“Okay, but literature is easy compared to philosophy.”
“But harder than math.”
“That’s scientifically not true.”
“Andway less fun.”
“Wilderthat you can say math is fun and I still think you’re hot.”
My smirk turns into a big smile and a quiet laugh. “It is though. It’s like a puzzle. There’s a ton of wrong answers with twice as many ways to get those wrong answers andoneright answer.”
Vale chuckles through closed lips and goes back to his book. A book that looks nowhere near as fun as my math homework. Honestly, I think he could use a break today. Someone—his boyfriend, maybe—should help him relax. I’m nearly finished with this. What’s taking another thirty minutes, going over to that bed, turning him over and—
“Yo, Piña!”Pérez yells, crashing into my room, nearly slamming my door into the wall. Vale and I both jump and a“Chinga tu madre,”comes out of my mouth purely from the fear.
“Pérez, damn,” I groan. “Knock, my guy.”
“I told him,” Kat says, catching up and walking in with a casualness and grace that my teammate could never have. “But he had an idea that he said hehasto tell y’all about now.”
Ten bucks it’s going to be something so unserious and I’m going to regret giving him the next minute of my life, but, “Pues. Tell us your idea then, bro.”
He takes a seat at the edge of my bed, looking between Vale and me with this weird, toothy smile. And then finally, “Do y’all have anything important going on tomorrow?”
“Classes,” I tell him bluntly. “Tomorrow’s Friday.”
“Okay, but besides that. And then Saturday? Sunday?”
“We’re on a bye week for the weekend,” I say, giving Pérez a glare when he starts laughing about it. “And we get it; it’s funny.Bi week. Coach let us off, yeah? So the squad’s got nothing. I was probably just going to use the time for some extra training. Barrera offered to do drills with me, prepare for the last couple of matches we’ve got left before conference playoffs.” I look over to Vale, “What about you?”
“Work, but I could get out of that pretty easily.”
“Good. Good. This is promising. Then I have a proposition for y’all. Want to run away this weekend?”
My head backs up a little, and my eyes squint, trying to get a read on Pérez and what’s going on in that brain of his. “What’re you talking about?”
“It’s going to be sunny and mideighties the next few days, we’ve got nothing holding us here; I’m saying we should take a trip. Go to the Frio River or Lake Travis.Oh, better, go get naked at Hippy Hollow? Either way, we find a cheap place out there and forget about school and Corpus. Look, you two deserve a weekend where you don’t have to be looking over your shoulders all the time. Where you can just be yourselves. I mean, you should be getting more than just a weekend, but, for right now, that’s what I can provide you. So, the four of us, middle of nowhere, on the water—fresh water—having a good time. And I think skipping one day out of the whole semester is a small price to pay for that.”
“What about Ahmed and Nguyen? Won’t they ask where we are?”
“They’re beating us to the punch. Texted them, and Nguyen’s leaving up to Austin to visit his girlfriend for the weekend and Ahmed’s got some family wedding.Andour Nutrition class was cancelled tomorrow. Neither of them will ever know. You’ve got to admit, it’s perfect.”
It is a solid plan. Besides my roommates, I don’t have any classes with anyone else on the squad. There’s just— “I’d have to come up with something to get out of training with Barrera. Guy’s already going harder than he has all season about me being ready for the championship tournament. He’s going to make me pay for this on Monday.”
“He’ll get over it.Come on, papi.Tell him something family related came up.”
I look over at Vale, staring at me. I can see him trying to contain his excitement about this idea. How he’s trying to keep calm in case I have to stay. Eyes looking like he’s finding out he’s got his own X-Man powers and is trying to telepathically communicate to me that he won’t be disappointed, as much as he wants this.Iwant this too. And I want to give this to him.
“Okay. Yeah. Let’s go.”
Seeing Vale let that excitement out is everything to me. How big his smile gets. I barely even hear Pérez continue talking, something about finding us a place and leaving right after we wake up. All my mind’s on is jumping onto my bed and kissing that smile as soon as we’re alone.
Vale beats me to it, scooting off my bed and walking over to me, sitting in my lap, focusing on my eyes before asking, “You sure about this?”
“Completely,” I say before kissing him. “Just you and me, baby. Well, you and me and Pérez and Kat. But still.”
“Just you and me, corazón.”
This is exactly what I needed. Corpus Christi in the distance behind us. Vale barely half awake, cuddled into my side, my arm draped over him. I catch Kat catching me kissing the top of his head every few minutes, smiling back at them and thenletting out a silent laugh at Pérez knocked out in the passenger seat. A solid playlist fills the car, giving us a soundtrack for the trip. One that, if I can help it, will be even better than any Netflix coming-of-age series Vale could ever think of.
