“Good, because if I was the last to know that my two best friends were hooking up, I’d be pretty damn pissed,” Jae eyed us seriously.
Best friend.
“What’s with the face?” Jae smiled, pointing at me.
I schooled my expression to my usual scowl and Enoch spent a moment scrutinizing my expression as well.
“I thought we established this is just my face,” I said with an eye roll.
“No, no. You weresmiling. Don’t tell me you were thinking about Nox naked.”
I kicked him in the shin from across the table, telling him to shut the fuck up, but he managed to dodge it. I guess I was getting predictable with my violent outbursts.
“Then what were you smiling about?”
I glanced at Enoch to see that he was just as interested in my response. I’d never actually thought about sleeping with Enoch, but now that they put the thought in my head my mind was conjuring up images that it probably shouldn’t.
“I was smiling,” I said, shaking away the thoughts of what it’d be like to kiss Enoch, “because you called me your best friend.”
“Oh,” Jae chuckled. “Well, duh.”
I couldn’t help but smile to myself, especially when Enoch threw his arm over my shoulder and hugged me.
“You’ve known me for like a month. I didn’t realize I’d moved up to the best friend category so fast.”
“It feels like I’ve known your grumpy ass forever,” Jae teased. “But we love you, insults and severe case of RBF too.”
I must have made a face at theI love youpart because he dropped his fork and pinned me with a stare.
“Friends can say they love each other, too. Just let us love you, alright? It’s part of the friendship code and whatever it is you and Nox are doing behind closed doors.”
Enoch threw a chip at Jae’s head.
“And to think, if I hadn’t sucked at math, we never would’ve been friends,” Enoch said, giving my shoulder a squeeze before letting his arm drop back to his side.
I found myself thinking about what my life would have looked like if we hadn’t met. After the death of my brother, Enoch and Jae had been keeping me from drowning in grief. Maybe if my brother was still alive, I would’ve been a better friend, not just using them as a crutch to keep reality from rotting me from the inside out. If I wasn’t committing crimes behind their backs, I would’ve spent the rest of the school year with them. Maybe we could’ve stayed in touch after graduation, met up somewhere in the future wherever they end up.
But no. They wouldn’t want to be friends if they really knew me. Knew all the secrets I was burying and pretending didn’t exist. Sooner or later, I’d have to cut ties to protect us all. I was leaving, either to marry some pastor or to whatever hell Carlos had in store for me if I didn’t. I was just too selfish to not pretend for a little longer that I deserved a place in their life. Deserved to be someone’s best friend. Deserved to be loved by good human beings.
I tuned back into the conversation that Enoch and Jae were having when I heard Enoch mention something about going overseas.
“But it’d be cool to go back and actually see where I was born,” Enoch said between bites.
“Wait, where were you born?” I asked.
There was a moment of silence as Jae and Enoch shared a look before he responded.
“Japan. That’s where our parents met actually,” he motioned between Jae and himself. “Our dads were in the same unit while they were stationed in Okinawa. My dad came home for the holidays one year with him and that’s where he met my mom. Jae’s dad is my mom’s brother.”
“Oh, right,” I nodded. “I think you told me that you only moved here at the start of high school. Where else did you live before that?”
“Well, we moved every few years. We were only in Japan until I was one and then we were in the States. And we didn’t get stationed abroad again before my dad retired.”
I nodded, now understanding why he wanted to go back.
“Wait, but your mom is Korean, not Japanese right?” I asked Jae, feeling a little confused.
“Yeah,” Jae said with a smile. “My mom and my sperm-donor are both Korean. My dad was stationed in South Korea for a year and that’s where he met my mom. And me. I was only two when they met and they married within three months of knowing each other. I don’t remember anything about my sperm-donor except what my mom has told me. I’m glad I don’t though. My dad is Quintin. End of story.”
