Even travel Scrabble. It was so nice, and so not awkward, Luce thought she might cry.
"I gured you were going home today," she said. "Everyone else is leaving."
Miles shrugged. "My parents said it was cool if I stayed. I'll be home again in a couple of weeks, and besides, we have di erent opinions on the perfect vacation. Theirs is anything worthy of a write-up in the New York Times Styles section."
Luce laughed. "And yours?"
Miles dug a little deeper into his bag, pulling out two packets of instant apple cider, a box of microwave popcorn, and a DVD of the Woody Allen movie Hannah and Her Sisters. "Pretty humble, but you're looking at it." He smiled. "I asked you to spend Thanksgiving with me, Luce. Just because we're changing venues doesn't mean we have to change our plans."
She felt a grin spread across her face, and held open the door for Miles to come in. His shoulder brushed hers when he passed, and they locked eyes for a moment. She felt Miles almost sway on his heels, as if he was going to double back and kiss her. She tensed up, waiting.
But he just smiled, dropped his backpack in the middle of the oor, and started to unload Thanksgiving.
"Are you hungry?" he asked, waving a packet of popcorn.
Luce winced. "I am really bad at making popcorn."
She was thinking of the time she and Callie nearly burned down their dorm at Dover. She couldn't help it. It made her miss her best friend all over again.
Miles opened the door of the microwave. He held up a nger. "I can press any button with this nger, and microwave most anything. You're lucky I'm so good at it."
It was weird that earlier she'd been torn up over kissing Miles. Now she realized he was the only thing making her feel better. If he hadn't come over, she'd be spiraling into another guilty black abyss. Even though she couldn't imagine kissing him again--not because she didn't want to, necessarily, but because she knew it wasn't right, that she couldn't do that to Daniel ... that she didn't want to do that to Daniel--Miles's presence was extremely comforting.
They played Boggle until Luce nally understood the rules, Scrabble until they realized the set was missing half its letters, and Parcheesi until the sun went down outside the window and it was too dim to see the board without turning on a light. Then Miles stood up and lit the re, and slid Hannah and Her Sisters into the DVD player on Luce's computer. The only place to sit and watch the movie was on the bed.
Suddenly, Luce felt nervous. Before, they'd just been two friends playing board games on a weekday afternoon. Now the stars were out, the dorm was empty, the re was crackling, and--what did that make them?
They sat next to each other on Luce's bed, and she couldn't stop thinking about where her hands were, whether they looked unnatural if she kept them pinned across her lap, whether they'd brush against Miles's ngertips if she rested them at her sides. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see his chest moving when he breathed. She could hear him scratch the back of his neck. He'd taken his baseball cap o , and she could smell the citrusy shampoo in his ne brown hair.
Hannah and Her Sisters was one of the few Woody Allen movies she'd never seen, but she could not make herself pay attention. She'd crossed and uncrossed her legs three times before the opening titles rolled.
The door swung open. Shelby barreled into the room, took one look at Luce's computer monitor, and blurted, "Best Thanksgiving movie ever! Can I watch with--" Then she looked at Luce and Miles, sitting in the dark on the bed. "Oh."
Luce bolted up o the bed. "Of course you can! I didn't know when you were leaving to go home--"
"Never." Shelby ung herself on the top bunk, sending a small earthquake down to Luce and Miles on the bottom bunk. "My mom and I got in a
ght. Don't ask, it was utterly boring. Besides, I'd much rather hang out with you guys, anyway."
"But Shelby--" Luce couldn't imagine getting in a ght so big it kept her from going home on Thanksgiving.
"Let's just enjoy the genius of Woody in silence," Shelby commanded.
Miles and Luce shot each other a conspiratorial look. "You got it," Miles called up to Shelby, giving Luce a grin.