“Hee, okay. Point Josey.”
“I have so many points. I'm going to cash them in for a trip to Space Camp.”
“I went to Space Camp,” I say. I can't help it.
Theo turns around. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. But I did the robotics track, not the space one. Mom's stipulation.”
“How come?”
“She wants me to be a scientist,” I say. “I think she's changed her mind to architect now thanks to my Lego obsession.”
“What do you want to be?”
“An out of work hairdresser,” I say. It's a quote from My Cousin Vinny, one of my favorite movies. I can tell by the way they both laugh that they recognize it. That they get me.
That is infuriating. I lean my forehead against the window like it will help me cool off, but everything is boiling.
They go on talking for a while about spaceships and Marissa Tomei, staying very close to the subjects at hand, and I know it's because they want to make sure that they stick with something I understand, so that I'll be tempted to chime back in. They phrase some of their statements like questions to give me ins, but I don't say anything else.
And honestly, I don't know if it's because I'm upset with them or because I just want them to think that I am. I wish I knew what I wanted these people to think I'm like. I thought I was going to be so good at adjusting. I was priding myself on something I hadn't even attempted yet.
We stop at a sticky diner Theo says they love (they, like loving something is a group activity) and they order milkshakes, and I order something with “platter” in the name so that I can build a barricade of food in front of me. Also because I'm pretty sure they're paying, and I will passive aggressively enact my revenge in nickels and dimes and French fries.
“So we should explain,” Theo says. “We messed up at the party. Or after the party I guess.”
“I messed up,” Josey says.
“Yeah,” Theo says. “It was mostly her, but I didn't help.”
“I left you alone with her,” Josey says.
“I'm not a sex robot, I can control myself.”
“Except I left you there for the explicit purpose of acting like a sex robot.”
“You're being too hard on yourself,” he says, and he says it like he's genuinely scolding her. “Stop it.”
“I...” She breathes out, fiddles with the collar of her shirt, and then smiles at both of us.
“Well don't do that either,” he says. Do what?
I really don't want them to argue in front of me, though. They're acting the way Aanya and I do where it's obvious it won't lead to a real fight, and that's somehow way more intimate than what Theo and I were doing in the car.
So I say, “We didn't have sex,” because I realize we were making out long enough for us theoretically to have had sex. I guess. Judging by those people sneaking upstairs at Aanya's parties.
“I know that,” she says. “Hey, it's not like he lied to me about what happened in there. You kissed. He said it was really nice.”
“So what is this, you leave him alone with girls and have him make out with them?” I say. “Is this like some party clause you have, or what?”
He pushes his eyebrows together. “Party clause?”
“One of my friends from back home, he and his girlfriend had this deal where when they were at parties they could mess around with other people.”
“Hmm. No, that's not us.”
“They're theater kids,” I say. “Theater kids are so sexual.”
Josey laughs. “Ha! Theo's a theater kid!”
He says, “Yeah, well, Josey's a science geek.”
“So then what was that?”I say. “If you weren't exercising your theater kid rights.”
“Okay,” Theo says. “We're polyamorous.”
“So...okay,” I say. “Like threesomes?”
“Threesomes as in relationships, yeah,” Theo says. “It's not a sex thing. It's just three people in a relationship. Committed and stuff. And we don't share partners, me and Josey.”
“Oversimplifying,” she cuts in, sharply.
He says, “I'm kind of doing that on purpose.”
“You should kind of not be doing that incredibly on purpose. Don't let her think there's some straightforward set of rules here.”
Theo shrugs a little and says to me, “Yeah, she's right. I mean, it is different with everyone. You can't just...I mean, have you dated people before?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“So it's not like every relationship is the same. Follows the same...”
“Trajectory,” Josey finishes.
“Okay,” he says. “So like, it's different with everyone.”
“Except right now we don't have anyone else,” Josey says.
“Right,” he says. “We've only actually ever had two people seriously. And not at the same time.”
“Boys or girls?” I say.
“Both girls,” Josey says.
“Both with me,” he says. “Not with her.”
She rolls her eyes. “To oversimplify.”
“Josey didn't have sex with them,” he says. “How about that, Josey, that accurate enough?”
To my surprise, she smiles with her whole face and punches him in the shoulder a little. “You are such the worst.”
Yeah, I don't really feel like watching them flirt. (Theo had sex with them. Theo's had sex with at least three girls and none of them are me and I have to right to be jealous, none at all.) “What happened with the other girls?” I say.
“The first girl gave it a shot back when we were sophomores and she was a junior but decided it wasn't for her,” Theo says. “No hard feelings. The other girl was last year, and we had a great thing going, but then she graduated and felt like it had run its course and didn't want to go off to college tied down. Pretty reasonable.”
“We're not out actively looking for people,” Josey says. “We
