Fifteen
before
It was February of their senior year. They’d stayed at school late to work on the newspaper. Then Cary had dropped Shiloh
off at home—it had been a whole production, she was in rare form—and now he and Mikey were going to play Street Fighter at Godfather’s.
As soon as Shiloh was out of the car, Mikey changed the radio station. “You guys don’t have to pretend for my sake,” he said,
“you know?”
Cary backed the car out onto the street. “No, I don’t know. Pretend what?”
“That you’re not a thing. Secret lovers ”—he said it like luvvahs —“so to speak.”
“What are you talking about?”
Mikey looked at him. “I’m just saying, you don’t have to worry about my feelings. It won’t be weird—I told you about Janine.”
“I’m not...” Cary shook his head. “Shiloh and I aren’t... that.”
Mikey curled his top lip and looked confused. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Where are you even getting this? We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, but you’re, you know...” Mikey bugged out his eyes. He could be just as dramatic as Shiloh sometimes. “Verrry focused
on each other.”
“We’re good friends.”
“She’s very tactile with you, Carold.”
“That’s just Shiloh,” Cary said. Mikey knew that was just Shiloh.
“She’s not like that with me,” Mikey said.
Cary shook his head again. “I’m like her dog or something. I’m her security blanket.”
“So you don’t have... feelings ?”
“For Shiloh?”
Mikey rolled his eyes. “Obviously for Shiloh. I know you’re not a robot.”
Cary shrugged. “She’s just messing with me because I let her.”
“Why do you let her?”
Cary frowned at him. “Why do I let you hassle me? Because we’re friends.”
Mikey turned away, scratching his ear. “Yeah, okay. I hear you. I’ll let it go. I mean, I am disappointed. I really wanted
there to be an undercover romance... ”
“You’ve got your own undercover romance.”
He grinned. “I know. Don’t tell anybody. Janine and I are secret luuuu-vahs .” He sang the last two words, like the Atlantic Starr song.
“Stop.”
“Before I let this drop, like I said I would”—Mikey squinted like this next thing was painful for him to say—“Shiloh-is-crazy-about-you-and-that-is-my-professional-objective-opinion-that-I-would-bet-a-million-dollars-on.”
Cary jerked his head toward Mikey, then back toward the road. “That’s not true. She likes that guy—Kurt.”
Mikey shrugged. “Eh. Kurt’s nothing.”
“She doesn’t like me like that,” Cary said. “And if she did, she’d lose interest as soon as I liked her back. She just likes
to mess with me. She thinks it’s funny.”
“One million dollars,” Mikey said.
Cary made a growling noise. “Okay, you can drop it now. For real. You’re making it weird with her, and she’s not even here.”
“I’m dropping it, I’m dropping it.”
Cary drove for a second, and then he slapped the steering wheel. “Also? I have a girlfriend!”
“I was wondering when you were going to remember...”
“Screw you, Mikey.”
Mikey was cackling.
Cary shook his head. “Screw you.”