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“Me either.”

“They look… edible?”

“They’re probably sour,” Nick said. “Mom spent time in Mexico when she was a kid. She said a lot of the candy is sour there.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah. Grandma and Grandpa went there to help build houses or something. She was there for almost a year.”

“That’s why she was good at Spanish?”

Nick nodded, pleased Seth had remembered. “Yeah. She said the best way to learn a language is to be immersed in it. You don’t have a choice otherwise.”

“She was pretty great.”

Her memory still hurt, but it had lost its sharp edges. “I think so too.”

Seth handed him a strand of Salsagheti. “Supposed to be watermelon-flavored.”

“You want me to go first?”

Seth smiled quietly at him. “Same time?”

“Okay.” Nick tilted his head back, holding the candy dangling over his mouth. He glanced over, and Seth was doing the same. “Ready? One. Two.Three.”

Nick had been right. It was sour. Edible, but sour.

He tilted his head forward in time to see Seth’s eyes bulging, his face screwed up in a grimace, a piece of Salsagheti hanging out of his mouth. “So good,” Seth managed to say, though he sounded like he was dying.

“Oh my god,” Nick said, laughing at him. “You hate it!”

“I don’t hate it. I just wasn’t expecting it to taste likethat.”

“Like what?”

Seth swallowed it down. “Like it murdered my mouth.”

Nick bumped his shoulder. Seth bumped back.

Maybe it wasn’t a date.

But it was still good.

Good, that is, until Seth didn’t show on Saturday when they were supposed to meet. Neither did Owen, but Seth was the one Nick had been looking for. The past couple of days had been better, and Nick thought he and Seth were getting back to where they belonged. Nick’s dad was still acting distant, and Nick had managed to avoid taking his pills for three days running, but things were mostly okay. He had a headache, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.Yes,his toothpaste tube had exploded for absolutely no reason this morning, but that was not going to ruin what was probably going to be the most important day of his life.

“Maybe he’s just behind schedule,” Jazz said as Nick looked down at his phone for what felt like the hundredth time in the last ten minutes. “The trains don’t run as often on the weekends. One of the lines could be delayed.”

“Then why isn’t he texting back?” Nick asked, brow furrowed.

“I don’t know, Nicky.”

“Whatever it is,” Gibby said, “I’m sure he has a good reason. You know that, right? He’s not blowing you off or anything.”

“Like he did all summer?”

Gibby sighed. “It wasn’t—he was busy, Nicky. We all get busy. You know that. It doesn’t mean he wants to be with you any less. It happens, sometimes.”

Nick knew he was being unreasonable. Gibby was right. Itdidhappen, sometimes. It seemed to be happening more and more lately, but that was nothing in the face of all the years that Seth had been there for him. Sowhatif this was one of the biggest moments of Nick’s life and Seth had promised? No big deal.