Page 68 of Catch Me If You Can

I stand and sling my black cross-body laptop bag over my shoulder. Something nags at me, a question I need to ask before we hang up.

“Um, Sarah?” I ask, following a few paces behind Theo as we exit the office.

“Yeah, babe?” she answers.

“Is…” I hesitate. God, this is ridiculous—I feel like a teenager again, nervous about bumping into a crush between classes. The irony isn’t lost on me. That crush used to be Sarah. Now I’m talking to her about someone else. I roll my eyes at myself and push through the final door to the outside. Theo waits by a tree on the sidewalk, munching on an apple. The sun beats down on my forehead making it sweat even more.

“Is he going to be there?”

“I mean… he’s invited, but no. He told me he couldn’t make it,” she says.

My shoulders slump. I don’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. If I’m being honest… it’s the latter. But should I want to see him? He left.After promising he wouldn’t. I shouldn’t want to see him at all.

“Okay, thanks. I’ll let you know as soon as I decide.”

“Okay,” she sings. “Love you, bye!”

“Love you, bye,” I reply and hang up.

“The famous Sarah, I’m guessing?” Theo smiles, straightening up as I join him.

We’ve got thirty minutes to kill on our break, so we head to our favorite food truck,Chips-ahoy. I know he’s going to grill me about the trip. I haven’t had lunch with him all week, claiming I was “out sick.”

“Yeah,” I nod.

“When you texted me that you were really going to see her, I thought you were crazy, but I was also proud. Didn’t know you had such big balls.” Theo laughs, biting into his apple.

I roll my eyes. “It didn’t exactly go as planned, so maybe hold off on judging the size of my balls.”

“What? You didn’t tell her how you felt? You’ve only been obsessed with this girl for… how long?”

“Four years.”

“Four fucking years, bro. You should be engaged by now.” He shakes his head.

I cough. That’s funny, considering I wasn’t the only one with that mission in mind.

“I know, but… things changed. My feelings changed.”

“You’re being so cryptic, I can barely handle it. What happened?” he asks as we reach the truck line. I love this place. The workers are literally dressed like pirates. Caleb would think it’s hilarious and probably make a huge spectacle about it. Talking to them like a pirate or something. The thought makes me smile to myself.

“I’m into someone else. Didn’t realize it until I got there. It was a wild weekend.”

“You met another girl?” Theo looks at me, shocked.

I swallow hard, hands stuffed in my pockets. “Not exactly… a guy.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “YOU’RE GAY?!” he basically shouts.

“Theo! What the hell, man?” I punch him in the arm and glance around. Aside from the two girls snickering in front of us, no one seems to have noticed. Not that I care. It’s who I am and there’s no shame in that. The only thing that sucks is I can’t have the one person I want after figuring it out. It’s like life is playing a funny joke on me.

“Sorry,” he says, rubbing his arm. “I just… you’re so low-key. Never talked about anyone but Sarah, so I figured you were just really in love. Notgay.”

I nod. I get it. It was a shock to me too.

“I didn’t know either.”

“James is going to be crushed,” Theo laughs.

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