Max

After parking and walking up the front courtyard of the school, I spotted Adam immediately, as if drawn to him. He was already on the steps, mingling with the hipsters. It made sense—they were able to match his cool air and the clothes he wore.

I watched from a distance as people waved to Adam, smiling warmly at him. Adam would respond with his easygoing smile, as if moving to this school and having just gotten settled here was the easiest thing in the world. We were only in the second week of classes, and he seemed to have an entire budding social network around him.

I was, admittedly, impressed. He’d really managed to make himself at home. That wasn’t easy when it was senior year—most people already had their friend groups established and weren’t interested in interlopers. But here was Adam, proving that everyone had space for him somewhere.

It was hard to imagine it would’ve happened that quickly for me if I’d been in Adam’s shoes. I was friendly enough, but Adam seemed to have a supernatural ability to make himself known in every room. He oozed charisma, his smile effortless and his ability to talk to anyone genuinely skillful.

Adam suddenly turned his attention to me. When we locked eyes, he shouted, “Hey!” He ran to catch up to me as I was walking into the building. “I heard from a source that you are publishing the debate schedule for the season today.”

I looked at him coyly, an amused smile at my lips. “A source?”

“I have friends that know things,” Adam said. It took everything in me not to tease him by saying I bet you do. Adam had so quickly integrated himself into the social scene here that I had a feeling he had friends everywhere who knew all of the gossip.

I pulled out my phone, feeling an urge to give Adam what he clearly wanted. I didn’t know how to explain it. We barely knew each other, and we had been each other’s direct competition in many ways, but here I was, ready to bend over backward for him.

“I have friends that know things, too,” I said, pulling up the email on my phone. “Here’s the schedule.”

Adam’s eyes widened. “No way.”

He looked over my shoulder to get a good look at the phone in my hands. I was heavily aware of how close Adam was to me—the heat radiating from his body, the way his front was nearly touching my back. It felt strangely and annoyingly good to have his arm hovering around me to turn my phone toward him.

“Bellevue, Westlake…unless they’ve attracted new talent, they should be easy. Hastings is where it might get tough, but we’ll be a couple of weeks in by then. We should have a rhythm going,” Adam said.

I nodded. “I agree. I just wouldn’t count Westlake out quite yet. I hear from my friends that they have a freshman who is brilliant.”

Adam considered this. “Interesting,” he said. He put a hand on my shoulder, and I suddenly stood up a little straighter, feeling him in every part of my body. “If we’re talking about them, imagine what they’re saying about us.”

I laughed. “You and me on the same team. I can practically feel them quaking in their boots from here.”

“That’s us. We’re so scaaaary,” Adam said and then walked off, his head thrown back with laughter.

***

Adam

I was bouncing through the halls, still smiling about the stupid, cheesy, joke I’d made. Max’s laugh had been so warm and big. He had a surprisingly sturdy one. And that wasn’t the only thing sturdy about him—when my hand was on his shoulder, it was impossible to ignore how strong and solid he was underneath his jacket.

Max hadn’t responded at all to my touch—positively or negatively. There was nothing that indicated he was interested in boys or not. There was no flirty look or leaning in, in the same way there was no immediate pull away or frat-adjacent exchange about platonic brotherly love.

Nothing.

I made no effort to hide that I was gay. I hadn’t hidden anything about myself since I came out when I was twelve. Once I left the closet, I never turned back. It’d been the secret to making me feel so comfortable in my own skin. My childhood had been taken over by a general discomfort and acknowledgement that I was different. But ever since coming out, I felt more confident, more self-assured, more myself.

And with that came the ability to properly read the signals people were giving off, for the most part. It usually wasn’t a problem for me to sense when the reaction was mutual, or at least figure out how a person was feeling.

But there was absolutely nothing from Max. I couldn’t get a read on him at all.

Miranda had been itching to make a move and was dying to know if Max was straight or bi, but I had no idea. I had nothing to give her. Suddenly, she wasn’t the only one dying to know. From what I could tell, Max kept himself locked up tight—and that just made me even more anxious to know.

As I opened my locker, the feeling of Max’s strong arm under my touch lingered. If I thought about it for long enough, I could almost pretend that my hand was still on his arm. It made me wonder what the rest of him felt like, but I shook the thought from my head. The last thing I needed to do was start thinking about if Max’s chest and abs were just as solid—or that his laugh kept echoing in my ears.

“Hey, you!” Sasha said, slamming my body into my locker. “What do you say? A movie this weekend?” He smiled seductively. “It’s been two weeks already, and I still haven’t officially welcomed you to Cypress.”

I smiled good-naturedly. Sasha was bi and hadn’t been shy about expressing interest in me; in fact, this wasn’t even his first offer.

“That’s sweet, but I’ve got debate practice and family stuff this weekend,” I said gently.

“Debate?” Sasha pouted. “Isn’t that where fun goes to die?”

“Nah—verbal sparring is fun. You just haven’t tried it.”

“I personally prefer all my fun to be more…physical,” he said with a coy smile. “But then again, that’s not my crowd. Suit yourself.”

As Sasha walked away, I couldn’t fight the frown forming on my face. Not his crowd? I couldn’t help but read into it and think that maybe he meant that everyone on the debate team was straight.

Could that really be?

***

Max

I walked into AP lit and headed straight for my usual spot toward the back of the room. Before I could make my usual trek, the teacher stopped me.

“Max, hey,” my teacher said and waved me over. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” He then looked back up toward the students coming in. “Adam, you too.”

My heart thudded with the uncertainty of what was about to come. I suddenly regretted letting myself get so carried away when it came to the class discussion with Adam. I had a feeling it had to be related to that.

“What’s up?” Adam asked, sounding so much more confident and relaxed than I was feeling. I didn’t know how he did that. Was it that he just didn’t feel anxiety? Or was he just that good at hiding it?

“As fun as it has been these past couple weeks watching you two banter, there is a whole other group of kids that needs to get a word in edgewise. So, rather than assign the two of you homework separately, I’m assigning it together.”

“What?” I asked, the word coming out before I could stop it.

“The two of you will read and annotate Frankenstein and come up with a presentation you agree on to share with the class,” the teacher continued.

“Agree on?” Adam asked, glancing over at me. If there was one thing that had become obvious so far this semester, it was that Adam and I couldn’t agree on anything. Even points where we did mostly agree, we’d bicker about minute details and word choice.

The teacher put his hand up to stop us from protesting. “We are all well aware the two of you can debate any subject. The challenge is to now find something you can agree on. Being able to debate until your face turns blue is one thing, but you need to learn collaboration and teamwork. It’s one of the most important skills a person can have, especially when it comes to navigating a project with someone you’re not necessarily compatible with.” He looked between us. “Understood?”

“Yes,” I agreed, even though I didn’t really know what we’d just gotten ourselves into.

“You’re dismissed,” the teacher said and shooed us back to our seats. Adam and I walked back, Adam sitting down first and me walking past him to get to my seat.

Adam glanced over his shoulder at me. I fought off a sigh, wondering how much time we would have to spend together before we could agree on anything.