Chapter 84

That lasted three days. The first night, I watched a movie with Ray and wished Stephen was there to watch it, too, because Star Warswas his favorite. The second day I picked up the phone to call him before I remembered we weren’t speaking to each other, and that night I couldn’t sleep for wondering if my friend thought of me. By the third day, Joey’s letter had become crumpled, its appeal worn thin. Before noon, I dialed Stephen’s number and didn’t let myself think—when the ringing stopped, I took a breath deep enough to let everything I had to say ramble out. “Stephen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what you thought I meant, he wasn’t my friend the way you are, I promise, I never did anything with him and I want you to come over here now, I put the letter away, please come over and I said I’m sorry so can we just forget about it now? Because I was just kidding, we weren’t like that—”