Behind him, his girlfriend stayed in her seat.
“You don’t want to spend the night?” he asked, giving me another hug when he was close.
I shook my head against his shoulder for maybe the millionth time in my life. “I’m filming tomorrow,” I explained when we let each other go. “I’ll come visit when I have another weekend off if you’re not busy.”
I wanted to side-eye his girlfriend but didn’t. I had promised myself not to be an asshole. Mostly though, I didn’t do it because it would only hurt Boog if he saw it.
My cousin-brother sighed but nodded. He’d been letting his facial hair grow in, and it looked nice. “You going to be fine driving back?”
“Oh yeah. I’m not tired yet; it’ll be okay.”
He kept on frowning, so I nudged his fancy red-soled shoe with the tip of my sneaker, careful not to scuff it. I’d teased him for like ten minutes the first time I’d snooped through his closet and seen all of his expensive shoes. It had been back when the what are those thing had been going on, and he’d been rolling.
“Go down to the lot with me though. Zac left his suitcase in my trunk.”
From behind him, his girlfriend said, proving she’d been listening, “I’ll wait here.”
Boogie glanced over his shoulder. “You sure, babe?”
“Yeah, baby,” his girlfriend of the last two-ish years replied.
I knew it was mean and didn’t care, but thank God. The less time she was around, the better.
My cousin slung his arm over my shoulder after saying something back. I wiggled my fingers at her briefly, getting a tight smile and a nod back, and then we took off. I kicked him in the back of his leg, and he kicked me back. I poked him, and he poked me back. When we got into the elevator, he turned to me and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been holding in a fart for the last hour and a half, and my stomach fucking hurts,” I told him, pressing my palms down on my lower stomach. “I’ve been trying not to think about it.”
Boogie burst out laughing, slapping a hand over his face. “What is wrong with you? Wait until you get in your car to do it.”
“I’m trying,” I groaned. “But it hurts.”
I really was trying. I’d overdone it eating both sausages and not just one.
My cousin was still laughing and still had a hand over his face as he said, “Try harder.”
“You used to fart on me and around me all the time, you hypocrite. It’s a totally natural bodily function. There’d be something wrong with me if I didn’t need to pass gas, Boog. It’s just as natural as a burp. As a period. But it comes out of your butt instead.”
My prude cousin closed his eyes, shook his head like he always did, and changed the subject. I loved him. He really was the best. He never wanted to talk about periods or bodily functions or fluid—unlike my sister who would give me an in-depth report on her period and any unusual bowel movements she might have—but I knew if I needed a tampon, he’d go and buy me ten boxes for every flow. He just wouldn’t make eye contact with me afterward. “Changing the subject. Thank you for going to find him. He said someone had his phone and he’d forgotten all about it.”
For one second, I thought about the nice, pretty blonde who had known where his bedroom was. Then I stopped thinking about it. Good for him. At least she’d been nice and not like the last girlfriend I’d had the unfortunate luck to meet. Because fuck that girl still, even ten years later.
“Yeah, there were a bunch of people over at his house when I showed up,” I said. “I let myself in and had to walk around to find him. Awkward.”
He snorted. “Did you surprise the hell out of him?”
I shrugged against his side just as the doors opened and an older woman stepped inside the elevator too. “Yeah, he didn’t recognize me. I told him my name, but it didn’t click until I used yours.”
That had Boogie glancing at me. It hadn’t been the first time someone hadn’t recognized me. We’d had a good laugh about it before, especially when our aunt had gasped and just about lost her shit years ago. It had been after I’d been in North Carolina for a couple years.
Then she’d said some other backhanded compliment and ruined it, but oh well.
“Anyway, I’m glad I got to see him.” I was glad. It was one thing to see him on TV, but it was totally different in flesh and blood. Better. He had seemed happy and fine, despite his thing with the Thunderbirds, before I’d given him the bad news. What more could you ask for?
“I told you he’d be happy to see you.”
He had. Years ago. But I still lifted my shoulder. “Well, you know, it’s been forever.” I fought the urge to clear my throat.
He knew part of what happened. A very, very small part. He’d known I had a crush on him that had sprouted out of nowhere—even though that wasn’t really true—and that I’d struggled with it. I’d pleaded with him not to say anything and to just let me get over it on my own. But that was it.
It wasn’t like I had ever doubted that my cousin loved me the most, but he’d proved it to me that day and every day after when he’d respected my wishes.
Boogie made a face I could have probably seen from down the hall. “You know we’ve both
