The next day Jake had a dentist appointment in the afternoon. Part of him was glad to be able to ditch school early—his mother picked him up just after lunch, before fifth period—but he couldn’t be too happy…he was going to the dentist, after all. It was just a checkup, but still. His mother wouldn’t be taking him back to school, either, which meant he wouldn’t get to see Thad after classes were out. Because she worked from home, she used her afternoons to run errands, and Jake would have to come along for the ride.
His mother reminded him of the appointment in the morning, so he managed to warn Thad when his boyfriend picked him up for school. Because he didn’t know exactly when he’d get home from the dentist’s, he couldn’t make any concrete plans to see Thad after school. “Maybe my moth
