“Oh, listen to this,” Mindy said. “This couple has been stocking up on canned goods and bottled water for, like, a year now, because they’re so paranoid about the world ending.” She chewed her gum. “Holy shit, they even bought a horse and buggy. How would you even find that?”
Jake grunted. “I dunno.”
“Huh.” Mindy looked at the pictures in the article. “This says, like, when the time changes on New Year’s, computers in nuclear reactors could malfunction.” She looked at Jake. “Would it be like Chernobyl then?”
“I don’tknow.” He put his head down on the table.
“Oh my god,” Mindy said. “What if all the electricity cuts off and it’s, like, really dark everywhere?”
“Light a fucking candle then,” Jake’s voice was muffled.
Mindy set the magazine down, a look of horror on her face. “And if it’s really dark and there’s no computers, then nothing will work. You wouldn’t be able to buy anything. People would just steal then. Break into stores. Break into houses. It’ll just be chaos.”
Jake brought his head up to look at her. “Will you stop? Nothing’s going to happen. Okay? The world is not going to end.” Although, the way Jake was feeling right now, he wouldn’t mind that so much. “Just a bunch of stupid hype.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Ugh. Whatever.” He put his head back down.
Mindy looked over at him, chewing her gum. “Okay. What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” Jake’s muffled voice said.
“I don’t know why you even try to lie, but okay. Have it your way.” She looked down at the magazine. “I’m going to read you this ad until you tell me what’s wrong.” She cleared her throat. “Is your flow on the heavier side? Tampax Tampons have an absorbency—”
“Okay, stop.” Jake raised his head. “Stop, stop, stop.”
Mindy set the magazine down and waited.
“It’s just, um, the stuff with Ezra.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“Not exactly.”
“Okay? Why not?”
Jake sighed. “It’s just that there’s no point, you know? I knew he was doing all this stuff for Sean. I knew the whole time, so it’s like if I told him, I know he’s just going to do that whole ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t feel that way’ thing. And that’ll just makethings worse and really awkward in choir, when I literally sit next to the dude he’s dating.”
“They’ve hadonedate,” Mindy corrected him.
“Whatever.” Jake paused. “And I did something kind of dumb. Well, not dumb, just… well…”
Mindy looked at him, waiting. “Well?”
“We kind of, um, slept together. And I tried to make it seem like it was for him to ‘practice’ for Sean. I guess I made it seem that way really good, because that’s all it was to him. It actually meant more than that to me.” It hurt Jake’s feelings to know that Ezra had thought about Sean the whole time they were having sex. Jake wondered if that was why Ezra touched him and kissed him the way that he did. He was just pretending Jake was Sean. “I should’ve known better. I actually did know better. It’s already going to be awkward after all that stuff we did, but if I bring up feelings, that’ll just make it worse. And I care about him. I want us to stay friends. I don’t want to fuck it all up.”
“Oh. I see.”
“And I hate Sean.” Jake rubbed a hand over his face. “Before he saw the makeover you did on Ezra, he said he wouldn’t date him. He’s a shallow little prick. And Ezra can’t wear those T-shirts he makes around Sean because Sean doesn’t like them. It’s bullshit. Why should Ezra have to change who he is?”
“Well,” Mindy said, “wasn’t that kind of the whole point?”
Jake shrugged. “I guess. Yeah.”
“You know,” Mindy said, resting her chin on one hand. “I’ve actually heard from some people that Sean Campbell’s a little bit of a player. I thought I’d heard his name before when Ezra told me. He’s hooked up with some townies, and basically acted like he didn’t know them after.”
“Great. Thanks for telling me.”
