Not really

"Uh, hi Tanya."

Tanya stood, hands on her hips, looking from Jordan to Matt and then back to Jordan. To Matt, she looked sort of like his idea of an avenging angel... beautiful, yes. But scary as shit... definitely. "Well?"

"I... I've been thinking about our relationships," Jordan said.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"Uh, no. I... look, Tanya, how do you think things are going with, well, us?"

"Oh, no. Don't put this on me. You have something to tell me, spit it out and let's take out the knives and dissect this thing."

Jordan stood and walked over to Tanya. Matt was pretty sure nobody missed Tanya's involuntary shiver as he put his arms around her.

"You know I think you're special," he said.

"Yeah."

"It's just... I'm real busy with the team and everything."

"What are you trying to say, Jordan. You're scaring me."

"I... I don't want to date you any more."

"Oh. Who's my replacement?"

"It's not like that, Tanya. You're the prettiest girl at Peninsula. Of course I wouldn't break up with you to go with another girl."

Come on, Matt mentally urged Jordan. Spit out the truth. In this case, at least, speaking the truth out loud really would set Jordan free... at least from some of his own ghosts.

"I... I'll still go to the fall formal with you if you need a date."

That raised frightening possibilities. It was one thing to go to a regular dance and dance with a lot of girls. But when it came to a couples dance, he'd have to pick a date... and there were going to be a lot of girls who weren't happy they weren't picked. Maybe Jordan keeping Tanya as a fake girlfriend to help him stay in the closet would be a bit of a blessing.

"Don't worry about me, Jordan. I'll be fine."

"Oh. Okay then. In that case I guess I'll be heading off. See you, Tanya. Later, Matt."

"I thought you were going to stay and watch the streaming."

"I'll catch it later. Bye."

"What," Tanya said as Jordan fled down the stairs, "was that about."

Matt felt like exploding with the news but, even though he trusted Tanya, this was Jordan's secret and not one Matt was free to share. "I guess that was about you don't have to worry about Jordan killing us any more."

She narrowed her eyes. "There's something going on here."

"I can't tell you, Tanya. I tried to get Jordan to be upfront but apparently he's not ready for that."

"Well," she kissed him on the lips, "at least he's not going to kill us. That's something."