I turned my gaze away from Gabe, expecting to see some dude meeting his girlfriend or something. But instead Vic was standing at our table. His eyes drifted down to my hand, still on Gabe’s forearm.
‘Hey!’ Gabe pulled away and stood. He kissed Vic, and I took the time to drink my soda, my mouth suddenly very dry. ‘You done studying already?’
‘We’re taking a food break.’ Vic motioned to the group of college-aged students by the front door waiting to be seated. They all stared at the three of us. ‘What are you doing here? You said you had a film project you were working on.’
‘Yeah!’ Gabe pointed at me. ‘You remember Tommy, right?’
‘Of course.’ But there was more than that in his ‘of course’. His voice made it sound like,Of course, he’s the guy who kissed my boyfriend. But what he actually said was, ‘Nice to see you again.’
That was clearly a lie, because his face definitely didnotsay he was very happy to see me again. When he had told me not to kiss his boyfriend, apparently he’d also meantdon’t touch his arm and share the same booth with him, either.
‘Tommy is applying to culinary school, so I’m helping him make a video for his application.’
Vic continued to stare at me. ‘What kind of culinary school requires a video application?’
I shook my head. ‘They don’t require it. It’s a hard school to get into, so I’m trying to stand out.’
‘I’m sure your grades will do that, too,’ Vic said. He gave a fake smile that would make even Natalie jealous.
Before I could say anything else, Ava returned.
‘Vic!’ She slung her arms over Vic’s and Gabe’s shoulders, pushing them apart. ‘Good to see you again!’
I turned my attention to the fries in front of us, taking one and biting into it. But it didn’t help my nausea at all. Vic, Ava and Gabe were talking, but all I heard was the pounding blood in my ears.
Finally, Vic said, ‘Oh, looks like we’re being seated. Babe, are you done? Why don’t you join us?’
‘Um.’ Gabe looked at me as Ava took her seat across the table. He seemed to think for a moment. And it really was only a moment, but for that moment I thought he’d stay. I thought he’d tell Vic he’d meet up with him later and sit back down. But instead, he said, ‘Yeah, I think we’re all set, right?’
‘Yep, go ahead,’ I said. ‘I’ll talk to you at work about when we can film.’
‘Okay.’ He grabbed his stuff, packing it all away in his backpack. Then he said goodbye – something Vic hadn’t bothered doing – and joined Vic and his study buddies at another table.
‘You good?’ Ava asked.
‘Not even a little bit.’
‘Yeah, let’s get the check.’ She locked eyes with our server and nodded. I put cash on the table for the tip, and Ava went up to the counter to pay the bill.
For most of the car ride home we were completely silent, the music turned low. All that excitement was ruined by Vic. It was so easy to forget about him when he wasn’t around because Gabe never talked about him. But then he was so quick to leave us and go hang out with Vic’s friends.
Why did Vic have to show up?
Ava gasped in the passenger seat.
‘What?’ I asked.
But she didn’t answer me. She was staring at her phone. My mind started to race with possibilities. Maybe Gabe texted her by mistake when he meant to text me – or it was an accidental group text – and he said he broke up with Vic after they got in a fight. Or maybe Vic went back to his studying and Gabe was asking to hang out again. Or maybe there was an alien attack on Moscow and we needed to get underground.
‘What?’ I yelled again. ‘Tell me – you’re freaking me out.’ I was also not paying attention while I was driving, so when we reached a nursery on the side of the road I pulled into the empty parking lot.
Ava’s eyes just kept darting back and forth across her phone. And that’s when I started getting nervous. Maybe it was something worse. Worse than waking up one Sunday morning to her entire family in her house, except for her mom and dad. And her uncle telling her there’d been a car accident.
But when she spoke, the worry in my chest lifted immediately.
‘Johns Hopkins. I got in.’
I was silent for a moment, stunned. Then I cheered and she startled before giving me a smile. I reached across the center console and pulled her into a hug.
