“Wait, no,” Caro said. “Just you, Emmy.” She looked at Oliver, her face a protective shield. I knew what she was thinking: Oliver isn’t one of us anymore.
I was about to protest, but to my surprise, Oliver spoke up first. “Caro, wait,” he said, and she sighed and turned to face him, her arms folded over her chest. The campus lights had come on, bathing us in a watery yellow light. Under them, Caro looked tired and concerned and unsure, so unlike her normal self. “What?” she asked.
Oliver glanced at me before taking a deep breath and turning back to Caro. “Look, Caro, I know that I came back and sort of changed everything, especially for you and Emmy and Drew. I get it, okay? But we were friends once before and it’d be cool if we could try to be friends again. Not, like, re-creating what we had when we were seven, but as who we are now.”
Caro’s eyes filled with tears before she hastily brushed them away, and I realized that Oliver’s return had impacted more than just my family and his family. We weren’t the only people who had known him. Caro and Drew had been there the day Oliver’s dad drove off with him. The police had questioned them, too. And when Oliver came home, they had been standing right next to me.
“Fine,” she said. “Come on, Drew’s waiting.”
We followed her out to the parking lot, where Drew was standing near his parents’ Escalade. It loomed in the near darkness and made Drew look even smaller. “No, I don’t know,” he was saying into his cell when we arrived, his back turned to us. “Okay . . . yeah, okay. Love you, too, Kane. Okay, yeah. Bye.” When he turned and saw us, his cheeks were wet, and Caro immediately went to his side and wrapped her arm around his waist.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, shivering a little as the fog started to roll in. Next to me, Oliver pulled on his hoodie and zipped it up a little more in front.
“It’s stupid,” Drew said, shaking his head. “It’s just . . . so stupid. It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters,” Caro murmured. “It matters a lot.”
“What happened?” I asked again. “Is it Kevin? Did you break up?”
“No, no,” Drew said. “At least, not yet.”
“Dude,” Oliver said. “Just tell us what happened.” His voice was kind, though, and I thought it was a good thing that he was there, because I was about ready to shake the answer right out of Drew.
“I asked my parents if I could bring Kevin to my grandma’s birthday party,” Drew said, his voice trembling a little. “And at first they said they had to think about it, and then tonight before we came here . . . they said they thought it wouldn’t be a good idea.” He was twisting his own hoodie strings around his fingers so that they cut off the circulation. It looked painful but I didn’t move to stop him.
“Wait, why?” I asked as Caro rubbed his back. “I thought they were cool with this. I mean, not cool, but . . .”
“Yeah, well.” Drew laughed a little. “They say they’re cool with it, but my grandma’s a different story.”
“So tell your grandma to fuck off,” Caro spat, and Drew gave her a one-armed hug.
“It’s a little hard to do that when she controls the money,” he said, then took another deep breath. “I guess my dad’s business isn’t doing so well?” He said it like a question, like he wasn’t even sure if it was the truth or not. “And she’s been helping my parents out with, like, mortgage payments and stuff like that.”
“And they think she’ll cut them off if she finds out you’re gay?” I cried.
“Apparently, Grandma’s old school,” Drew sighed.
“Apparently, Grandma’s a homophobe,” Caro corrected him. (I hoped for Drew’s grandma’s sake that she and Caro never met in a dark alley.)
“Whatever she is, it means that I can’t bring Kevin to the party.”
Oliver, who had been very still, suddenly spoke up. “It’s not about the party,” he said quietly. “You want your parents to stick up for you.”
“I just want to know I’m worth more to them than some fucking mortgage payment!” Drew said, then quickly wiped his eyes on his wrist cuff. “Like, this was all just fine in theory. But now that they actually have to tell people and deal with that, they’re just bailing. And I don’t get to bail because this is my life, you know? And I don’t want to bail, I don’t mean it like that, but I just wish they weren’t standing so far behind me.”
He glanced over at Oliver. “Can I tell you something?”
“Yeah, man, sure.” I could feel Oliver’s posture stiffen, though, his spine suddenly straight.
“Sometimes I get so jealous of you.” Drew stabbed at the ground with the toe of his shoe. “Your parents both wanted you so much. I know that’s not fair and I’m sorry it sounds bad, but that’s how I feel.”
Oliver nodded slowly, taking it in. “I feel like I should apologize or something,” he said, and we all giggled nervously. I looped my arm around his, holding him close. “Wanting someone isn’t the same as loving them, though,” he said. “You know? It doesn’t mean the same thing.”
“No, I know, I know,” Drew said, wiping at his face again. “Sorry, that sounds so awful. I hate that I think that.”
“It’s okay,” Oliver said. “I get it. I do.” He put his hand on Drew’s shoulder, anchoring him.