Page 82 of How (Not) to Conjure a Boyfriend
“How many people can say that?” I ask.
“What?” Hayden jerks back to reality.
“How many people can say they were in a coma?” I repeat, realizing on the second mention it doesn’t sound as great a point as I’d previously thought.
“How many people want to?” He leans over the table, eyes wider than a second ago.
“True.” I bow my head.
“It’s okay,” he laughs. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. I still can barely believe I was asleep for thirteen days. For me, it was like I fell asleep and then I was awake. It’s ridiculous.”
“Seriously. So ridiculous,” I breathe.
“And woke up not remembering you.” He blows out his lips like an explosion. “That’s a lot.”
“Yeah,” I whisper.
“Okay, so you don’t play sports.” He settles back, returning to his previous line of questions. “At all? None?”
I giggle. I don’t want to, but it just feels like the thing to do. “Not really. It’s not like I’ve never. It’s just not something I do for fun. I did play basketball with Zach like a week or two ago.”
And there I go bringing Zachary into the conversation again.Stop it, Kenzie.
“I like to watch more. It’s exciting. Especially basketball and baseball,” I tell him. “Oh, and soccer. I do like watching soccer. And I’ll go to football for the late-night post-game Cook Out tailgating.”
“You and Zach played? Where?” he asks after waiting patiently for me to finish rattling off my viewing habits.
“Yeah, up at your house,” I tell him. “Your mom thought he needed someone to play with since you were asleep.”
“Hey now, not my fault,” he comes back.
“Not mine either, for the record.” I put up a finger.
“Of course not.” He grins. “Landon’s fault, right? He’s the one I get to sue?”
“Please don’t sue him,” I laugh. “He’s still horrified.”
“I couldn’t do that,” Hayden says. “You only watch sports? You don’t play. Wow!”
“I likeApex. I love watching their videos and the tournaments,” I say.
“Apex? Like the video game?” The derision in his tone is easy to catch. “That’s not a sport. I can’t believe people actually get paid to play that shit.”
“Oh,” I say, stunned. I wasn’t expecting that type of negative talk. I mean, the way I see it, if it’s a game, it can be a sport. Chess is a sport after all—a sport of the mind. “I… It’s fun to watch.”
Usually I’d have said more. I would have chided him for thinking he can decide what others can do for sport. Such a 1990s mentality. But with him, right now, knowing that he’s nervous as it is and that this is supposedly a date, I can’t.
“So you were up at my house?” Hayden looks down at the table like it’s unthinkable.
“Yeah.” I shrug, taking the distraction.
“Oh,” he grunts. He nods and looks around the table like it’ll make sense down there. “So we were close to telling people at least, right?” His gray eyes find me again.
“Uh…”
What do I say? There’s only one truth, and none of the ways I can answer end without me admitting my shitty lie unless I lie again. And oh shit. I guess he didn’t start the rumors at school then. I bet it was Holly. I keep getting stopped in the hallways by people who’d never talk to me in the past asking me about it. It’s been excruciating.
“Sort of.” I try to ease us into the idea as I weave another fantasy on the fly. “We’d talked about it a little last month. You know, if you were ready.”
