“Mm-hmm,” he said. “I wanna know.”
“Well, you,” I told him. “You, of course.”
Luke snorted. “Liar.”
“What?” I said, and stopped tracing figure eights on his shoulder blades.
“I know it was your sister’s boyfriend,” he said. “Cal, right? The guy in that photo on your wall?”
I was quiet for a second. The picture of Cal and me, licking ice cream cones together on the Vineyard. “Yeah,” I murmured. “It was him. He was pretty cool.”
“Good-looking too,” Luke added. “Very good-looking.”
I shrugged. “I guess.”
“You guess?” Luke nestled in closer, tangled our legs together. I felt him kiss my neck. Everything went hazy.
“Your turn,” I said when I could speak again. “Who was your first crush?”
He didn’t hesitate. “You.”
This time it was me who snorted. “Very funny.”
“I was ten,” Luke went on as I resumed the figure eights. “It was at this neighborhood party, during a game of hide-and-seek. We hid together, then hung out the rest of the time. He had these great blue eyes, and my face got really hot when he laughed…”
“How do you remember stuff from when you were ten?”
Luke laugh-yawned. “I told you, C. I remember everything.”
We fell asleep not long after that. He drifted off first, then me. And the last thing I remembered was making a mental note to ask him what he’d been dreaming about, because just as my eyes shut for good, I heard him mumble, “You were wearing alligator pants.”
Our train back to Bexley was at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, but I asked our Uber driver to make a detour on the way to the station. “What are we doing here?” Luke asked as I popped open the car door, UVA’s rotunda shining in the sun. “We already…”
I ignored him, instead asking some early-bird tourists to take our picture. Luke straightened his newVIRGINIAhat before I draped my arm around his neck, and he reached up to twine our fingers together. Our photographers looked a little taken aback, but then the woman told us to smile.
I already was.
CHAPTER 31
SAGE
I knew something was up when I noticedLuke eating Cheerios for breakfast on Tuesday. I’d gotten back to school just before curfew last night, so this was my first time seeing everyone since before the weekend. Charlie sprung up from the table to give me a hug, but Luke didn’t.
“What’s this?” I asked as I sat down with my buttered bagel and gestured to his breakfast. “No omelet or pancakes? I thought cereal was beneath you.”
We made eye contact, and I wasn’t going to lie…he looked sort of sad. “Chef’s block,” he replied, and gave me a smile. But it wasn’t genuine. Something was definitely wrong. I debated shooting him a quick text, but a familiar voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Hey, you mind if I join?”
I looked up to see the newly single Nicholas Carmichael standing there, waiting for us to say yes before taking a seat.It was bad, Nina had texted our group chat this weekend.He took her to Captain Smitty’s and she started crying.Then Reese had chimed in with:And apparently she’d already bought a dress for Mort’s Valentine’s thing…
“By all means.” I smiled, heart beating faster, and the flock nodded in agreement.
“Thanks,” he replied, and sat next to me. Our shoulders brushed before he sliced into his stack of pancakes. “Oh man, you’re so right, Luke,” he said after swallowing. “These are epic with cinnamon!”
“So it was good?” I whispered during architecture. “You guys had fun?” Charlie and I were in the middle of sketching out our latest project: a town building that incorporated elements from the Victorian style. It was due at the end of the week.
“I’d say that’s an accurate statement,” he whispered back, flipping his pencil over to erase a crooked line. “Considering Luke said he never wanted to leave.”
