Page 18 of Caden & Theo

I meet his eyes. “I know.”

“Have you thought about what that means?” he asks, not accusing, just… bracing me.

“Yeah,” I say. “We’re not planning to tell the world. Not now. We’ll tell a few close friends—people weknowwe can trust. Like Cam.” I glance at Theo, and he nods, already on the same page. “But for college, for the team… we’ll keep it quiet. At least for now.”

Theo adds, “We’re not trying to get a ton of attention, and I’m pretty sure Caden doesn’t want to be anybody’s poster boy. We just want to be honest with you. That’s all.”

James leans forward, arms crossed but face softer now. “And you’re prepared for hownoteasy that’ll be?”

“We’ll figure it out,” I say. “One day at a time.”

Mom’s hand tightens around my wrist. “I believe you. But I need you to beready, Caden. Because loving someone in secret… that’s hard. It’s lonely, even when it’s good.”

“I’d rather be lonely with him than loud without him,” I say. “We’re not trying to prove anything. I just… I need to be real.”

Theo squeezes my hand.

Lori smiles a little. “You boys are brave. And young. That’s a dangerous combination.”

“Hopeful too,” Theo says. “Don’t forget hopeful.”

That gets a small laugh.

“We trust you,” my dad says. “We just don’t trust the world. That’s not a judgment on your relationship. That’s a reality check from someone who’sseenwhat the world does to Black boys who it decides don’t fit.”

I nod. “We’re not being reckless. We’re being careful. And honest. That’s it.”

There’s another long pause, and then his dad leans back with a sigh. “All right. Then I guess we’ve got two new things to be proud of.”

Theo’s mom wipes her eyes discreetly, then clears her throat. “Well, now that you’ve ruined any chance I had of finishing this puzzle today….”

“We could always do one with less sky,” I offer, smiling weakly.

Theo grins and knocks his hip against mine. “Or we could get cake and celebrate.”

“Celebrate what?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Telling the truth. Surviving it.”

Mom wraps an arm around me again. “I like that.”

When we finally head out, my hand slips naturally into Theo’s again. None of our parents say anything. They don’t need to. They see us. And for now, that’s enough.

FIVE

THEO

There’ssomething about the sound of summer that makes everything feel both slower and faster at once—kids hollering in the distance, the low drone of cicadas in the trees, the rhythmicsplshhhof someone cannonballing into the pool. It’s like time is lounging beside us in the heat, too lazy to move, even though I can feel it slipping past me like water through my fingers.

We’re at Kurtis’s place. He’s one of the few white kids I hang with outside school or the basketball team. It’s not that people don’t mix in Gomillion—they do. Just… not often. Sports and class projects are one thing. Sitting on each other’s decks in the summer, that’s different. But Kurtis never made it weird. He’d just toss me a Coke and act like I’d always been here.

His parents are the kind who stock the fridge with SunnyD and never ask too many questions, and they’ve got a pool, which makes them practically royalty in July. There’s a boom box by the diving board blasting Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” and someone’s tossed a bunch of those oversized neon pool noodles into the deep end like they’re confetti.

I’m perched on a lounge chair under a striped umbrella, pretending to be invested in a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos while sneak-watching Caden from behind my sunglasses.

There’s a paperback open on my lap, too, but I’ve been on the same page for twenty minutes. Every time I try to read a line, my eyes wander back across the pool. The book’s basically camouflage at this point—a flimsy excuse for why I’m sitting off to the side instead of diving in.

He’s across the pool, sitting on the edge with his feet in the water, laughing at something Shane said. His T-shirt’s damp and clinging to him in all the worst (best) ways, and his basketball shorts temptingly ride up his thighs to make it impossible to focus on anything else. His skin glows, all sun-warmed and deep brown, and his tight curls are a little damp and a lot perfect.