Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83394 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
My heart was beating even harder. My chest felt all…warm? It was weird, like I was happy and overheating and it was a little hard to breathe. I liked being important to Gage.
“I guess that makes me stupid too, then, because that’s how I feel about you.”
He looked at me, rolled his eyes, but I could see him biting back a smile. “That’s because you’re a dork, remember?” He grabbed another handful of leaves and threw it in my face.
We played around in them some more before going inside. We sat at the kitchen table and did homework together. Gage didn’t want to try to read in front of me, and I didn’t make him. I thought about how last year he always got out of reading aloud. It was making a lot more sense now.
I read his work to him and the answers for the multiple-choice questions. We’d moved our chairs close together, but when I heard the door, I scooted mine away from him, though I didn’t know why I knew I had to. Just knew I should.
A minute later Dad’s footsteps traveled into the kitchen. “How was you boys’ day?”
“Good, sir,” Gage replied.
“Your daddy staying out of trouble?” Dad asked, and I bit back a groan. I hated when he asked Gage about his dad. Sometimes he told Gage stories about the things his dad had done. Gage always fisted his hands, tried to act like it didn’t bother him, but it did. I felt it.
“As much as he always does, I guess,” Gage replied.
“Don’t you grow up to be like him. You keep playing ball and do something with yourself. I hoped this one would play, but he’s too scrawny.” Dad laughed, and I dropped my chin to my chest, wishing somehow Gage hadn’t heard. Yeah, I was small and I hated it, but that wasn’t why I didn’t play baseball or any other sport. I didn’t play because I didn’t like it. Why was I supposed to like sports simply because I was a boy?
Snap!
My eyes darted up, and I realized Gage had squeezed his pencil so hard, it broke in two.
Dad didn’t seem to notice. He rambled on, grabbed a drink, then headed out.
Gage nudged me with his arm. “Doesn’t matter what he says. I like you the way you are.”
When he opened his hand, I saw nail marks in his palm. He’d left imprints behind. Nerves made me feel all wobbly, and I held my breath, but I still couldn’t stop myself from reaching over…and tracing the nail marks with the tips of my fingers. Please don’t let him think this makes me weird, please don’t let him think this makes me weird. But then, this was Gage, wasn’t it? Somehow, he always understood me. “Sometimes when you say things, I believe them just because you said it. You make me want to believe,” I said, echoing the words he’d told me earlier in the leaves.
Gage didn’t reply, so I met his stormy blue eyes. He was looking at me in this strange squinty way, his face all scrunched up, like he was working hard to figure something out.
“Guess that’s why we make such a good team,” he finally replied.
Yeah, I guessed that was why we did.
CHAPTER ONE
Gage
Seventeen Years Old
“Rumor has it, Katie Taylor likes you. I heard she wants to give up the V card to the legendary Gage because he’s so hot. Gag. So, you know, you might be able to boink her.”
We were lying in the grass at lunch—me, Kevin, Angie, and Joey. Kevin had a bag of Skittles in his hand, popping one after another into his mouth and speaking around them. He was obnoxious sometimes, but he was good people. We’d met Angie in seventh grade and Kevin in eighth. The friendship worked with them. They liked both me and Joey, got both me and Joey; or at least, if they didn’t understand why we were so close, they never said anything about it. No one else had passed that test, so even though I was cool with most people—my baseball friends and shit like that—no one was really part of us except the two of them.
“Yeah?” I finally asked, looking over at Katie. She was at one of the outdoor tables with her friends. Katie was a cheerleader. Popular. Everything Joey hated. She glanced my way, and her smile told me Kevin might be right about her liking me. I doubted she said she wanted to have sex, though.
“Is that supposed to be a surprise?” Jojo asked. “Everyone likes Gage.” He popped a potato chip into his mouth. I was the only one who called Joey that. If anyone else tried, he always told them not to. Once I’d asked if he didn’t like it. I wasn’t a dick. I wouldn’t use a name for him he hated, but he’d shrugged and said it didn’t feel right to hear it from other people. We were like that. Joey and I were special. Like we were meant to be best friends. Maybe it didn’t make sense, but it didn’t have to. It simply was.