“I’m so tired of this!” Amelie cried when another big group of tourists left the shop, the bell still jangling over the door. “I want out of here!”
Willa half groaned, half laughed.
“Seriously. You know how much I love this place,” Amelie said, her face glistening with sweat, “but I want to eat an ice cream and swim all night long. I don’t want to explain the flavors to another person. I don’t want to ask anyone else where they’re from!”
Willa giggled full-on, now. “How on earth will you ever take over the fudge shop with that attitude?”
Amelie stuck out her tongue. “You’ll be right here with me. You know that.”
Something in the back of Willa’s mind tugged at her, as though telling her the future they’d planned for wasn’t waiting for them on the other side of this year. She didn’t know why she suspected that. She tried to dismiss it, but it was like a hunger she couldn’t quell.
Suddenly, the front door burst open and in walked their mother. She had a big backpack on her shoulders, and her face was blotchy. Before they could say anything, she turned around, flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED, and locked the door. It was still two hours before closing time. Willa wondered if their mother was here to save them, to tell them it was time for them to celebrate their youth. But no. Something else was going on.
“Girls, I need to talk to you,” their mother said, removing her backpack and setting it down.
Willa’s stomach sloshed with dread.
“Let’s go upstairs,” Amelie said, her eyes to the big glass window. Everyone on the dim street could see inside. Willa understood she didn’t want whatever this was on display either.
They went to the upstairs apartment, where a queen-sized bed and a kitchenette made it livable and quaint. Willa had even considered asking if she and Amelie could move into it next summer, just for a little space from their parents.
Their mother put her backpack on the bed and wrung her hands. “I don’t know how to tell you this, so I’m just going to say it,” she said.
Willa and Amelie stood on the landing, watching her. Willa wanted to take Amelie’s hand for support, but didn’t want her mother to think of her as a little girl. She was usually stronger than Amelie.
“I’m going to be staying here for a little while,” their mother said, raising her chin.
Amelie flinched. Willa understood at once but wanted to play dumb, just in case her innocence could convince her mother to do otherwise.
“I don’t understand,” Willa said. “Why?”
Their mother sat at the edge of the bed and clutched her elbows. “Your father and I need a little time apart.”
“You’re leaving Daddy?” Amelie asked, her voice cracking.
“No, honey. I’m not,” their mother said, sounding adamant. “I’m just going to sleep here at the apartment for a little while. Your dad and I will still see each other every day. We’re still going to work at the fudge shop. We’ll work through our differences.”
“Why can’t you work through them at home?” Willa asked. It didn’t please her to think of her mother here in the apartment byherself while she and Amelie were up at the house, tossing and turning, worrying about her.
Their mother looked down at the floor, as though that carried any of the answers she so needed. “Your dad and I need space to think. We’ve been through a lot over the years. It isn’t always easy to manage a business as a team and stay happily married. I don’t think we’ve been very kind to each other. I don’t like that and want to fix it. But we still love each other very much.” She swallowed. “Do you understand?”
Willa did not understand. She was pretty sure Amelie struggled with it as well. When they couldn’t find the right words, they made their excuses and headed out for the night, biking fast through the town streets before making their way to the teens’ favorite beach. Willa took her mother’s Schwinn, possibly because she wanted her mother to pay for what she was doing to their family and their father. But really, Willa had always coveted the bike. It was beautiful. It was her mother’s favorite thing.
As Willa and Amelie raced, they didn’t say anything. Willa could feel Amelie’s anger and fear as strongly as her own.
When they reached the beach, they found their friends: Bethany, John, Quinn, Peter, and Marius Isaacson, the boy Willa had been crushing on for the better part of the year. Willa and Amelie had just gotten cell phones earlier that summer, and Marius had texted her a few times, mostly about stupid things he’d seen on the internet. But Willa felt a leap in her chest every time it happened. She felt almost addicted to watching him as he sauntered down the beach, long and thin but with lithe muscles that he had developed from running, biking, swimming, and hunting with his father in the winter. His father owned the largest horse stables on the island, and they rented horses to nearly every business and every tourist.
Marius was soft-spoken and very good with animals, and sometimes, Willa let herself imagine that he’d be the father of her children one day. Perhaps he wouldn’t want to leave his job at the stables with his father. But she’d be at the fudge shop with Amelie and whoever Amelie ended up with. They’d have more than enough help.
Not long after Willa and Amelie reached the beach, Willa was surprised when Marius came over to sit by her. Amelie and the others were about ten feet away, laughing about a story from school last year. All Willa could focus on was the heat from Marius’s body. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him. A few minutes later, the others went into the lake to swim, leaving Marius and Willa alone on the sand. Willa thought she was going to faint.
But then, she surprised herself by saying, “Everything in the world is messed up.”
Marius turned to look at her as though for the first time. “Why do you say that?”
Willa flared her nostrils. “You know. People can’t be trusted to do what they’re supposed to do. People break their promises. People are…” She searched for logic. Her brain felt like it was on fire.
Marius continued to look at her, waiting for her to finish her thought.
