At the exact moment that Mrs. Goodwin ended her lesson, the dismissal bell rang. Everybody loved her because she always timed it perfectly.

While almost every other student cheered and filed out of class in a hurry, Michelle leaned back in her seat and began tossing her belongings into her bag. Unlike most others, she liked taking her time to pack up her things when classes were over.

After all, the school day was finally over. She deserved to take it slow and relax a little. When the last item was chucked into the bag’s main compartment, she zipped it up in a careless motion and shouldered it.

Then she strolled out of the classroom, which was empty at this point—even the teacher had left, whistling a tune to herself.

“Michelle!” a voice called out to her as she stepped out of the doorway.

She looked around for its owner before finding Caledon standing only a few feet away to her left. He gave her a tiny wave. Then he held out the can of iced tea he was holding in his other hand towards her.

She stared down at it.

“Hi, Caledon,” she said, not moving from her spot.

“Don’t you drink iced tea?” he asked, brandishing it at her.

“Yeah,” she said. “Sometimes. Why?”

He looked confused. “Then why won’t you take it?”

Understanding finally hit her like a baseball bat to the head. “Oh. That’s for me?”

She reached out and took it from him.

“Thanks, I think?” she said uncertainly. “Why are you giving this to me?”

“No reason,” he said. “I’ve seen a couple of my friends do that for their girlfriends sometimes.”

“Michelle, dear,” Mrs. Goodwin’s elderly voice came from behind her, “my classroom doorway is no place for chatting. Excuse me.”

She jumped aside instantly, making an apologetic face at her teacher.

“Ah, sorry Mrs. Goodwin! I forgot I was still standing here.”

When Mrs. Goodwin shuffled off, Michelle turned back to Caledon.

“Is that like, the same thing as when my friends ask me to help them get something from the vending machine? I mean, I didn’t ask for it though.”

“What?” He looked weirded out. “No. I’m giving it to you just because.”

“Because what?”

Her best friends never randomly showed up at her last class and gave her a drink.

“Because you’re my girlfriend.”

Since this line of questioning was going nowhere, she asked instead, “Why would your friends do that?”

Did her own friends’ boyfriends do that for them? She couldn’t quite recall, but that probably had to do with the fact that Michelle did her best to pay them as little attention as possible.

“Because they’re their boyfriends.”

That still wasn’t addressing the why.

“My best friends never do this for me. Literally not one of them has come to me after my last class and given me a drink.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a thing my friends only do for their girlfriends.”

Still confused, Michelle started walking in the general direction of the lockers. He followed her lead. After a second’s hesitation, she reached out and slipped her hand into his. He gripped her hand in a comfortable hold.

“That’s weird,” she remarked. “Why?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I wanted to try it. See what the point of it was.”

“Did you find out what the point was?”

“Aside from you getting a free drink, I don’t think so.”

“So I don’t have to pay for it?”

“No. I don’t think they make them pay for it.”

“Cool. Thanks, Caledon!” she said, smiling at him.

Returning her smile, he ran his fingers through his hair. “No problem. By the way, how did it make you feel?”

“How did what make me feel? Getting a free drink?”

“Me giving you a free drink.”

Wasn’t that the same thing? Michelle shrugged off another wave of bemusement and attempted an honest reply.

“I like getting free drinks,” she said, “but I feel weird getting them from you. Like, wouldn’t you think it was weird if I suddenly came up to you and gave you a bottle of orange juice or whatever?”

It would likely be less bizarre for her if Sylvie had been the one to do that instead.

Caledon went quiet for a while, looking as though he were deep in thought.

After several seconds had passed, he said, “Yeah, maybe.”

“Right? It might not be weird for you because you’re the one giving it, so let’s try switching roles. Imagine that I bought this for you.” She offered the can back to him and got into character. “Here you go, Caledon. It’s a treat!”

He took it. “Thanks…”

“So how was that? Did you feel anything?”

Caledon’s eyebrows drew together. “I feel weird.”

“See?” she exclaimed. “That’s exactly what I mean.”

