“Um,” I said.
“We kissed,” the Duke said.
“That’s kinda gay,” Keun said.
“I AM A GIRL.”
“Yeah, I know, but so is Tobin,” Keun said.
JP was still shouting, seemingly unable to modulate his voice. “AM
I THE ONLY PERSON
PROFOUNDLY CONCERNED ABOUT THE WHOLE MAKEUP OF OUR GROUP? WILL NO ONE
THINK OF THE GOOD OF THE GROUP?!”
“Go gawk at cheerleaders,” the Duke said.
JP looked at us for a while and then he smiled. “Just don’t get all gooey with each other.” He turned
around and walked inside.
“Your hash browns are getting cold,” I said.
“If we go back in, no flirting with cheerleaders.”
“I only did it to get your attention,” I confessed. “Can I kiss you again?” She nodded and I did, and
there was no second-kiss drop-off whatsoever. I could have kept going forever, but finally, through the
kiss, she said, “I actually really
do want my hash browns,” and so I opened the door and she ducked
beneath my arm and we ate dinner at three
A.M.
We hid in the back amid the giant steel refrigerators, our time interrupted only occasionally by JP coming
back to give us the hilarious details of his and Keun’s aborted attempts to engage the cheerleaders in
conversation. And then the Duke and I fell asleep together on the red tile of the Waffle House kitchen, my
shoulder as her pillow and my jacket as mine. JP and Keun woke us up at seven, and Keun briefly broke
his vow never to abandon the cheerleaders and drove us to the Duke and Duchess. It turned out that
Tinfoil Guy drove the tow truck for them, and so Tinfoil Guy gave us a tow, and
I jacked the car up in the
driveway so the axle wouldn’t break and just put the wheel in the garage, and then the Duke and I went
over to her house and opened presents, and I tried not to make it incredibly obvious to her parents how
incredibly gooey I felt about the Duke, and then my parents came home and I told them the car got jacked
when I was trying to drive the Duke home, and they yelled at me about it, but not for too long because it
was Christmas and they had insurance and it was just a car. I called the Duke and JP and Keun that
evening after the cheerleaders had finally left the Waffle House and everyone had eaten their Christmas
dinners. They all came over, and we watched two James Bond movies and then
stayed up half the night
recounting our escapades. And then we all fell asleep, all four of us in four sleeping bags, like we’d been
doing forever, and nothing was different except that I didn’t actually fall asleep, and neither did the Duke,
and we just kept looking at each other, and then finally got up at, like, four thirty and walked a mile in the
snow to Starbucks, just the two of us. I overcame the confusing French of the Starbucks ordering system
and managed to get a latte, which contained the caffeine I so sorely needed,
and then the Duke and I were
sitting next to each other in plush purple chairs, sprawled out all over those chairs, as tired as I had ever
been, so tired I could barely even smile. And we were talking about nothing, which she was still so good
at, and then there was a pause, and she looked over at me with sleepy eyes and said, “So far so good,”
and I said, “God, I love you,” and she said, “Oh,” and I said, “Good oh?” and she said, “Best oh ever,”
and I
put the latte down on a table, awash in the happy middle of my greatest adventure.