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I blinked a few times as I considered before surrendering. “Thanks, Jojo.” I waved at him, and we walked out the door.
???
“Do you like Jonah?”
The sip of juice that was half way down my throat lodged and crept toward my nose. I stopped my very distracting work running my fingertips over the icy-cold plastic cup in which my drink sat and stared up at Tiff. By the look on her face, I could see she was entirely serious. This must’ve been one of those things she mentioned to Jonah. “Man, you get right into it, huh?”
“Yeah, well, you’re June’s best girlfriend, and she’s my best girlfriend, so now we’re best girlfriends. Might as well jump right in.” She shrugged.
“Oh, thank god.” I sighed with relief, my shoulders lowering an entire inch. “I did not want to have to go through the small talk phase.”
“I can assure you that you won’t think the big talk phase is much better,” June said with a chuckle.
“That’s true,” Tiff said, nodding at June before turning back to me. “So, do you like Jonah?”
I rolled my eyes. It was not the first time I’d been asked that question, though it was pretty infrequent. My mom used to tease me about it sometimes, and Oli even asked me once while we were sitting on the bleachers behind our high school, wasting away another afternoon gossiping while Jonah was at voice lessons. My answer was something along the lines of, Ew, Oli!
While my feelings hadn’t changed, I did have a more mature response this time. “I do not.”
June and Tiff passed a skeptical look to each other.
“No, she genuinely believes that,” June said to Tiff before directing her attention to me. “You know, Tiff and Noah were just friends too, Kai.”
These bitches! A half-hour into our new, official friendship group and they were already ganging up on me. I had little interest in talking about crossing inappropriate lines with my best friend, but I was interested in the new piece of information. “Friends.” I looked at Tiff. “What happened?”
“Well,” she said, leaning over the table and gripping her cup in her hands. As if she wasn’t already beautiful enough, her entire being brightened, her eyes and white smile glittering with elation. She didn’t even need to continue for me to understand that Noah was the love of her life. Her expression confirmed it. “We’d been friends since we were about six. Then we turned fifteen and the hormones were unbearable. Now we’re together.”
“Oh, there’s more to it!” June shoved Tiff’s shoulder playfully. “Plant some seeds in Kai’s brain. She’ll be thinking about this conversation for the rest of the day.”
“I will not!” I swiped my hand at June before returning my focus to Tiff. “And do not, because I secretly will.”
Tiff laughed and leaned back in her seat. “It’s just a matter of growing up, Kai. I already liked Noah as a person. Then he grew up and things started to feel different between us. You either feel it or you don’t. Don’t you ever feel different with Jonah? Don’t you ever find him kind of…handsome?”
Handsome?
Handsome?
I mean…I had noticed that he was looking more put together. He did seem to have a new air about him. But that was just success and age. It had nothing to do with whether or not I found him attractive. He was still the same old Jonah so, surely, it didn’t mean a thing.
And I hadn’t even been attracted to anyone in fuck knows how long. I hadn’t even been able to touch myself, for that matter. That sensation of closeness felt icky. So, of all the people on the planet, I certainly wasn’t going to magically feel it for my best friend of twelve years. He was like…family.
I mean, I guess he was better looking than before. He had started showering regularly and cleaning up properly. He was less nervous, and certainly a bit more self-sufficient. The hair and the tattoos were kind of cool. Except… No. It was Jonah, for fuck’s sake. Jonah Alexander. The most unathletic, uncomfortable, un-smooth person I’d ever met. Not that being athletic or smooth was necessary for me to like him, but—
Ah, shit.
June was right.
I was officially thinking about it.
Chapter 16
Kai
It had been over a week since I’d arrived, since I’d gone to the gym.
I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, my body encased in tight, brown leggings and a pale blue sports bra. I could admit only within the safety of my own mind that my shoulders were nice, and my arms were defined in a way I quite liked. I’d crafted them very carefully. My backside was something I was relatively fond of as well, as I’d managed to get my lats to a width I was happy with and my squats did a decent job on my lower half.
That didn’t really matter though, did it? What my body looked like.
