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“When did you get so dull?”
The question comes unprompted from Nancy as she falls into a practiced step next to Jonathan, last bell for the day having just sounded, as they both head out the school toward the parking lot.
“Pretty sure I’ve always been dull,” Jonathan responds with a shrug as he adjusts the bag on his shoulder.
Nancy wrinkles her nose.
“That’s not what I meant.”
Jonathan tilts his head towards her and raises an inquisitive eyebrow.
“I don't know what else you can mean by ‘dull’.”
“Like in a sharp sense—you know edges.” Nancy insists. Jonathan’s face remains stuck in the same puzzled expression as before.
“Now I really have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I just think you’ve changed recently.” She goes on, as she places a hand on the push bar of the door and holds it open for them both as they walk out of the building, unable to let this go. “It’s like something about you is duller– softer, I suppose. It’s weird.”
That gets Jonathan to stop waking, set his shoulders forward and look down at her with a frown. “I’m not soft.”
“Oh god, Jonathan.” Nancy says and there’s the start of a laugh in her voice, “Did you really just puff up like an offended cat?”
“No, that’s not what I–”
“Hey!”
Jonathan is abruptly cut off as Steve slaps his back, causing Jonathan to jerk in surprise. Steve leaves his hand there and Nancy expects Jonathan to squirm around, shrugging the offending hand off so it’s no longer touching him, but, surprisingly, he doesn’t. Jonathan just looks over his shoulder for some unneeded confirmation of something he seems to already know and lets out a small, grumpy, sigh.
“Hey.”
Nancy holds her tongue. She watches this, honestly, uniquely strange display of back and forth between the two that plays out in front of her.
“Are you still coming over tomorrow? Or would you rather me drop by your place again?”
“I told you tomorrow didn’t work.”
“What? Why? You don’t work on Wednesdays. You didn’t change your schedule around without telling me again did you? It was incredibly rude last time you did that.”
“No, but my mom will be home. Rare day we both have off. Have to show face with the family, you know?”
“So? I’ll just come over then. Your mom loves me.”
“My mom loves anything that has big, wet looking eyes. You could be a feral raccoon and she’d try to feed you when I’m not looking.”
“But I’m way cuter than a raccoon.”
“Debatable. But I guess, at the very least, you don’t have rabies.” Jonathan pauses, then gives Steve a flat look. “As far as I know.”
“Hey –I’ll have you know I brush my teeth every day!”
“Rabies has nothing to do with dental hygiene? You know that, right?”
“I thought it was a mouth thing with, like, foam? Maybe you just need to confirm yourself?”
Steve loops the hand that had been on Jonathan’s back over his shoulder, pulls him back, off balance, and opens his mouth. There’s a loud huff as Steve exhales a breath directly into Jonathan’s face. Jonathan looks simultaneously incredibly surprised and immediately annoyed before flushing a strange shade of pink Nancy had never seen on him before.
“No, sto–that’s disgust–urg–!”
Jonathan’s hands find Steve’s face and with only a small bit flailing, manages pushes the larger boy away and, finally, off his back. He turns on his heel so they’re facing each other and jabs a finger towards Steve.
“Thursday, not tomorrow. I’ll drop by. Not you.”
“Fineeeee...” Steve rolls his eyes and then, for the first time since this whole thing started, seems to notice that Nancy is there too. “Anyway, Hi Nance, bye Nance, see you both later!”
Nancy watches Jonathan watch Steve leave. As soon as he’s out of eyeshot, Jonathan’s shoulders sag and he exhales a breath of his own. He turns back towards her.
“Sorry, you were saying?”
His face is still a little pink. She snorts.
"Nevermind, I figured it out."
“Figured what out?”
Nancy smiles with her mouth and eyes, small and knowing.
“Don’t worry about it.”