“I’m just saying, leave some for us,” Easton said, pretending to be friendless and concerned.
“We’re not friends,” I said as Shane carried a glass of something pink between the tables on his way to join us. As he begged for a chair from the table next to ours and dragged it over, I explained to Elio and Easton. “This is Shane. He’s my shadow.”
“Like Peter Pan’s?” Elio asked, earning a slap on his arm from Easton.
Shane sat down and introduced himself somewhat clumsily. “And I’m not, um, in the shadow form tonight.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“The research hasn’t started,” he said. “I’m writing my methodology this week.”
I frowned deeply. “Then who’s been following me everywhere I went for five days?”
The look of worry that struck Shane’s face was priceless. I threw my head back and laughed, but the others didn’t find it funny. That was alright. I cracked myself up.
“Wasn’t me,” Shane said. “I was going to text you some start date options.” He gripped his pink slosh tightly, uncertain.
I thought about it for a moment, then figured I had nothing to lose. “You’re welcome to have a drink with us anyway.”
His hand relaxed, a sliver of surprise crossing his face. He nodded with apparent gratitude, and I considered teaching this nerd the ways of socializing while we had our ankles tied together.
“How does it work, though?” Easton asked. “The shadow thing.”
Shane gave a half shrug. “I haven’t finished the methodology, but I suppose you’ll be seeing me a lot this semester. It’s an observation-based method of data gathering. Hopefully, I’ll have a passing grade by the end of it.”
“There’s no way you ever got anything lower than A plus,” I said.
“And Patrick gets your uninterrupted attention out of it?” Easton asked, swinging the conversation elsewhere.
Elio nodded. “Sounds like a good deal.”
I poked his rib cage with my elbow.
Shane hesitated. “I guess. I mean, the idea is to be unobtrusive. I have to write up reports on various things I observe for a long while. Not sure how invisible I can be.” Then, almost to himself, he added, “Though that never seemed to be a problem before.”
“And if Patrick gets all cocky and tries to impress you?” Easton asked.
I was about to raise an objection, Your Honor, but Shane just chuckled. “There are mechanisms in place to get around that. It’s all in my methodology.”
“The fabled methodology,” I muttered under my breath.
Elio looked at his beer, the bubbles constantly rising from the bottom of the glass. “I always thought our boy here was ripe forsome observation. Of course, I imagined him strapped down in a soundproof room.”
“Maybe keep your kinky ideas for Jaxon,” I said, causing another furious blush to spawn on Elio’s face.
Easton was amused, turning to Elio. “You walked right into that one, didn’t you?”
“I guess,” Elio said in defeat.
This was it, I realized. This was what I’d been missing all summer long and in the months that followed. We hadn’t been like this since late spring when I was finishing my freshman year.
Shane took a sip of his pink stuff and frowned but quickly smoothed his face. “Do you guys drink a lot?”
Elio let out a low whistle, and Easton laughed. “Now, this sounds like a probing question.”
“Er, no, that’s not how…I mean…look, um, I don’t know how to…talk. Yeah, let’s go with that. I don’t know how to talk. I meant, do you hang out often?” His freaking out and calming down were a roller coaster of a ride.
Elio and Easton exchanged a look, the distance between them still fresh in their memories. Almost in unison, they nodded. “We’re a close bunch,” Easton said.
