Page 89 of Only Mostly Devastated

“Who died and made you his best friend?” Darnellasked, bouncing his head to one side in disbelief. “But for real, whydidn’twe know?”

Will shrugged, self-conscious.

No. Nope. Not good enough. “When was he supposed to tell you guys?” I asked. “When you were making jokes about who wants to marry me? Or when you were throwing shade at him forgrabbing my armat the dance? Or, maybe when you were laughing about us being boyfriends if he mentioned something about me at lunch?”

Darnell’s mouth went into anOshape, but Matt looked affronted. “Ah, hell, man, we were just joking,” he said to me. He looked to Will for backup, but Will wouldn’t meet his eye. “Wait, Will, we weren’t being serious. We didn’t think you were actually… like…”

“But I was,” Will said. “I’m bi, I think. Just like Lara.”

“I’m sorry. We seriously didn’t know.”

“Yes, well, maybe from now on we can cut the gay joke crap as a blanket rule,” Lara said in a cutting tone. “How about it?”

“You’ve got it,” Darnell said, and Niamh squeezed his arm.

“So,” Juliette said. “Are we going to that party now, or what?”

We all looked at Will. He flushed red, and shrugged. He didn’t seem capable of much else right now. “I dunno. People might be weirded out about before.”

“Hell no, you have to go, you won us the game,” Matt said. “If I’m going with a goddamn concussion, you’re going.”

“Is it the same thing, though?” I asked, and Lara choked back a laugh.

“But what if…” Will trailed off.

“You’ve got us with you,” Darnell said.

“Yeah. Like they’d even try that shit,” Matt added.

“Besides,” Lara jumped in, grinning over at Juliette as she did. “Even if they did. We can scream louder.”

“So, when are you telling Will?” Mom asked. She sat in the living room, clutching a steaming cup of black coffee, along with Uncle Roy and Dad, both of whom had beers in front of them instead of coffee. I was running in and out of the living room, packing my car with blankets, folding chairs, and a cooler filled with soda. I didn’t know if everyone wanted Coke, or Diet Coke, or root beer, or Dr Pepper, or Mountain Dew, so screw it, I was taking all of it.

“Tonight. I told you it was tonight.” I grunted under the weight of the cooler as I shuffled it through the propped-open front door to load into my trunk. I kicked something unidentified, and I peeked around. A marble. “Crista, I told you to pick up your marbles, people can slip on those things!”

“Oops! Sorry, sorry, sorry.”

“You should be,” I said under my breath, fighting a grin as she abandoned her iPad and scooped up the stray marble. What kind of new-age kid played with marbles these days, anyway? Wasn’t that a little vintage?

Not that I was going to hold it too hard against her. It was only pretty recently that she’d started poking her head out of her turtle shell again. A laughing, noisy Crista, tormenting Dylan and running around the house experimenting with new toy setups was far preferable to the quiet, nonchalant kid she’d turned into after Aunt Linda passed away. It wasn’t that she didn’t miss her mom anymore, of course. She still brought her up. All the time,in fact. It was just that she’d adjusted to the idea that life would keep on going without her mom, and she’d finally decided to catch back up with it.

“I know it’s tonight, butwhentonight?”

I blew my bangs out of my face and shrugged. Honestly, did it matter when? “I don’t know. I’ll wing it.”

“Don’t do it in front of everyone,” Mom said.

“Uh… why?”

“Because. He should get the chance to react in private before everyone else jumps in, okay?”

Dad tapped the neck of his beer against his chin. “Clearly, your mother has never forgiven me for proposing in front of a crowd of strangers,” he said.

“Well, all I’m saying is you’reverylucky I was going to say yes, anyway,” Mom shot back.

“Good thing I’m not proposing,” I said. “All right. I’ve got to go, so—”

“Ollie, can I play your guitar while you’re gone?” Crista asked.

---