I scrolled on my phone and stumbled upon James’s profile picture. His head was bowed while he turned a vape pen on. He wore a white shirt, accentuating his fit body. Why’d the outside of him have to be so beautiful while the inside of him was so hard to understand?
I opened Will’s chat. No new messages. I didn’t know what to think. James had talked about friendship.
What if he was right? What if it was because of Will?
Finally, I fell into a tormented slumber.
The next day, I woke with a start. I’d slept so badly that I felt even more tired than I had last night. I walked downstairs reluctantly. James’s scent diffused across the living room made the our chat resurface in my mind.
My eyes darted to the couch. He wasn’t there anymore. But his hoodie was.
>> <<
“Will.”
I ran after him in the hall, but it didn’t look like he was slowing down.
“Hey,” he greeted me, aloof.
I stared at him furtively. “You didn’t text me yesterday.”
“Did you do it, June?”
Okay, we weren’t together, and our relationship wasn’t official, but we definitely needed to talk.
“Listen, Will, at halftime how about we—”
“James told me about last night.”
William stopped paying attention to the books in his locker and turned toward me. I sensed his regret.
“I’m sorry if I put you in danger.” He sighed remorsefully. So then he wasn’t mad?
I told him what happened. A feeling of lightness, almost relief, washed over me when Will said, “He told me that he slept over at your house.”
“Yeah. He slept downstairs on the couch.”
“You don’t have to go into detail.”
The ice had just frozen over in his eyes, and I sensed a clear uneasiness in him.
“No, no. Of course, I know—”
As upset as we both were because of the incident with Austin, I noticed that this was creating tension between Will and me. Maybe I should’ve given him an explanation; after all, I’d called his best friend, not him.
“Will, after what you told me last night, you were shaken up, and I didn’t want to worry you even more. That’s why I called James and—”
“Where the fuck is Marvin? Why isn’t he at school?”
Jackson’s baritone echoed through the half-empty corridor.
“What’s going on?”
Will’s expression immediately changed when his friend came up to him and whispered something in his ear. Then a voice came from the speakers.
“Hunter and Cooper, in the principal’s office. Now.”
“Fuck,” yelled Jackson, clenching his jaw as he fiddled with his lip piercing with his teeth.
