Chapter Text
I spend every Saturday at the Salazar household. Granted, I spend most days there, but I haven’t spent a Saturday in my apartment since they moved in.
On Friday nights I sleep over after school, we spend the day doing something (or nothing, depending on the Saturday), and turn on a movie late at night that doesn’t finish until after midnight. It just became a routine. And I never miss a Saturday.
I had a pair of pajamas in my backpack so that I wouldn’t have to go upstairs. I sat down for lunch and Lake was the only other person at the table.
No one tells you how awkward it is to remain friends with someone you dated. There are no hurt feelings, and everything is normal when you’re with people, but the second you’re alone together you start sweating like a whore in church. But without a specific reason.
“Lake,” I said, setting down my French toast sticks. “How has your day been?”
“We had a lab in bio and Teddy was my lab partner,” she said.
“Ouch.” Mia sat down next to Lake in what was essentially her assigned spot. She set her grilled cheese on a napkin in front of her.
“I had Andrew,” she said. “But at least we got a 90.”
“Teddy didn’t know what month it is,” Lake said. “It’s the 17th.”
“Of July?” I asked.
“Haha,” Lake said. Because once Mia sat down, everything between us was normal. It was like we had never dated.
She had come to my door in tears. At least, I assume she was in tears. When I met her right outside of Victor's door she was crying.
A million thoughts ran through my head at once, but I vocalized none of them. “Lake, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“I love you so much,” she said. “But I can’t date you.”
“What are you saying?” Her words were really contradictory.
She wiped her eyes. The red was starting to fade from her face. “I platonically love you so much, but I think I like girls,” she said.
“I completely understand,” I said and pulled her into a hug.
“You do?” she asked. I looked down at her in my arms and nodded. “I’m also in love with Mia.”
Victor sat down at the lunch table next to Mia. I grabbed the sausage off of his tray and he grabbed my cantaloupe.
“Felix, can I talk to you for a second?” he asked. I nodded and we walked over to the vending machines.
I grabbed a dollar out of my pocket and prayed that the conversation would be long enough for me to get a lemonade.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Mia wants to get dinner tomorrow,” he said. “So you can sleep over tonight and I’ll be back to watch Sixteen Candles, but I’m not gonna be home all day.”
“That’s fine,” I said.
“Really?”
“Of course. But if you think I’m missing your mom’s enchiladas you are dead wrong.” He laughed and grabbed my lemonade from the bottom of the machine. We walked back over to the lunch table.
“Victor,” Lake said. “You never told us where you got that jacket.” I looked over at Victor. He had told me after school the next Monday the real story of his “Boys Trip” after I denied the plausibility of his dad planning something on a Saturday.
“I already told you guys that my dad got it for me because it was cold on the lake where we were fishing,” Victor said.
“I know that,” Lake said. “But I’m pretty sure they sold that exact jacket at the place next to Brasstown when we were in eighth grade.”
“When I lived in Texas?”
“Is that Felix’s?” Lake asked. I was about to confirm and take the bullet when Victor cut me off.
“If I tell you guys where I got it would you promise not to tell anyone?” Lake nodded, looking pleased with the result. Mia looked over at me and I nodded. She nodded, hesitantly.
“It’s nothing illegal, right?” she asked.
“Definitely not,” I said. Victor gave me a look. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but Mia just looked relieved.
“I didn’t go on a Boys Trip,” he said. His voice had dropped to a whisper, not that any of the other students were listening. “I was in New York with Simon Spier.”
Lake and I shared a look. Everyone at Creekwood knows who Simon Spier is and everyone knows why he’s a legend. I can’t imagine any straight boy would ever lie to his family and friends to visit him in an entirely different state.
“Why were you with Simon?” Mia asked. Because of course, she was thinking the exact same thing as Lake.
“Apparently, my mom met his mom and she wanted me to check out NYU,” he said. “Obviously she doesn’t know who Simon is or she wouldn’t have let me go.”
I tried to look at Victor in a way that said, “This will be a hard lie to keep up next time Mia sees your mom.” I think he understood because he gave me a look that I interpreted as “I’m telling her the truth at dinner tomorrow.”
Mia was satisfied with the answer she got, and so was Lake, so the rest of lunch was mostly goofing off. And when the last bell rang at 2:25 we continued goofing off the whole walk home.