Page 23 of Okay, Cupid

I shake my head. “Must’ve gotten lost in the mail.”

He laughs; it’s a soft sound. “I’m Huy, by the way.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You know?”

Dammit.

“I mean, I, uh … I heard Coach say your name.” Even though I think he only called Huy by his last name. Still, he doesn’t seem to notice.

“Right, right.” He crosses his arms, leaning against the cool metal of the locker.

“I’m Jude.”

“I know,” he says with a smile. “I heard Coach say your name.”

“I am sorry,” I say. “For what it’s worth. Which might not be much.”

“I’ll have to talk to my accountant, but I think we’re square.” He smiles at me again, the look on his face so tender.

I can’t stop the blush that creeps up on my cheek. Huy pats me on the shoulder as he walks past me and out of the locker room. My eyes follow him, watching him until he vanishes around the corner.

And, for some reason, I can’t stop myself from smiling.

• • •

There is pride on Cal’s face as I recount my entire day to him.

He hangs on to every single word as I convey every detail to him. He’d been texting me all day, but after I saw a girl get her phone taken in algebra, I decided against checking it entirely. So I couldn’t reply to any questions he had until I was on the bus back home, and by that point, we just decided to go to NaYa, this delicious Thai dessert café on Geary.

Cal was all too happy to accept the invite.

“And they really use lockers!” I tell him. “I thought that was just a thing for movies or whatever. But no, they actually use them!”

He sips on his yuzu soda. “Wow. And you just, like, went to class and sat there?”

I nod, stealing the soda from him. “It’s weird, but, like … I guess it’s okay. I have to run to my last period, though. And I have so much homework.”

“But it went well? Like actually talking to the two of them?”

“Yeah, I think so. Alice is kind of … difficult? She’s got some walls up. And Huy …” I pause, wondering what words might come next.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know, actually.” I play with the straw. “He’s trans.”

“That’s cool.” Cal hesitates. “Right?”

I love Cal, and, yeah, he’s queer, but he’s a very cis brand of queer. He doesn’t get the idea that even just meeting another trans person can be an experience.

“He’s nice,” I say. “Let me borrow his gym clothes.”

“Gym? So that explains your plain face.”

“It’s fine—we just ran a lot today.” I slide the soda back toward him. “Talk to me after we get to the weight-lifting part.”

“You’re seriously going to do it?”