How to Meet Boys (20 page)

One boy would surprise me . . . and one would remain a mystery.

I wasn’t good at riddles. Was this one? Or was it just nonsense?

While I waited, I wandered around, looking at the so-called games of skill. Half a dozen carnival workers called to me, trying to get me to take a chance on their games. I was just about to hand over a five-dollar bill to knock down some milk bottles and win something goofy and embarrassing for Ava—I had a pretty good arm, and now that I’d been tossing apples around every day, my aim was getting even better—when Gus walked up to me, trailed by a group of friends.

“Hey! We’re going to do the bungee jump. You want to come with?” he asked.

“They don’t have a bungee jump, do they?” I asked.

“Well, if they do, we’re finding it. Come on,” Gus urged.

I shook my head. “No, thanks. Bungee jump? No. I can’t imagine anything worse.”

“Okay. How about the Spin and Drop?” Gus asked.

“Catch you later, Gus!” his friends called, and walked off toward the tall ride that looked suspiciously like the vertical plunge—only not nearly as tall, or sturdy.

“Or how about the tilt-a-whirl? Dizzy Dinos?” Gus kept naming rides as we wandered around the carnival that had taken over the giant parking lots by the high school. I heard a loud shriek that sounded very familiar and looked up—Mikayla and Jackson were sitting next to each other, getting tossed up and down, all while speeding forward in a circle.

“The Thresher!” Gus said. “I always liked that one.”

“I hate rides,” I said. “Pretty much.” Especially that one. Especially right that minute.

“Oh.” Gus looked a bit stunned. “Really? Well, I don’t care. Stupid rickety rides would probably get stuck anyway.”

“Great—
that’s
reassuring.”

“Okay then, plan B.” Gus and I paused beside one of the food concessions, a place called Fresh-Fried. “Let’s get cheese curds and then we can try to win some giant stuffed animal you’ll hate immediately.”

“Cheese curds? Chef Michael would not approve.”

“Maybe not. He’d probably call it ‘typical Midwestern bland,’” Gus said, making air quotes. “But that’s a good thing. Unless you want mini donuts instead?”

“If it’s fried, I’m up for it.”

“Then let’s split a funnel cake.
No
whipped cream. I have bad luck with that.” He turned to me and smiled, and we were having a kind of weird, intense eye contact when my phone chimed. I tried to ignore it and focus on Gus, but it chimed again.

“Sorry, I—I have to get that.”

I glanced down at the screen.
Where are you?
Ava wrote.
My fortune didn’t say you would desert me!

“Oh, no,” I said, looking at Gus.
On my way
, I texted.
Where are you right now?
“I forgot Ava,” I said.

“Forgot her?” Gus asked.

“I was supposed to be waiting for her outside the tent when I saw you. She completely panicked.” I was making it sound like a matter of life and death—which it wasn’t—but I needed an out right then. “I’ll have to catch up with you later.”

“Ava—panicked? Really? But—”

I know
, I wanted to say.
It’s completely not believable that she’d panic.
Gus and I were kind of having a moment, and I was blowing it. I should probably have told Ava that I needed to hang out with Gus for a while—she wouldn’t mind at all—and just see where this might go. But instead, I headed off in search of Ava—and safety.

Why couldn’t I stick around and see what happened with Gus? Why couldn’t I just take a chance, for once in my life?

Because. Look what happened the last time you did that.
Besides, slightly psychic Jolene had told me that something bad would happen with a boy, something that I would not want to know.

I had a feeling I
did
know. Right now, Gus and I got along; if I kissed him, I might ruin all that, which in turn might ruin my summer in Bridgeport.
But wait a second
, I thought. It wasn’t going all that great, anyway.

I’d watch the fireworks with Ava, Claire, and other friends, like I’d promised. I’d stick to safety in numbers—for now, anyway.

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I leaned back against Jackson and
looked up at the dark night sky. Red stars drifted down as bright white circles fell and zooming blue bursts lit up the sky. It was ten fifteen and the carnival was winding down for the night with a spectacular fireworks show.

