Free The Opposite of Nothing by Shari Slade

as he could swing it. And I believed him.
    Tay: I guess he thinks eight years counts as soon.
    Sasha: Don’t you want to know why he didn’t come back?
    Tay: Fuck why.
    Sasha: Maybe he had a good reason. Like, he was locked up in prison.
    Tay: Prison is good?
    Sasha: Not good. But it would be a good excuse, right? Like, it wasn’t his choice.
    He tried to picture Aaron in prison but couldn’t do it. Some people from their neighborhood treated jail like a vacation from life. No big deal. But he and Aaron hadn’t been like that. No stints in juvie, no brushes with crime. Could’ve gone a different way. If they’d run wild in the streets...
    Tay: If he got locked up, that would be a choice too. A bad one.
    Sasha: Is everything always so black and white?
    Tay: Yes.
    Sasha: I think you should talk to him.
    An answer to the nagging question of why the fuck he left would be nice. If only he could get that answer and walk away.
    Tay: Maybe. But not right now. Everything is too messed up. I don’t need more drama on top.
    Sasha: What else is wrong?
    Tay: I’m crashing on Callie’s futon this summer. It might get weird.
    Sasha: How?
    He wanted the weird vibe that had been pinging between him and Callie to do something. To stop or grow. Anything was better than what they had now. It was like an unreachable itch. No, it had to stop.
    Tay: I’m worried that I’m taking advantage of her. That I might lose her as a friend.
    Sasha: How?
    Tay: We don’t want the same things.
    Sasha: What do you want?
    He wanted one day where everything in his life wasn’t threatening to crash down on his head.
    Tay: A break.
    * * *
    C allie wished she’d dropped a can of tomatoes on her foot and saved herself the trouble of that conversation. She’d been clearing off shelf space in the pantry, making room for Tayber to store his things, bouncing to some synth-pop, when she’d heard the familiar ping of a new message. If only she’d ignored it, distracted herself with a more desirable disaster. A broken toe probably didn’t hurt quite as much as a broken heart.
    They didn’t want the same things. His message might as well have been a blinking billboard. Big surprise. She wanted something. He wanted nothing. No, he wanted a break. Did he want a break from her? She slammed the laptop shut and stormed out of her room, banging her shin on the unfolded futon in her living nook. “Shitfuckdamn!” Hopping around on one foot, she rubbed the throbbing spot below her knee. That’s going to be an awesome bruise. He hadn’t even carted over one box yet and she was already tripping over him.
    It wasn’t all in her head anymore, the heat between them, she knew that much. So what the fuck kind of game was he playing?
    She was a rubber band stretched to its limit. No give left. Tears welled up, but she fought them back. She was absolutely not going to cry over this anymore. She had a crush, end of story. She’d nearly made a fool of herself over it, but she could start over. Time to lay Sasha to rest for good. She was done pretending, in public, in private. It was like an erosion of her soul.
    They’d both be so busy that they’d hardly see each other anyway. She’d make sure of it, take up jogging in the morning, study in the library after class. She pulled an Oreo out of the open package on the top shelf of what would soon be Tayber’s closet and split it apart. Every time she wanted a cookie, she’d have to look at his things. Smell his cologne and laundry detergent. Maybe she’d stop eating so much junk. Yay, silver lining. She sighed and slumped against the kitchen wall, licking the cream from the middle before shoving both halves into her mouth at once.

Chapter Six
    T ayber lugged the last box up the narrow stairs. The first two were already stacked in the corner of Callie’s “living nook.” She seemed to think her place was embarrassingly tiny, but it wasn’t much smaller than the apartment he’d grown up in. Add one bedroom, and