Page 21 of Lonely Hearts Day

We both breathed heavily for a few moments before Jack broke the silence with “Are you mad at me?”

I was too preoccupied with the things that had happened upstairs to be mad at him. Besides, everyone seemed to enjoy the dares, so in the end, he’d been right to take Sage and Troy’s side.

“No,” I said.

“Then what’s wrong.”

“I don’t know. Something with Evelyn maybe? My parents are being weird. She’s being weird. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“And you asked them.”

“They said something about telling me tomorrow. They probably don’t want to ruin my party. If it would ruin the party, it must be bad, right?” My left shoulder was pressed against a game box. Judging by the size, probably Settlers of Catan or maybe Ticket to Ride.

“Don’t worry before you have to.”

“You’re right,” I said. “It’s fine. It will be fine.”

He brought me into a hug. Like my dad, I wasn’t much of a hugger, but I found myself relaxing against him. The shelves no longer dug into my side. But that meant they were probably digging into his. I reached up to feel his shoulder where it met the wood.

“Doesn’t hurt,” he said, reading my mind like he always seemed to.

“What did your text say?” I asked, repositioning my hand back around his waist.

“What?”

“The one you didn’t want to read for the game.”

“I don’t remember.”

I could read him too. “You think you can lie to me? Was it to Sage?”

“Sage? No, it was to my brother.”

“Oh, were you rude?” I asked.

He released a long breath. “It wasn’t what I said, it was that I thought everyone might make me read the text that preceded it.”

“Which was?”

“Topher being Topher.”

“And you letting him.”

“Yes.”

“What did he say?”

“He called me a derogatory term, a gay slur, and I didn’t want David to think that I felt that way too.”

“Is David gay?” I asked.

“He is. He’s out; I’m not spilling his secrets or anything.”

“What was Topher on you about this time?”

“He couldn’t find something. Thought I lost it. I don’t touch his stuff.” We were still hugging and he squeezed me tighter. Tingles spread from where his hands rested on my back all the way to the top of my head. That normally didn’t happen during Jack hugs.

I took a step back, out of his hold. “How many minutes do you think it’s been?”