Since we’d all eaten like pigs at breakfast, none of us felt like lunch before the twelve o’clock showing of Othello. The show had been sold out for weeks, but somehow Kai’s dad pulled some strings and got five tickets in the gallery. When we’d found our seats, I felt slightly dizzy. Heights + Jupiter = nervous, hyperventilating Jupiter, carry the difference and you get giggly Jupiter.
“You okay?” Ezra asked, placing his hand on my lower back.
His touch calmed me. “Fine,” I told him.
Bear walked to the fifth seat in our row, then Milo, myself, Ezra, then Kai. We all sat at once.
I leaned into Ezra’s side and whispered, “We’re smack dab in the middle. Guess there’ll be no making out for us,” I joked.
Ezra stared hard at me and I felt my stomach plummet. He brought his mouth up to my ear. “Maybe nothing obvious,” he said, shocking me as his tongue found the side of my neck to taste my skin.
He sat back as if he hadn’t just licked my neck, and laughed at something Kai said. I blew out a shaky breath and wiped the palms of my hands down my Elvis Presley miniskirt.
“Do you like Shakespeare?” Milo asked at my side.
I turned to him and smiled briefly.
“My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desp'rate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic mad with evermore unrest,
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.”
“Bloody hell,” Kai said with an awful fake British accent, making Bear laugh.
Milo swallowed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
I smiled at him. “You would be correct.”
“That sonnet is rather dark,” Ezra said, pulling me away from Milo’s ridiculous expression.
“It is,” I confirmed, “and yet it’s still my favorite.”
He looked at me. “And why is that?”
Kai and his brothers listened in.
“Because it proves that love is blind. If it was in 1609, it always was. It always will be.”
“Is that a good thing?” Ezra asked me.
“It is neither good nor evil. It just is.”
Ezra bit his bottom lip thoughtfully. “That’s sort of a profound observation,” he finally said, leaning closer to me.
The entire theater, including Kai and his brothers, seemed to dissipate into nothing around Ezra and me. It was us and only us.
“I’m sure I can’t be the only one to have made that connection. There’s no such thing as an original thought,” I told him.
“It doesn’t matter, though, does it? Because it’s original to you. Right now. To us.”
I smiled at him. “Is it?” I asked.
“It is.” His gaze dipped to my lips and he swallowed, idly meeting my eyes once more. “Are you? Blinded?”
The house lights dimmed all around, plunging us into sudden and deep darkness. I leaned into him, the dim bolstering me, pressing lips to his ear.
“Are you?” I quieted.
I felt him smile against my cheek, his hand going to my knee. “I’m blinded, all right, but not deceived.”
My words stuck in my throat at his surprising compliment, so I pulled at his collar and kissed him so softly at the base of his throat I was afraid it might not have registered, that is until his hand squeezed my knee.
I sat up when his hand left my leg and faced the front, thankful the black hid my secret smile, and waited for the stage lights to come on and the actors to do their thing. I felt his burning stare on the side of my face for several seconds before he turned and did as I did. I shifted in my seat, placing my forearm on the armrest, and crossed my legs. His left hand found my right and he dragged it over into his lap, turning my palm up for him to study at his leisure.
The tip of his thumb traced the outline of my hand when Roderigo and Iago took the stage and the scaffolding lights turned on, bathing us both in a dull light. It was just enough for me to watch his face as he memorized my hand twice then moved his investigation to my wrist, bringing it to his mouth to kiss once.
His fingers traveled the length of my forearm to the inside of my elbow and pressed there. I thought he’d keep going but instead he lifted his arm and brought it around the back of my seat. To the casual observer nothing would seem suspicious, but under closer scrutiny, they would have seen his thumb making lazy circles at the back of my neck, distracting me from the extraordinary performance on the stage.
Two can play at this game, I thought.
I let my arm fall from the chair rest. Excruciatingly slowly, I ran my fingers across the outside seam of his jeans then slid my hand onto his thigh and let it lie there. I felt the muscle tense for several minutes and almost burst out laughing. My thumb followed every movement against the top of his leg that he made at the top of my neck.
He caught on soon enough and squeezed my neck so I squeezed his thigh in turn. Both our bodies shook as we tried not to laugh. Milo and Kai stared at us, baffled as to why we would be losing our shit during Iago’s monologue to Roderigo professing his hate for Othello. We both started to double over, but neither took our hands off our prospective game pieces, which only made it worse. Neither of us would let go. It was the world’s worst yet best game of chicken.
