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“Oh wow! My family took a trip there last summer. Hey, did you live anywhere close to—”

Anthony was too distracted to pay attention. He missed the summer. Not just for all the obvious reasons. Things had been so much simpler when it was just him and Omar wasting the days away. And now…

He looked up. Omar caught his eye and jerked his head upward in a nod that said,“Thanks, man.”

An unbidden smile tugged at Anthony’s cheeks. While he ate, his attention wandered over to the no-man’s-land table, which now had another vacancy. There were still plenty of kids sitting there, looking as miserable as he’d felt at the start of freshman year. Omar had just rescued one of them from that fate. Anthony didn’t understand why exactly, but he couldn’t help but feel a warm surge of affection for his best friend, who had just proven who the coolest person sitting at their table was.

— — —

Omar ducked his head into the business finances class to see if Silvia was there yet. She wasn’t, so he decided on a new strategy. He waited outside the room like he did for Anthony. His ploy paid off. With a glorious three minutes left until the start of class, she not only showed up but slowed and leaned against the nearest locker. She looked so freaking great too. Silvia had on a burgundy blouse the same color as her lips. Her long dark hair was shiny, like she’d just washed it. He swore he could smell a hint of strawberries. Was that her or the shampoo?

“I was hoping to talk to you,” Silvia murmured.

Omar was absolutely certain that a girl had never said that to him before. Ever. “Oh yeah?” he managed to squeak before he cleared his throat. “How come?”

“I have a few albums I think you’d be into. Business was slow yesterday so I made it my personal challenge to find a group you’ll like better than Dream Theater.”

In other words, she was thinking of him just as much as he’d been thinking of her. “I’d love to hear what you’ve got,” he said, feeling it was a poetic way of admitting that he liked her. And it worked!

“Come by after school,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear. “We can listen to some tunes together.”

Jesus, what an offer! He imagined chilling with her for however long it took to listen to a few albums. Hours probably. Did that count as a first date? “Yes,” he said. “I’m so into that!”

“Cool.” Silvia sighed while pushing away from the locker. “I better get inside before Mr. Peterson gives me my first tardy. Which he will eventually. I’m always running late, and there’s only so many times that you can claim it’s because of girl troubles.”

Omar laughed. They sure were getting personal. And quick!He followed her inside and spent most of the class smiling to himself. It wasn’t until halfway through that he remembered he had plans to meet Anthony after school so they could talk about— Omar felt the cold grip of fear, which was the very opposite of the high he’d just been riding, so he shoved the thought from his mind and focused on Silvia. Although he did come up with a plan for how he would deal with being double-booked.

As soon as the bell rang, he leapt to his feet and rushed out the door, only slowing long enough to say, “See you in a bit,” to Silvia. After getting his skateboard from his locker, he hightailed it outside to the parking lot where Anthony’s older brother always parked. Mike was already standing next to his truck while wearing a scowl.

“Go away,” he said in greeting.

“That’s the plan,” Omar replied, leaning against the passenger-side door.

“Don’t touch the paint job!”

“I’m not. Only my shirt is.”

“That still counts!”

By the time Anthony joined them, Omar was running circles around the truck to escape Mike, who wasn’t all that bad really. Omar enjoyed tormenting his own little sister and her friends. That was part of the job description for an older sibling.

“Let’s go,” Mike said as he was getting into the truck.

“Just a sec,” Omar panted. He waited until the truck door slammed so they’d have privacy. “I can’t hang out today.”

“For real?” Anthony said, already sounding disappointed. “How come?”

Omar couldn’t help grinning when he answered. “I promised Silvia I’d swing by the store. She has some music she wants me to hear.”

Anthony looked irritated before saying, “I’ll come with you.”

“Oh. Uh… Normally that would be cool, but I want to be alone with her. You know?”

Anthony’s incredulous expression said that he didn’t. “Are you coming over afterwards?”

“I’m not sure how long I’ll be.”

“What about the thing you wanted to talk about?”