The Art of Being a F*ck Up

3. A Few Good People

Nothing like a little good, old humiliation to bring you back to life—or at least for a short while anyway. As weird as it is, having Jonah's parents and Grace barge in on us is probably the most I've felt of anything in the past couple of weeks, so maybe that's a good thing, even if over an hour later I still haven't quite worked through the embarrassment. Despite being gracious enough to step out into the hall so Jonah and I could fully dress, they insisted on dragging us out to dinner afterwards. I mean we're practically family so it's not a huge deal, but fuck, they caught me at full mast, how else am I supposed to feel as I sit here with them while they hash it out again?

"We're so sorry boys, we should've called ahead, you'd think we'd know better by now. We wanted to surprise you, just not like that." Lilah muses sympathetically. I can still picture her back there in the dorm, letting out a startled squeak before hurrying back out into the hall. Not Jonah's dad though, no, Jason only stood there like the proudest father in the world, hands on his hips as he nodded his fucking head.

"Not me, I'm not sorry. This could've been avoided had you answered your phone any of the five times I tried calling you." Grace chimes in with far less empathy. We already knew she was back in town for the weekend, I guess the rest was simply fate that she decided to visit her best friend before anything else and bumped into Jason and Lilah in the parking lot. She brushes her hair over her shoulder, rubbing it in with a joke, "my mom wanted me all to herself but I told her I had to come see you first. This is the thanks I get? I can't believe you let me go to voicemail, you deserved this."

"Remind me to show you how it feels when you get a boyfriend of your own." The entire table laughs when Jonah sasses her back, except for me. Whatever jolt of feeling their invasion of privacy had provided has puttered out and I'm back to feeling like I'm asleep, or stuck somewhere in the middle in some half-life. Even when Grace isn't here, Jason and Lilah try to drag us out every other weekend like this when they can, but if not for Jonah I probably would have said no to tonight. That's weird too, it's so unlike me to turn down free beer and food, and I catch Lilah watching my reaction very carefully from across the table as she sips at her water.

"Never, you know I'm way too busy to date." The conversation continues when Grace rolls her eyes at Jonah, the rest of them unaware of mine and Lilah's silent exchange. There's more laughter, but I'm not so sure what's funny about it since it's kind of true. Grace doesn't go to our school, she's a Stanford girl, so I imagine she's actually pretty serious when she says she doesn't have the time. Especially considering senior year hasn't been any easier on her from what I hear. They're so much alike in that regard, her and Jonah, taking on way too much until they're overloaded. All that stress hasn't taken away her sense of humor though, "besides, men are a handful. I mean, it definitely looked like you had yours full of Brent."

"Hey, leave me out of it!" I quip, trying to hide behind my beer after I'm thrust back into the limelight. It's probably the first thing I've said all night, and it results in more laughing from everyone but Lilah. She just watches still.

"Might as well get used to it, I'm sure it's not the last time it'll happen. I know it's not the first," Jason winks across the table at me and Jonah. Funny he should mention that, since the last time he caught us getting frisky he nearly choked me half to death. Things were different then, it was years ago, is it fucked up to say it's kind of funny to think about now? We've been super close ever since, he likes having someone to talk to about guy stuff, and Jonah's never been big into sports.

They've found plenty of common ground of their own though, and they take their turn going back and forth at each other. I'm actually relieved now that I can sit back and take a breath without having to worry about anybody looking at me, not even Lilah. It's been a lot of work trying to keep up, but I can at least be happy watching the two of them interact, having this kind of relationship with his father is what Jonah always wanted. It's true that Jason had a minor meltdown when he initially found out that Jonah didn't like girls, but after a while he came around to the idea and has been the best dad anyone could ask for.