“No,” he said. “I feel weird because I paid for this, but now you’re giving it to me.”

Grinning, Michelle shook her head. “It’s called acting, sir. You’re supposed to imagine it as if I bought it for you.”

“I can’t, because it didn’t happen.” He stared down at it. “So, do you want it?”

She thought that it would be really strange for her to take it back now, so she said, “Why don’t we share it?”

“Yeah, alright. I’ll open it now.”

Michelle stopped him at her locker and politely pulled her hand out of his. He took the opportunity to start sipping from the can.

“Why were you asking me how I felt?” she asked, dumping her stuff into her locker. “It sounded like you were gathering feedback or something.”

“Yeah, I was kind of doing it as an experiment. My friends’ girlfriends practically looked ecstatic when they did that for them. I wanted to see your reaction if I tried it.”

Picking out her notebooks, Michelle slid them into her bag. “I mean, if Haley did this for me, I’d be pleasantly surprised, but I don’t think I’d be over-the-moon delighted.”

“Me too, so there has to be something special about doing it specifically for my girlfriend,” he said.

“I can’t understand dating,” Michelle said, shaking her head.

“Same here.”

When she closed the locker door, he offered her the drink. Smiling, she grabbed it and took a long swig.

“Thanks.”

“The main reason we started going out is because we’re sick of being awkward third wheels, but I won’t deny that I’ve wanted to know what it’s like to have a girlfriend,” he said.

“So what’s it like?” she asked him. “Now that you have one.”

“Life goes on,” he said. “I feel no difference from when I was single.”

“Me too.” She returned the can to him. “My friends looked so happy when they announced they were officially in a relationship, though. Like, how come I didn’t feel like that?”

His brown eyes lit up at her question. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking too!”

Beyond sometimes wondering why people liked having or wanted to have a significant other so much, Michelle had never been curious about it before. She could appreciate when a guy was cute, but that was it. On the few occasions her friends had conversations about their ideal date, she couldn’t follow their train of thought on how supposedly romantic an idea or location was.

“What is romance, anyway?” she said.

“You’re asking the wrong person,” Caledon said, gulping down another large mouthful of iced tea. “I have no idea.”

Deep down, she was a little glad that Caledon was as clueless as she was. At least she wasn’t alone in this.

“You and me both.” She took the can back from him and drank from it.

“Do you have club activities today?” he asked.

“No. Why?”

“Want me to walk you home?”

“I don’t mind, I guess,” she said. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”

Once in a while, when she and Caledon had a closing shift together, they would walk back together since their houses were on the same street. They would part ways at Michelle’s house, and she would wave goodbye at him as he continued down the sidewalk to his own house.

“So,” he said, as they left the school gates, “have you never been curious about what it’d be like to be in a relationship?”

Michelle considered it. “The thought’s crossed my mind once or twice, sure. But more than that? Not really.”

She couldn’t see the appeal of spending time with a faceless boyfriend as compared to hanging out with her best friends.

“I’m curious,” he said. “I want to know why my friends look so happy when they’re with their girlfriends.”

Laughing, she said, “I wouldn’t mind knowing the answer to that myself.”

She reached over to grab his hand, inadvertently closing the distance between them. Their arms bumped against each other. She recollected her friends squealing over the first time they held hands with their boyfriends to her.

“What’s so thrilling about holding hands?” she asked.

He drank another mouthful of iced tea. “Is it supposed to be thrilling?”

She brought their clasped hands up to her eye level. Caledon’s hand almost enveloped hers.

“I think so. Isn’t it another couple thing?”

“Hey, I’ve been curious about this.” For the first time since he’d shown up outside her classroom, there was a sparkle in his warm brown eyes. “Let me try something.”

She watched him shift his hand around in her hold until he laced their fingers together. That was something Nathan had definitely never done. Caledon’s fingers fitted comfortably between hers.

“Huh, it actually feels pretty nice,” he said, looking down at their intertwined hands. “What do you think?”

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s comfortable.”

“I like it. Let’s hold hands like this from now on.”

“Okay,” she said. “That’s fine.”

She didn’t really care one way or another.