“Wow. That’s awfully growly and possessive of you. Ender? Is that you? I’m sorry, are we acting right now? I didn’t hear anyone say action.”

Asher glared and sipped his drink. We were both in a mood by the look of it. I rolled my eyes at his miserableness. Neither of us spoke for a long time. We worked through our drinks and watched the busy students running about.

“So, pizza tonight?” Asher said, spinning his paper cup on the table.

“That’d be awesome. You’re buying.”

“Oh, am I?”

I couldn’t hide my smile or let the opportunity slide. “Well, yeah. If you want in my pants, you should at least buy me dinner first, don’t you think? I assume you’re planning to seduce me and test the boundaries of my erection suppression abilities.”

“What part of shut up we are at school where people could hear you do you not understand?”

“All of it. Just an FYI, I jerked off this morning in the shower—twice—so I should have some element of control… Maybe.”

“Are you finished?”

“Shutting up? Yeah. Sorry.”

“Your drink, idiot.”

“Oh.” I peered into my paper cup. “Yeah. That too.”

“Good. Let’s go before someone overhears you and gets the wrong idea.”

I stood and hooked my backpack over my shoulder, grinning and putting on a thick southern accent. “Oh my, someone’s eager to tear me apart. Good thing I wores my nice underwear … and manscaped this morning. Come on, cowboy. Saddle me up and ride me hard.”

Asher shoved me between the shoulder blades to encourage me to walk or shut up or both, I wasn’t sure. I stumbled, laughing. He was less than amused, but I didn’t care. If we couldn’t joke about this thing we had to do, we’d never survive it.

At the house, I raided the fridge, pulling out leftover chicken risotto and two cans of Coke. Digging a fork from the drawer, I ate it cold. It was the best thing I’d tasted in months.

“I thought we were ordering pizza.”

“We are,” I said with my mouth full. “Later. This now. Then we do the stuff, then we order the pizza.”

“The stuff?”

“What do you want me to call it?”

“Now you talk in code? At school, you were practically shouting it for anyone to hear.”

I shrugged, shoveling more food into my mouth and groaning around the flavors.
“So good.”

“Garlicy, isn’t it?”

“Mm-hm.”

“I’m not kissing you until you brush your teeth.”

“I don’t have a toothbrush here.”

“There are spares. Use one.”

“What’s wrong, Ash? Afraid you might get my cooties?”

Asher grabbed a can of Coke and left the kitchen, yelling over his shoulder. “Meet me upstairs with minty fresh breath or don’t come.”