Apparently a warm front had breezed through the region, because the next few days were going to be unseasonably warm. Nat took the opportunity to do something that he’d been eager try—he was going to leave his jacket at home and go out wearing that fashionable tank top that he’d been saving for a sunny day. Giving up this chance while he had it would just be criminal.

And of course he needed a pair of cute shorts to go with them. If it was going to be warm, that was all the excuse he needed to let his legs breathe. But instead of the obvious choice of sandals to compliment the outfit, he picked out those long, heeled boots from the back of his closet. Today, at least, Nat wanted to feel a little taller than usual.

Nat took a moment to look himself over in his bedroom mirror before calling it complete. Maybe he could borrow a bracelet from his mother? She had that cute silver one; maybe Nat could ask her about it.

As soon as he raised an arm, though, Nat’s attention was drawn to something else entirely. He gave a soft “blegh” at the sight of all that hair coming from his armpit.

It’s as if I’ve never shaved there, he thought, I guess that’s what happens when you wear a jacket every single day.

There wasn’t much time, so Nat ran to the bathroom and took off his top. He set it to the side very carefully; if it got wet he’d have to wear something else. The actual shaving only took about forty-five seconds, but it felt like a rushed job. Still, better than not trying at all.

His mother was waiting for him in the car.

“Do you know where this place is?” she asked him.

“Yeah, I have the address,” Nat said, “It’s the coffee place next to the salon.”

“Do you need money for the salon too?”

“Huh? No mom, we’re just getting coffee.”

“I didn’t know that you liked coffee.”

“I… I didn’t want to say no. I don’t get to hang out with my friends outside of school very often, remember?”

“What about that boy you’re tutoring? The Moore’s kid?”

Nat grunted in reply, not trusting himself to actually say anything about Gavin to his mother.

The rest of the ride passed thankfully without incident. Nat’s mother dropped him off and gave him a bit of money for coffee, making it clear that she’d be back in an hour to pick him up and she expected him to be waiting for her.

Emily and Julia were already in the coffee shop, along with another girl Nat hadn’t met yet. They already had their coffees, though Nat still wasn’t sure how a cold drink could really be coffee.

“Hey guys,” he said, sitting down next to Emily.

“Good, you’re here,” Emily said, “Now you can tell Tamara here that I did so get that guy to admit Daniel Radcliff is hot.”

Nat chuckled. He did remember that, but: “I don’t think it counts if the guy doesn’t know what the word ‘procace’ actually means.”

“He said he did!”

Nat rolled his eyes. “He was just trying to impress you,” he reminded her.

“Tratidore,” Emily retorted, “Don’t you know that you’re always supposed to back a girlfriend up and defend her good name?”

Julia spoke up, asking, “Don’t you want something, Nat? The line’s not very long.”

“Right,” Nat said, standing up, “I should go order something.”

This was certainly going to be a new experience. Nat got in line and started up at the menu. He didn’t understand any of this strange foreign coffee-language. He didn’t even like coffee! What was he doing?!

Maybe that third thing down, he thought, That looks okay.

Not five minutes later Nat was sitting back down, sipping his ice-cold coffee-drink through a straw and listening to Tamara tell her story of the time her older sister had to beat a catfish to death with a fishing net. It would have been a funny story even if she wasn’t making gestures to go along with the story. More than once Nat found himself snorting into his drink with laughter.

“She still grumbles about it every time we have fish,” Tamara finished, leaning back into her chair with a big smile on her face.

“I haven’t been camping in years,” Julia lamented, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, “We loved swimming in the lake. That’s why I joined the swim team, I think.”

Nat offered something of his own for the conversation. “I never liked swimming,” he admitted, “My family never had a pool to go to growing up. The only time I really spend in the water is when we go to Laguna Beach to visit our grandparents.”

“Your grandparents retired to Laguna beach?”

“No,” Nat corrected, “They’re still working. They own a boat shop there.”

“That must make for an awesome summer vacation,” Tamara said.

“Usually, yeah. We visit a few times a year.”

“What do your parents do again?” Julia asked.

“Oh… um, my mother is a photographer. She does a lot of family photos, but she’s always wanted to do weddings.”

“That sounds like fun,” Tamara said, “You want to study photography?”

Nat almost didn’t answer, but managed to mutter, “I haven’t really thought about it.”

“And your dad?”

“He’s a doctor,” Nat said, “A physician. Nothing special.”

“Nothing special?!” Emily cried, “Bitch, my dad is a funeral director. You want to trade? I’ll trade dads with you right now.”

Nat chuckled, but admitted, “He can be a little strict sometimes. He’s always wanted me to do something in law. I don’t want to disappoint him; he works hard so we can live comfortably. He just wants me to make the most of every opportunity I have.”

Much to Nat’s surprise, though, Julia scoffed. “Well I think that’s pretty selfish,” she said, “What you do with your life is your own decision. If he really wants you to be happy, then he won’t tell you how to live your life.”

For a moment, nobody said anything. Nat sank down in his chair, thinking about what Julia had said. Julia herself seemed to be caught up in her own memory and wasn’t really paying much attention to the people around her.

“Hey, enough of that now,” Emily said, drawing their attention, “Have any of you heard if they’re actually going to fire Mr. Wheeler or if that’s just a rumor?”

