Page 43 of Theoretically Straight

He grins again, giving me a nod. I step aside so he can lead us back into the theater room and to a very nonchalant Wren.

“Oh good, you’re just in time, boys.”

Theo takes his seat in the middle again, and I return to my side, crossing my arms over my chest again so I won’t be tempted to reach across the armrest. I try and pay attention to the movie, but I find myself watching Theo out of the corner of my eye, waiting for his body language to tell me what’s going on in his head. He trains his eyes forward, his hands gripping his knees and the rest of his body completely still. When another kill happens, spraying blood across the screen, he doesn’t react. He merely sits there with this glassy-eyed stare, his posture rigid. By the time the credits roll, I’m almost convinced he’s turned into a statue.

“Man, you really can’t trust a nun, can you?” Wren jokes, getting up to adjust the lighting back to a normal level.

Theo stirs finally, getting up from his seat. “For real. I’ll think twice about going to any midnight masses in the future, that’s for sure.” He laughs, but it sounds strained.

“Well, what now?” Wren asks, looking more at me than Theo.

Theo moves to the corner, ejecting Wren’s VHS and returning it to its case. “Oh, um, it’s still pretty early, so we could watch another one if y’all want?”

“We’ve actually got an early morning,” I interject, standing up as well. Wren throws me a curious glance, and I nod to help them catch my drift. “We’ve got to, um, go on a hike with my mom. She’s been talking about it all week, so I want to make sure I’m well-rested.”

“Right,” Wren adds, backing me up. “But this was fun! We’ll have to do it again sometime.”

Theo looks at me, his smile fading slowly. “Oh, okay. Yeah, I understand. I’ve got to be up early too, so it’s no biggie. Let me walk you guys back upstairs.”

Wren and I follow Theo up to the foyer again. We don’t run into his parents on our way to the front door, and he steps out onto the porch to watch as we climb into Wren’s car.

“Thanks for backing me up,” I say to Wren once the doors are closed. “I panicked.”

“No problem, but you’d better be joking because if you think I’m going hiking, you’re delusional.”

I snort a laugh as I look over my shoulder back at Theo’s house. I swear, he’s still watching even as we turn the corner and head for home.

* * *

“You’re home early,” Lola says from the couch as I walk in the front door. She’s got the TV cranked up, playing an episode ofFriends,and her laptop open on the coffee table. A stack of files sits on the couch beside her, and she looks like she’s about halfway through whatever menial task Mom has saddled her with.

“It was a weird night,” I say, falling over the recliner’s armrest and propping my head on the opposite one.

“Does this weird night have a name?” Lola asks, hitting the pause button on the remote.

“He does, but I don’t think I should be saying it just yet.”

“Boo, you’re no fun. Come on, Cal, I’m drowning in paperwork over here. One of us has to have a social life, and as you can tell, unless I start folding all of these documents into origami dolls, it’s not going to be me. I want to hear about this boy!”

“Okay, fine. But this doesn’t leave this room, got it?”

She zips her lips and locks them like we’re back in elementary school.

“Me and Wren went over to his house tonight to watch a movie, and I sort of held his hand, which may or may not have caused him to run out of the room and sparked a possible identity crisis.”

Lola blinks at me, then quickly unzips her lips. “All that happened because you held hands? I’m kind of impressed. If you’d kissed him, would his head have exploded?”

“It’s not funny,” I say, shaking off the image of Theo leaning in for a kiss before it can do any emotional damage. “His family is kinda super religious, so if he’s interested in me, I don’t want to be the reason that he gets in trouble with them, you know? Plus, how do I know he’s not going to, like, snap one day and tell me I’m the one dragging him down to hell and try and whisk me off to some conversion camp?”

Lola sets the folder in her lap aside. “Okay, there’s a lot to unpack there. But I think the most important thing to ask is: do you feel safe around him?”

All I can think about is the fluttery feeling that took over my body when Theo’s hand was in mine. “Yeah. I don’t think he’s actually going to do any of that. It’s just where my mind went first.”

“Good, okay, now that’s out of the way, how do you feel about being the one to help him work through those feelings? I’m assuming the two of you have a connection, right?”

“I think so. God, I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest when I grabbed his hand.”

Lola giggles. “Aww, that’s so sweet.”

---