I smirked. “I mean, it’s notthatbad a show…”
“Thatbad?” Connor smiled; I could hear it in his voice, and it honestly gave me butterflies. “Mads, it’s a melodramatic masterpiece.” He started shaking his head—again, I could tell because I knew him so well. “Allons-y, allons-y, allons-y!” he teased.
“Start assembling the snacks,” I told him, pulse picking up. “I’ll be over in ten minutes.”
***
The McCallister household had always been a safe space to express your feelings. Both Connor and Liam had never been afraid to share anything with their family. I’d been sitting at their kitchen island the day Liam came home from sixth grade and announced that he had a crush on a guy from his math class. “What’s his name?” Mr. McCallister asked, not fazed in the slightest. Connor was like that, too. He’d outright told his mother about losing his virginity only hours after it’d happened. “What?” he said when I’d gawked at him. “She asked what I did this afternoon!”
So, neither effort nor tact was required to get him to tell me about Lauren. He already had Netflix queued up on the basement’s gigantic seventy-four-inch flat-screen; I simply flopped down next to him on the couch, grabbed some peanut-butterpretzels, and then crunched and munched for a few seconds before he said, “I can’t really pinpoint who broke up with who, but we’re definitely done.”
“I’m sorry,” I half lied.
“Nice try,” he replied, then affectionately elbowed me. “You hated her, but sure, we can pretend otherwise.”
I laughed. “Did something happen? Or did things just run their course?”
“Both.” He sighed. “I found out she’s been cheating on me—”
“What?!” I gasped.
“Yep.” He nodded. “For a couple weeks now.”
“With who?” I asked, incredulous. Connor McCallister wasConnor McCallister. No girl in her right mind would risk wrecking that relationship.
“Robbie Nielson, funnily enough,” Connor said. “The guy you wouldn’t stop sucking face with outside the gym.”
“Huh.” I comically scratched my head. “That name doesn’t really ring a bell…”
Connor smirked. That night, Robbie and I’d only jumped apart when we heard a chorus of laughter, whistles, and catcalls. We’d turned to see people pouring out of the gym. My face had gone up in flames, and I’d contemplated making a run for it until Connor had pushed out of his pack of lacrosse guys and walked over to offer Robbie a fist bump. “Dude, Mads Fisher-Michaels? Well done!”
They pounded, and as if on cue, his teammates erupted intoapplause. It had been beyond sexist, but I’d thanked Connor for defusing the situation.
“Anyway, I’m sorry,” he said now. “He and Lauren pretty much started hooking up right after you guys…”
“No, it’s fine.” I shook my head. “He told me that it was a casual thing. He said he thought I was cool, but he liked someone else.”
“Well, that’s shitty.” Connor’s brow furrowed. “Were you upset?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I thought he was a nice guy—until now, obviously—but I wasn’t bummed or anything.” I dropped my voice to a whisper, as if we weren’t the only two in the basement. “I also needed to get Jacob Bluestein out of my system.”
“You guys kissed?” he asked.
I nodded.
“How was it?”
“Wet,” I said. “Imagine making out with Arthur or Francine.”
Connor scrunched up his face, and I laughed.
“So basically, you and Lauren broke up because of her cheating?” I asked after we’d snuggled up under one of Mrs. McCallister’s chunky knitted blankets. The AC had kicked on, and it always turned the basement into a meat locker.
“I guess,” he said. “I mean, of course. I never want to be a sidepiece or turn into someone’s sidepiece; I want to be the light of her life.” He winked.
My heart twinged, then twisted.Maybe you could be the light ofmylife,I thought.
Because even through his high-maintenance girlfriends, Connor had always been there for me. He made me smile, he made me laugh, and he made me feel seen, heard, and safe.
