How to Meet Boys (24 page)

I needed to talk to her instead of ignoring her. “I’ll find her right after work and see how she’s doing. Maybe if she knows I’m okay with you guys seeing each other, she’ll change her mind. I know how much she likes you,” I said. “This is probably all my fault and nothing to do with you.”

“Can you do it any sooner than after work?” he asked, sliding off the counter. “And don’t worry about Gus. He really likes you, I told you.”

“Yeah, but can you guarantee—”

“Nope. No guarantees,” Jackson said. The doorbell for the back door rang, which usually meant a truck delivery. Jackson left to go sign for it, and I sat down behind the counter. I pulled the gift basket from Gus out from underneath the counter and opened a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels.

I started eating absentmindedly while I thought about it. The trust thing had been my problem for a while now. In fact, I’d always kept the people I really trusted—like Ava and Mikayla—really close. It took me a long time to feel comfortable trusting anyone. So didn’t it make sense that it killed me when I found out I couldn’t?

I was angry with Mikayla because she’d proved me right: that no one could be trusted.

She could be trusted, though. In almost every situation we’d ever run into—until now. She had told me about Jackson, as soon as something had happened.

I’d overreacted. I needed to make things right—with a few people.

I begged Grandpa to let me out of work early so I could go find Gus and get the rest of my plan started. I drove to the kayak shop and parked around the side. I felt like I was spying as I quietly entered the busy shop.

I edged around the display units, looking for Gus. I could hear him laughing and, when I followed the noise, saw him hanging out with a few coworkers. He was working behind the rental counter, doing paperwork. He didn’t notice me, so I crouched down. I was stalling. Big-time. If I knew what I wanted to do, then why was it so hard to actually just do it?

I walked past the shelves and displays of accessories and hid in the racks of wetsuits for sale, waiting until I got my nerve up to go talk to him. I picked up a couple of canoeing guides and leafed through them while I listened to him joke around and even sing a little while he told a story, making his friends crack up.

There might be a side to him that I didn’t know yet. That weird singing side. And I’d have to look at that as intriguing, instead of worrying.

You can do that
, I told myself.

I walked up to the counter and put a canoeing guide on the counter in front of him. “You rent canoes, right?”

“Uh, actually, yes, we do,” he stuttered.

“Because I need to rent a canoe. For tomorrow. And I need a guide,” I said. “Preferably someone who’s, like, a veteran canoe-er.”

“Canoeist,” Gus said. “We’re called canoeists.”

“And I want someone who’s not going to correct everything I say. Plus, it’d be nice to have a catered lunch. Do you offer that?”

Gus glanced at his coworkers, who were staring at us like we were acting completely weird. “Uh, maybe we should step over here so we can go over all the options,” Gus said. He gestured for me to join him by the back door, then we ran outside, laughing.

“I can be that person,” Gus said.

“Good.” I leaned into him and kissed him firmly on the lips. It might not have been smooth or dramatic, but I definitely got my point across. I gently pushed him with my body and he pushed me back, until we were right up against the building.

“Wow. I’ve never made out at work before,” Gus said, when we finally separated.

“Me . . . neither?” I said as he curled my hair around my ear and ran his finger down my cheek.

“I should probably be getting back inside,” he said.

I nodded, feeling breathless. “Probably. Do you want to meet up later?” I asked.

“When later?” His hands were resting on my waist.

“I’m not sure. It might be really late. It might be tomorrow,” I said.

“I think tonight is a better idea,” he said.

“Okay. But first can you help me make a gourmet picnic?” I asked.

“That depends. Am I invited?”

“Not this time. But I promise we’ll spend lots of picnics together.”

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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My Club walkie-talkie beeped just
as I was putting away the badminton rackets.

“It’s Liam at the front gate. Someone here to see you. Needs verbal permission to come in as a guest.”

My heart pounded—half from fear and half from excitement. Jackson? But no, everyone here knew him—even Liam would let him in without a fuss. “Who is it?” I asked.

“Lucy Carpenter,” Liam said brusquely. “You know her?”

“Of—of course I know her,” I said. “You even know that, Liam.
You
know her. From the bonfire, at least.”

