“I do art stuff,” he said. “I ink for different comic book companies.”

“Wait, what?” I said. “Oh, that’s really cool, Zeke.”

“I ink a lot for Marvel. I used to ink for DC. I’m not, like, quite what they would want for art, but mostly I realized that I’m really good with lines, you know? I’m good at going over someone’s work and making it better. And it’s good for me, to kind of have something already there for me to work with so I don’t get too carried away.”

“I didn’t see your work online,” I said. I wanted to search right now on my phone, but I kept staring at him, trying so hard to reconcile the Zeke I remembered with the person in front of me. The more I heard his voice, the easier it was.

“I go by my initials,” he said. “Like a tag? It’s BEB. But, like, even then you aren’t going to see much of me online. Like, inking is not super sexy. It’s not something people write about.” He paused for a few seconds, looking right at me. “But I am good at it. I know that.”

“I bet,” I said, thinking, of course, of course, of the poster, those lines.

I’d almost forgotten why I’d come; I was so struck by being this near to him, how weird time felt to me in this moment. And I knew that in some way, what I was going to say would ruin it.

“Zeke, it’s just—”

“I want to say that I’m sorry,” Zeke suddenly said, his voice rising just a bit, cracking. He kept interrupting me just as I was going to say the thing I needed to say, like he was afraid of what it would be. “I’m really sorry, Frankie.”

“What?” I replied.

“That I hurt you,” he said. “More than once, you know? I did that awful thing to you in the car, after my dad, when you were trying to help me. I messed up so bad. I’m sorry that I hurt you on the porch, and even worse, that I didn’t help you and that I left and that I never talked to you again. Things were just really bad for me. And then time passed, you know? It kept going and going, and I kept trying to get away from that summer, because it had ruined my life a little, and there was just no way for me to get back to you or apologize. And it’s just been this guilt, always, and it’s never left. And I’m sorry.”