"I need space." Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
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"What kind of pizza do you all like?" Ryan asked the crew in the living room.
Sam didn't look away from the TV screen, where a brown-haired girl in an ugly sweater was creeping around a basement. "Why, you buyin'?" she asked.
"Veggie," said Jordan.
"Meat Lovers," said Harper.
"Pepperoni," said Pete, walking past Ryan and hurling himself onto the couch. "Yeah, Nightmare on Elm Street! I love this movie."
"Okay, so one veggie and one meat lovers pizza." Ryan opened his wallet and counted what he had left from his last paycheck at Subway. Forty dollars. Pete was going to chip in, too, and a large pizza was only ten dollars. But that left him with hardly any cash, and he didn't want to start using his debit card like a credit card.
"You think two pizzas is gonna feed all of us?" Sam asked, finally looking at him.
Ryan's face went hot. "If I get two large..."
Reaching for the remote, Sam paused the movie. "We need at least one more pizza. And some cheesy bread." She hauled out her wallet, which was considerably thicker than Ryan's.
"No, it's my treat," Ryan tried to say, but then everyone was pulling out their wallets, even Pete. They threw down ones and fives and Sam added another twenty.
"We all live here, we all contribute," Sam said. "Here, get me a buffalo chicken pizza. Get it from Nero's – they're the best." She winked. "And the cheapest."
Ryan headed into his new bedroom to make the call, mostly to escape the noise. In the quiet dark of the room, he paused before dialing the number.
Whenever he and Jacky had ordered pizza for one of their many sleepovers at Jacky's house, they had always gotten the same thing: half pepperoni, and half veggie. But Jacky would always sneak one of Ryan's pepperoni slices, because it was his mom who was vegetarian, and Ryan would then pretend to sneak one of Jacky's slices, even though he hated veggies on his pizza. Ryan hadn't even realized how much of a habit their pizza nights were until this past spring, when there had been a few busy weeks between prom and finals and graduation and all the other senior activities and parties. When Ryan called to place the order, the woman had said, "Oh, I wondered what had happened to you two!"
"Guess we're regulars now," Ryan had joked.
"We can never come here again," Jacky had said, for some reason mortified that anyone remembered them and their order.
The memory of how Ryan had laughed and hugged Jacky's head to his shoulder, ruffling his hair the way Jacky hated, made Ryan never want to be a regular at another pizza place.
But it sounded like Sam was already a regular at Nero's. And even though Somerville was a big city, Ryan had a feeling that a group of six LGBTQ college kids – Ryan was counting Pete with them, even if he'd never said he was straight or not – would be noticed.
Ryan stared at the number on his phone. Jacky had broken up with him. Jacky didn't want any more pizza nights. It was time to make new traditions.
He dialed the number, took a deep breath, and returned to the living room to officially start his new life.
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This chapter's so short I decided to post another chapter this week!
