Stumbling away from Cai, I scramble to pull the neon atrocities up and salvage some drop of dignity. My legs begin tangling and suddenly I’m tumbling to the ground. More laughter. I look up at Cai, whose figure looms over me. He’s laughing. Everyone is laughing.

“Smile!” Crystal calls from a few feet away with her phone angled toward me. No doubt this will be all over the Westview View before the first period bell even rings. Even the hundreds of nightmares I’ve had since Cai discovered me at Blazer Tag couldn’t invoke this degree of trepidation. I look back to Cai in complete horror. His laughter is noxious. It had to have been him. He must have loosened the tie on my shorts when he lifted me up. This was his plan all along. And with that realization, my mortification transforms into angry—maybe a little unhinged—determination.

My mother once gave me some good advice after I’d fudged one of the few lines I had in my fifth grade play. She said when you’re on stage, you have to seize your moment. The track field is my stage. This is my moment. I stand up, allowing everyone to take a good look. I’m thankful that I wore a pair of boxer briefs that were clean, free of holes, and most importantly, not decorated in cartoon characters. With a kick of my foot, I fling the shorts up into the air and catch them. Slinging them over my shoulder, I take a bow and walk with my chin held high back to the locker rooms. Cheers and applause erupt behind me. When I make it inside, I throw the shorts as far away as possible and collapse against the tiled wall before sinking down to the floor. I take several deep breaths, on the verge of puking. How many more worst days of my life will I be expected to endure before I finally get the hell out of this school?

The door swings open and Cai walks in. I pull myself up from the floor, telling myself I’m ready for this confrontation. But when he looks at me with a big smile, all I can do is invert my shoulders a bit and adjust my arms in an embarrassed attempt to cover my exposed lower half—pretty ridiculous since the whole school, including Cai, just watched me strut across the field in my underwear. Nothing new to see here.

“That was awesome, man!” Cai smacks me on the shoulder and I suck in a breath. Not exactly what I was expecting. “Sorry, I know that must have been pretty embarrassing. But the way you handled it was impressive.”

“So you’re not here to gloat?” I say.

Cai looks puzzled and shakes his head. “No way, I was coming to ask if you wanted to come to my house for dinner tonight.”

I stare at him for a moment, trying to gauge if he’s joking. He looks serious. No way in hell could he be serious. And no way in hell am I going to Cai Xian’s house for dinner.

***

Maybe it was the fact that I was still disoriented from the whole shorts debacle. Maybe it was because I was standing there in my underwear in front of the most popular guy in school. Maybe all the humiliations over the past few weeks have finally gone to my head and I just snapped. But the moment Cai asked me over, my mind went blank. For some reason, I couldn’t think of an excuse. So here I am, sitting at the dining room table in Cai Xian’s home, passing the salad to Cai’s father, Shen. Jeanne has been drilling me on my academic record for the past twenty minutes, while Cai’s little brother Ru sits opposite me, switching between playing a game on a smartphone and making crude faces in his brother’s and my direction. All the while, Cai sits to my left, quietly picking at his food while his mother all but digs her steak knife into me.

I learn that Cai’s father is a stay-at-home dad, like mine—the difference of course is that Shen does so by choice. Judging by their gigantic, historical-looking, mansion-estate, I’d guess money isn’t really an issue with Cai’s family. The place looks as if it could swallow our little town home whole three times over, with impressive landscaping, and several shiny vehicles parked in the drive,. Jeanne’s company is, after all, one of the largest marketing firms in the state.

Jeanne seems so pleased I came over. In fact, she’s said so, several times. “I’m so happy to have one of Cai’s friends over. And one who’s not a total sports nerd! I get so tired of talking about home runs all the time.”

I smile at her, imagining how Cai’s jock buddies fare with the marketing guru. But I’m still not totally sure why I’m here at all.

“Cai, have you thought about the Winter Break advanced study program at Tulane we talked about?” she says to her son. “It would be so good for your credentials.”

A dark look passes over Cai’s face, but he doesn’t look directly at his mother when he responds. “I’m looking into it.”

“Don’t wait too long,” Jeanne warns in a serious tone. She turns to me, a corporate smile returning to her face. “Have you applied, Rowan?” Her voice raises an octave; it sounds like the voice I use with customers at Blazer Tag.

“I’m probably going to do an independent study project,” I mumble. I don’t include that even if I did apply to the Tulane program and got in, I would never be able to afford it.

Jeanne’s face lights up. “Oh, that sounds fabulous,” she says. “Cai, maybe you should think about that instead.”

Cai aggressively digs his fork into his lasagna and takes a bite. Then another. Then another. For some reason I feel like I’m missing some crucial detail in this conversation.

“Dessert anyone?” Shen interrupts.

***

As I follow Cai up to his bedroom, I can’t help but dwell on how tense he got whenever his mother brought up college or anything career-related. He was silent as we ate dessert and only muttered a “thanks” when I handed him my plate after his mother volunteered him to collect everyone’s dishes. When we reach the top of the elegant staircase, he finally speaks.

“Sorry if that seemed weird. Sometimes my mom gets a little intense about school.”

I shrug. “My mom and dad can get like that sometimes too. It’s like part of a parent’s genetic code.”

He laughs softly and smiles in a way I’ve never seen before. It’s not the kind of smile I want to wipe off his face. It actually makes me smile too.

Cai’s room is different than I expected. It’s got the usual teen stuff like trophies, posters of famous models, pop stars and bands, and a few loose items of clothing cluttering a chair in the corner. None of that was unexpected. What I hadn’t anticipated was the pink, purple, and blue striped flag hanging over his bed. The bisexual pride flag. I can’t help but stare at it for a minute, trying to make sure I’m not mistaken about what it is.

“My whole family marched at Pride last year,” Cai says, noting my gawking. “It was pretty awesome. You ever been?”

Slightly flustered, I shake my head and spit out, “I had to work that day.” How did I not know that Cai was bi?

Cai doesn’t dwell on the topic and instead turns to his dresser, opening a drawer and sifting through a few shirts. “We have to find the perfect shirt for you,” he says. “Here.” He tosses me a light blue T-shirt. “Try this on.”

I catch it and hold it up to examine it. The fabric feels soft and expensive. There’s a thin stripe across the chest that contains all of the colors of the rainbow. I look at him and he’s staring back expectantly. “You mean now?”

He nods, so I start pulling the T-shirt over the much cheaper gray v-neck I’m already wearing. His hand catches my arm. “You’re gonna want to take your shirt off to see how it fits.”

I gulp. “Here?” My eyes dart toward the hall where I might find a bathroom. Cai follows my gaze and, misunderstanding my apprehension, shuts the door, which only manages to make me feel even more uneasy. Self-consciously, I slowly pull my shirt over my head, exposing my chest. Why is this so hard for me? Why am I okay with changing in a locker room full of students but suddenly feel like dying at the idea of exposing my torso to Cai? I suck in my stomach a bit as I struggle with the hem of my shirt. When I finally manage to yank it off over my head, I can feel static playing in my hair. I toss it on the ground and pull Cai’s over my head as quickly as I can. When my head emerges through the collar after struggling over my electrified curls, I gasp. Cai is now pulling his own shirt off, and much more smoothly than I managed. And of course he looks…perfect. I know I’m staring. I can’t help but stare at his perfect abs. I’m staring too long, oh god, I know I am. By the time I look up at Cai’s face I can see him looking back at me with that absurdly hot smile on his face. Wait, did I just think hot?

“See something you like, Rowan?”