“He…” Caleb clenches his jaw and I’m taken aback by the anger on his face. For a moment, my brain sputters like an engine as it tries to reconcile the image of Caleb, who drinks hot chocolate and laughs at my dark sense of humor, and Caleb, who got suspended for attacking another student and who looks like he could rip someone in two right now.

“He was being really creepy to Caitlin,” he grits out, his eyes laser focused at some faraway point in front of him. “He was trying to dance with her and she didn’t want to and he kept trying and she kept pushing him away and then they started yelling at each other and I just kind of lost it.”

“Right,” I say quietly. So this is about Caitlin. Well then. Fuck.

“I didn’t hit him, though. It didn’t get that far. And I wouldn’t have—I mean, I wanted to, but I wouldn’t have hurt him.” Caleb turns to me and the ball of rage that I was sitting next to mere seconds ago is gone. His eyes are pleading with me, asking me to believe him.

“That’s good,” I say, for lack of anything else to say. “That is good, right? I mean, you don’t want to get suspended again.”

“Yeah.” He nods. “Yeah, it’s good. I mean, Principal Stevens was not happy”—as I suspected—“but I don’t think I’m gonna get into too much trouble. I mean, we did get thrown out of the dance, but so did Henry, so, all in all, it turned out okay.”

“God, that sucks.”

“Eh, it was whatever. I was kind of over the whole thing after that anyway.” He shrugs, the earnestness gone as he reverts back to Standard Caleb Mode.

“Yeah, I can imagine.” I try to mirror his sudden casualness, leaning back against the cold wood. “Another guy hitting on your date definitely puts a damper on things.”

“She wasn’t my date.”

He says it so flatly—is he disappointed by that fact? Relieved? I sneak a look at him out of the corner of my eye and get no answers.

“Why’d you get so mad at Henry, then? You weren’t jealous?”

Why do I always need to poke at the bruise?

“Fuck no,” Caleb scoffs. “I was pissed. Caitlin’s a really good person, she doesn’t need that kind of shit from anyone.”

“True,” I agree, “but she can definitely stand up for herself.”