I turn to tell her to keep it down, but in that moment he looks up. Our eyes lock, and neither of us moves, not even a facial muscle. But then he smiles and cocks his head, motioning to an empty seat next to him.
“Where are you going?” Charlie hisses as I make a move to head toward him. “We’re doing front row this year, remember?”
“I’m gonna go sit with Rob.”
Charlie looks hurt, but I know she isn’t really. She just has this theory that we look “visually powerful” when we’re seated together. She came up with that last year. I remember because afterward Olivia said, “That’s sadly true. Not to be shallow, but it’s the theory of collective hotness. One pretty girl alone is okay-looking, but, like, five pretty girls together, even if one of them is not that pretty, look way hotter.”
I swear she looked right at me when she said “one of them.”
“I’ll sit with you tomorrow,” I tell Charlie. “Don’t worry.”
Charlie makes a fuss of sighing, but she winks at me as I walk away.
Charlie and Olivia file into the front, and I hopscotch over book bags and backpacks. I almost trip on Megan Crayden’s bag strap, but I right myself just in time.
Then, finally, I reach Rob. Jake gives me a nod and blows a kiss forward. I see Charlie catch it two rows up. 7:42—things with Charlie and Jake remain on.
“Hey,” Rob says. He rights his chair, then takes my bag off my shoulder and puts it on the ground. Then he looks at me, and for a second I think he’s going to reach over and take my face in his hands again, he’s looking at me that hard. But instead, he just smiles and leans in for a hug. “I missed you, Rosie.”
As soon as we touch, I realize how much I’ve missed him. Hesmells like green apples and soap, the best combination, and his arms are strong and tight around me.I could stay this way forever, I think just as he releases me.
I sit down next to him, and Jake turns back around. “Yo, dude,” he says to me. “How was your summer?”
“I saw you this weekend.”
“Awesome, right?” He snaps his fingers in front of Rob’s face. “We gotta hit up the waves this weekend. They’re supposed to be ridiculously big.”
“Sure,” Rob says, not taking his eyes off me.
He smiles with just the edges of his mouth, like we’re the only two people in on some secret.Arewe the only two people in on a secret? I guess if it was that he likes me, Charlie would be in on it too, so no. Plus, he doesn’t like me. We’re friends. Friends. I run the word through my head like it’s on a conveyor belt. Justfriends.
Everyone is wrapped up in their own first-day rituals. People are talking and hugging and squealing. Advisers are passing out schedules to kids who forgot the ones that were mailed out, and hesitant freshmen sit in the bleachers, looking white-faced and terrified.
“I can’t believe we’re seniors,” I say to Rob. It sounds so lame—isn’t that what everyone says on the first day of senior year?—but it’s true.
“I feel like it was just us there,” he says, nodding in the direction of the freshmen. Three girls in the front row are clutching their Chromebooks to their chests like life preservers. “Then look what happened.” He laughs and points to Charlie and Olivia. Charlie is talking animatedly to no one in particular, and Olivia keeps pursing and releasing her lips, like she’s practicing kissing, midair. Ben is next to them, and he has one arm over the back of Olivia’s chair, but he’s turned away from her, talking to Patrick DeWitt, who Olivia went to freshman banquet with. All of the chairs in front of us feel like tiny markers on a spiderweb, and I’m amazed at how connected we all are, how point A leads to point B and then all the way to Z, each of us spinning out into infinity but still tied together through birthday parties and drunken dances. Kisses and classes. For a very brief second it feels like we’re all a part of something.
I shake my head, and Rob puts a hand on my shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” I say. “Just thinking.”
“How are they, anyway?” Rob gestures with his head toward Charlie and Olivia.
“You really want to know?”
He gives me that cute corner smile again. “It’s a toss-up.”
I take a deep breath. “Well, Charlie and Jake are back on.Today.” Rob nods sternly like he’s taking this very seriously. “Olivia and Ben have started hooking up.”
“And what about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Any summer romances?” My stomach drops. I was right. He is asking so he can tell me all about his hot lifeguard. She’s probably Olivia’s look-alike from LA or New York or somewhere where being pretty is no big deal.
I shrug. “I was busy.”
“Is that a no?”
