Alex catches me out in the hall, on my way back from the bathroom.
“Hey, Kermit, what gives?” He sounds piqued.
“Huh?”
Alex crosses his arms. “You won’t come to the game with me, but you’ll come with him?”
Oh. Right. Riiiiight. Shit. “I wasn’t planning to come. It just happened.”
“You accidentally happened to swing by your least favorite sporting event?”
“Something like that,” I mumble. It’s the truth.
“Okay,” Alex says. “Whatever. Do what you want.”
I’ve hurt his feelings. Not on purpose. Not my fault. Things happen. Why is he on my case?
“You didn’t have to lie about it.”
That comes out of left field. “How did I lie?”
“You said you didn’t want to be at school when you don’t have to be.”
“I don’t.” The spiral of how we got here is suddenly clear.
“Yet here you are. Without so much as a text or a hello. With Matt Rincorn, of all people?”
Of all people? I push past the part of my heart that’s now offended. “His mom died, okay? He gets things.”
“Things I don’t get.”
I don’t want to say it, but … yeah. “Look, it’s not about us. It’s just something that’s helping me.”
“It’s a little about us when you blow me off to hang out with him.” Alex crosses his arms.
“It’s not like basketball games are our thing or anything. Anyway, you look pretty cozy with Cindy over there. What do you need a third wheel for?”
“That’s what this is about? You don’t like me being with Cindy?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Sounded like it.”
My hands cover my face. I scream silently into them. “No, just … stop, okay?”
“Mmkay, well, you have fun with your new BFF,” Alex says.
“Come on, man.”
He stalks off past the concession stand, disappearing behind the line and through the double doors into the gym.