“Maybe you’re right, but that doesn’t settle anything. The question is if
you
approve of letting her in to see you,” he said.

I quickly gave Liam the okay to admit Lucy, surprised he didn’t want it written in blood, then rushed through getting everything stowed.
If she’s here to see me, that’s good. Unless she shows up with all my stuff in her car.
I hurried to visitor parking in front of the main club building. My pulse quickened as I saw Lucy getting out of her little red SUV.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi,” I said.

“Uh, do you have plans tonight?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, not at all—I’m done here as soon as I go check out.”

“Cool.” Lucy curled a lock of hair around her ear. “Do you think you could come with me to get Ava?”

“Of course. Is she okay? Where are we going?” I asked.

“She’s fine, and it’s a surprise. Kind of,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll be right back,” I told her, hoping it was the good kind of surprise and not the bad kind.

I hurried to sign out, turned in my walkie-talkie for the night, and grabbed my bag from my locker. I’d leave my bike locked to the rack and figure that part out later. If Lucy was in a forgiving mood, I wasn’t going to put up any roadblocks. What if something I did made her change her mind?

Our ride to the Blackbird was silent and awkward. I made occasional comments about the traffic or the weather. Lucy commented a bit in reply, but that was it. I felt like I was talking to a distant cousin instead of one of my best friends. “Does she know we’re coming?” I asked as Lucy pulled into a fifteen-minute parking spot in front of the café.

She nodded. “She should be out here any second.”

We sat listening to the radio, windows open. I drummed my fingers on the door, wondering when Lucy would tell me what this was all about. I wanted to think that she had come to get us in order to make things better, but I was almost afraid to get
too
hopeful.

A minute later, Ava came dashing out of the Blackbird Café, purse tucked under her arm. She looked furtive, glancing over her shoulder a few times as if she was running away. She spotted the car and hurried toward us. When she climbed into the backseat, she slammed the door behind her. “Take off!” she told Lucy. “Take off now.”

“Are you in trouble or something?” Lucy asked, checking the side mirror as she pulled onto the street, then glancing back at Ava.

“Yes,” Ava said. “I got someone to cover my shift, but she hasn’t shown up yet. We’re not allowed to leave before our replacement shows up.”

“So when’s she coming?” I asked, turning around to face her.

“In half an hour. And that’s not the only thing,” Ava said, scooting forward to be closer to us. “My mom called. She wants to visit me in Chicago. Can you believe it? She never goes anywhere, and all of a sudden she has to see Chicago? So what do I do?”

“What
can
you do?” I asked, thinking there weren’t too many options here. Either her mom ended up in Chicago, completely mystified when she couldn’t find Ava there, or else Ava told her where she really was.

“I could start driving to Chicago,” Ava said. “Like, tonight.”

“You could do that. Or you could just tell her that you gave up your internship and moved in with us,” said Lucy.

“I don’t think that would fly. I think if I tell her I’ve given up this really cool internship to work in a café, she’s going to be livid.” Ava sighed. “Come on, we could just go from here. All of us. Road trip. What do you say?” She pulled out a wad of dollar bills from her purse and waved it between us. “I’ve got gas and snacks money right here.”

“Where did you get all that?” I asked. “Did you rob the place before you left? You’re kind of acting a little wild.”

“Mikayla, look at who you’re talking about,” Lucy said, with a small smile at me. The first one I’d seen in days. “Born to be wild?”

“I didn’t rob anything!” Ava said. “I make this much every day. Anyway, it’s not that impressive. Mostly ones.” She thumbed through the stack of bills. “Ooh! A ten! Score.”

“Stop counting your money and just call your mom. She’ll understand.” Lucy pulled the car into a scenic overlook area. She parked the car and got out.

“Maybe. But I still don’t want to tell her,” Ava said as she climbed out of the backseat.

I followed her lead. “Just tell her. She’d want to know.”

Lucy took a picnic basket out of the back of the small SUV. We followed her over to a rocky outcropping, overlooking the harbor below. The view of the islands, the harbor, and the sailboats below was amazing.

“This place is just gorgeous,” I said, gazing down at a collection of lighthouses.

