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Nick’s eyes widened "A cheht you meant dance"

"I wish I suck at cherip on Adareat at chemistry"

Adam’s eyes flicked to his lips "I bet"

Nick hesitated, not wanting to dae the mood, which felt precariously balanced between flirtation and forgiveness But it also felt like a big old heap of evasion "Can we talk about what just happened?"

Ada Nick fell into step beside hi Adam to need to walk to talk But then his coh experience fro of Quinn--to know that people wouldn’t talk until they were daood and ready By the tier expected an answer

The place looked like it didn’t knohat it wanted to be

Red-checked tablecloths, cheap metal chairs, and all manner of food on theto hide the fact that they were the only patrons in the place

After they were seated at a four top, with sodas in front of thehten the mood

"Fast service," he said wryly "Do you wantthe waitress?"

Adaht reference? How is it possible your brothers don’t know you’re gy?"

Every time he said that, Nick wanted to flinch as hard as Ada me read it"

Adairlfriends"

Nick shrugged and wondered what the safe answer to that was "‘A lot’ is relative, I guess" He paused, wondering what else Quinn had said about him "And you?"

"Girlfriends? None"

Nick sa felt off, like they’d hit the wrong note right from the start, and they’d never really found theand pulled out a chemistry textbook, followed by a spiral notebook "Didn’t you say you wanted to study?"

So they weren’t going to talk about anything of substance at all Nick pulled out his calculus textbook, glad he’d brought it along He worked through the three ho he could convince the teacher to give hinment

Adam made for quiet company Nick had worried it would be uncomfortable, but the restaurant arm, the French dip sandwiches were exceptional, and an hour had passed before he realized it He shoved his calculus textbook back into his bag and reached for physics

The air whispered frustration, so Nick glanced across at his co chemistry It looked like it hated him back, from the amount of cross outs and eraserequations?" Nick said

Ada equations"

"No offense, but why are you taking che ho about dance"

"I a to fall back on I need a science credit" He shrugged "It was this or biology, and I didn’t want to cut up dead ani Nick admired about him "You want me to take a look?"

"Sure"

Nick expected him to turn the book around, like Gabriel would, but Adam didn’t move So Nick took his pencil and moved to the other side of the table

The table wasn’t tiny, but it was sh brushed Adam’s when he sat, and he could feel the warmth of his body in the space between hi the first for to make it too complicated I always find it easiest to start with the element that only shows up in one reac-tant and product Like here, it’s oxygen, so double the H-two-O

on the right side of the arrow"

"Then I have too ens"

"So double it on the left" Adam did, and Nick said, "Now look at the carbon"

They worked through the rest of that probleh that, too By the third, he shut up and let Adalanced up "You’re a good teacher"

Nick flushed at the praise, but he shrugged it off "Do you want to do another one?"

"Sure" Adaot to the end of the line, he hesitated, his pencil stopping on the paper He kept his eyes down "Do you remember how I told you that ot out of the hospital?"

"Yeah"

"It sucked I was deter soht away It wouldn’t have uy so I could show my parents that I was in a relationship At the studio where I danced then, they rented the space once a week to a uy named Matthew Cute as hell, built like he was born on steroids--you know the type"

Adam set the pencil down and stopped there His eyes were still on the chemistry paper "I flirted with hiht, whatever, I’m not shy"

Nick reht they ht be interested in boys

"Was he straight?" Nick said

"I thought he was But he wasn’t He’d ignore htabout him, really, but he was hot, I was shallow, and that was that"

That wasn’t that Adalad for the privacy and the di

"He wasn’t out," Adam said, "but he was a few years older

He had his own place, so we only went there The first tiht it was charht, of course I went" He shook his head "He kissed ain, but this time it went further--a lot further"