Well, y’know, without a mirror.
I watched their faces. Grayson was scowling, but he didn’t say anything, a fact I attributed to Alec staring him down. Nat was trying for blank, but they looked sad, which sort of felt like a gut punch. Lindsey was holding Rhonda’s hand, and Rhonda nodded at me.
“If—” Grayson started. Alec shifted in his seat beside me.
Grayson held up his hand. “I wasn’t going to argue. I was just going to say if you change your mind, we’ve got your back. You do what you gotta do to be happy.”
Whoa. For Grayson, that was…almost deep. Alec leaned back in his chair, no doubt just as surprised as I was.
“Okay,” Nat said, when no one else spoke up. “I reached out to the other GSAs, and they’re all pretty sure they’re down with joining us for a party, including Central.”
We batted around a few more ideas, but it was obvious we’d all petered out. Nat called it a meeting.
“Okay,” I said. “Anyone want to go to Meeples?” I did my best puppy eyes. “Just for an hour, even? I do need to study tonight, too.” I had a date with both biology and calculus.
“Catan?” Lindsey said. She grinned at me. An exceptional counteroffer on her part, as she almost always won Settlers of Catan, but it meant she was in if I was willing to suffer another crippling blow to my board game ego.
Happily, I was.
“Deal,” I said. “Rhonda?” I aimed my eyes her way, full-puppy.
“Sure,” Rhonda said, like I knew she would. Rhonda didn’t care that Lindsey always won, which was probably one of the things that made their relationship so amazing.
“You guys have fun,” Alec said, heading off the invitation.
“But lattes,” I said. “Mocha lattes with almond shots. And date squares. And lemon bars.”
He wavered. I had him, and I knew it. I would feel bad about it, but I was too busy relishing the triumph. I wanted all my favorite people around me. And maybe even Grayson, too.
“Grayson? Nat?” Lindsey asked. “There’s a six-player expansion.”
“You had me at lemon bars,” Grayson said.
“I’m down for caffeine,” Nat said. “But I’ll just watch. Candice is awesome, and we should support our local allies.”
I had a moment of brilliance. “Meeples!” I said.
Everyone looked at me.
“Yes,” Grayson said. “We know. We’re all coming to your geek nest.”
“No,” I said. “We could throw the end-of-the-year party at Meeples. I’m sure Candice would let us, and we could support her with what money we could gather. She sponsored us for Pride, remember? And like Malik said, she’s got great food and stuff for the people who don’t want to play games. But the games are a great way to mingle, too, right? I mean, we had that whole ‘wall of people’ problem last year with no one really dancing for half the night. Games would get people sitting together and talking.” I saw Lindsey frowning, and thought quickly. “Not instead of dancing, though. I’m sure she’d let us clear a small spot for dancing if we wanted to.”
“And it’s not licensed,” Nat said. “So it wouldn’t mean any extra work.”
“You think the other groups would come from the city?” Grayson said. “To play board games?”
“Well,” I said, deflating a little. “It’s different. Why not? We can ask, right?” I wasn’t going to let Grayson stop me from getting excited. “I mean, there’s no harm in asking.”
Alec threw his arm around my neck. “You’re such a geek.”
“Proud of it,” I said. “Seriously, though. What do you guys think?”
Rhonda was smiling, and even Lindsey looked amenable. If I could get her to consider it, I knew we were set. She was the social heart of our group.
“It could be cool,” she said.
“At the least, I can ask Candice if she’d be willing and then float it to the other GSAs,” Nat said.
“I love all of you so much right now,” I said.
Alec tugged me in and kissed the top of my head. “C’mon,” he said. “I’ll drive.”
* * *
“I take it it went okay?”
I’d gone to the counter to put in our order—heavy on the lemon bars—and was second in line when the last voice I expected in the world spoke up right behind me. I turned.
Malik King. At Meeples.
“Turns out you were right. They’re good people,” I said.
He smiled. “I’m glad.” He looked honestly relieved, too, like he’d been worried.
“You really didn’t do anything wrong,” I said.
He did a sort of half-shrug. “I should have asked you first, instead of just going to your meeting.”
“Well,” I said, which was all I could think to say since I agreed with him. Mentally, I decided I didn’t need to fight him anymore, which was good because he could totally take me. “It worked out.”
The guy in front of me left with his coffee, and I stepped up. I rattled off my large order, and Candice rang me through. I paid up and then stepped to the side to wait for her to make all the various lattes and teas and plate all the wedges of sugar and lemon.
“I take it the lemon bars are good?” Malik said.
“They’re amazing, though I also love the date squares.”
“I get them from the same baker as Bittersweets,” Candice said, name-dropping the awesome smaller chain of fair-sourced coffee shops in Ottawa.
“Now I know what I’ll order,” Malik said.
“You should join us,” I said. “We’re playing Settlers of Catan.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Is there room for a sportsballer? I mean, this isn’t where my crowd goes, right?”
I winced. “So, that sounds terrible when you say it like that. Which is how I said it. Which means it was terrible when I said it.”
“Is it easy to learn?” he asked. “I don’t want to hold your crowd back.”
