“Okay,” I said. “I love you, Oma.”
“I love you too, Darius.”
GRAVITON DENSITY
Our first playoff was against Riker High School, about an hour south of Portland.
Even though I knew it wasn’t named after Commander William T. Riker, I hoped theStar Trekreference was a good sign for our chances of victory.
The tension between me and Chip had resulted in a gravitational shift in the team: not in how we played, but in who talked to who, who stood where in Circle, who jogged next to each other during warm-ups.
Chip had started jogging alone, keeping his head down, and though he still played as hard as ever, he didn’t have that grin of his anymore.
I did that.
I took away Chip’s smile.
I wondered if I was hurting him or me more, not trying to mend our friendship. But the longer it went, the harder it became to even bring up the subject. There was a shield between us, building in graviton density with each passing day.
I had taken to jogging next to James during warm-ups. It turned out that, in addition to being into technical theater, he was also into Dungeons & Dragons andStar Wars.
I wasn’t really a fan ofStar Wars. I didn’t not-like it, but it didn’t do anything for me. Not really.
Still, it was nice talking with another nerd. James was a cool guy, though he had the absolute worst luck in dating, which hetold me all about when he wasn’t debating means of faster-than-light travel, and whether hyperdrive or warp drive was faster.
(Given that the theoretical limit of warp drive was infinite velocity—something that was only achieved once, in this weird episode ofVoyagerwhere Captain Janeway and Lieutenant Paris ended up mutating into weird salamander things after breaking the transwarp threshold—I didn’t see how hyperdrive could possibly be faster.)
“Hey,” James said as we stretched our calves before the game. “Can I ask you something kind of personal?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“You and your boyfriend were together for like three months, right?”
“Four.”
“Did you two ever... uh...”
James had really pale skin, so when he blushed, it was super obvious.
My own face reddened in sympathy.
“Dude.”
“It’s just, I don’t know... when’s the right time?”
I shrugged.
“Don’t ask me. We never did anything other than kissing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I swallowed the frog trying to hop its way out of my esophagus. “Landon wanted to. But I wasn’t ready.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry I can’t help.”
“No!” He smiled, and his shoulders unclenched. “That actuallyhelps a lot. Me and Katie, we haven’t done anything yet either. Except kissing. I was just worried, I guess.”
