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Will and Jonathan drove in silence for a minute, both thinking. Will looked at the camera box he was holding, smiling as he considered it. Turning it over in his hands, he asked, “So do you like Nancy?”
“What?” Jonathan squawked, surprised. “She’s with Steve.”
“Steve, the guy who broke your old camera? Who you punched?” Will raised his eyebrows.
Jonathan frowned. “Yes, that Steve. He saved my life.”
“I still don’t think you like him too much.” Will skimmed the text on the camera box idly, clearly unconvinced by his brother’s argument. “Anyway, Mike says Nancy’s been keeping Steve at arm’s reach a lot of the time. He doesn’t think she’s all in with him… he says she seems nervous about it. She won’t talk to him about it but he thinks she doesn’t really trust Steve completely.”
Jonathan tried not to react, but his fingers flexed around the steering wheel and the tiniest look of gratification crossed his face. Watching him sideways, Will didn’t miss the change in his brother’s expression.
“I mean, she kissed you.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like that!” Jonathan insisted, pulling up to a stop sign and leaning forward to see past Will.
“I’m just saying, it seems like you like her,” the younger boy said with a persistent little grin.
“Nah.” Jonathan shook his head and made his turn.
“Dustin used to like her,” Will added conversationally. Jonathan chuckled. “Anyway, he figures she’s too popular for him now, since you and Steve both like her.”
“I don’t though!” Jonathan said again, spreading his hands against the wheel.
Will pursed his lips for a moment, then tried a new tactic. “Mike says he asked her if she liked you and when she said no she was totally lying.”
This, finally, gave Jonathan a moment’s pause. He lifted his eyebrows briefly, then stifled the look, trying not to show a reaction, but Will caught it.
“I knew it. I can see it on your face!” his younger brother said triumphantly.
For a few moments Jonathan was silent, unsure how to respond without getting himself in any deeper, and they pulled into the driveway at home.
Will handed his brother the camera, smiling knowingly, and then scooped up his bag and got out of the car, heading toward the house. Jonathan didn’t get up right away, turning the box over slowly in his hands, contemplating. He thought of Nancy’s quick kiss on his cheek – sweet, brief, not necessarily meaningful but perhaps not necessarily meaningless. And he smiled to himself, just a little bit.