After English class, I walked toward the door with Lex. The hallways were teeming with people trying to get from one place to the other without running headlong into one another.

I didn’t know what the big hurry was. The buses never left on time, and you couldn’t get out of the parking lot until they were gone, so no matter how you got home, there was no point in rushing.

Lex didn’t seem to be in any great hurry. He matched my pace. “Do you want a ride home?” I asked. “My sister’s right. It’s on my way.”

Lex looked over at me with an unreadable expression on his face. “If you don’t mind, that would be great. The bus is fine, though. I don’t need special treatment.”

“You’re not special,” I said with a smirk.

“Given. Well, I think I’ll take you up on your kind offer. Is Nadine coming?”

Lex looked around.

“Don’t get your hopes up. She’s at soccer practice.”

“I wasn’t—” he started, but then changed his mind about whatever he was going to say. “I didn’t know she played.”

“She never has before. From what I hear, the team isn’t that great, and they’ll take anyone.”

We walked in silence out to my car, and I pulled up Lex’s address on my phone. He tossed his backpack in the back seat and buckled himself in.

“Thanks for the ride, again. I really appreciate it.”

“Yeah. Don’t mention it.” I said, starting up the car.

“And don’t worry, I’m not thinking this is more than a one-time thing. You want to offer me a ride again in the future? Cool. Otherwise, like I said, I'm fine with the bus. It gets me from here to there just fine.”

“Let’s play it by ear,” I said.

I didn’t want to offer him rides to school in the morning. That would mean leaving extra early. But driving him home at the end of the day could work just fine, unless things fell apart between him and Nadine.

“Do you want to come up?” Lex asked when we got to his house.

I hadn’t planned on it, but I was curious to see where he lived. I considered it a fact-finding mission.

“Sure.”

“My parents are both at work,” he said, shouldering his backpack.

“Ooh… so we’ll be alone in the apartment,” I said, waggling my eyebrows as if this were something scandalous.

“Yeah.”

He pushed the button for the elevator, and we rode up in silence. His apartment was as far away from the elevator as possible. The carpet was a worn industrial gray. Lex opened the door to let us in, and we took off our shoes in the entryway.

It wasn’t a spacious apartment. There was a small kitchen right off the front hallway. On the other side was a living room with a comfortable-looking couch and a leather recliner facing the television. A low coffee table took up much of the floor space. There was plenty of afternoon light coming in through sheer curtains.

“Can I get you something? Chips? Cookies? A sandwich?” He set his backpack on a chair in the kitchen.

“Whatever you’re having,” I said.

Lex took out a loaf of bread, some turkey, a head of lettuce, and a jar of mayo. “Is this okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, that's great. I thought you were going to serve me peanut butter and jelly or something like that.”

Lex scoffed. “Because I’m from the U.S.?”

“Actually, yes. We’re led to believe it’s all you people eat: creamy peanut butter and grape jelly on inedible white bread.”

Lex raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you have peanut butter here too?”

“Yeah. Surprise, surprise… peanut butter is actually Canadian,” I said. “Invented by some guy in Montreal in the 1800s. But he didn’t market it very well and called it ‘peanut paste’ or something equally vile, so everyone is convinced it came from the States.”

“Um… Why do you know this?” Lex handed me a plate with a turkey sandwich.

“Thanks. I did a project on uses for peanuts as a science project in elementary. You know you can make plastic from them too?”

“You don’t say.” Lex said, shaking his head with a smile.

I tried to eat my sandwich in a dignified manner, but I pretty much wolfed it down.

“I haven’t asked yet. Theo… short for Theodore?” Lex asked after polishing off the last of his sandwich.

“Oh, now we’re getting into it,” I said. “You expect me to divulge my given name? So soon in our relationship?”

“I take it Theo is not short for Theodore?” Lex asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not even close. My full name is A. Theophilus Stafford.”

Lex’s eyes widened. “A? Just A? As in the first letter of the alphabet?”

I nodded. “That’s what it says on my birth certificate. But it stands for Agamemnon.”

