Page 32 of The Summer of Everything

“Did you read the email?” Wes asks.

Anna nods, her mouth falling.

“Did you already know?”

Anna shakes her head.

Wes figured she didn’t know. It wouldn’t make sense. Why would she train to manage a store that wouldn’t be around at the end of summer?

“If Mrs. Rossi hasn’t mentioned this to any of us, maybe it’s not final?” Anna suggests.

Wes rubs his forehead. It’s conceivable. Mrs. Rossi’s a fighter. “Yeah,” he whispers, trying to believe every one of those four letters.

“Um.” Anna’s fingers twist the ends of her hair, as if she’s nervous.

“What?”

“You were kind of hard on Nico, don’t you think?” she says.

Wes inhales loudly through his nose. He’s attempting not to be impatient with her, butHello, Nico has a thing forher, not Wes. It’s number two on his new list:

2. If your crush shows signs of being into someone else, ABORT!

“It’s fine,” he says. Those two words are becoming his favorite lie.

“He doesn’t seem okay.”

“We’ve argued before.”

Another fact. Usually, their beefs were over meaningless things. Once, they argued over a photo Wes posted on Instagram. Nico yelled, and Wes shouted and he swore Nico fractured his thumb when he punched his bedroom wall. It was ugly. It was also two months after Nico’s father died. Wes hadn’t recognized that Nico was stumbling through the stages of grief.

He hadn’t realized that the photo, of Wes and Nico and his sisters on the beach, also included Mr. Alvarez in the background, laughing with his tongue out.

Wes whispers, “We’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Aren’t you two,” Wes pauses when he notices he’s eye-level with her breasts. Jerking his head up, he says, idiotically, “Aren’t you two, like… you know?”

Anna arches an eyebrow, confused.

“Athing?”

“Uh, no.” Anna’s shoulders shake as if she’s restraining a laugh. “Nico’s cute in a very book-nerdy way, but I’m not into him.”

“You’re not?”

“No, no.” She pulls fingers through her hair, detangling the ends. “There’s this girl…”

Wes sits up. He doesn’t know what it is that excites him when someone’s anything other than straight. Maybe it’s because people are taught that straight is the default, which makes him an exception. An unnatural exception according to a few too many politicians on television. How do people still think like that? How are people still holding on to immoral values and ignoring the fact that sexuality and gender are fluid?

“Oh, I didn’t know.” Wes plays with his own curls.

“Yes, I’m bisexual. Sorry I didn’t put it on my application.”

Wes blushes. “No, I mean, uh—”

“I’m kidding, dude.” Anna’s laugh is this smoky, raspy noise that takes a few rounds to fall in love with. “Also, Nico’s not into me either.”

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