“Look, all I know is that he always blows a kiss before his free throws. It’s, like, his thing. I think he does it for good luck or something. I don’t know, but he’s been doing it for years.”

Everything I thought me and Rex had crumples into a hard ball. I swear I’m so stupid.

But it was so real. The way he looked at me. It was like he was offering himself up. His whole, tender self. And I wrapped myself in him, my heart bleeding color.

“Oh, snap. You like him, don’t you?” Cole says, staring at me, every freckle on his face ready to bust out doing backflips. He doesn’t have nearly as many as Daddy and me, but still.

I sit up a little straighter in the hospital bed, trying to regain some of my dignity. “Boy, please. I don’t even know that boy like that.”

He eyes me down, hunting for the lie. I swear Cole is a romance junkie. Had what he calls his first serious relationship in the second grade. Had a two-year run with Alexis in the fourth and fifth grades. For the past five years, seems like he’s had a new girl on his screensaver every month. And according to him, they’ve all been the real thing.

A few knocks on the open door, and a lady pushing a big, silver cart walks in. She has on way too much foundation, and it doesn’t quite match the beige of her face. “Done with your food?” she asks.

I look down at the tray, thinking about the other side of the menu. About the first kisses fact. About the things I feel but won’t admit. It doesn’t seem right letting this lady with bad makeup roll it away.

She opens the door to the cart, exposing a stack of trays with half-eaten food.

Well, it’s definitely not going in there. “Yeah, I’m done. Thanks,” I say. And while Cole is busy getting out of the lady’s way, I quickly grab the menu and tuck it underneath my right thigh. The kiss wasn’t for me—fine!—but I still can’t let the first sign of me and Rex’s fate become hospital waste.

The lady slips the tray into an empty slot inside the cart and heads out.

Cole slides next to me and says, “So, back to you liking Rex.”

“Whatever. Nobody’s even thinking about that boy like that,” I say, imagining the first kisses fact as a tattoo on the back of my thigh.

“Rex Carrington! His name is Rex Carrington!” he practically shouts.