“See, now you’re making me feel even worse. Seriously. Come join us,” I said. Candice already had the bars on the plates. I picked them up, balancing them with a precarious arrangement of fingers and thumbs.
“I’ll be right there,” he said.
I carried the plates over. Lindsey was still setting up the board, building one of the larger maps.
“Do we have room for Malik to join us?” I said.
“He can totally have my spot,” Alec said.
“It can handle six,” Lindsey said. “If Nat still doesn’t want to play, there’s room.”
“I’m good,” Nat said, already biting into their lemon bar.
Candice called out the first two lattes, and I went back to the bar to get them.
“Good news,” I said to Malik. “You’re in.”
I got another raised eyebrow. I was starting to realize his raised eyebrow thing came in different kinds. This one was sort of playful. Also, I was starting to enjoy them a little too much.
To no one’s surprise, Lindsey won. But unless I was really mistaken or Malik was a phenomenal actor, he looked like he was having fun, and he scored the largest army, which put him in second place.
“Another round?” Lindsey asked, flashing her butter-wouldn’t-melt smile.
“I have to get home,” I said. “Biology.”
“Me too,” Nat said.
“They always leave first. They’re responsible,” Grayson said, leaning over to Malik. “You in?” To my surprise, he’d been pretty low-key for the game. He’d even made a few trades with Malik that weren’t entirely in his own favor. I wasn’t sure what was up with Grayson, but I liked it. He hadn’t even made a single snide comment to Alec the entire game. That had to be a record. Even better, it meant I didn’t have to smack him down in front of Malik.
“I should head out, too,” Malik said.
Grayson shook his head. “Kids today. Am I enough for you?” he asked Lindsey.
She put a hand over her heart. “You’re the only man I’ll ever need.”
“You need a ride?” Alec asked me.
“Aw, kisses. But I think I’ll walk,” I said. It was nice out.
“You good Saturday night for a movie night?” Alec said.
“All the yes.” I picked up my bag and slung it over my shoulder. “Whose turn to pick?”
“Mine,” Alec said.
That meant I was in for something sweet and romantic, most likely. You wouldn’t know it to look at the lug, but Alec was all about the feels.
“Which way are you headed?” Malik asked.
“Past the locks.”
“Do you mind if I join you?”
“Of course,” I said. “I mean yes. I mean, no, I don’t mind.” I swallowed and snapped my mouth shut before it could do any more damage. Thank God Grayson had been talking to Lindsey and Rhonda, or I’d never have lived that one down. As it was, Alec had a massive grin on his face, so I knew I’d hear about my verbal vomit later.
“Cool,” he said, grabbing his bag.
When he’d turned his back and was heading for the door, Grayson waved to get my attention. I looked at him.
He pointed at Malik’s back, then at me, then lifted both hands. It wasn’t ASL, but the meaning was pretty clear.
Dude, you and Malik? What’s up with that?
“No idea,” I mouthed, and I left them at the table.
To-Do
X Bring home calculus textbook
X Exam prep: calculus, biology
Exam prep: English (reread?)
Exam prep: French (practice exam!)
Movie night with Alec this w/e?
X Make lunch for Tuesday, slacker
X “What happened?” joke
X Laundry
Slap Malik King
Doors? DOORS! Definitely Doors.
X Alec at RC on Thursday
Hungry?
Calculus: practice derivatives
Biology: review biochem and metabolic processes
Cole the Teenage Freak
Concentrate at doors. All the doors. Every time.
Locked doors. One way?
Blood sugar? Hungry?
CARRY YOUR PHONE.
Ten
Malik had ridden his bike, but he walked it beside me.
“So what did you think of Meeples?” I said.
“Great lemon bars,” he said.
“Wait until you try the date squares.”
“And the game was fun.”
I smiled. “I’m so glad. Meeples is in my top five, so if you’d hated it, I’m not sure I’d be allowed to speak with you ever again.”
“Wow. That sounds harsh.”
“Top fives are important.”
“You have five favorite stores?” Malik said. “I don’t think I could come up with five.” He frowned, considering. “Yeah, maybe three?”
“Not stores,” I said. “Just places. Happy places. It’s a list, sort of the other half of the five places I want to go list.”
“Oh,” Malik said. “What’s number one?”
“This cabin in Sooke,” I said, without pausing to think.
“Sooke?”
“It’s in B.C. I went there on vacation once with my parents. It’s the middle of nowhere, but it was really pretty. I got to draw a lot and I got to see the ocean.”
“And Meeples is on the same list?” He sounded dubious.
“Well, it’s a list of places I’ve been, and between you and me, I haven’t been many places. Like, number two is a Deaf camp.”
That gave him pause. “Really?”
I smiled. “When I was a kid, my folks weren’t good with me being out of sight, because…” I faltered, and he gave me a nod to show he got it. Colenap. Right. Moving on. “Anyway, there’s this camp where kids who are Deaf or hard of hearing or who have Deaf or hard of hearing parents can go. That was the first time they really let me go somewhere without them, y’know? And it was pretty amazing. Like, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that comes with having my dad, and all those other kids? They got it. Everyone could sign, everyone understood deafie humor…” I looked at him, realizing I’d been blabbering again, but he didn’t look at me like I was speaking in tongues.
