Highly Illogical Behavior(46)

“I’m going to go grab mine,” he said, walking across the yard and into the house.

When he returned, Clark was in the water doing a handstand. He waited for him to come up for air before jumping back in and then he swam to the shallow end and took a seat on one of the steps.

“You okay, man?” Clark asked, wading toward him.

“Yeah,” he said unconvincingly. “Totally.”

“Hey, look, I’m used to the locker room and a house with three brothers. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “I just . . . I don’t know. Sorry I’m being weird.”

“Sol,” Clark said, moving closer. “It’s okay. You can look, just don’t touch.”

“Jerk,” he said, a smile forcing its way onto his face.

“Really, though. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. You’re like my brother or something, I just didn’t even think twice about it.”

Solomon went underwater, opened his eyes, and let the words echo and sink in and swim all around in his head. Like my brother.

He shook it off and challenged Clark to a race. Clark won, of course, but Solomon came surprisingly close, especially for someone so out of practice. He also couldn’t help being distracted by Clark, watching him as he moved through the water. He liked the way his hair looked when it was wet, slicked back like an old movie star. And he was fascinated by the little patch of dark hair Clark had growing in the center of his chest.

“I didn’t see that in your water polo pictures. The ones Lisa showed me,” Solomon said.

“I shave it during the season. Don’t make fun.”

“Hey, I can’t even grow one hair on my chest. Respect.”

“My dad looks like a grizzly bear with his shirt off. I’m so jealous,” Clark said. “I want, like, caveman body hair, the kind that hovers all around you, you know? That’s the manliest you can get.”

“And why do you need to be so manly?”

“Well, she won’t tell you, but it’s Lisa’s thing. She likes a real scruffy sort of guy. Maybe I should grow a beard.”

“Lumbersexual,” Solomon said. “I think that’s what they call it.”

“Nice,” Clark said. “I want a beard and to be covered in body hair and then I’ll marry Lisa and we’ll move to Portland or something and build a tiny house.”

“That’s your dream?”

“I think so,” Clark said, immediately following it with a backflip in the water.

Solomon got quiet after that, but he tried to talk just enough for Clark not to sense anything. He was so angry at himself for letting this happen, for feeling the way he felt about Clark. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t shake it, either. And, long after Clark had gone home, Solomon stayed up wondering if everyone falls in love with someone who can’t love them back.





TWENTY-TWO


    LISA PRAYTOR


Lisa was pretending to be sick so she wouldn’t have to spend another whole day watching Solomon Reed steal her boyfriend. And it was that kind of thinking that told her she needed to talk to someone. That someone had to be Janis. Not the Janis from camp—fueled by anger and jealousy—but the one she’d known her whole life who could sometimes suspend her self-righteousness just long enough to say all the right things.

As Lisa knocked on the door, she closed her eyes and turned her head to one side, almost hoping no one would answer.

“What?” Janis barked, swinging the door open.

“Hi.”

“What do you want, Lisa?”

“We have to talk.”

“No we don’t.”

Lisa knew what she had to do. The only way to reconcile with someone like Janis, who lived for drama, was to give her a good old-fashioned emotional breakdown. It was through tears that she got her real strength. And Lisa was ready to pay up.

So, she silently stepped forward and hugged Janis around the neck, putting as much of her weight on her shoulders as possible. Lisa was prepared to put on a performance, but she hadn’t expected the floodgates to open like they did and before she knew it, she and Janis were both sobbing in each other’s arms.

It didn’t take long before they’d made up. They were more like sisters than either of them would ever admit, so they’d had their fair share of big blowups in the past. Lisa wanted to take Janis to lunch, so she waited while her friend got ready and then drove her to a sandwich place downtown. They sat outside and Lisa looked over the menu while Janis texted someone, her fingers furiously tapping her phone screen. Then she let out a big laugh and kept texting, completely ignoring Lisa and everything else around her.

“Who’s that?” Lisa asked.

She set the phone facedown and gave her friend a big, sneaky smile.

“I thought you’d never ask. I have a boyfriend.”

“A what? That’s awesome!”

“His name’s Trevor Blackwell. We met at Camp Christ Is Risen.”

“Last year?”

“Yeah. But, he had a girlfriend, so I waited and prayed and then, a couple weeks ago, he messaged me and said they broke up. You’ve got to see him. He’s like a model or something.”