I sit, and Leah slides down the wall next to me, leaning against it with her legs tucked awkwardly to the side. She’s wearing a skirt with her costume, and I can tell she’s trying to keep her thighs from showing. Which is so ridiculous and so Leah. I scoot close to her, and she smiles a little bit without looking at me. Abby settles in cross-legged facing us, and it’s really kind of nice. We basically have our own corner of the room.
I feel kind of happy and hazy now, and beer doesn’t taste so bad after the first few sips. Garrett or someone must have turned the stereo off, and a couple of people have come over to listen to Nick. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but Nick has the most raspy-perfect singing voice in the world. Of course, he has this weird, dad-like obsession with classic rock, but I guess that’s not always a bad thing. Because right now he’s singing Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” and I’m thinking about Blue. And I’m thinking about Cal Price.
Here’s the thing. I have this feeling in my gut that Blue is Cal Price. I just do. I think it’s the eyes. He has ocean eyes: just waves and waves of blue-green. And sometimes when I look at Cal, I feel like we understand each other, and he gets it, and it’s perfect and unspoken.
“Simon, how much did you drink?” asks Leah. I’m twisting the ends of her hair. Leah’s hair is so pretty, and it smells exactly like French toast. Except that’s Abby. Leah smells like almonds.
“One beer.” One most excellent, most delicious beer.
“One beer. I can’t even begin to express how ridiculous you are.” But she’s almost smiling.
“Leah, did you know you have a really Irish face?”
She looks at me. “What?”
“You guys know what I mean. Like an Irish face. Are you Irish?”
“Um, not as far as I know.”
Abby laughs.
“My ancestors are Scottish,” someone says. I look up, and it’s Martin Addison wearing bunny ears.
“Yeah, exactly,” I say as Martin sits beside Abby, close but not too close. “Okay, and it’s so weird, right, because we have all these ancestors from all over the world, and here we are in Garrett’s living room, and Martin’s ancestors are from Scotland, and I’m sorry, but Leah’s are totally from Ireland.”
“If you say so.”
“And Nick’s are from Israel.”
“Israel?” says Nick, fingers still sliding all over the frets of the guitar. “They’re from Russia.”
So I guess you learn something new every day, because I really thought Jewish people came from Israel.
“Okay, well, I’m English and German, and Abby’s, you know . . .” Oh God, I don’t know anything about Africa, and I don’t know if that makes me racist.
“West African. I think.”
“Exactly. I mean, it’s just the randomness of it. How did we all end up here?”
“Slavery, in my case,” Abby says.
And fucking fuck. I need to shut up. I needed to shut up about five minutes ago.
The stereo kicks back in again.
“Hey, I think I’m going to grab a drink,” Martin says, jumping up again in that spastic Martin way. “Can I get you all anything?”
“Thanks, but I’m driving,” says Leah. But she wouldn’t be drinking even if she wasn’t driving. I know that. Because there’s this invisible line, and on one side are people like Garrett and Abby and Nick and every musician ever. People who go to parties and drink and don’t get wasted off of one beer. People who have had sex and don’t think it’s a huge deal.
On the other side of the line are people like Leah and me.
But the one thing that makes it weirdly better is knowing that Blue is one of us. I’m reading a little between the lines here, but I actually don’t think Blue has ever kissed anyone. It’s funny—I don’t even know if it counts that I have.
I’ve never kissed a guy. That’s something I think about all the time.
“Spier?” asks Martin.
“Sorry, what?”
“Anything to drink?”
“Oh, thanks. I’m good.” Leah makes this little noise like a snort.
“I’m done, too. Thanks, though.” Abby kicks her foot against my foot. “At home, I’d just take the Metro and sneak in through our back door, so it didn’t matter.” When Abby says “home,” she’s still talking about DC. “But I figure Simon’s parents don’t need to see me drunk.”
“I don’t think they would care.”
Abby pushes her bangs to the side and looks up at me. “I think you’d be surprised.”
“They let my sister pierce her ear a million times.”
“Wow. Nora’s such a badass,” says Leah.
“Okay, Nora’s the opposite of a badass.” I shake my head. “I am such a badder ass than Nora.”
“And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” says Martin, settling back in beside Abby with a beer in hand.
Abby stretches and pulls herself up, resting her hand on my hood. “Come on. People are dancing.”
“Good for people,” says Nick.
“We are dancing.” Abby extends both arms toward him.
“Noooooo.” But he puts the guitar down, and lets her pull him up.
“Um, but have you even seen my sweet moves?” asks Martin.
“Let’s see them.”
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
Becky Albertalli's books
- Grounded (Up In The Air #3)
- In Flight (Up In The Air #1)
- Mile High (Up In The Air #2)
- THE BRONZE HORSEMAN
- The Summer Garden
- Bait: The Wake Series, Book One
- Into the Aether_Part One
- The Will
- Reparation (The Kane Trilogy Book 3)
- The Rosie Project
- The Shoemaker's Wife
- TMiracles and Massacres: True and Untold Stories of the Making of America
- The Death of Chaos
- The Paper Magician
- Bad Apple - the Baddest Chick
- The Meridians
- Lord John and the Hand of Devils
- The White Order
- Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
- The Ripper's Wife
- The Wizardry Consulted
- The Boys in the Boat
- Killing Patton The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General
- It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways
- The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry
- The Pecan Man
- The Orphan Master's Son
- The Light Between Oceans
- The Edge of the World
- All the Light We Cannot See- A Novel
- Daisies in the Canyon
- STEPBROTHER BILLIONAIRE
- The Bone Clocks: A Novel
- The Magician’s Land
- The Broken Eye
- The High Druid's Blade
- The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
- All the Bright Places
- The Other Language
- The Secret Servant
- The Escape (John Puller Series)
- The Atopia Chronicles (Atopia series)
- The Warded Man
- Return of the Crimson Guard
- The Line
- The Source (Witching Savannah, Book 2)
- Return of the Crimson Guard
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Last Town (The Wayward Pines Trilogy 3)
- The Man In The High Castle
- The Fiery Cross
- The Merchant of Dreams: book#2 (Night's Masque)
- The Prince of Lies: Night's Masque - Book 3
- The Alchemist of Souls: Night's Masque, Volume 1
- The Space Between
- An Echo in the Bone
- A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows
- The Killing Moon (Dreamblood)
- The Crush
- IMMUNE(Book Two of The Rho Agenda)
- The Last Threshold
- The Second Ship
- The Rift
- Homeland (Book 1 of the Dark Elf trilogy)
- Exile (Book 2 of the Dark Elf trilogy)
- The Winter Sea
- The Girl on the Train
- The Escape
- The Forgotten
- The Burning Room
- The Golden Lily: A Bloodlines Novel
- The Whites: A Novel
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The Clifton Chronicles 4
- Clifton Chronicles 02 - The Sins of the Father
- Mightier Than the Sword
- The City of Fallen Angels (Mortal Instruments 4)
- The Blood of Olympus
- The Shadow Throne
- The Kiss of Deception
- Ruin and Rising (The Grisha Trilogy)
- The Nightingale
- The Darkest Part of the Forest
- The Buried Giant
- Fairest: The Lunar Chronicles: Levana's Story
- The Assassin and the Desert
- The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before
- The Deal
- The Conspiracy of Us
- The Glass Arrow
- The Orphan Queen
- The Winner's Crime
- The First Bad Man
- The Return
- Inside the O'Briens
- Demon Cycle 04 - The Skull Throne
- The Raven
- The Secret Wisdom of the Earth
- Rusty Nailed (The Cocktail Series)
- The Lies of Locke Lamora