Charlie’s eyes go wide, and she holds up her hand, palm flat, like,Stop. “I lied. I have no interest in hearing about this.” Olivia smirks and elbows her, but Charlie doesn’t crack. “I’m still totally offended you lied to me, though.”
Olivia makes a puppy-dog face, which means she isn’t too concerned. I’m not either. In fact, I’m remembering something from sophomore-year prom. How Olivia went with Taylor and they got into this big fight when we were there because he wanted to smoke and she was pissed about it, and Charlie said—I remember this specifically—“My brother would never show up high.”
“I have a date with Rob tonight,” I say. Both of their heads spin to look at me. At once, like in one of those horror movies. “Umm, yeah,” I say. “We’re sorta going out.”
“Like,romantically?” Olivia asks.
“Sure, maybe. I don’t know.” And then it all comes tumbling out. This spring and our good-bye and his letters.
“I told you,” Charlie says. “He really missed you.” And then, our knees this morning. Olivia totally loses it.
“So he legitimately said gooutto dinner?”
“Yes,” I say. “He was very specific about that part.”
“What time?”
“Oh. I guess he’ll just come over?”
“He can’t just show up,” Charlie says. “If it’s a date, he should pick you up. In a car. Not just crawl through the grass and come knocking on your window.” She looks at me and raises her eyebrow, tapping her finger once on her nose. It’s this thing we do when we’re both thinking the same thing. Right now I know she’s thinking about the time in the sixth grade when Rob hacked a hole through the wire fence separating our houses so we wouldn’t have to go all the way up and down each other’s driveways. It was Halloween, and he came dressed in this psycho mask. He showed up at the side of the house, and Charlie and I screamed our heads off. He legitimately looked dead.
Our food comes, and Olivia starts setting chips onto hernapkin. She always does this. Like she’s afraid we’re going to eat them all without her or something. In her defense, she does eat really slowly.
“Are we going to Malibu this weekend?” I ask, trying to change the subject. I’m not sure how to keep talking about this. It’s not like discussing a date with a normal boy. It’s Rob. Luckily, Charlie and Olivia are easily distracted today. I suspect they’re both still thinking a little bit about Ben.
I wipe my fingertips on the corner of a napkin. The cooks make their chips in-house, and they are always deliciously greasy.
“Yes!” Olivia says. “Let’s do it.”
Olivia has a beach house in Malibu that her parents never use. It’s about forty-five minutes away, but we always have parties there. Olivia’s been bribing her housekeeper since we were fifteen and used to drive down illegally with just permits. There was a very complicated round-robin phone tree in place then to ensure our parents never found out we had left San Bellaro.
“We can’t this weekend,” Charlie says, slipping aqueso-ed chip into her mouth.
“Why?” Olivia asks.
“Hello? Fall Back? Honestly, was anyone paying attention in there?” She puffs out her lip and looks up at the ceiling. She even closes her eyes briefly, for effect.
“What about the weekend after?” Olivia asks, ignoring her.
“Let’s see.”
“You have other plans?” I poke her, and she shrugs.
“Maybe.” Charlie really likes being the one to suggest things. Last year we had a New Year’s Eve party at Olivia’s, and Charlie almost didn’t come because she hadn’t been consulted about it beforehand. Even though she was, technically, visiting relatives in Oregon until the thirtieth. But of course she’ll come around. Charlie loves Malibu.
“Why don’t we say yes and we’ll see how it goes. The guys will come, won’t they?” Olivia turns to me.
“I guess.” I try to make it sound as casual as I possibly can. The truth is, the prospect of an entire weekend in Malibu with Rob has sent my spine tingling.
“Sure,” Charlie says, “if Jake decides to behave for another week.” She takes out her phone, looks at it, and then tosses it away in a huff.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “You seem super on edge.”
“I’m fine.” She sighs. “Just tired.”
“It’s only the first day,” I say. “Things will even out.”
“That is exactly what Ben said to me today,” Olivia says. “I was superupset because we didn’t get calc together, and…”
