Page 91

“Uh,” I say. I look at his face, and then I nod. “Yeah.”

Rafe laughs once through his nose, stands up, and leaves the table without a word. Nash keeps looking at me, and I don’t know what to do but look back, until the waitress saves me by handing us laminated menus. I hide behind mine.

It’s loud in here. The waitress has to ask the girls to repeat their orders twice. The conversation at this table is just the girls; the guys don’t include themselves. I sit at the end and eat my fries and don’t say much, which is not like me, but every time I look up, he’s looking at me. Not in a creepy way. Like he’s trying to figure something out. About every two minutes, his eyes come across the table and find me and stay a second before they go back to his food.

The fourth time, I catch him on purpose, and he doesn’t look away. He holds it for a second and a half with his arm along the back of that bench in my eleven-dollar palm tree shirt, and then somebody says his name and he turns to answer them, and my whole stomach turns over.

We leave at nine-thirty. It’s cold outside, and everybody is heading in the same direction, towards Corvin, which is nice. The girls pretend they want dessert, and it turns into a two-minute argument on the sidewalk. Nash comes out last with a hoodie on over my shirt and walks over to me.

“Hey,” he says, glancing at the girls. “Ready to walk back?”

“Ice cream!” Paige announces.

Nash looks at Koda, then at me. “Do you want ice cream?”

I shake my head.

He starts walking. I look at Paige, who mouths, Go. I catch up to him, and we walk the whole way back without saying a word.

20

Everybody Apparently Means Everybody

Nash

Greeley throws a party on Saturday and puts it in the team chat at four in the afternoon.

Greeley: House. 10. Everybody.

Greeley: And I mean everybody.

Five guys react within a minute. Rafe reads it on his phone and says, “No.”

I agree by not saying anything.

He drops onto his bed and holds up four fingers. “Four days ago he put a stick across your back, and now he’s got a handshake emoji and an invitation for the whole team.” He shakes his head. “I thought I had problems. You thinking about going?”

“I’m not.”

But I already know that if I don’t show up, it becomes a story. Kennebeck doesn’t come around anymore. Two weeks from now, when Berwyn’s deciding who runs a line, half that room will have spent two weeks absorbing the idea that I’m the guy who doesn’t participate.

Koda walks in without knocking. “You read the text?”

I nod.

“I’d love to just shove my skate so far up his—”

There’s a knock on the door.

“Who the fuck is that?” Rafe says.

Koda grins and opens it. “Paige, baby.” He leaves it open while he asks where she’s going.

“Why is she knocking on our door?” Rafe says, annoyed.

Paige steps in. “Hi, Rafe.” He doesn’t look at what she’s wearing, but I do, because it looks like she’s going somewhere, and if she is, Kylie is too. “I’m down here waiting for Kylie,” Paige says, “and I saw Koda walk in, so I’m saying hi.”

“Paige?” Kylie calls from somewhere outside the door.