“Okay, okay,” he said, relenting. “I’ll do it. I’ll go.” He huffed. “But is that it? After I spy on him for a while, am I supposed to stay there for the rest of the night?”
Tag avoided the question. He just gave Manik a fist bump and said, “Don’t forget to text the chat as soon as you know.”
Tag had created a group chat right before we’d left King’s Court, and I hadn’t thought much of it. But now…with Zoe and Maya staying behind in Hubbard and Manik striking out on his own operation, it was like Tag had considered us getting separated during the night.
Alex let out a slow whistle once Manik had disappeared. “That sucks,” he said, then turned upbeat. “But hey, now it’s officially the A team!”
My shoulders slumped.Zoe,I woefully thought. Wherewas she? Shehadto have gotten Maya back to their dorm by now, right? Because selfishly, I needed her. Tag, Alex, and I might’ve been the A team once, but we weren’t anymore. And there was suddenly no way I could handle spending the rest of the night with Tag without a buffer. He and I had fallen back into reading each other’s rhythms as predicted, butnow? After what had happened with Bunker? Pretending to be together? Holding his hand, if only for a moment?
It hurt, like I always knew it would.
TEN
Tag and Alex took the steps two at a time down the hill’s stone stairway, but I lagged behind to send a private text to Zoe. She’d messaged me while Tag and I’d been playing Romeo and Juliet.Did you hide Clue #2?
Yes, but not without some complications,I typed back.Apparently Daniel felt the need for a late-night stroll…
Wait, he’s on a walk right now?Zoe asked, along with(Maya says WHAT?!?!).
I filled Zoe in as I blindly bounded down the stairs, then she did the same. “Zoe and Maya made it back okay,” I told the guys once I’d joined them. “Maya’s still down for the count, though.”
“God, what did sheeat?” Alex said.
“Zoe said she’ll try to meet up with us soon,” I told Tag. “She wants Maya to fall asleep first.” Maya had a single, but little did their aloof housemaster know that Zoe was in there all the time.
Tag nodded and said, “She’s a really good girlfriend.”
We looked at each other for a moment.And you were a champion boyfriend, I wanted to say, my heart aching.During the best and worst times.
One of the worst was junior fall. My mom and Josh had gone away for a long weekend. We’d agreed I was old enough to stay home, because I would befarfrom alone (the neighbors would find excuses to check in on me). “But I think I’m sick,” I’d whispered to Tag during our nightly FaceTime. “My throat…”
I’d woken up the next morning with what I knew was strep. When I looked in the mirror and opened my mouth wide, you could see the bulbous red bumps.Go to the infirmary!my friends said, but I didn’t. Why would I trade my own house for blank walls and starchy sheets? Instead, I hauled all my blankets downstairs and made a nest on the couch.
And after putting on a face for Headmaster Bickford, the DeLucas, and even Ames’s married biology teachers, the doorbell rang yet again. “I brought fudgesicles!” Tag said, as if he knew I planned on ignoring any other visitors. “Ice cream’s a legit remedy…or so says the internet!”
Then he just walked through the door, shucked off his jacket, and joined me on the couch. “Smoosh.” I swallowed, my eyes welling up with tears. It hurt to talk. “I feel like a flaming pile of fucking shit.”
“But my oh my, do youlookradiant!” Tag grinned impishly and pulled me into his arms, cuddling me close before I settled my head on his lap and started sobbing. He kissed the top of myhead and then slid his hand up my grandfather’s old fisherman cable cardigan to rub slow circles on my back. “Close your eyes, Hopscotch,” he said like a hypnotist. “Close your eyes and—”
A beeping noise cut him off. His glucose sensor. “Perfect timing,” he mumbled, and I felt him shift so he could pull his insulin pump from his pocket to check his blood sugar. “Too low,” he said after he’d silenced the device. “I need something to boost it.”
“Gatorade’s in the back of the fridge,” I said. Neither my mom nor I drank the stuff, but we kept the house stocked for Tag.
“Cool Blue?” he asked.
“Of course,” I answered as he carefully slid out from under me. “Because you’re the coolest.”
Tag laughed and took my hand.
“You’ll come back?” I murmured hazily.
“When have I ever not?” he murmured back, raising our laced fingers to kiss the inside of my wrist. It sent sweet shivers through me. “And why would I ever stop?”
Because I told you to, I thought now. Only several months later, I’d told him to stop coming back, or coming in general. I could feel him pulling away and wanted to protect myself.
“So…” Alex ventured once the three of us had started walking. “What’s next?”
“Sculpture sanctuary,” Tag said right as I deadpanned, “Dropping the act.”
