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Nick hated crowds.

And honestly, the hot dog was perturbing him more than he cared to admit.

“Fine,” he said, knowing he sounded grumpy but unable to do much about it. “If we have to.”

Gibby wasn’t the type of person to deal with his crap. It was one of the reasons he liked her so much. She rolled her eyes at him, letting him know exactly what she thought about him, and then grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward the stairs.

But when they reached street level, she made sure to stand close so they could both be under the umbrella.

Nick and Seth had been ten when Lola Gibson quite literally punched her way into their lives.

It’d been two against four, and Nick was positive the on-duty teacher looked the other way right when they’d been cornered. Seth shoved Nick behind him, the top of his head barely to Nick’s chin, like he thought he’d be able to protect him from the beating they were about to get.

Granted, Nick probably deserved it, given that his mouth moved before his brain managed to convey it was a bad idea to laugh obnoxiously when David Carlucci swung at the tetherball and missed, falling face-first into the metal pole.

David Carlucci and his goons weresixthgraders, which meant that Nicky was going to die.

But then Seth was there, standing in front of him, all four foot ten of him, like he thought he’d be able to stop them from getting their asses beat.

And right when Nick was about to open his mouth again, there’d been a flash of black braided hair, heralding the arrival of Lola Gibson, some girl Nick and Seth were peripherally aware of but had had no contact with previously. She stood in front of Seth, hands on her hips, wearing jeans and a hoodie with a skull and crossbones on the back.

David Carlucci told her to move. Lola Gibson responded by punching him in the mouth, splitting his lip. David Carlucci recoiled before snarling, eyes narrowed as he started toward them again.

Lola Gibson opened her mouth and screamed, which, at thetime, became the loudest sound Nick had ever heard. He was suitably impressed as David Carlucci and his goons took a step back. Nick, never able to keep his mouth shut for long, was about to tell them off when a teacher came running over.

Lola Gibson burst into tears, sobbing that theseboyswere trying to hurt her and her friends, and she was just a littlegirl,and they were trying to hit agirl,and—

David Carlucci and his gang of prepubescent misfits were led away on a one-way trip toward the vice principal’s office where Nick was convinced they’d be drawn and quartered for their crimes against humanity.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Lola Gibson immediately stopped crying.

“I like you,” Nick told her seriously. “I’ve never said that to a girl before.”

Lola Gibson narrowed her eyes at him. “I will hit you just as hard.”

“I take it back.”

“Good.”

“Your tie is blue,” she said to Seth.

“Thank you,” Seth mumbled, because he didn’t do very well with new people.

And that was how Nick and Seth met Lola Gibson.

She never left after that. Even when she went to high school before them, she still hung out with them almost every day after school and on weekends.

It was the summer between Nick and Seth’s freshman and sophomore year that she shaved her head and demanded they call her Gibby. Since Nick and Seth liked their faces in the shape they were in, and because they respected their friend, she was Gibby.

People didn’t get their friend group, not that Nick really cared. He didn’t understand most of them, so it was fair. They were the queers of Centennial High (and though they weren’t theonlyones, they were the most visible). They were the nutjobs, the weirdos. Seth was too smart. Nick was too loud. Gibby was too butch, and Jazz had once been like everyone else before Gibby had put her lesbian magic all over her and taken her to the dark side. Or at leastthat was what Jazz had heard one day in the girl’s bathroom. Gibby had laughed so hard that she cried, something Nick and Seth had never seen before, and were amazed by.

Then came Owen and… well. The less said about that the better, seeing as how the Great Romance of Nick and Owen was a by-product of Owen’s arrival, and no one wanted to relive those days. Though Nick hadn’t said it out loud, he wondered if Owen had put his lesbian magic all over Nick. That seemed to be the only explanation as to why Nick would have let Owen touch his nipple that one time.

They weren’t popular, but that didn’t matter. He loved his people very much.

“It’s not as hard as she’s making it out to be,” Gibby said. They were huddled close underneath the umbrella. “I know she’s worried, but why can’t she believe me when I tell her that everything is going to be okay?”

Nick shrugged. “You’re graduating. Going on to bigger and better things and leaving us all behind. I mean, I get what you’re saying, but I can see where she’s coming from too.”