“I get it,” he said.
The surprise must have shown on my face, because he did the eyebrow thing again. “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been asked where I’m from?”
“Ah,” I said. There were maybe a dozen kids in our high school who weren’t white.
“Meeples is third, then?”
“Meeples is fifth,” I admitted. “Three is this diner in Ottawa, and four is the canal in winter. What about you?”
“I don’t have a list,” he said. “But I got to see a game at the SkyDome once, and that was amazing.”
“I’ve heard of that place,” I said. “They play sportsball there.”
He smiled again.
“So would that be number one?”
“You’re really into lists, aren’t you?” he said.
“Maybe you’ve noticed I’m a bit of a geek,” I said.
His lips twitched. “Maybe.”
“Well, I love lists. To-do lists, color coding, I am at one with the way of the bullet journal.”
“That sounds lethal.”
“It’s so not. It’s probably the least cool thing you can do with a notebook, but I love it.” I shrugged. I owned my nerd side. “I make lists in it of places I’ve been or places I want to go, things that give me hope, books I want to read…y’know. Lists.”
We waited for the lights to change.
“So, where do you want to go?” he asked once the light changed. “One through five.”
“Easy. Jasper, because despite my sportsball failings, I’m not entirely unskilled on a pair of skis; Iceland, I totally want to see the Northern Lights; the Louvre—because duh; Stonewall, because I want to see the history; and the Grand Canyon—also duh.”
He blinked. “Okay, you are really organized.” He paused. “Why is the Louvre a duh?”
“I want to draw some of my favorite pieces of art. And FYI, you’re totally allowed to get on your bike and leave me here if you want,” I said. “I’m told hanging out with me doesn’t count for your volunteer hours.”
He snorted. “Austin is an asshole. And I bet he doesn’t even know where the Louvre is.”
I smiled. Okay, that was a super-nice thing to say. “Your turn. Five places you’d like to see.” He squirmed, so I said, “No pressure.”
He took a few seconds, and we crossed the street before he replied again.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ve had no time to really think about this, so no saying any of these are lame.”
“Dude,” I said. “I want to go to the Louvre.”
“Fair enough. Okay. Vimy for sure. Oh, the Eye, in London. Café du Monde, Chicago, and…New York. I’m not sure on the order there, but definitely those five. At least, right this second.”
“Café du Monde?” I said. I didn’t know it. Also, Vimy? I was expecting five sports arenas. Color me impressed.
“It’s in New Orleans,” Malik said. “They serve beignets. They’re donuts with powdered sugar.”
I smiled. “Donuts? I think we have those here.”
He shook his head. “Not to hear my mom tell it.”
“She goes to New Orleans a lot?”
“Yeah, and Chicago and New York,” he said. “Writing conventions.”
“Your mom’s a writer?” I may have sounded really enthused, but come on. She wrote books? That was really cool.
He nodded. “She writes mystery novels. Dita Wallace. That’s her maiden name. She won an Edgar last year.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what that means, but it sounds cool.”
“It’s a big mystery award thing,” he said. “She’s sort of awesome. Except when you try to watch Netflix. Then she’s all, ‘Oh, it was the ex-wife’ thirty seconds into the show, and she gets mad when they do DNA t
esting in a couple of hours and stuff. She’s a walking spoiler.”
I laughed. We were at my street. I paused and pointed. “I’m this way.”
Malik bit his lip. Then he took a deep breath and said, “How did you know?”
I frowned, replaying the conversation. Beignets, Netflix, spoilers… “How did I know what?”
He stared at me. It took me way longer than it should have to click.
“Oh,” I said. Because oh. Oh wow.
He blew out a little breath. I noticed he had a death grip on his bike.
“Um,” I said. I tried to remember everything Nat had always said about being a supportive role-model and what to say and how to listen and…I drew a complete and utter blank. Instead, all I was thinking was Malik King? Holy shit!
I needed to answer him.
“Honestly? I just didn’t feel the way everyone else did. Like, when the other guys started talking about girls, I was already friends with the girls, but way more interested in how the girls were talking about the guys, if that makes sense. It was sort of obvious to me after that.”
He nodded, but now he wasn’t looking at me. I felt like I was doing this wrong. Some of what Nat always talked about seeped back into my brain, finally.
“Malik,” I said. “Thank you for asking me. And just so you know? You can trust me. You can ask me anything, and I promise you I won’t say anything to anyone, okay?”
He let out another shaky breath. “Thanks.” He swallowed. “I like girls.” He sort of blurted it out. In fact, he sounded almost angry about it, like it made things harder or something. “I do. I’m not…like…faking or anything.”
“That’s allowed,” I said. He frowned at me. “I didn’t mean faking, I meant being into girls. You can be into girls and boys. It’s allowed. Rhonda’s bi. And Nat is pan.”
“Pan?” he said. He wasn’t quite looking at me, though he was looking more or less in my direction.
“Pansexual,” I said. “They’re into people of any gender. So, if they like someone, they like someone.”
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks Page 7