Jackson had one arm around my waist and the other on my leg. His chin was resting on my head. If anyone had told me this was how I’d spend the Fourth of July this summer, I’d never have believed them.

“Heads up,” Jackson said into my ear, suddenly moving around a bit. I scooted forward and he pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. He missed the call, but covered one ear with his hand while he listened to the message. He started cursing while he listened.

“I’ve got to go,” he told me, getting to his feet.

“What’s going on?” I asked, standing beside him.

“That was the police. My brother—Franklin—he’s been in an accident. He’s on his way to the hospital. I have to go.” Jackson started heading to the parking lot, walking, and then jogging.

“Is he okay?” I asked, hurrying to catch up to him.

“Sounds like he is, but I need to get there and see for myself.”

“Let me come with you. I’ll drive,” I said.

“No, I can—”

“No, you’re too upset, plus you probably need to make some calls.” I held out my hands for the keys to his Jetta.

I drove, getting directions from Jackson, who made a quick call to his grandfather, letting him know we were on the way and getting more details now that it was quiet enough to hear. “You won’t believe this,” he said to me, clicking off his phone. “He tried to get on the last ferry to the island for some reason. Problem was, it had already left the dock.”

“What are you saying?” I said. “He drove a car into the lake?”

“Apparently, yeah. My grandpa’s car,” Jackson said. “A big, giant, heavy sedan.”

“But he’s . . . He got out of the car okay? Wow. That’s lucky,” I said.

“He makes dumb decisions but he’s not stupid,” Jackson said. “Or at least, he was lucky. He had the windows open, so . . . I guess he climbed out. Then he swam to shore.”

“Still. That’s so scary. I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m glad he could swim to safety—he must not be too badly hurt. But why would he do that?”

“Beats me. When I called to check my messages there was one from him from earlier tonight—I guess I didn’t hear my phone for a while. He’d called to tell me that he was ‘jumping the ferry’—he has friends who live out there. I guess they were having a party.” Jackson shook his head. “Anything for a party.”

I pulled into the hospital parking lot and we took a spot in visitor parking, close to the building. As we hurried to the front door, I handed Jackson his keys—I had a feeling he’d be staying longer than I would.

His grandparents were inside, in the emergency room waiting area. Jackson went up to them to check in, and I followed, trailing slightly behind. “He’s going to be fine, but they want to check him out. If anything, he needs to sober up,” Jackson’s grandfather was saying.

I wanted to meet all of them, but at the same time, I didn’t want to intrude on the family moment. “Call me later if you need anything,” I said to Jackson, who was about to head into Franklin’s room, then I made myself scarce.

I realized I was going to need a ride home, so I called Ava, but her phone went straight to voice mail. So I called Lucy and quickly explained the situation. She was more concerned about Franklin than I thought she would be. Then I realized: growing up together, she and Jackson had known each other’s families. Of course.

“Everything’s okay, but I need a favor. Can you come down here and pick me up?” I asked.

“Sure, of course,” Lucy said. “Be there in ten minutes.”

I sat on the curb and waited for her. And waited. And waited. I glanced at my watch. It had been at least half an hour by the time her red SUV pulled into the parking lot. She drove to the ER entrance and parked at the curb, lights flashing.

“Took you long enough,” I said.

“You woke me up. I had to get dressed,” she said.

I closed the door and clicked my seatbelt. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. I’m just super worried right now.”

“You think I’m not? I can’t imagine how Jackson’s family is feeling right now,” Lucy said. “Maybe I should go inside and see how everything is.”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do. They said he’s fine.”

“Maybe I wanted to see that for myself,” she said quietly, as she revved the engine and peeled out of the parking lot.

“Okay, so you care about Jackson now, instead of hating him. I get it. But so do I,” I said gently.

Lucy made a few turns and drove through town without saying another word. I didn’t know what I could say either.

We headed up the hill toward our house. “You just—how could you hook up with Jackson and then tell me
afterward
?” Lucy suddenly blurted out.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I know that wasn’t the best way to go about it.”

