Page 29 of Theoretically Straight

“She fell again?” Wren asks, shaking their head. “At this point, you’d think the principal would cover that poor woman in bubble wrap.”

The conversation continues outside of my focus, my thoughts drifting off again to the shadowy hallways under the Saint Catherine church. I haven’t been able to get my mind off the weird symbol we found on the chalkboard, or the rush of terror that ran through me when we were in that classroom and the silence was broken by that voice. And the worst part, if I’m being one hundred percent honest, is I can’t get Theo out of my head.

Which makes things very difficult when I notice he’s walking straight towards me from across the cafeteria.

Oh, shit.

“Hey man,” he says, hovering at the end of the table, his hands buried in his pockets. Standing in the pool of warm golden light filtering in from the skylight above, the ends of his curls are highlighted in tints of honey. “Not sure if you’ve seen, but the TikTok I posted went kind of crazy.”

It takes me a second to catch up to what he’s saying. “The basement video? Wait, did you actually catch something?”

“Kind of.” Theo’s gaze shifts to Wren and Freddy, who have paused their discussion of accident-prone teachers and are watching the two of us with a mixture of confusion and intrigue. He leans closer, lowering his voice. “Um, I wanted to talk to you about what went down, but I don’t want to take up your lunch. Could we maybe meet up at Spookies after school?”

My brain short circuits, and I have to remember how to form words. “Y-Yeah, totally. We can do that.”

Theo nods, his lips tilting into a half smile. Then he turns and walks back to the other side of the cafeteria, leaving me to face two very nosy friends.

Freddy practically teleports into the seat next to me, grabbing my hand and pulling it into his lap. “Here I was thinking that the recap of my date with Andrew would be the only thing we’d have to talk about. What exactly went on in that basement, Cal?”

“He said he didn’t want to talk about it then,” Wren reminds Freddy. “And I doubt that’s changed. So, leave the boy alone.”

“I’m sure it’s just something about the video he recorded,” I say, pulling my hand from Freddy’s grasp. “We saw some creepy stuff down there, but it wasn’t anything major.”

Except, maybe it was. I need to find his TikTok account so I can see for myself. I pull out my phone and tap open the app, but then I get distracted by my own feed, and before I know it, the lunch bell is ringing, and I’ve not touched my food.

“I’ll fill y’all in later,” I tell Freddy and Wren. Grabbing my backpack, I dump my tray into a nearby trashcan and head for English Lit.

Relax, Caleb. Don’t read into it. I’m sure he just wants to talk about the chalkboard or maybe ask if I saw anything before I bumped into him. Or maybe he wants to berate me for grabbing his hand in the dark.

Ugh.

I’m so wrapped up in my thoughts that it hardly even registers that Theo is sitting two rows away when I sink into my seat. Ms. Hyung moves down the rows of desks, handing out quizzes, so there’s no time for me to notice how he chews on the end of his pencil between questions or how his leg bounces under the desk, alternating left, then right, then left again. And there’s definitely zero time for me to watch as he flips the page of his quiz over and licks his lips before starting on the other side.

And shit, I’ve got seven minutes left for this stupid quiz.

I make a blinder for myself by cupping my hand around the side of my head.

Focus, Caleb. There will be plenty of time for staring at Theo later.

* * *

Spookies is only a couple of streets down from the school, so I decide to walk instead of asking Wren for a ride. Although, I wouldn’t put it past Freddy to grab a table across the cafe to be the front-row audience for whatever Theo and I are doing.

The coffee shop in town is not actually named Spookies, but it’s been affectionately nick-named that by the local kids since the time my mom went to high school here. Its real name is Java Beans or something lame like that, but they got the moniker Spookies after they decided to go all out decorating for Halloween one year and then got too lazy to take all the decor down. Since then, they’ve only added to the theming, hence the name. Now you can spot the inflatable ghost on top of the building from down the street.

The parking lot is already full as I walk up. I hope Theo can find a spot. The exterior windows are covered in faux cobwebs, and the bushes along the sidewalk are overgrown with Jack O’Lanterns and skulls sticking out at random intervals. Stepping inside, I’m greeted with the familiar smell of coffee and Spookies’ famous pumpkin spice cake, which is on full display at the counter under a glass cloche. I do a quick scan of the cafe before getting in line to order, and I must miss him at first, but on my second pass, I spot Theo at a table in the corner, looking down at his phone. It doesn’t seem like he’s noticed me yet, so I give him a wave when he looks up, and he grins and waves back, which makes my stomach do this weird flipping thing.

Jeez, Caleb. You need to calm that down or this really will become Logan 2.0.

Once I’ve got my bloody lemonade–because I don’t want to dump espresso on top of the anxiety that’s already building in my stomach–I head over to the table in the corner and take a seat across from Theo.

“Hey.”

He looks up from his phone, annoyance twisting his features as he swipes away something on the screen. “Hey, thanks for meeting me.”

“No worries,” I say, looking down at my sweating plastic cup. A line of red food coloring sticks to the side, looking almost like a wound. “Congrats on the video. I’m guessing that’s what you wanted to talk about?”

“Thanks,” Theo replies, any lingering irritation evaporating from his face. “It’s crazy. I didn’t think we’d even caught anything interesting in the basement, but I woke up yesterday to, like, hundreds of likes and people asking about what we saw.”

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