alcohol in me gave me the courage to say, “Do you love her?”
This time he didn’t hesitate. “No,” he said.
I picked at a pizza crust and said, “Okay, my turn. Conrad, truth or dare?”
He was lying on the couch facedown. “Never said I was playing.”
“Chicken,” Jeremiah and I said together.
“Jinx,” we said at the same time.
“You guys are two-year-olds,” Conrad muttered.
Jeremiah got up and started doing his chicken dance. “Bock bock bock bock.”
“Truth or dare,” I repeated.
Conrad groaned. “Truth.”
I was so pleased Conrad was playing with us, I couldn’t think of anything good to ask. I mean, therewere a million and one things I wanted to ask him. I wanted to ask him what had happened to us, if he’d ever liked me, if any of it had been real. But I couldn’t ask those things. Even through my tequila haze, I knew that much.
Instead, I asked, “Remember that summer you liked that girl who worked at the boardwalk? Angie?”
“No,” he said, but I knew he was lying. “What about her?”
“Did you ever hook up with her?”
Conrad finally lifted his head up from the couch. “No,” he said.
“I don’t believe you.”
“I tried, once. But she socked me in the head and said she wasn’t that kind of girl. I think she was a Jehovah’s Witness or something.”
Jeremiah and I busted up laughing. Jeremiah was laughing so hard, he doubled over and fell to his knees. “Oh, man,” he gasped. “That’s awesome.”
And it was. I knew it was only because he’d had about a case of beer, but Conrad loosening up, telling us things—it felt awesome. Like a miracle.
Conrad propped himself up on his elbow. “Okay. My turn.”
He was looking at me like we were the only two people in the room, and suddenly I was terrified. And elated. But then I looked over at Jeremiah, watching the two of us, and just as suddenly, I was neither.
Solemnly I said, “Nuh-uh. You can’t ask me, ’cause I just asked you. It’s the law.”
“The law?” he repeated.
“Yeah,” I said, leaning my head against the couch.