“Do you know how much that hurt?”

“But you weren’t dating him. It’s not like I betrayed you,” I said.

“Yes, you did. Not because of anything you did with Jackson. That’s irrelevant. But because you lied to me,” she said. “You acted like you didn’t even know him. You listened to me talk about how weird things were between us and how embarrassed I still felt sometimes. And then I saw you guys together, on the beach that night.”

“What? When?”

“The night of the bonfire. I was looking for firewood and first I saw him with someone, and then imagine my surprise—no, shock—when I saw it was you. Do you have any idea how it felt to find out that way? It was like ten minutes after you told me you knew him. Ten minutes after you purposefully didn’t mention he was the guy you liked.”

I wanted to say that it hadn’t been ten minutes, that it had been hours later, but I was horrified she’d found out about us that way. I’d had no idea she’d known anything before I told her that morning. She must have hated me so much. She must have wanted to interrupt me. “Why didn’t you tell me that night?” I asked. “Why didn’t you say anything the next morning when we talked?”

“I wanted to see how long it would take you, to see if you were planning on telling me. To let it go that far—that was—”

“But you have to listen to my side—everything happened so fast, and I was trying not to hurt you,” I said. “I didn’t want to make things harder for you than they were—”

“Do you realize how patronizing that sounds? No. You were trying to do something behind my back and get away with it, and make it easy on yourself—not me. You wanted Jackson and you didn’t care how that affected me,” Lucy said. “I invited you here this summer because you’re my best friend. But would one best friend really do that to another? Think about it, Mikayla. If I did that to you, how would you feel?”

“I made a mistake,” I said, starting to cry. “You’ve never done that? What do you want me to do? I don’t want our summer to be like this. This wasn’t the plan.”

“You kind of ruined the plan,” Lucy said.

“The plan
changed
,” I responded. “What’s so great about plans, anyway? Isn’t it better when things just
happen
?”

“For all your talk about wanting to make sure I was okay with you seeing Jackson, you’ve made it pretty clear that you’d rather jeopardize our friendship than what you have with him. That you would deliberately withhold the truth if you thought it meant you’d get to date him. That’s why I’m upset.”

We pulled into the driveway. Lucy got out and slammed the car door. She started to walk toward the house, then she turned back. “I’ll get some stuff and stay at my grandparents’ tonight. I just don’t know if I can be around you right now.”

She strode into the house, leaving me standing there beside her car.

I stood in the driveway, brushing tears away. When I finally composed myself enough to enter the house, Lucy was barging out, overnight bag in hand.

“What’s going on?” Ava asked from the doorway of the room we shared. She slipped off her headphones and walked out to meet me in the living room. “What is happening tonight?”

I sat down and told her about the accident, and Jackson, and how Lucy and I had argued in the car.

“Okay. This is getting ridiculous.” Ava set down her water bottle on the coffee table. “Now you’re here, Lucy’s staying there . . . I’m stuck in the middle.”

“Sorry,” I said, clutching a pillow. “I wish you didn’t have to be.”

Ava ran her hands through her hair. “She’s being ridiculous. Then again, so are you. I mean, you can’t let a guy get in the way of your friendships. Ever. We covered this in Boyfriends 101.”

“You keep referring to this imaginary course. I think I should have signed up for it.” I laughed, despite how miserable I felt. “
He’s
not in the way. She is. Or I am, or both. She’s mad because I lied to her. And because our whole summer isn’t going exactly according to plan.”

“Plans are overrated,” said Ava. “I mean, look how mine turned out. Supposed to be in Chicago having outrageous parties and watching the fireworks on Navy Pier tonight. Instead, I got my fortune told by the Viking Psychic and rather than finding love, like she promised, I’m watching a movie on my phone.”

“I thought things might get a little better between me and Lucy as time went on, but they’re actually getting worse,” I admitted. “I don’t know what to do to fix things. And I always fix things. That’s my job.”

“There’s not much you can do, is there?” Ava asked.

Maybe there is
, I thought. Maybe it was the only way to save this friendship.

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