Page 10 of Theoretically Straight

A wave of anger washes over me with that last text. It most certainly isnota date. I close the messaging app without replying and shove my phone back into my pocket.

“Uh oh,” Oliver says, gently bumping his shoulder into mine. “What was that about?”

I shake my head. “Nothing important. What did I miss?”

“Blehhh, just those two being disgusting,” Oliver groans, gesturing towards Harrison and Elise, who fortunately are not paying any attention to either of us. “But hey, before we forget, we need to discuss Saturday.”

“Umm, don’t weallneed to discuss Saturday?” Elise butts in. “Last I checked, we’re all going to Saint Catherine’s.”

Oliver waves dismissively. “Yeah, but you two are just going to find a dark little closet and make out the whole time. Meanwhile, Theo and I have more important business to discuss.”

Elise makes a loud sound of indignant protest, her cheeks flushed, but Harrison just grins.

“So, what’s the plan?” Oliver asks, his attention uncharacteristically focused on me.

“Okay, so obviously, we’ve all seen the Triple H preview of tomorrow’s episode about Saint Catherine’s and the whole haunted girls’ school in the basement thing. The tour guide isn’t going to take us there, so we’re going to have to find a way to separate from the group.”

“They’re gonna kick us out,” Oliver grumbles.

“Unless only one of us wanders away?” I say, raising my eyebrows. “Maybe just the one who has a decent following on TikTok?”

Oliver rolls his eyes. “Theo, two thousand followers is not a decent following on TikTok.”

“Uhh, I beg to differ! How many do you have?”

“That’s beside the point–”

“Nah, man, Theo’s right,” Harrison interjects, his mouth full of Doritos. “None of us have even close to that many. However,” his eyes are on me again. “I think you need to use my camera if you want to capture anything good.”

It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Dude, the tour guide is absolutely going to notice if the guy that has the fancy camera wanders off all of a sudden.”

“Theo’s right again,” Elise chimes in. “Plus, it’s freakin’ TikTok. It’s more believable if the quality is shit. That’s how these people are.”

While I hate to admit it, Elise is spot-on. TikTok viewers don’t care if the quality is garbage. They just want to see a tiny ten-second clip of something incredible. That’s what I need to get my account noticed. That’s what I need to get a real following.

“Okay, then it’s settled. I’ll sneak off with my phone and try to capture what I can. You guys should still keep your eyes open for anything weird, though. You never know.”

“Is Sienna coming?” Elise asks.

Harrison elbows Elise, who yelps loudly.

“No way,” I answer casually. “Y’all know she’s not into ghost stuff.”

“Not unless it’s the Holy Ghost,” Oliver murmurs, smirking in my direction.

I laugh. “Exactly. She’d be the worst. I would never invite her to anything like this.” I can feel Harrison is still eyeing me warily, so I continue. “Besides, we’re all already on her prayer list—the last thing we need is her worrying that a demon followed us home or something.”

Oliver snorts loudly and playfully punches my shoulder. “Dude, she totally would, no question. I still can’t believe you two were a thing for so long.”

“Come on, man,” Harrison says sharply, shooting Oliver an intimidating glare.

“Harry, it’sfine,” I insist. “We broke up months ago. I swear I’m over it. Geez.” I grin at Oliver. “I honestly can’t believe it either sometimes.”

“I mean, I get that you’re both Jesus people, but she’s like,waaaaaytoo into Jesus. You at least still have a personality, you know?” Oliver wraps an arm around my shoulder and gives me a shake. “And that’s why we love keeping you around!”

I snicker and shove him off playfully, trying not to think too hard about what he means by that. “Oh right, that’s the only reason, huh?”

“So, what do you guys think about getting pizza before the ghost tour?” Harrison asks suddenly. Classic Harrison. “Maybe Pizza Palooza?”

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