Between Us

Chapter 13 — What Kofi Said

I found out what Zane actually thought from Kofi.

Which was not ideal. But that's how it happened.

Kofi was not a subtle person.

He was loud and warm and laughed at everything including things that weren't funny and had absolutely no filter between his brain and his mouth, which made him simultaneously exhausting and the most honest person in any room.

I ran into him alone on a Saturday morning at the campus shop — just me and him and a queue for bread that wasn't moving.

We'd spoken before, at Bello's party and a few times after, and he had the energy of someone who'd already decided we were friends regardless of my input on the matter.

"Ava!" He said it like we hadn't seen each other in years rather than three days.

"Hi Kofi."

He fell into the queue beside me. Looked at me with that open easy expression of his. "You good? You and Zane good?"

"Fine," I said carefully.

"He talks about you, you know."

I kept my eyes on the queue. "We see each other every day."

"Not like that." Kofi shook his head. "Like — he'll just say something. We'll be talking about something completely different and he'll just — bring you in. Ava said this the other day. Ava would find this funny. That kind of thing." He shrugged like this was just information he was passing along. "I've known Zane three years. He doesn't do that."

The queue moved forward.

I focused very hard on the bread shelf.

"He's my fake boyfriend," I said. Steady.

Kofi looked at me sideways. Said nothing.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing." He picked up a loaf. "I'm just saying what I observed. That's all."

I didn't tell Zane I'd spoken to Kofi.

But I thought about it for the rest of the day — sitting with it the way you sit with something you don't quite know what to do with yet.

Ava would find this funny.

I thought about the 2am phone call. The hoodie. The puddles. The hand on mine at the gathering that hadn't been for anyone's benefit because nobody had been watching yet.

I thought about the way he said my name sometimes — not the performance version, the real one. Like it meant something specific to him.

And then I thought about the deal.

The original, actual deal — tutoring for pretending. Clean and transactional and finite.

The deal that was supposed to end when Keira moved on.

Keira had looked at us on Thursday like she was moving on.

Which meant the deal was almost done.

Which meant this was almost over.

I sat with that thought for a long time.

It felt nothing like relief.

That evening Zane texted at 7pm.

Library tomorrow? Enzyme kinetics assessment Wednesday.

I looked at the message.

The deal was almost over. He was texting about enzyme kinetics. Everything was perfectly normal and transactional and fine.

Sure, I typed back. 6pm.

See you then.

I put my phone down.

Picked it back up.

Typed: Kofi talks too much by the way.

A long pause. Then:

What did he say.

Not a question. Flat. Which meant he already knew what Kofi was capable of saying.

Nothing important, I typed.

Another pause.

Ava.

Goodnight Zane.

I put the phone face down on my desk.

Denise looked up from her book. Looked at my face. Looked back at her book.

"You're in trouble," she said simply.

"I know," I said.