We Are Totally Normal

The sun kissed the ocean, and all the heat seemed to sizzle out of the sand. I pulled my hoodie closer and said, “Hey, you want to come hang out?”

“I’ve gotta go back to work.”

“What about after? You could invite Mari! Give it another shot, seriously, dude.”

He looked down; then his eyes went back to me. “Sure. I can give it a try.”

“Do it!” I said. “We’re gonna make this happen.”

Dave tipped up his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose, and the air whipped his fine hair off to the side.

The way he said that, all nasal and drawn-out, made me laugh, and I ruffled the swoop of his hair.

“Hey!”

“No, but I believe you,” I said. “About Niko. The thing is, there are people like him, who’ve got the magic, and people like us, who need to fake it.”

“You don’t fake it.”

“I’m in so over my head. Pothan’s trying to turn me into”—I thought of trying to hook up with some random girl, maybe tonight, maybe over by the rocks, and my stomach lurched—“into a completely different person. But the crazy thing is: I want to be that person.”

Dave brushed sugar crumbs off his fingers. “Well, to be honest, I’d prefer not to change completely just to get a girlfriend.”