Here the Whole Time - Vitor Martins Page 0,55

need anything, anytime, give me a ring. Actually, no, don’t. Text me. I have no patience for phone calls.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” I say with a laugh.

“Jerk,” she says.

We exchange phone numbers and hang up. I take a deep, relieved breath, enjoying the silence once again.

Two seconds later, I get a text from Becky (on my phone this time):

Becky:

If you like him, you have to make it VERY CLEAR

cause Caio can be slow to pick up on cues

also kinda dim sometimes

but a sweetheart

I stare at my phone for a bit. Without thinking, I text thanks for the tip and send it. I reread my answer and feel it sounds a little dry. So I add a haha. And a unicorn emoji, just to be sure.

And then I prepare to spend a full day torturing myself with the possibility of Caio liking me back. And the fact that I need to make my feelings VERY CLEAR, like that, in caps.

What a disaster.

By the end of the afternoon, I have a list of thirty-two possible names for the hypothetical cat that Caio and I will adopt someday. My favorite at the moment are:

Bagel, because we can call him Mini Bagel when he’s being cute, and because it’s one of the coolest words I know.

Bilbo, because my story with Caio was built on The Lord of the Rings.

Catsby, which would be the feline version of Gatsby (can’t stand the book; love the movie, though).

Cheese, because I think it would be funny to have a cat named Cheese.

Slinky, in case we adopt a fat cat. Everyone loves animals with ironic names.

Of course, creating this elaborate list didn’t take my mind away from my conversation with Becky. I suddenly have all these responsibilities that I didn’t have when I woke up this morning. I have a responsibility to be a good friend to Caio, to make a move if I want this story to go beyond pure friendship, and an even greater responsibility to the cats we will adopt in the future.

As anyone who has ever seen a Spider-Man movie knows, “With great power comes great responsibility” (it was actually Spider-Man’s uncle who said that), but right now all I have is great responsibility and no power.

The hours drag by, and when my mom and Caio finally get home, I’m almost done watching a YouTube video where a girl throws a bunch of stuff into a giant shredder. It’s mesmerizing, I swear. She throws a fridge into the shredder, and it turns to dust in five seconds.

“Hi, son. I missed you.” My mom walks into the living room and kisses my forehead.

“Me too,” Caio says, and my face goes red immediately.

I want to hurl myself into a giant shredder.

“How was it?” I ask.

My mom answers, but I’m not paying attention. I’m more focused on Caio as he rummages through his backpack, searching for something.

He produces a piece of paper and hands it to me.

“This is for you.”

I unfold the paper, and a smile blooms on my face. It’s another drawing by Eddie. This time, it’s a self-portrait. He’s wearing a Robin suit. On his costume, the R is inverted, and on the bottom of the page he wrote Me.

“Eddie missed you. He was sad when he saw you weren’t with us. But I told him a new drawing would make you really happy, and he spent the whole day on that work of art,” Caio says as I take in every detail of the drawing.

“It really did.”

I get up and go to my room to hang the new drawing on the wall, next to the one I got last week. My bedroom is starting to look like a prekindergarten classroom, but I don’t mind.

“Why did you want to stay home? If I knew, I’d have stayed, too.” Caio is right behind me, and his voice is lower than usual.

“I was sleepy. No big deal. I’m sorry I aborted the mission without saying anything,” I answer, also in a low voice, as if we are sharing a secret.

“But everything’s okay, right? With you, I mean. And me. We’re … cool. Yeah?”

I have no idea what to say, so I wriggle out of it. “You left your phone behind. Becky called. Then she called two more times, and I thought it could be serious, so I picked it up.”

“And was it?”

“What?”

“Serious?”

“No,” I say. “And yes,” I add.

“What do you mean?”

“She just wanted to say hello. But it was an important hello. She said she’ll call you later.”

Caio starts