The topic of conversation quickly turned to teachers nobody liked. Now that they weren’t paying so much attention to him, Nat could finally relax again. He avoided Julia’s eyes for a while, though. But he did notice that they were the same deep brown as Gavin’s. And Gavin had that sweet little smile he made when he thought that nobody was looking at him.

Nat wondered what Gavin had in mind for their date. Sure, he talked a big game around the other guys, but Nat knew that deep down he was a real sweet boy. He’d probably want it to be special. And he’d probably insist on paying for the whole thing too…

“Nat?”

“Hm?”

The other three were looking right at him.

“Oh, sorry,” he said, “I drifted off. What were you saying?”

Emily raised her eyebrow and glanced over at Julia, who asked with a coy smile, “So what were you thinking about just now?”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I think she means: who were you thinking about just now?” Emily replied.

Nat could already feel himself blushing, even as he opened his mouth to deny it. He didn’t get the chance before they were upon him with questions.

“What’s his name?”

“He goes to our school, right?”

“Is he older? A senior?”

“It’s no one!” Nat insisted, “I mean, I’m not thinking about a boy.”

There was a pause, and then Tamara cut in with “a girl?”

If it was possible to go from beet red to something brighter, Nat did it just then.

“I’m not thinking about anyone,” he told them, “I mean it.”

They seemed to accept this answer, because they didn’t press any further. Maybe they just realized how upset they’d made Nat and didn’t want to make him feel any worse. The conversation moved on, and Nat recovered quick enough to join back in.

As soon as the door closed behind Nat and his mother, he heard a voice coming from the kitchen—his father’s voice.

“Nat, come in here real quick.”

A small knot formed in Nat’s gut, but he did as his father instructed anyway. Events from the past few days played back in his head as he desperately searched for whatever reason his dad would be angry at him. Had his mother told him about Nat’s outfit? Maybe he should have worn his jacket after all.

His dad was standing over the oven, cooking dinner. He barely glanced at Nat before saying, “Your brother is having trouble with his homework. Help him with it.”

“Oh. Yes, sir,” Nat said, turning to leave.

“Nat.”

He stopped.

“You don’t have to call me sir,” his dad told him.

“Right. Thanks dad,” Nat said, quickly scooting out of the kitchen. He wasn’t sure what was up with his father lately, but he wasn’t going to question it.

Tyler was sitting that the kitchen table, staring at his homework with a look of defeat on his face. Fortunately, it was math, and Nat was pretty good at math.

“Okay, what do we have here?” Nat asked, sitting down beside him.

“Rocket science, genius,” he replied, “It’s seventh grade math. What did you think it was?”

“Oh shut up,” Nat said, “I’m only helping because dad is making me.”

Tyler snorted. “Yeah, because he really makes you do anything.”

Nat opened his mouth to retort, but closed it when he realized he wasn’t sure what Tyler meant. That didn’t sound like one of his normal sarcastic jabs.

“Well, let’s look at this problem,” Nat said. They were multiplying and dividing negative numbers. It wasn’t anything very hard.

Of course, as Nat tried to guide Tyler through the problems, he was finding that it was more difficult than he thought to remember some of these rules. He had to really struggle to think back to what he learned in seventh grade. His teacher was Mrs. Walsh; she was always criticizing him for his… sloppy handwriting. Wait, that wasn’t right.

He would have lunch with… Jesse? Walking with Jesse and Gavin between classes, laughing at stupid stuff. But he hadn’t… he didn’t start talking to Gavin until they were in High School. But he remembered them talking about the Playstation that he’d got for Christmas that year, and he remembered waiting in line to get the newest Resident Evil game. But he hated scary games, even more than he hated scary movies.

Nat put the pencil down. There was too much going through his head. Brief flashes of memories that didn’t add up. Staying up all night to watch an action movie marathon with Gavin. That cute girl with red hair that he tried asking out one time. His uncle letting him have that sip of beer when they visited him during the summer.

“Nat?”

Nat was shaking. Tyler was looking at him with actual concern in his eyes.

“Um… I think you’ve got it,” Nat said, getting up and stepping away from the table.

He retreated quickly to his room to clear his head. He just needed to sit down and think. That was all he needed. But as Nat looked around the room, a feeling crept up on him. A feeling that something was very, very wrong. He couldn’t tell what it was. But it was all over the walls and the floor and the bed and the desk. Something was wrong.

And it was on him too. For some reason, Nat was suddenly very self-conscious about his outfit. He was wearing boots with heels and tight shorts and this clingy tank top.

A bath, he thought, That always calms me down.

Nat grabbed his bathrobe from the closet, trying to ignore the feeling of wrongness he felt when he touched it, kicked off his boots, and headed straight for the bathroom. He stripped down naked, trying to ignore the (wrong) image of himself in the mirror. He got into the tub before the water had finished running and sank down until only his eyes were above water.

Then he leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to ignore everything he was feeling at the moment. He listened to the sound of the water faucet and soaked in the warm water.

Before long he had to turn the faucet off, but by then he had already started to feel better. His hair was all wet now, which aside from being a pain to dry reminded him that it was too damn long. But he tried to ignore that. He tried to ignore all of that for now.