Page 102 of Line Change

“Hey,” Micah says as I reach the table. His eyes move past me, checking the room. “Are you here alone?”

“Yeah.”

He looks like he wants to ask something else, but he points at the empty chair instead. “Sit.”

I get a beer first, then take the chair across from him. The foosball table is empty. The dry-erase trivia scoreboard hangs on the wall behind it with Micah’s team several places below the top.

“You still owe me a rematch,” he says.

“You lost.”

“That’s why I need the rematch.”

It is almost normal. I ask where Tessa is, and Micah says she’s working late and might come by afterward. He tells me our last game cost him money because he made the mistake of betting against Nolan scoring. I tell him he should know better.

After I say Nolan’s name, Micah’s smile fades. “I’m sorry if I read that wrong the other night.”

“What?”

“You and Nolan. I thought you guys were dating.”

There isn’t a good answer. There might have been if Nolan and I had ever talked about it before Micah forced the word into the open. Now the only answer I have is that we weren’t dating and Nolan broke up with me anyway.

“Uh,” I say.

Micah waits, but I don’t come up with anything better.

“You know you can be honest with me if you need to talk,” he says.

“You’re Nolan’s friend.”

“You and I are part of a sacred foosball brotherhood.” He puts a hand over his heart. “I would never betray that.”

I laugh before I can stop myself. He’s ridiculous, but talking doesn’t feel quite as impossible afterward.

“Things between Nolan and me…” I stop because I still don’t know how to finish.

Micah leans back in his chair. “Let me guess. He kissed you, and now you’re all confused.”

“We’ve been fucking since December.”

Micah’s chair jerks sideways. He catches the edge of the table before he falls out of it, sloshing beer over his hand.

“What?”

I just said it.

My ears ring, and I feel light enough that I grip the edge of my chair. Somebody at the next table laughs over the music without looking our way.

I told another person that Nolan and I have been fucking. Nothing happened except Micah spilled his beer.

Micah wipes his hand on his jeans. “Since December?”

“Yeah.” Saying it a second time is easier. “But I’m not gay.”

“You know there’s not just⁠—”

“My brother’s gay. I know the alphabet, I promise.” I take a drink because my mouth is dry. “I think I’ve even got a pamphlet or two somewhere.”