Chapter Seven #2
“And…maybe reserve it online?” I say, shrugging.
“Yeah, maybe. Or we’ll book it when we get there.”
“Are you sure?” I reach to eat the cold pizza, which still tastes just as good as it did when it was slightly warmer.
He searches the hotel on the map and swipes around the surrounding area, a mix of chain restaurants, gas stations, and suburban housing. “Yeah, it’s in a random Indiana town. Unless there’s some convention nearby or something, I’m sure there’ll be rooms.”
“But wouldn’t you feel better knowing there’s already a room waiting for you?”
“Would you feel better knowing there was already a room waiting for me?” There’s something about his question that feels suggestive even though it wasn’t meant that way, and I look down at his phone quickly.
“You have it right there. You can just book it.”
“It’ll be fine,” he says. “I promise.”
I laugh and give up. “I genuinely don’t understand how you can live like this. Just hoping things will work out.”
“Does stressing about things make them any easier?” he asks.
“Not really.”
“So I skip that step.” He’s finished eating and slumped a few inches back on the couch so that we’re closer to eye level as we talk.
I hold a hand over my mouth, talking through my final bite. “Then what if it backfires?”
“I’ll change my plans. Go with the flow.”
“I simply don’t understand,” I say. “It feels like a board game, though, doesn’t it? I’m even dreaming in board game ideation these days.”
Even though I didn’t fully explain my thought, Declan knows exactly where I’m going with it. “A road trip does hit so many classic beats. Maybe it’s not even about sightseeing, but more about leveling up with mundane tasks, like getting experience tokens for filling up a gas tank.”
“And the tank can only take you so many spaces around the board,” I say, jumping into the brainstorming without missing a beat.
“Then you could have to somehow refill or get stranded.” Unfortunately, the more I think about it, the less sure I am.
“What’s interesting or unique about it, though?
How is it more compelling than just a drive-across-a-map game? ”
“I’m not sure.” Declan taps his fingers on the couch.
“Well, we can ponder,” I say. “I’ll text you if I think of something.”
He smiles. “Yeah, now you can text me anytime.”
Shoot, with the text still nagging at me, I inadvertently mentioned texting, and now there isn’t a single doubt in my mind that we’re both thinking about that crush text.
I need to pivot away immediately. “How did I not know you have a brother?”
Declan raises his eyebrows. “Hey, I wasn’t keeping him a secret. You never asked.”
“I’m asking now!”
“I have a brother,” he says, amused by his own joke.
I shake my head multiple times; it makes me dizzy. “Okay, well, tell me something else I don’t know about you.”
He leans back on the couch and turns his face toward me. “My middle name is Conor?”
Perhaps I should have come up with a more creative question. “Nice name.”
“What about yours?”
I mirror his relaxed position. “It’s pretty classic. And way overused in my family.”
He tilts his chin quizzically. “I’ve got a couple ideas, but give me the first letter.”
“M.”
Exactly one second later, he says, “Hmm, let me think what other questions I have for Iris Marie Biagi.”
Him getting it right on his first guess throws me off balance. “Don’t go stealing my identity now.”
Declan’s face grows more serious, and I can sense an actual question coming my way.
“What about that time you showed up crying? A few weeks ago? I wanted to make sure you were okay, but you told people you didn’t want to talk about it, so I didn’t want to bother you. Though you don’t have to tell me if—”
“Oh.” It doesn’t take long to figure out what night he’s talking about. A small laugh slips from my lips.
He relaxes. “It’s funny?”
“I wouldn’t have still gone to play Rivalry if it was tragic.” Though my eyes are welling again now from the amusement of it all. “I’m almost embarrassed to tell you because it was actually nothing.”
“It couldn’t have been nothing?”
“I was having a bad day, but just, like, annoying-classes-level bad. On the way into Roll Again, I stubbed my toe on the curb.” I chuckle at the retelling of this pointless incident, causing Declan to laugh as well.
“Which was apparently the last straw? But then I walked into the store with a tear running down my cheek, and everyone was so concerned, which made me”—I wipe away the water from the corner of my eyes—“cry even more because it was all so nice? One of those days, I guess.” I don’t want to dwell on this ridiculousness.
