Fireworks by Katie Cotugno

Author:Katie Cotugno
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-02-01T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

“Okay, okay, okay,” I said to Alex on Thursday; we were sprawled on the sofa in the apartment he shared with Trevor, the hum of the air-conditioning and one of my old mixtapes on the boom box, Alex’s mouth pressed warm and wet against the hollow of my throat. “That’s good, that’s good, but I want to talk for a second, though.”

“You do, huh?” Alex asked, pulling back and smiling, his cheeks flushed pink and the baby hairs around his face frizzing up in the humidity. I could feel his heart tapping eagerly away under my palms. “Whatcha wanna talk about?”

“I don’t know,” I said, leaning back against the arm of the couch. “Anything.” I meant it, too: I wanted to know everything there was to know about him, wanted to hear every single one of his stories and learn all his memories well enough that they became my memories, too, until there’d never been a time when we didn’t know each other.

“Anything?” Alex asked, making for my neck again.

I laughed, pushed him gently away. “Anything,” I said, rubbing my thumb over his collarbone, like I was polishing a worry stone. “Or, okay, tell me about your family. Are your brothers singers like you?”

“Kyle and Eric?” Alex smirked like I’d said something funny. “Nah. They think I’m a total freak. But, you know, a lovable one.”

“Obviously,” I echoed, smiling at him. “When I was really little I always wanted brothers or sisters. Then I met Olivia, though, and it’s kind of the same.”

Alex smiled. “You guys are really close, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said, crossing my ankles in his lap, shivering as his fingertips brushed gently over my calves. “There are two kinds of friends in life, I figure. There are the ones who you have fun and party with, right? And those friends are great and all. But then there’s the other kind—like, people you can go to the bathroom in front of and who tell you if your shirt is giving you a uniboob, and who have heard your parents fight and don’t care.” And who’ll keep all your secrets, I thought uneasily, remembering the other night.

Alex tilted his head to the side. “You go to the bathroom in front of Olivia?” he asked.

I kicked him in the ribs. “You’re missing the point.”

“I’m not,” Alex promised. “I’m just teasing, I swear. That’s awesome, that you guys have that.”

I felt a hollow twist in my stomach. I was dying to tell Olivia about Alex. It finally felt like things were back to normal between us, and I hated keeping this huge secret from her. Still, every time I opened my mouth to confess I thought of finding her on the bathroom floor, hunched over the toilet, and just like that I couldn’t make myself do it. I was terrified of hurting her.

I looked up at Alex. “Anyway, I don’t expect you to get it,” I teased him. “You probably had a zillion best friends growing up. You were probably the most popular person in your grade.

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