Page 22 of Theoretically Straight

The scariest part of the tour? It’s too late for a refund.

Theo and I make our way back towards the entrance and slip through a side door into the muggy night air. The sun has long set at this point, and tall light posts hooked up to generators illuminate the parking lot. I spot Freddy and Wren waiting by the car.

“Sorry we didn’t catch anything,” I say, cautious of the distance between me and Theo. “I was getting really excited to meet Hudson.”

Theo shrugs, stashing his phone in his pocket. “It is what it is. I’ll just have to try something else, I guess. Maybe Hudson will come here himself, and then we can ambush him. How cool would that be?”

“Insane,” I say with a laugh. “Hey, if you ever want to join us, Wren and I make it a thing to watch the new Triple H video every Friday after school at their place.”

What are you doing, Caleb? That’s probably thelastthing he wants to do.

“Never mind,” I say before he can respond. “Forget I mentioned it. I’ll–uh–I’ll see you at school.” Turning my back on him, I haul ass over to the car.

“Hallelujah! He’s alive!” Freddy yells at me from across the parking lot.

“Was that Theo?” Wren asks as I get closer, peering over my shoulder.

“Yeah, I don’t really want to talk about it,” I say, opening the door and climbing into the backseat.

Freddy and Wren share a look, then shrug and get in too.

This was nothing, Caleb. Just a run-in with a straight boy who definitely isn’t interested.

I stare down at my palm as Wren cranks the engine.

This was nothing.

But if that’s true…why can I still feel Theo’s touch?

After Caleb runs after his friends—like, literallyrunsaway quickly as if to get away from me as soon as possible—I try to shake off the weird warm haziness that I feel before regrouping with Harrison, Elise, and Oliver. It doesn’t take long to find them casually chatting by Eileen in the parking lot. I did get a couple of texts from Harrison and Oliver while I was in the basement, but the overall vibe is still very relaxed as they wait for me. This was all part of the plan, right?

“Did you get anything?” Oliver asks eagerly as he spots me approaching.

“What was it like down there?” asks Harrison.

“Did anyone see you?” asks Elise.

I still feel like I’m in a daze. “Umm, so I don’t think I got much of anything. No ghosts, just some creepy crap on a chalkboard, but surely that was probably the work of some dumb kids. Uhhh…yes, someone saw me but–”

It was that guy from school we saw at dinner tonight,I almost say.Turns out he’s pretty cool, and he’s also into Triple H. He stayed down there with me, and we explored the basement together and talked, and then he accidentally held my hand for like two seconds, and it felt like my hand was being gently electrocuted, but it was fine because he said “sorry” when he let go, so it didn’t mean anything.

“–it was just Caleb. From school.”

“Oh no,” Elise says warily. “That’s the curly-headed guy from earlier, right? Did he rat you out?”

“No.”

All three sets of eyes are watching me, waiting for me to continue. Their confusion is understandable because my mouth is hanging open as I had planned on resuming my story, but my brain feels like it’s on a slow internet connection, not quite buffered enough to continue.

“Theo?”

Time to shake it off. Time to act cool or I’ll never get home. “Sorry, I’m a little spaced out. It was kind of intense there for a bit. I’ll explain in the car, but yeah, let’s head out.”

As promised, I do try to explain what happened in the basement while we drive, ultimately deciding to leave out the one minor detail about Caleb touching me because it’s unimportant, right? It’s irrelevant—just a weird little thing that happened and nothing worthy of mentioning. When our eyes meet in the rearview mirror, though, I can tell that Harrison knows something is off. Fortunately for me, his car is at Elise’s house, so I drop them off together before he can interrogate me further.

I catch another lucky break with Oliver because he is either completely oblivious to my weirdness or he has chosen to ignore it. Either way, I’m grateful as we talk about the eccentric tour guide, the ominous drawings on the chalkboard, and possible plans on how we can maybe revisit the church basement to try again in a week or so. Oliver gives me a fist bump as he hops out of my car, and I’m finally free.

For the first time since I’ve had a driver’s license, I drive home alone in silence.

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