I peel the cardboard container open and pull out a slice.
“Ugh, olives,” I murmur, and Paulie rolls his eyes.
“Pick them off. You liked them last week.”
I don’t even bother. I just eat them, stuffing the slice into my mouth and chewing, barely tasting them with all the cheese.
“Damn, thought you were too busy being a sad sack to eat anything. Apparently not.”
“I’m not sad,” I say around a mouthful of crust. “I’m just…in a mood.”
“Problem with the guy you’re seeing?”
I eye my friend and then shake my head. “No.”
It’s a lie. He knows it. I know it.
The pizza knows it.
I swallow it down, and it sits heavily in my stomach.
“Come on, you can talk to me, you know? Even the coach could feel something was off during training. You were way slower than normal. You kept fumbling the ball.”
“Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to remind me. I’ve just been off. Things between me and…” I take another bite of pizza to keep myself from outing him. “Things between us have ended, and now I’m kinda confused.”
“How so?”
“How did it end? Uh, he threw me out.”
“Yeah, all right, but why are you confused?”
“Well, am I gay now?”
He shrugs. “Sexuality is a spectrum. You can be whatever you want.”
“Yeah. Guess so.”
“And you don’t need a label. You can just be Myles who likes kissing that one guy…or fucking?—”
“I’m not fucking a guy.”
His lips twitch, and I sigh.
“I’m not fucking himyet.”
“Right, well, I know it’s a lot, but I’m here to listen. And really, this changes nothing about you. You just opened your worldview up a little. You’re stepping outside your little box.”
“My box isn’t that little, and yeah, I guess.”
“Now, it seems, you need to get over this guy. I hate him, by the way. Don’t know him, but I’m pissed he’s upset you.”
“There was nothing between us, no commitment. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. You’re sad.”
“A little. More confused than anything, but I’ll get over it.”
He huffs and then hands me a gaming controller. “Let’s play for a bit. Take your mind off it.”
