Page 5 of Unlocked Dive

“He’s selfish and fragile, Coen.”

He’s fragile.

This, we can agree on, and it’s the contrast between the daring and the delicate that captivates me. He’s sodifferentfrom Reggie’s uninhibited cheer and my own careful patience, and even as his attention baffles me, his layers beg me to unwrap them.

Despite her disapproval, Reggie is stoically supportive and loyally unsurprised when Gabriel actually returns my interest.

“Of coursehe likes you, Coen,” she assures me. “You’re incredible.” She beams a smile at me, and she means it, so I let it slide when she can’t help but add “and you worship him” under her breath. It’s not like I could argue with her, anyway.

It’s Gabriel who first calls me “Byrd,” and though he tosses it out in his usual way, teasing me about my accent and my Dutch surname, I feel the thrill of being marked, claimed by him. Within weeks, the nickname spreads throughout the school, transforming me from steady, unremarkable Coen Baardwijk into something more—someone worthy of watching. Someonewanted.

And when he finally lets me inside him, a mess of tangled curls and satin limbs and greedy heat, something unfurls inside me that tastes like taking flight, and the whole world breaks open at my feet.

“He looks like a spider.”

“It’s acharacter, Reggie. It’s sexy.”

“A constipated spider.”

“Oh my god, shut up.” I squint at the stage where Gabriel has convinced the administration to let him practice his piece for the Circolo auditions next month. “He does not look constipated.”

Reggie snorts, unimpressed by my loyal declaration. “When are you going to start working on your own act? I know Fleming’s been bugging you about it.” When I don’t answer, she elbows me, hard enough to nudge a sliver of discomfort loose from its carefully constructed cage. “It’s our senior year, Coen. You know if I was an aerialist and met the brief, I’d be gunning for the chance. A show like this could launch your career.”

“I know.” I keep my eyes on the twisting limbs and rippling silks above the stage. My tempestuous boyfriend will want to squeeze every nuance from my reaction later so I can soothe his manic self-doubts with praise. It would be so much easier if he could see himself the way I see him.

“Please tell me you’re not passing it up because ofhim.”

Even if she didn’t know me as well as she does, my guilty shift would’ve given me away. “I can’t audition against him, Reg.”

“That’s stupid. He’s here for two more years. He’ll have plenty of other chances.”

“You don’t get it.”

For almost a year and a half, I’ve been basking in the reflected glory of being Gabriel Wash’s boyfriend, and it’s everything my starving heart craved. Reggie can roll her eyes and try to mask her impatience behind well-meaning advice, but if he’s jealous and possessive of my attention while being careless with his own, it only keeps me chasing his high.

“Youdon’t get it. If he loved you as much as you love him, he’d want you to go for it. And if he had any balls, he wouldn’t be threatened by you going up against him anyway.”

“He has plenty of balls,” I mutter. “I’ve seen them, remember?”

“Ha-ha. I know you’ve heard the rumors.”

“The ones Dolph has been spreading? He’s just jealous.”

“You don’t think it’s at all weird that the only other silks guy in Gabriel’s class sprained his ankle right before RPP selection?”

“Students get hurt all the time. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means your boyfriend got to be the only sophomore with a solo act in their showcase.”

“So he obviously pushed a kid down the stairs? This isn’t one of your Netflix teen dramas. That shit doesn’t happen in real life.”

“What doesn’t happen in real life?”

I jump to my feet with a wide-eyed warning for Reggie and take Gabriel in my arms, pressing a kiss to his neck and licking the salt from my lips. “That was the best one yet, babe.”

He ducks his head, pushing me away.

“You weren’t even watching.”