Lex stood absolutely still for a full two seconds before he started laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Your name is Agamemnon?”

I closed my eyes and shook my head. “It’s A, thank you very much.”

“That’s… terrible.”

“You’re telling me. I suppose Lex is short for Alexander or something normal like that.”

Lex nodded. “Right on the money: Alexander William Jones. Doesn’t get much more basic than that. You’d think I’d be the one with the unimaginable name. My mom’s Greek, after all. Maybe I should be Agamemnon.”

“Go right ahead. Take the name. It’s all yours.”

Lex chuckled. “I like Theo, though. It suits you.”

When he smiled at me, I got a little thrill as if I were happy that he liked my name. Why would I care if he liked my name? That was weird. I changed the subject.

“Nadine got a relatively normal name. I mean, there aren’t a lot of Nadines around, but at least people don’t have a laughing fit when they find out about her name.”

“Does it mean something?” Lex asked.

“Nadine? It’s French. It means hope. My mom named me, and my dad named my sister. I think my mom forfeited all naming rights after the whole A. Theophilus debacle.”

“Your dad is French?” Lex asked as he put our plates in the dishwasher.

I shook my head. “My dad is from Quebec, which is not the same, no matter what anyone tries to tell you. And he left Quebec when he was still in school.”

“You’re not close,” Lex said.

“Not at all. He left. End of story. Ah—you’ve got a PS5,” I said, walking into the living room.

“Yeah. It was a relocation gift from my parents. They felt bad for uprooting me even though I agreed to the whole plan. You up for something before you head home?”

“Sure.”

I was in no hurry. The few things I had for homework would be done in no time.

Take a seat,” Lex said, indicating the couch as he fired up the system. “What’s first?”

“I’m good with whatever.” I settled into my seat.

Lex pulled up NHL. I used to play that with Michael before he and Abby got together. Since then, I haven’t played much of anything. I wasn’t terrible, but Lex was a standout.

“This isn’t your first time on the ice,” I said.

Lex shrugged. “Guilty as charged. This is my current favorite. I know it’s ridiculous, but when I found out we were moving to Canada, I decided I should get good at hockey, even if it was only on-screen.”

We played until our hunger got the better of us again, and we paused to raid the kitchen. This time, it was chips and Coke.

I still wasn’t in any hurry to get home. We returned to our places in the living room. “What next?” I asked.

“Let’s go old-school.” Lex swapped out controllers and fired up an old Nintendo Wii that I hadn’t noticed before. “Up for some Mario Kart?” he asked.

“Sure. I’m fine with whatever.”

I was a pretty competitive person, and I did my best to keep up with him. Unfortunately, I hadn’t played in a very long while and was doing a terrible job of avoiding all the crap flying at me, especially the bananas for some reason.

“I’m not sure I should trust you to get yourself home,” Lex said. “You’re clearly not the best driver.”

“Ha ha. Very funny. I’m fine as long as no one is spreading oil on the road or squirting my windshield with ink.”

I secretly studied Lex’s expressions as he was playing. He was a good-looking guy. I kept coming back to that—and it kept being true. Of all of my friends, Lex was the most objectively attractive.

I mean, Griffin had nice hair, and some girls went for that. But he wasn’t very conventionally handsome. He had a small chin, and his mouth was too narrow.

Michael had flawless skin and wide, dark eyes, but he was so besotted with Abby that his looks didn’t matter at all. He was okay to look at, I guess. About average, really.

Abby was a girl, so it wasn’t fair to compare her to anyone else, and I didn’t honestly think of her as a friend.

Lex stood out. He had a sharp jawline that accentuated the shape of his face. His eyebrows were prominent without being bushy. His naturally curly hair looked impossibly soft—it wasn’t frizzy or anything.

His eyes weren’t overly large, but they were expressive. When he smiled, they lit up.

He had dark lashes that stood in contrast to his tanned skin.

His teeth weren’t perfectly straight, but they were very nearly so. And he was blessed with the ability to look genuinely happy when he smiled. It was that smile that I kept coming back to.

No one could resist that smile.