The Romantics(55)

Gael shifted his weight from foot to foot. He didn’t quite know what to say, so he didn’t say anything.

Mason didn’t wait for a response. “She said I should have backed her up on that, that if we were going to actually date properly, we couldn’t keep acting all ashamed all the time.”

Gael burst out laughing. “Dude, you don’t act ashamed all the time. Neither does she.”

“That’s because Anika’s always trying to save face,” Mason said. “But she feels bad. Really bad. She talks about it all the time.”

Gael kicked at a few leaves on the ground. “What do you want me to say?”

“Just hear me out for a second,” Mason said, tossing the Frisbee onto the ground. “We got into this stupid argument last night. She suddenly didn’t want to go out for Halloween because she felt so guilty. She kept talking about some Cleopatra costume she’d planned to wear with you?”

Gael laughed softly. It made him feel better that she remembered, that she cared, even if only the tiniest bit.

“And the weird thing is, any other girl, when things got to that point, I would have just moved on. But even after arguing, when we finally got to Franklin, like, I didn’t even want to look at any of the girls in skanky costumes. I didn’t even care.”

“Cause you only wanted to look at her, right?” Gael asked.

Mason nodded. “Yeah.” He picked the Frisbee back up. “And I know it’s shitty of me to bug you about this. I know how completely screwed up it was to do what we did. I mean, if you did that to me now, god, I don’t know, I’d want to kill you.”

“I’m pretty sure I did want to kill you,” Gael offered.

Mason started twirling the Frisbee again. “But you’re my best friend, still. And I don’t know, you’re the only one I want to talk to about stuff like this.”

Gael retrieved his Frisbee from the basket and walked to the next hole, Mason in tow. He was at a crossroads, he knew. He could throw a fit, explain to Mason that it was totally unacceptable for him to ask advice from him about his girlfriend after stealing said girlfriend.

Or . . .

Or Gael could recognize that what he and Anika had was maybe a lot more fantasy than reality. He could give credence to the fact that the sheer speed with which he was able to rebound showed she certainly wasn’t the love of his life.

He could let himself see that Mason was, hands down, no holds barred, falling in love with Anika.

“Dude,” he said, and he stopped walking. “Maybe you just like her a lot?”

Mason stopped, too. “Yeah, but what do I do about it? What if she freaks out and bails?”

Gael shrugged. “Maybe she will.”

He could tell from the look on Mason’s face that that’s not what he wanted to hear. “And I’m supposed to just be okay with that?”

“Well, what else are you gonna do? Dump her so she doesn’t dump you first?”

Mason laughed. “Sometimes it’s tempting, honestly . . .”

(Defensive dumping is a staple of the Drifter playbook, I’ll have you know.)

They reached the next hole, and Gael tossed the Frisbee toward it. It went way too far.

“I’m sorry,” Mason said suddenly. “I’m sorry for being the worst friend ever.”

“You’re not the worst friend ever,” Gael replied.

Mason shrugged. “I kind of am, though.”

“Fine,” Gael said. “You kind of are. But you’re my worst friend. So I guess I’ll just have to deal with it.”

Mason freaking beamed at that.

Gael felt a weight lift, one he hadn’t even realized was there until it was gone. It felt good.

“Well, since we’re friends again . . .” Gael hesitated, taking a deep breath. “I guess I can go ahead and tell you I found out yesterday that my mom was the one who wanted the divorce. Apparently, she just got tired of my dad or something. I’d thought for a while that maybe my dad had cheated, but that wasn’t it at all.”

Mason dropped the Frisbee. “Dude. You let me go on about Anika freaking out about Halloween, and you were holding on to this. That sucks, man. I’m so sorry.”

Gael shrugged. “I don’t know whether to be furious with my mom or just completely disillusioned with love in all forms.”

Mason picked up his Frisbee and tossed it badly.

“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, dude.” He paused. “I saw that on Reddit.”

Gael laughed out loud. “Is it, though?” he asked finally. “I thought it was. But now I’m not really sure.”

Gael thought about Sammy, about how horrible it would be to lose her as a friend.

Mason nodded. “I think it is.”

And for once in his life, Mason tossed the Frisbee straight into the hole.

“Hole in one!” Gael screamed. “Holy shit. Look at you, hustler!”

And as he jumped up and down and high-fived his friend, he had another kind of thought.

Maybe he didn’t hesitate last night because Cara wasn’t perfect.

Maybe he hesitated because Cara wasn’t Sammy.

What if, this whole time, he’d been going after the wrong freshman from UNC?