“Oh, trust me, Iknowyou fell asleep.” Luke laughed. “Because when I said, ‘Look behind us,’ I got no response.”
“What was behind us?”
Luke adjusted his backward hat. “This girl and her boyfriend were taking advantage of being in the back row.”
“Gross.” I rolled my eyes, but was really thinking,Maybe Nick and I should do that.
“It was,” he confirmed. “Especially because we know them.”
I stopped walking. “We do?”
“We do.”
“Who was it?”
“I’ll give you an excerpt from their conversation, okay?”
I nodded.
Luke cleared his throat and then said in ano time for this shitvoice, “‘God, this is so boring. All they’re doing is standing there rambling in goofy outfits, while the narrator rambles over them…’” He switched into an impression of someone else. “‘Yeah, Val, that’s Wes Anderson’s style.’” The annoyance returned, but then softened after a sigh. “‘Well sorry, but I’mway moreinterested inyouthan Wes Anderson…’”
I cringed.
“Andthen,” Luke added, “they started packing it on.”
He seemed completely unaffected by the whole thing, but I still took his hand and squeezed it. “Do you think they saw us?” I asked.
Luke shook his head and twined our fingers together before we resumed walking. “I doubt it. They snuck out with ten minutes left.”
Well, if he’s not going to dwell on it, neither will I, I decided as I started swinging our arms back and forth. Luke laughed and raised his high so I could twirl underneath it.
“Am I as good as Tate?” I joked, since apparently Charlie’s cousinloved dancing with Luke when he babysat. (“Always to Disney,” he’d told us.)
“It’s a tight race.” Luke smiled, just as someone called out: “Hey, Sage! Is that you?”
Uh-oh.
Luke and I both turned to see Val and Charlie. She now seemed anything but bored, clinging to his arm with it being impossible to miss her puffy lips. Meanwhile, Charlie was self-consciously trying to smooth down his standing-on-end hair. I glanced at Luke; his poker face was alive and well.
I plastered on a pleasant smile. “Hi, Val.”
“What did you guys see?” Charlie asked, without bothering to say hello.
“The new Wes Anderson,” Luke said nonchalantly.
Charlie’s face drained of color, and he shifted from one foot to the other, but Luke stared him down and Val didn’t bat an eye. Instead, she smiled at Luke and said, “Have you met Tristan Andrews, Luke?”
My heart skipped a beat the same way it had last week, when it had spread around campus that Luke was gay. Like wildfire. “I promise I didn’t say anything,” I’d whispered when he sat down for lunch that day at our usual table, everyone pretending not to stare at him.
“Oh, I know,” he’d said calmly. “Because it was me. Relax. I’m the source.”
“When?” I asked, shifting in my seat. “Where?”
He sighed. “It was in Spanish, and the topic of our discussion was…” He made air quotes. “‘Your ideal significant other,’ and I usedel,the male pronoun, when describing mine.” He shrugged. “I guess people reallydopay attention in that class. Because up until today, it certainly didn’t seem like it.”
Now, instead of pining for him, Nina was begging to know his first crush and who he thought was cute on campus. Reese too. “Tristan Andrews?” they asked hopefully, since he was really Bexley’s only other openly gay guy.
“Yes,” Luke told Val. “I know Tristan. He was in the musical with Carmichael.” He nodded at Charlie, whose face had gone from pale to translucent.