Milo cleared his throat, warning us. We both sat back and moved our hands from one another. When my hand was finally free, I swiped at my eyes to clear the evidence of my teary laughter. I sighed once then coughed, silently both agreeing to shape up or risk getting shipped out.
During intermission, we all spilled out into the lobby. We huddled in a circle at first, then decided to walk so we could stretch our legs.
“Uh, what the hell happened in there?” Kai asked us.
My cheeks burned and I ducked my head, peering out of the huge glass windows that circled the entire theater onto the pier.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ezra said, shrugging off Kai.
“What was so funny anyway?” Milo asked.
I snorted but saved it with a cough. “Coming down with something?” Milo asked in a concerned tone.
“No, no,” I answered, “just clearing my throat.”
His brows furrowed. He suspected something was up. And he was right, but Ezra and I needed to have a little discussion before we went blabbing to the whole world what that something was.
“Ezra? Ezra Brandon!” we heard over our shoulders. We all turned toward the voice. “Oh my God! I knew it was you. How crazy is this?” a tall, leggy brunette squealed.
She sprinted our direction and threw her whole body on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and hugging him around the neck. Ezra grunted and settled his hands at her waist.
“Cameron,” he choked out.
She slid down his body bit by bit, drawing out the contact. I was hit by a wall of jealousy. It was such a heady sensation, I felt myself falling back a bit. Milo caught me by the elbow and smiled down at me.
“Clumsy?” he asked, poking me with a finger in the ribs.
I tried to play it off with a casual smile. I only hoped it translated. “A little,” I told him.
“How long’s it been?” she asked. “A year?”
Ezra had the decency to look a little shell shocked. His cheeks pinkened as he pushed her body away from his. “Yeah, about a year,” he confirmed.
“How long have you been in town?” she asked. “Why haven’t you called?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Just got into town last night,” he told her in explanation.
Cameron turned to Milo and winked at him. I watched him duck his head after a quick wave of his hand.
“What’s up, Cameron?” he asked.
“Nothing much,” she answered. “You ready for school to start? You here for that Othello paper too?” She laughed.
“Something like that,” he offered.
Cameron turned to Kai and Bear. “Hello, boys! What’s shakin’?”
“Not much,” Bear said.
Kai didn’t answer but offered a smile devoid of teeth and a raised brow. He didn’t like her. If Kai didn’t like this Aphrodite reincarnate there must be something going on.
She threaded her arm through Ezra’s and dragged him down the hall. Kai and his brothers kept up with them as they all talked. The walkway was only so wide so I was forced to follow them like a Justin Bieber Insta account, with shame and humiliation.
Milo fell back with me, which I was grateful for.
“That’s Cameron,” Milo offered without question, thank God.
“Oh?” I asked, trying not to sound too curious.
“I’ll introduce you when she comes down from her Ezra high,” he teased, not realizing how badly that hurt me.
“Okay, cool,” I somehow regurgitated, despite the frog in my throat.
“They hooked up last year at Kai’s graduation party.”
Oh my God. I do not want to hear this. “Oh, that right?”
“Pissed me off too. I mean, at the time it pissed me off. I’d had a crush on Cameron since freshman year. Of course, Ezra didn’t know this then, but it still hurt. After that, she wouldn’t even talk to me unless it was to inquire after lughead there.”
Yup, didn’t want to hear this. “That really sucks, Milo. If it’s any consolation, she’s a fool not to see you.” He got that dreamy-eyed look on his face again. “Don’t worry,” I said, patting his arm, “whoever she is, she’ll come along soon enough,” I reassured him, while also trying to draw that line in the sand.
It didn’t work.
“At the fundraiser tonight, will you save me a dance?” he asked.
What was I supposed to say? Uh, can’t, Milo. Sorry, I dig Ezra. You know, the one who distracted Cameron?
“Sure,” I told him. “I’ve got the perfect song.”
“What song’s that?” he asked, trying to flirt.
Lock it up, Jupiter. Lock it up! I tried to think of the most unromantic song ever written. “Uh, R. Kelly’s ‘Ignition Remix’?” I immediately regretted that suggestion.
Milo’s eyes blew wide. Shiiieeeeet! I done messed up! Should have gone with “I Believe I Can Fly.”
Needless to say, intermission threw ice on the friction Ezra and I’d created.
Toot, toot! Beep, beep!