“But that reminds me…you never told me how you broke your arm?”
He starts laughing even harder than me.
“What?” I ask.
Declan reaches out and puts his hands on my shoulders. “There was also a curb involved.”
Our fits of giggles have briefly garnered some attention from across the hall.
Declan sits back and gestures to himself. “Despite looking like I could be a natural skateboarder…I am most certainly not.”
“Oh no!” I say, but can’t stop laughing. “I’m sorry, it’s not funny.”
“It is now.” Declan reaches for my arm and scribbles with his fingers across my skin as if writing something, making me catch my breath. “You signed your name in huge letters on that cast. Prime real estate all the way across.”
“There was a lot of empty space. I felt bad!”
He gives a silly gasp. “Iris, I hadn’t gone back to school with it yet.”
“Ohhh, of course.” That didn’t dawn on me back then.
“The next day everyone kept asking me who you were.”
“Really?” I need to know what he told people about me.
Declan bites his lip, debating if he should say exactly. “They thought I had a mystery girlfriend at another school.”
My jaw drops. I was not expecting that. “Oh my gosh, why would they think that?”
“You seriously don’t remember?” He opens his mouth wide, ready to tease me with a final detail. “Because you also drew a heart.”
My face goes bright red. “No…I mean…” I lift my finger and trace a tiny little heart in the air, his gaze laser focused on following my motion. “A little get well soon one, you know?”
“Well, thank you, because it made the other eighth graders think I was cooler than I actually was.”
I reach out and wrap my hands around his wrist, pulling him toward me. “You should’ve told me. That’s hilarious.”
“Hilarious because?” He averts his eyes, staring down at how I’m holding his arm.
I recoil, pulling my hands back into my own lap. This is my chance to deny the crush allegations, but maybe a denial wouldn’t be entirely accurate after all?
Like somehow the total tally of my interactions with Declan has led to this one specific moment where I need to choose to deny or confess or…
Or what I end up saying, which is, “Because I had a fake boyfriend and didn’t even know it.”
He laughs, looking away. “Apparently not.”
“But,” I say slowly, watching him now cling to my every word while my own brain spins, “you’re telling me now?”
“I thought it would be funny to mention.” He’s looking at me as if waiting for me to say something more concrete.
We’re at a stalemate.
I can’t possibly make this question any clearer, can I? I bring my hands together, laced underneath my chin. A journalist preparing to ask the most revealing question. “And is there a reason you wanted to mention it?”
He opens his mouth to say something, then closes his lips, only to try again. “Because I—”
“Iris.” Amelia bounds into the common room. “You gave me a heart attack when I couldn’t find you,” she says, gesturing back to the dorm.
“It was loud,” I say, turning over the back of the couch and away from Declan. “Are you ready to call it?” I ask her.
“Yeah, early drive tomorrow,” my sister says, waving goodbye to Declan. “Good luck getting any sleep over there tonight.”
He nods. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we’re up and ready by nine.”
“It doesn’t have to be, like, exactly nine,” Amelia says, trying to be more casual than she actually is. “But not too late.”
Unprompted, across the hall, Grady jumps onto one of the mattresses. “Hey, I love you all, but we gotta move the party. Keep in touch and I’ll catch you next year. Go Birds!”
There are a few woot-woots in reply, and though it takes a few minutes, the room actually empties out. Grady walks over into the common room with a wide smile. “Early morning tomorrow,” he says to Amelia.
Amelia isn’t that impressed by his theatrics but gives a polite grin.
Grady points toward Amelia with an eager click of his teeth. “I’m going to set the alarm right now.” He holds up his phone but accidentally clicks the calculator app first. “Whoops, just doing some quick math.”
My sister gives a halfhearted laugh. Though I doubt she caught the visual gag, she could obviously pick it up from context. “Okay, see you both tomorrow,” she says, giving a small wave with her lanyard of keys in hand.
I follow Amelia out the common room door, feeling Declan’s gaze before I glance over my shoulder. Our eyes lock, whatever words he was about to say lost on his lips.