I rushed out of the orientation, Mickey promising to tell me if I missed anything important, and sprinted toward Haggett Hall. When I reached my room there was something on the floor at the foot of the door.
I crouched down. Wrapped in brown paper was Ezra’s reversible velvet-and-sherpa blanket. My hand went to my mouth. On top was a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses, almost identical to the one’s Penny Lane wore in Almost Famous. In between the blanket and the glasses was a note.
I picked it up, sat down with my back against the flat of the door, and read its contents.
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.
- The Bard
I was a fool, Jupiter.
I am a fool, Jupiter.
Forgive my foolishness, Jupiter.
“I never expected you to find out,” I heard down the hall.
I looked up to see Ezra strolling toward me, both of his hands in his pockets, looking sheepish and adorable at the same time.
“How comforting,” I told him, not ready to forgive him so readily.
He stopped in front of me. “It’s not what you think.”
“So you didn’t bet Milo that you could sleep with me before he could?”
His face tinged pink. “In a way.”
I stood and picked up the blanket and card, the glasses sliding to the floor, and shoved them into his chest. “Take your bribe and leave then.”
“No,” he said with conviction.
“Go!” I told him, pushing him a little, but he didn’t budge.
“No,” he said again, softer. “Not until you hear what I have to say.”
I thought about Frankie and cursed her to the moon and back. “What happened?”
He looked surprised but didn’t argue. He set everything at our feet again and insecurely folded his hands around his triceps. “I’m embarrassed, but the truth is I just said it because I didn’t want Milo to get anywhere near you. The idea of Milo even laying a finger on you sent me into a jealous rage. I decided to match the bet so he wouldn’t succeed, but I never intended to sleep with you, I swear. I swear it, Jupiter. I just didn’t want him to take something from you that didn’t belong to him, and I planned on letting you down gently when we were on the road.”
I felt my eyes gloss over. “You never intended to stay with me?” I asked in disbelief. I stuck out the heel of my boot and watched the tip of my foot swing back and forth as if from very far away.
“No, I didn’t.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. “All that stuff you said? The kissing? The conversations? They were a front to your plot? They were just distractions so I wouldn’t notice your cousin? What about what happened in that stadium back there?” I asked, throwing a hand the direction of Edmundson.
He ran his hands through his hair. The top flopped across his temple. He let his arms fall helplessly at his sides. “No,” he said with feeling. “The only lies I told were told to myself. I didn’t want to want you, Jupiter, because needing you like I do means a hard fall when you decide to leave. And you will leave. Girls leave me. They just do,” he admitted with utter vulnerability, making my heart sink for him.
“I thought if I could spend a little time with you,” he continued, “that I’d discover you are an illusion. But I was wrong. Then I thought if I could touch you, you wouldn’t feel like heaven. But I was wrong. Then I thought if I could kiss you, whatever I imagined you tasted like would prove false. But I was wrong. Then I thought if I could just keep you close but never fully entrenched in myself that I could fall in love with you without getting hurt. But I was wrong.”
“Are you in love with me?” I asked him.
“I think so,” he said truthfully, making my heart race. “I’m falling quickly.” He looked straight at me, a pained expression on his face. “I tend to do that,” he explained with a slow shrug.
I studied his right hand before pressing my palm to his. I decided I would wait and let him thread his fingers with mine. We sat for a long time, never making eye contact, but eventually he did.
“Can you forgive me?” he asked.
I nodded at his feet then my eyes met his. “You know, no matter what ends up happening between us,” I promised, “betrayal would never be a move I’d play.”
“I know,” he said, taking my keys from my hand and opening my door. He sat the blanket inside on my bed, made a comment about how my room rocked his socks, and dragged the sunglasses he bought me with him as he shut and locked the door again.
He stood looking at me briefly with that Ezra grin that made my skin tingle before slipping the glasses over my face.
“Come on, Jupiter Corey,” he said, dragging me toward the elevator.
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked him.
“Yes,” he said as we stepped into the metal box, pressing the floor for the lobby. He brushed the back of his fingers across my cheeks as the doors shut.
“Where did you get the paper for that note?” I teased him.
He smiled at me. “What? Not up to Jupiter par, is it? You’ll have to excuse its state. It seems it got drenched when someone sprayed a water hose into my car.”
I pursed my lips. “Hmm, I bet that person had good reason, though.”
“Maybe,” he said with a sly grin, wrapping his hand around mine.
The doors opened and he led me out of Haggett Hall toward the housing parking lots. When I saw his GTO, I almost cried.
“She looks so good,” I said, dropping his hand when he opened the passenger side for me.
“She cleans up well,” he agreed.
Before sitting down, I asked, “Where are we going?”
“Get in the car, Jupiter.”
“Yeah, I will, but first where are we going?”
“To get you another phone.” He laughed. “I’m not shouting across stadiums every time I need to speak to you. Now get in the car, Jupiter.”
I smiled. “It was awfully romantic, though.”
“I think security is still looking for me,” he teased. “Get in the car.”
“Ezra?”
“Yes, Jupiter?”
“Before I get in the car—”
“Yes?”
“I missed you too.”