“It sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience…” I stood up and nodded at his friend. “But…You do make a lot of sense.”

“Perfect sense.” Carter was suddenly at my side, extending his hand to Martin. “You should never sleep with your best friend. He’s right. It’ll never work out for the long term.”

“But what if we both agree not to let it?”

“Nah…” Me, Carter, and Josh uttered the same thing in unison and laughed.

“Now that we’ve cleared that up,” Josh said, smiling. “I don’t mind you being around late tonight, Carter, but we’re about to discuss some serious Epsilon Chi business, so could you kindly take your other half home? Her driving services were greatly appreciated today.”

I rolled my eyes and tossed him a corkscrew. “I’ll come back and organize the alcohol tomorrow. Although, I think I’ll have to do them by color and not by brand since it looks like you stupidly tore off all of the labels.”

“Not stupidly. Deliberately, my friend. They’re for our new spin on the wet T-shirt contest.”

“You disgust me.”

“And you arouse me.” He playfully licked his lips.

“Enough, you two...” Carter grabbed his car keys. “I’ll be back. Please try not to burn down my house while I’m gone.”

“Our house.” He practically shooed us out the door. “And I’ll do my best.”

On the way home, Carter and I acted as if that moment near the couch never happened.

The night ended like it usually did in the summer after classes: Him pulling up to my house, waiting on me to go inside before pulling off, and then a late text a few hours later:

You feel like talking or getting a late dinner with me?

Ninth Grade

Dear Arizona,

You owe me twenty dollars.

Sincerely,

Carter

Dear Carter,

Could you at least TRY to look like you’re paying attention in class? And why are you passing me a note when we both have cell phones?

Annoyed,

Arizona

Dear Arizona,

I didn’t see the twenty dollars you owe me in your last note. Please respond with the appropriate funds. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Carter

Dear Carter,

The only way I could possibly owe you twenty dollars is if you had sex/lost your virginity this weekend. And since we both know you didn’t, you can stop pretending like you did. You can, however, send me twenty dollars for putting up with this note writing bullshit.

Grow up and use your cell phone,

Arizona

Dear Arizona,

Like I said….You owe me twenty dollars

Sincerely,

Carter

She gasped as she read my final note, looking over her shoulder and shaking her head. She sent me a text right before the bell rang:

I’ll see you after my Home-Economics class? Your place?

Yours.

I texted back.

My mom is having her therapist over later. If you guys bake brownies again, bring me one.

Done deal.

I floated through the rest of my day at school, not paying any attention to anything that was happening around me. I even spent an extra hour at test-prep tutoring—something I never did unless I was bored out of my mind.

I walked the long way to Ari’s house—stopping every minute to look around at nothing in particular, but when I arrived she wasn’t there.

“Hey, there, Carter!” Her older sister, Ariana, ushered me inside. “You want something to drink?”

“Water, please.”

“Coming right up,” she said, quickly pressing a cold bottle into my hand. “You can go wait for Ari upstairs in her room if you want. She should be home in a few minutes.”

“No, thanks.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’ll wait here until she gets back. Thanks to you, your mom thought we were up there having sex last time I was here. Or do you not recall lying to her about that?”

“It was a joke.” She laughed. “I honestly think we’ve all accepted that you two are just friends. Weird, strange, and way too damn close friends, but just friends.”

“Not trusting it.” I plopped onto the couch. “I’ve been scarred for life. Sorry.”

She smiled and crossed her arms. “You know, I was just telling one of my friends about you two. I was telling her that although I think it’s nearly impossible to be strictly friends with a guy, that I think you and Arizona are the rare boy and girl friends that will always remain strictly platonic.”

“Thank you for your random thoughts,” I said. “I was hoping that you would throw some my way today.”

“Well, smartass, between you and me, have you ever had any non-friendly thoughts about Arizona? Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe one day she’ll be your girlfriend? Or maybe—”

“You know what? I’m going to take you up on that room-pass now.” I immediately stood up and walked up the stairs, ignoring her cackling laughter. I shut the door and sat by the window, resorting back to far more entertaining thoughts of sex.

It was ten times better than I thought it would be, and I couldn’t wait to tell someone else about it. I wasn’t sure how I was going to focus on anything else at school this week because I was going to need to have sex in my life a lot more often to cling to this current feeling.

“Can you stop smiling like that?” Arizona threw a pillow at my face. “You’re giving it all away.”

“So, you believe me now?”

“After seeing you sit there with that dumbass grin on your face for over five minutes?” She plopped onto her bed. “Yeah. I have no choice.”

“Sorry, I can’t help it.” I walked over and plopped down right next to her. “It was so great.”

“Who was it? Erica? Adriane?”

“Amber,” I said. “We did it at her place Sunday afternoon while her parents were at a BBQ.”

“How classy.”

“We did it more than once, too.”

“You’re lying! There’s no way…”

“Oh, young and unworldly, Ari…When thou hast experienced the wonder of the body, thou shall be able to effortlessly relate to the need and insatiability of bodily desires.”

“So you do pay attention in Literature class?” She laughed and placed a wrapped brownie onto my chest. “I knew she was a pedophile…”

“She’s only three years older than us.”

“Whatever…” She rolled her eyes. “Who else knows?”

“No one.” I hadn’t told any of my guy friends yet—Josh was still serving out a suspension for skipping school last week, so Ari was my first call.

“What did it feel like?” she asked.

“Apple pie.”

“I’m being serious.” She rolled over on her side. “What did it feel like?”

“Good.” I swallowed. “Really, really good…But…”

“But what?”

“You know how in all those dumbass chick-flicks you make me watch, when the actors have sex and they look into each other’s eyes and act like their world has just changed forever?”