Page 18 of Attractive Forces

“Except for the failing chemistry part.”

“Yeah, that’s the Achille’s heel in your awesomeness. Luckily, I’m around to help you with that part.”

“Yeah, lucky.”

We fall into silence for a second.

“It’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, having siblings,” Jake says finally. “Aaron’s pretty messed up at the moment, which makes life hard. And it feels like my sister has washed her hands of us.”

I turn to him, surprised. “You have a sister? You’ve never mentioned her.”

Jake pulls his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. “Annaliese is at university in Dunedin. She only got a partial scholarship, so she’s having to work two jobs to get herself through. And I think she really resents my mum, even though none of this is Mum’s fault.”

“Do you keep in touch with her?”

“Not really. I’m jealous she got to escape. But then, I’m hoping to escape next year too. But then I feel bad for my mum because she’s stuck here in this shitty situation.”

“You want to talk about it?” I ask quietly.

Jake is silent for a second. Then he sighs. “Maybe sometime. It’s a long, crappy story though. I don’t want to put a downer on tonight.”

Without thinking, I reach out and touch his shoulder. He turns to look at me. He’s so close, and in the dim light, I can only make out the whites of his eyes. The rest is just dark pools.

“Anytime you want to talk.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Jake raises his cup to his lips and takes a final swallow. He turns to look out over the dark void of the ravine. I drop my hand back down to my side.

“So, tell me about all the hijinks you and Brewer used to get up to when you were kids.”

And so I tell Jake about the time Brewer convinced me he’d seen a bear in the ravine, and we spent two days staking out a cave waiting to prove to the world that bears exist in New Zealand.

And he tells me about when he and Aaron decided to take apart the toaster to see how it worked but couldn’t figure out how to put it back together.

The darkness makes our conversation feel more intimate. Just Jake and me, the clouds of condensation from our warm breath mingling together.

Even as the cold deepens, my face goes tingly, and I’m fairly sure my fingertips are suffering the early stages of frostbite, I don’t suggest going inside.

Because I never want this to end.

7

Jake

The week after the party is weird.

The party, where I spent most of the evening sitting in the cold and dark, talking to Logan. Swapping stories from when we were kids, talking about a whole bunch of other stuff. Not how I thought I’d spend my first ever party with the popular crowd.

Yet I would happily trade my Pokémon collection to do it again. And there are some awesome cards in my collection, for the record.

But right now, there isn’t much I wouldn’t give up to spend time with Logan.

It’s like I’m becoming a little…obsessed with our friendship.

Every time I get a message from him, it’s like a tiny bulb lights up inside me. And because messages ping between us all the time, my insides probably look like a Christmas tree right now.

I don’t know what it is about him. He’s charismatic, sure. Fun too, and easy to be around. But it’s not just that.

Maybe it’s that contrast between the outwardly confident guy and the glimpses into his deeper side. I get the feeling not many people see that other side of Logan.