“And rice,” he says, before moving back into the tube.
I pretend to hesitate before following him in, sitting closer to the entrance, still a bit worried I’ll break it.
It’s not as dark in the tube as I thought it would be, but it is smaller than I expected. I have to slide down slightly in order to fit.
Terrell, on the other hand, has to duck, seeing as he’s taller. When I’m in, he moves closer to me, hitting his head, which makes me snort.
There’s a shimmer on his hoodie that catches my eye. A metallic green alien print in the middle of the hoodie.
It’s weird, the alien kind of looks like him.
“Told you I’d convince you to come in,” he says in a low voice.
“I came in because I wanted to,” I say, which isn’t entirely true. A part of me probably likes being in such close proximity to Terrell. Besides, he was right, it was kind of cold outside the tube.
“Who’s full of shit now?” he says.
“Still you,” I tell him, shivering again.
We fall into a comfortable silence. I try not to think about bad things, like Aces or college or Andre. I try not to think about how this time two weeks ago, I wasn’t worried about being kicked out of school. I was probably at Dre’s. Happy. Instead I block those thoughts. I think I’ve cried in front of Terrell one too many times today.
I glance at him. He’s resting his chin on one of his knees now, looking up at me. When he catches me staring, he smiles.
“Are you cold?” he asks.
“Kind of,” I finally admit.
He sits up, banging his head once again, which causes him to swear under his breath. I watch with warm cheeks as he pulls his hoodie off and tosses it to me.
“Wear this,” he says.
I take the hoodie, pulling it on over my school shirt and tie. It’s warm and comfortable and feels like I have a big blanket wrapped around me.
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
I move a little closer, away from the cold entrance.
“You know what’s weird?” Terrell says softly.
“What?”
“I’m claustrophobic,” he whispers.
I furrow my eyebrows together. “Then why did you want to come in here?”
“Didn’t think it through,” he says, looking a little anxious. I watch him lie back, sticking his head out the other end of the tube. It kind of reminds me of the way dogs stick their heads out of car windows.
“Freedom!” he says with an exaggerated tone.
Like earlier, when I tried to ignore all the bad things, now I tryto ignore the exposed skin on Terrell’s torso. I focus on the ceiling of the tube.
Terrell decides he has had enough air and sits up, and I can focus on his face again. I notice some leaves stuck in his dreads now and burst out laughing.
“You have leaves in your hair,” I tell him.
He reaches up and tries to brush them off to no avail, and so I reach forward and help.
