I lean forward and give her a gentle kiss, then I take a deep breath and rest my forehead against hers, “I love you too.”
“Is anyone else confused?” Brooks whispers, and for the first time in hours, I smile.
“Not the time,” Ember replies, but that doesn’t stop the whispers. Once I turn around, grabbing Avalon’s hand in mine, everyone shuts up, as if they don’t want me to see them gossiping about my love life at a time like this.
“Hi,” Avalon says as we get closer to the group.
“Hi.” Ember hugs her. “I’m happy you’re here.”
“Now I’m more confused,” Declan adds. “Did you know about this? Whatever this is?”
“I did, and like I said, now’s not the time for this conversation.”
“But—” Jaxon begins, but Brinley elbows him in the stomach.
“It’s okay, Em.” I smile, wrapping my arm around Avalon’s shoulder. “This is Avalon; she’s my girlfriend; we’ve been together since October, sexually—”
“Zeke,” Avalon gasps.
“And romantically… well, since October, even though neither of us wanted to admit it,” I continue. “And I didn’t necessarily mean to hide this from any of you, but we were trying to figure out what we were, and I didn’t wanna jinx anything. But I love her, she loves me, and that’s all that matters.”
“Wow,” Fletcher mumbles.
“I just can’t believe he kept it a secret this long.” Tate looks amused.
“I can’t believe Ember kept this from all of us.” Brinley crosses her arms.
“I haven’t known for that long.” Ember defends. “Although, I did call it months ago. Like way before they realized they were in love.”
“Sure.” I roll my eyes.
“I can’t believe Avalon sat in front of me in class, and I never caught on,” Jaxon says.
“It’s not like we were having sex on the desk in front of you, Jaxon,” Avalon replies.
“Yeah, but you were sleeping with one of my best friends. I wondered why I kept smelling Zeke’s aftershave in class; I thought I was going crazy.”
“You still might be,” she adds.
This is nice. It’s normal. It feels like every other day I spend with them. The bickering and the laughing are almost enough to get my mind off everything.
“Zeke?” Avalon rubs my back.
“Hmm?”
“We were talking to you.” Avalon grabs my hand in hers and gives it a squeeze.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I was just wondering where your dad was,” Fletcher begins. “Is he in there with your mom? We haven’t seen him since we arrived.”
“He’s not here.”
“What?” It’s said in perfect unison among them.
“Where is he?” Ember asks.
“Beats me.”