“You really think I could get a guy like that?”
“Iknowyou could get a guy like that,” she said, so delighted he went with the joke that she didn’t notice his face at first. The smile in his eyes and on his lips slowly faded, until all that was left was a soft warmth that melted her from the inside out.
And that was before he spoke.
“You’re a really good person, you know that? Best I ever knew.”
Her eyes weren’t just stinging after that.
They were actively leaking.
“Great, now I’m crying again. That’s awesome. Good job!”
“I had to say it. You’re here trying to give me the lifeIwant.”
“Anyone would want to do that, Tate.”
“Not the person Istolea life from.”
“You didn’t steal it. You borrowed it. And now you’re giving back way more than you ever took out.”
She expected a quiet nod in return. Or maybe some soft acceptance.
Instead, he threw up his hands. His head went back.
And his voice when he spoke was completely agonized.
“Oh you didnotjust say that. Why did you say that to me? NowI’mgoing to start bawling.”
“Hey, you started it! I wanted to have fun and instead you decided to tell me how all your hopes and dreams have basically died. Oh, and that you mostly feel like a big, gross dumbass, thanks to me.”
“No, not thanks to you, no that wasn’t what I was—” he started, but seemed to get so frustrated in the middle that he just stopped. He drew a line through the air with his hands, and decided to take a different tack altogether. “Okay, look, you were right. We need to have fun right now. We need to have, like, the most fun any human beings have ever had. You with me?”
“I’m with you. I’m absolutely with you.”
“Prepare yourself, girl, because fun is coming at you.”
“I’m so ready for it. Hit me with the fun,” she said.
About a second before every light in the place snapped off, with an audible clunk.
When she finally spoke, it was into the strange, still quiet that only happens in total darkness.
“I think that might have been a sign.”
“What? No way. Pitch blackness is perfect for the fun I had in mind.”
“It…it is? Because I was thinking it was more perfect for us getting butchered by the campus killer.”
“There is no campus killer,” he said, tone so sure she nearly believed it. And then he finished, completely deadpan: “The guy who got decapitated dragged that locker down onto himself.”
“There was aguywho gotdecapitated? Are you serious right now?”
“No, I’m absolutely not at all serious. I just wanted to see how high your voice would go.”
She splashed water—even though she suspected he was miles away. It was kind of hard to get a handle on his position, and not just because she couldn’t see six inches in front of her. She also suspected that he was constantly moving around now, as though the dark gave him freedom to do so. He wouldn’t suggest anything by moving suddenly closer. Or feel gross, when her eyes lit on his body.
And she knew this, because she felt the same way.
