I grimace, and he swipes another batch of impulse buys off the counter and dumps them out. This time, hundreds of handmade buttons that read SAY YA TO DA UP, EH

“When am I dyeing it back to normal.” He spits out each word between his teeth. “Subtext being, ‘When are you going to be normal, Duke?’ The answer being, ‘Never the fuck enough for him.’”

He finally looks at me, shoving his hair off his forehead, his eyes dark and hurting. “I gotta get out of this place. I can’t live like this anymore.”

“Where would you go?” I don’t bother trying to change his mind. I don’t think he’s wrong.

He shrugs. “I’m not sure. I was thinking of applying to U of M, though.”

The corner of my mouth twitches. “You, down in Ann Arbor?”

“It’d be like an unofficial exchange program with Meg. If she can come to the UP to find her family, I can go south to escape mine.”

“Is nine hours far enough?”

“Barely,” he concedes. “But it’s farther than Traverse City, and my grades are plenty good enough. Not to mention, they have a similar outdoor vibe to this place. Only bigger and more … accepting.”

“I like it.”

He looks relieved. “You do?”

“Of course I do. Who knows? Maybe in another year, I might want to check things out downstate, too. Just to see.”

His grin is wry. “Just to see, huh?”

“I hear they have a decent canoe livery there,” I say. “About a hundred and fifty city parks.”

“You just happen to know that, huh? Off the top of your head.”

I might’ve googled it recently. It’s actually 163 parks, but Duke doesn’t need to know that.

“Point being, it would be a good move for you. Lots of North Face.”

“A big queer population, too,” he says quietly.

I nod, knowing that’s as close as Duke may ever get to identifying himself. “That, too.”

“Speaking of Meg from Ann Arbor,” he says, changing the subject as people start arriving for the meeting. “I happened to see something very interesting on my way to the harbor last night.”

I immediately feel my face flame right as Em saunters up to the counter. “Oh, me, too!”

I narrow my eyes at Duke and his shitty timing. He winces apologetically. “Right. We were on our way back with the kayaks and saw you and Meg. In the park.”

“Your tongue was in her throat. I doubt you noticed us,” Emily says shortly. Which is rich coming from her.

“I don’t think it was quite like that,” I say. Because, one, it wasn’t. There have been zero tongues in anyone’s throats, or even mouths, at this point. I’d remember. And, two, I don’t like Em’s tone.