“What?” Olivia asks. She sounds totally appalled.
“SAC? Hello?” Charlie says. She pulls into a spot and kills the engine, but not one of us moves. Charlie unclips her seat belt and turns way around. “All I’m saying is, we have to stick together.Because it’s a total free-for-all out there, and men are completely crazy.”
“Did you read this in the book?” Olivia asks. She looks doubtful.
Charlie bought us allWhy Men Love Bitchesfor Christmas last year. She says it’s how she got Jake, although (1) I’m not sure that’s such an achievement, and (2) frankly, if she’s following the advice, it isn’t really working. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry that we’ve come to the point of taking dubious advice from crap relationship books, and we’re not even eighteen.
“No,” Charlie snaps, “I’m serious. We’re friends, right?”
Olivia shrugs.
“I think it’s a great plan,” I say. I’m trying to end the conversation because I’ve just spotted Rob. He’s standing in upper with Ben. Olivia’s car is parked next to them with surfboards stacked on top, and Ben is pulling a T-shirt over his head. It looks like he joined Rob and Jake surfing. There’s something about the familiar way they’re standing that makes me feel inexplicably safe. Like we all really belong together.
I am about to suggest we talk about this later, when Olivia bolts from the car and goes and attacks Ben. He scoops her up into a gigantic hug, lifting her off the pavement. They look like that poster of the couple kissing in Paris. I used to have it on my wall, but Charlie said it was going to scare boys away and I had totake it down. Not that any boy besides Rob is ever in my room. And he saw it, like, a million times and never seemed to mind.
“Appalling,” Charlie says as we walk toward them. She puts her arm around my shoulder. “Go say hi. Rob won’t bite. Unless you’re lucky.” She wiggles her hips like she has a Hula-Hoop around them, and I roll my eyes.
“Are you serious with that?”
“Dead.” She blows me a kiss. “See you in Spanish.”
“Hey, Kessler,” Rob says. He gives Charlie a lopsided smile as he slides one arm around my waist.
I can’t believe he’s touching me like this. In public.
“?‘Hey’ yourself. I’m getting out of here before my brother sucks her face off.” Charlie looks at Rob’s hand on my waist and then at me. I’m silently saying a thank-you that she’s wearing her sunglasses, because Charlie’s facial expressions tend to give away everything she’s thinking.
“Smart woman.” Rob pulls me a little closer as Charlie disappears down toward Cooper House.
“Hey,” he says. His face is inches from mine, and images from last night come back to me like firecrackers. His warm sweatshirt and my head on his chest. His hands on my face. His lips on mine.
He looks so cute today in his khaki shorts and blue T-shirt. His hair is still a little wet from surfing, and there are a few waterdroplets on the back of his shirt. “How did you sleep?” he asks.
I move a little closer to him and mutter, “Good. You?”
“Yeah, same.” He takes his hand and cups my elbow, bringing our torsos together. His face is right above mine and he’s moving it down, lower, so that our lips are just a whisper away. I close my eyes, ready for him to kiss me, but just then Olivia sashays over.
Rob immediately drops his hand from my waist, and I must look disappointed, because Olivia gets sheepish. “Sorry to interrupt,” she says, “but Ben needs you.”
“Your boyfriend’s impossible,” Rob says, but he’s smiling. That’s one of the things I love about him. Nothing really annoys him for too long.
“He is not!” Olivia squeals, but I can tell she’s pleased. She’s never called someone her boyfriend before, and she doesn’t correct Rob now.
“You guys are adorable,” she says when he’s gone. “Seriously, perfect.”
I don’t say anything, but secretly I’m pleased too. Things feel right. Like we’re all finally where we should be. Being with Rob is the one thing that’s been missing, the thing that makes my life just, I don’t know,make sense.
“Who’s that?” Olivia asks.
“Who?”
“That.”She’s pointing to a white Mercedes SUV that has justpulled in next to Charlie’s car. Too close. Everyone knows Charlie totally freaks if someone comes within four feet of Big Red. And that Mercedes definitely doesn’t belong to any senior at this school. Olivia has the nicest car on campus.
“Probably a parent.” I shrug, but Olivia shakes her head. There is a girl climbing out.
The first thing I notice is that she has blond hair. The kind of blond Charlie calls “prescription strength,” meaning you need serious chemical help to achieve it. The second is that both her bag and her sunglasses seem way larger than she is.
Olivia and I look at each other. Olivia steps closer to me. “LA transplant,” she says. “Definitely.” She crosses her arms, and her strap slides down to her elbow so that herMIAMIbook bag is dangling dangerously close to the ground. She doesn’t seem happy.
