Page 167 of The Friend Scheme

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“Yeah, order them.”

“No, I mean, do you want to go out and get them?”

“Oh. Um, sure. Just give me ten minutes to destroy these clowns.”

“Sure.”

The next ten minutes pass so slowly.

Finally, Luke rounds the corner and steps into my room.

“Your car or mine?”

“I mean, yours, obviously.”

I do like my car, but there’s a reason he upgraded.

“Shake Shack?” he asks.

“Yes.”

I practically worship at the altar of Shake Shack. So does he.

We drive out onto the highway, and he puts the top down.

I glance at him.

Time feels like it’s sped up. All too quickly, we’ve gone to Shake Shack and ordered our food. Now we’re parked in front of the beach, eating.

“So,” I say. “I want to tell you something.”

“I know.”

“Okay… like, I don’t really need to know where to start. I…”

“You’re gay,” he says.

I nearly drop my shake.

“What?”

“Or are you bi? I can totally see you being bi.”

“I… I mean, I am gay, but that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Oh.” He grins. “I knew it.”

“Did you?” I ask. “I mean, you’ve always been on my case about girls.”

He eats a french fry. “It’s not a big deal for me, I hope you know that.”

“No, I do.”

“So why’d you make such a big deal about it? You could’ve just been like, ‘Yo, man, I like dudes.’ And I would’ve been like, cool.”

“I know. And if all I was doing is coming out, then I probably would’ve. But there’s more.”

“Oh,” he says, his smile fading. “Okay. What is it?”

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