Page 54 of Icarus

“You bake?”

“Occasionally,” Icarus replied, closing his eyes against the steam from his cup. “And if I’m already baking, why not bake for you?”

Julian sniffed it and peered at him curiously.

Icarus realized that he hadn’t brought Julian a fork at the same time he turned around in his seat and started eating it with his hands.

“Good work, man,” he said, between sticky bites. “They’ll make a homemaker out of you yet.”

Icarus snickered and then took a sip of his own drink. “You never told me you and Luca were cousins.”

Julian shrugged without looking back at him. “It would literally never come up in conversation. I wouldn’t have even known you guys were friends if he hadn’t been all ‘Icarus this Icarus that oooo Icarus’ at my aunt’s birthday party last month.”

“Luca does what he wants, mostly. I’m surprised he mentioned me at all,” Icarus said resolutely.

Julian snorted. “Don’t I know it. I did help clean up the other night. In case you were wondering.”

“Thanks.”

Julian shook his head. “Pshh. Don’t thank me for him. It’s not your house.” He placed the empty Tupperware container on Icarus’s desk.

“Really ace, Icarus. You could sell those.” He licked his fingers loudly, not even flinching when Axel next to them hissed “gross” under his breath.

“Mmm. Maybe one day.”

Plum

Icarus’s heart kicked up as he walked through the hallways. He passed other people, sliding between them efficiently so they never touched, weaving through the crowd toward gym, toward Luca.

A hand reached through the rabble and clasped his, pulling him in another direction, and he didn’t have to look to know it was Celestina. He knew the shape of her now.

Luca materialized like magic, like he’d been waiting, and joined them. He and Celestina parted the crowd together, dragging him with them to the side door and out into the cold.

Neither of them said anything. Luca looked determined, and Celestina looked worried. Icarus didn’t complain like he usually did, though his eyes did dart between them.

They pulled him off school property, across the baseball fields and into the surrounding woods. Deep enough into the forest that it was quiet and private. The leaves crunched beneath their shoes. They were still frosted this deep in.

Celestina stopped walking where the trees were the thickest, then turned to him.

“What happened after we left?”

Icarus shrugged one shoulder, uncomfortable. “He came home. He hasn’t said anything, so I don’t think he noticed. I cleaned up everything, wiped the floor—”

“Are we allowed to touch you again?” Luca interrupted, urgently.

Icarus sighed and looked up at the canopy of branches above them.

“I just got overwhelmed, Luca. I was feeling . . . It’s not your fault, it’s mine.”

Luca shook his head. “I asked my mom about it and she said that people should ask after someone tells you no the first time.”

Icarus closed his eyes for a moment at that image. Of Luca asking. Then he did something he’d never done before.

“Come here.”

Luca fell into his arms, shaking. Icarus tried to mirror Luca’s arm placement from the party. To do it right.

“I think what you had built up in your head was much worse than what’s actually happening,” Icarus said. “I’m sure it’s definitely weirder though.”