Page 65 of How (Not) to Conjure a Boyfriend
“Uh…but he, I mean, they’re dating you,” Zach argues.
“What?” Hayden’s eyes bloom. He goes to sit up, but a wince traces his cheek, so he stops and lies back down. “Me? Mackenzie and me?”
“Yeah, they’re your enbyfriend.”
“Myenbyfriend?” Hayden is so confused, and I can’t blame him.
“It’s okay, Hayden,” Mary-Anne says. “They told us all about it after your accident. It’s okay, you don’t have to hide it.”
“You should know that, Hayden,” Mr. Marcus follows it up. “We love you no matter who you—”
“But we’re not…” Hayden’s eyes scrunch together and his tiny pupils race around his bedsheets. The gray in his eyes is smoky with confusion. “Why? I don’t understand. I never… I’m not dating anyone.Am I?”
Hayden locks on to Zach’s eyes like he should know the answer.
“I…mean I…Mackenzie.” Zach looks at me, but I wrench my eyes away. Something in his puppy eyes hurts deep in my soul.
“I think I’d remember that,” Hayden says back. “Last dude I dated was Dalton.”
All eyes, including mine, blossom into bright orbs and lock onto Hayden. Even Zachary’s. What did he just say?The last dude I dated.He’s… Wait. This is too trippy. I can see the questions brewing behind everyone’s eyes, none more than Zachary’s, whose mouth is practically on the floor.So much for telling each other everything, bitch.Nope. Wrong time for that one.
“Oh yeah, I’m bi. Surprise.” Hayden smiles awkwardly and does his best jazz hands.
“Hold up, Dalton?” Zachary tilts his head. I can see the gears behind his eyes turning extra hard. “Dalton on the soccer team?”
Hayden nods with a surprising grin.
“No wonder he wouldn’t talk to me last year.”
Everyone else’s silence is deafening. For me it’s the realization I might have had a chance after all, mixed with a little bit of wanting to know who this Dalton is. The thought trickling in that all those days he came by the shop, maybe he was looking at me like I was at him. It’s like a moon lights itself over my head with a morsel of hope, even if it’s only a sliver like before all this mess started.
I think the others are absolutely stunned. It’s sinking in that he’d been queer long enough to date at least two non-females. Part of me revels in the thought, but I keep my cool.
“If I may.” Dr. Kline’s smooth voice cuts through the tension. She nods at Hayden and smiles at the rest of us as she settles next to his bedside. “It is possible, Hayden, that you’re experiencing some sort of memory loss.”
“But I remember them.” Hayden points around the room and starts naming off his family. “Mom, Dad. My brother and sister, Zach and Holly. That’s my Super Old Gran, and that’s Kiki and Gramps.” He looks at the doctor like it should be enough, but decides she isn’t listening and starts rattling off about anything that might help. “Okay, fine. That’s my Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Eliza, Catina. My name is Hayden Dean Marcus. I’m seventeen. I play varsity basketball at Mitchell. Dad’s a lawyer. Mom’s a financial consultant. Gramps does A/C stuff. Kiki used to… I actually don’t know what you used to do, sorry. But I even know thattheywork at the Woodsy Café.”
He points at me. I resist the involuntary urge to step back. It’s like I’ve been pointed out in a police lineup, or worse, been outed a second time around, but this time surrounded by the guy’s family instead of an entire classroom of eighth graders. I’m not sure which is worse.
“I—” I’m about to spill the truth in a moment of terror. I can’t hold it in any longer with him like this, but Eliza interrupts.
“He could have just lost recent memories, right?”
“True.” Dr. Kline nods and smiles disarmingly. I’m not sure if I’m glad or infuriated Eliza stopped me. “Short-term memory is most often affected during traumatic events, such as your fall. You took a nasty hit to the head, Hayden. Remembering big events from your past, or your family, name, etcetera is common. It’s the more recent events, even big ones, that tend to go missing. Sometimes specific events go missing. But they usually come back. Do you remember what happened the night you fell at the shop?”
He didn’t forget anything. Not about me, but…
“Yeah, I went to get a frappe,” Hayden says, but his face is more flushed and white than a few seconds ago.
Maybe he forgot just a little bit, something pointless, and it can make the blow ofnottechnically forgettingmenot so big.
“Good.” Dr. Kline nods approvingly. “Now do you remember anything else, anything after that?”
It feels like a distraction at the moment while I’m stuck between Hayden and his family, an imposter. It’s keeping me out of hot water for the moment, but it’s also digging me a deeper grave to shovel out.
“Uh…” He squints, focusing hard on his knees under the plain white blankets. “I remember saying hey to hi—I meanthem, uh, Mackenzie”—he points at me—“and Landon.”
He looks at me again as if I’m supposed to verify, so I nod dramatically. He knows Landon’s name too?