“I’ve probably never taken you guys here before, have I? This is one of my favorite spots in Bridgeport.” Lucy set the basket on a flat rock and we all found seats around it, perching on boulders. “See, this is the problem. It’s already July seventh. And
this
is the kind of stuff we should have been doing all summer. Instead, I got sucked into feeling bad about Jackson again, and then you started seeing him and I thought you’d done it on purpose, without thinking of me or my feelings, completely behind my back, which wasn’t really true, and then you showed up—” She turned to Ava. “Well, you got here the day things turned weird.”

“Hey. It wasn’t my fault things got weird,” Ava said, holding up her hands in self-defense. “There’s no connection.”

“I didn’t mean that!” Lucy laughed. “I meant that we didn’t have time to really get into the summer vibe before it all turned to high drama. And I hate high drama. That’s my mom, not me. But I guess that old saying about the apple not falling far from the tree . . . I overreacted.”

“Apple metaphors? Please,” Ava said. “You’ve got to get out of that store now and then.”

Lucy laughed. It was good to see her happy again—at least, I thought she was happy.

“I don’t know if you did
over
react,” I said. “What I did was a big deal. I just kind of froze. I felt like if I told you I’d met Jackson and thought he was, like, amazing, and we had this chemistry, you’d tell me not to go out with him. Because you still felt so weird around him. And why
would
I pick him, of all people? The answer is that I wouldn’t. I didn’t seek him out—I’d hung out with him a few times in groups before I even knew his name. I’d never felt like that about anyone before and I . . . I guess I made the wrong decisions. I tried to be up-front with you as soon as things really changed with Jackson, but I knew I should have talked to you before.” I felt myself getting really emotional. I didn’t want to cry, but I couldn’t help myself.

“I see that now,” Lucy said. “I just felt totally shocked and like you did the whole thing behind my back. I guess you were trying to be careful with my feelings, and I know you’ve been trying to apologize. I know it’s taking me a long time to get used to the idea. But I think I’m there. Which is a good thing, because Jackson really likes you. He was telling me today how you broke up with him and now he’s all mopey.”

“Really?” That made me smile, despite my tears. Not that I wanted him to feel badly, but it was nice to know he missed me as much as I was missing him. I was a basket case. We’d only been broken up for a day.

Lucy reached over and brushed a few of my tears from my cheek. “Don’t cry. I feel awful that this is my fault.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ava said. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just this freaky weird coincidence. But in a way, can’t it be a happy coincidence?”

“Of course,” Lucy agreed. “But the thing is, I need you guys to promise me something. From now on, let’s always be really honest with one another about our feelings. I know—I’m the worst offender when it comes to this. I usually don’t talk about my feelings. I usually try to hide them. But I’ve realized that doesn’t work. For anyone, least of all me.”

“If we’re being honest here . . . then I should finally tell you about Chicago.” She took a deep breath and stretched her arms above her head, leaning slightly from side to side, as if she was getting limbered up for ballet. “I guess I’ve been putting it off because it makes me seem like a complete idiot. I don’t want you guys to look at me like that. I mean, other people can, and I really don’t care. But you guys? No.”

“We know you’re not stupid,” I said. “You get carried away sometimes, that’s all.”

“Yeah, well, this story will make you think differently,” Ava said.

“We won’t. I promise you.” I smiled at her.

“What was so bad?” Lucy asked.

“Okay, so I show up to my internship. It’s not much of an internship, it turns out. I have to get coffee for people, and lunch, and make a bunch of phone calls—”

“That’s what internships are like, aren’t they?” Lucy said.

“I guess. I didn’t know that, though. So anyway, end of the week, turns out I didn’t make a big important phone call and there was no reservation for this big lunch. My boss was furious with me. So to make it up to him, I booked the same party for that night—which was a major accomplishment. Yeah, and what does he do to thank me? He tries to hook up with me. Disgusting. So I quit. Problem was, I already spent all the money my mom gave me. I hadn’t even paid my rent yet, so when I told my roommate about losing my job, she gave me, like, a day to come up with the money and then told me to move out. Which was okay, because she was really uptight.”