Many people had already gone, so there was nobody for him to play dodgeball with upstairs. His friend had joined the conversation. He was standing a few feet away, with the ball in his hands (and sometimes a little brother on his leg), kind of watching us, but kind of not.

Pessimistically, he just didn't want to talk, or he liked another girl there. Optimistically, he was just shy because he wanted to talk with us, but didn't see an opening, or didn't want to make a fool of himself, or was gathering the courage and then we left. Realistically, I have no clue.