Pivot #2
“I’ll call you!”
The line goes dead and I don’t even have time to collect my thoughts before Huxley’s voice slices through the silence.
“Who was that?”
“Jesus!” I yelp. “What are you, a fucking ninja now?”
“No, you were just too busy giggling over Frankie to pay attention to me.” He folds his arms over his chest, shaking his head overdramatically. “You get a new man and suddenly I’m chopped liver?”
“Hey, you opened the jam jar for me today— and how did you know that’s who I was talking to?”
“Call it a hunch. Also, you were blushing, just like you were when you came back from that booty call the other night.”
“It was not a booty call!”
“Yes it was. You were glowing, and you only get that glow after sex. I’ve seen it myself.”
“Could you be a little louder? I don’t think the Pope heard you all the way in fucking Italy.”
He rolls his eyes, stepping into the office and shutting the door behind him.
“I’m totally fucking with you, Daph. But you have to admit, I was right when I said he was the answer to your little predicament.”
“Great. Do you want me to throw you a big party?”
“Hell yeah, and make sure there’s a double-chocolate cake. Now what’s the deal between you two?”
“He’s a friend, Hux.”
“You said that, but you have a bad habit of not elaborating, Daph. So spill.”
I feel like I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming into the principal’s office, but he’s right, he deserves to know. I wouldn’t want Violet living around some random stranger I knew nothing about either.
“Frankie and I grew up together. He lived across the street from my parents. We were close. The kind of close where you stay up way too late talking to each other online, even if we knew we were going to see each other the next day at school.”
I fiddle with the Saint Christopher medallion around my neck.
“So yeah, he was my best friend. Anyway, when I got dumped the week before prom, I asked him, kind of as a joke, but he said yes. At first I thought it was just to get back at Cole but—”
“Wait, you went to high school with both of them?”
I nod, and Hux shakes his head. He could never stand Cole, even with the limited time the two spent together, probably because he saw straight through the bullshit. Me though? I think I just wanted to believe that things had changed.
At first it felt like he was everything I wanted in a partner, but then he started getting comfortable, not trying quite as hard…
and I didn’t see the writing on the wall.
Because yeah, sure he was a fucking dumbass back in high school, but not like this.
Punching holes in walls? Screaming at the smallest thing?
By the end I was certain it was all a prelude to something much more dangerous.
I had to get Violet out of there.
“Okay, so then what happened between you and Frankie? I’ve known you for over a decade, and you’ve never brought him up. Ever.”
I sigh, fiddling with some papers on the desk, trying to find the best way to word this.
“Right before I left for New York, I… lost my virginity to him— Frankie, I mean.”
Huxley smiles.
“I can see how that would be a little awkward, especially because you never went back, but not talking for all this time? Seems a little intense.”
“Do you still talk to the girl you lost your virginity to?” I snap.
I can feel the back of my neck getting hot, but Huxley laughs it off.
“Yeah, Daph, I do. Her name’s Isabelle. Actually I saw her at the bodega right before the trip out here.” His smile grows wider. “You’re still not telling the whole truth though. I can tell.”
“Frankie told me he loved me that night.”
He winces, and I stare down at my shoes.
“It gets worse. I totally rejected him.”
The words came out so fast I didn’t even have time to think.
“Gently, I hope?”
“I mean, I tried. He was sweet about it, but I really don’t think it went over well. Everything after that just felt, I dunno… off.”
I can still see the hurt in his eyes, barely concealed behind his fragile smile. I just knew there was no coming back from that. Even when he showed up to bring me a Strokes t-shirt and a mix CD he’d made, things were already different.
“A couple years later he got into a really bad accident, and his mom died that same night. It was fucking horrible.” My voice starts to waver. “Sometimes I think if I had told him I loved him too, and stayed…”
Hux wraps me in a big hug, rocking me from side to side and I dissolve into his arms.
“You can’t do that, you can’t spend your life living in the hypothetical.
You do yourself and Frankie dirty when you slip into that mindset.
You had a life to live and dreams that needed to be fulfilled away from here, and that’s okay.
Besides, it’s not like you’ve run out of chances.
You’ve always got a shot, as long as it’s something you want. ”
I glance up at him, flicking away a tear.
“What do you mean?”
Hux grins, gently grasping my necklace.
“You fiddle with it whenever you talk about Frankie. Kind of a dead giveaway.”
“That’s not—”
“Really, Daph? You’re really gonna tell me for the 100th time you bought this for yourself from a thrift store in Queens?”
I sigh.
“Damnit Hux, I think you might know me a little too well.”