watch back?”
“I haven’t decided yet. I’ll make you do something for it. I just don’t know what.”
She read the menu again, and I found myself smiling. “I always liked your attitude,” I said. “Even back in high school, when it was a pain in my ass.”
To my surprise, her cheeks flushed red. She kept her eyes down. “You didn’t like my attitude. You liked the fact that I got all weak-kneed and fluttery every time you came to science lab.”
“You did? I don’t remember that.”
Mina rolled her eyes. “Whatever, golden boy. You also liked the fact that I did most of our work, so you got good grades without having to do much.”
I smiled wider. Mina and I had been partners in science lab, which was how we’d spent so much time together. Outside of class, we didn’t travel in the same circles—me with the jocks, Mina with the theater geeks. But as lab partners, we’d been dynamite. I’d felt comfortable with Mina in a way I hadn’t felt comfortable with anyone else. Everything she said was interesting, and we laughed a lot. We’d had fun. High school sucked, but those were good times, and we’d taken them for granted the way you do when you’re a teenager. At least, I had.
“What are you smiling at?” Mina asked me now, her eyes narrowed.
“Do you remember the purple hair incident?” I asked her.
“It was deep cool burgundy,” she corrected me. “At least, that’s what the box said. It only looked purple after I put it on my hair.”
“Right. And you didn’t have enough money to dye it back, so we tried to make our own dye in science lab.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “A mistake.”
“It wasn’t too bad. We only tried it on the ends of your hair.”
“Which turned them yellow,” Mina said. “And it wasn’t just the ends. It was the bottom three inches of my hair!”
I was laughing now. “Northchester High’s school colors were purple and yellow, so everyone thought you were really into the school spirit. They started calling you Griff after our school mascot.”
“You.” Mina pointed at me. “You called me Griff. And you laughed every time you said it. Like you’re laughing now.”
But her expression had softened, and she was trying not to laugh.
“Okay, fine,” she admitted. “That was sort of amusing.”
“Come on,” I coaxed her. “We had some fun. Before I wrecked it.”
We had. My home life in high school hadn’t been good, which was something I hadn’t let on to anyone—even Mina. Especially Mina. Because I didn’t want the girl who was the only uncomplicated good thing I had to know that I wasn’t the golden boy she thought I was. I had wanted Mina to think I was perfect. I hadn’t wanted her to know that when I got home from school every day, my life was something entirely different. A downward spiral that had started to hit bottom the night of the senior prom.
The waitress came to our table, and we ordered dinner. “About that,” Mina said when she left. “About you wrecking things. Are you going to tell me what happened on prom night? I think I’m ready to hear it.”
I wasn’t ready to tell it, I realized. Even now, after all these years, after I’d gotten her here for dinner, after she’d finally agreed to give me the time of day—I didn’t want to talk about it. The pain was still too harsh, and so was the shame.
But it was time, at long last, to man the fuck up. So I did.
“How much did you know about me in high school?” I asked her. “Outside of school, I mean.”
Mina frowned, thinking back. “You lived in Evelyn Heights.”
The richer part of town, where all of the houses were big and new. “That’s true. What else?”
She briefly put a fingertip to her bottom lip, then dropped it, as if it was a habit she was trying to break. “I guess that’s it,” she admitted. “There wasn’t any gossip about you that I remember. Not that I ever heard any gossip, really.”
I ran my fingertip around the edge of my coaster. “I lived with my mother, my father, and my brother, Caleb,” I said. “He was older. Our parents were pretty demanding, I guess. They wanted us to excel, to be the best at everything. Caleb and I were supposed to get good grades, play multiple sports, win championships. If we could add in multiple languages and student council, that