“Not even second-grade level stuff?” I teased.
“Somehow, I feel like that would be even worse,” she said. “It’s been so long since I’ve done those sorts of worksheets, I’d probably fail at them, and then the parents would get angry with me.”
I laughed. “I would love to see you attempt a kid’s math homework. Just to see, you know?”
“Stop,” she said, but I could hear the amusement in her tone. “Anyway, I’m going to stop by your house to drop off my rollerblades so I don’t have to carry them all the way home, okay?”
“Yeah, of course.” She was walking home from getting the wheels on her rollerblades fixed, and since I lived closer to the shop, it only made sense for her to leave them here.
After she hung up the phone, I went back to reading the email and continued pacing, now doing so because of anger instead of boredom. If the email was anything to go by, Courtney was on even more of a power trip this year than she had been last year. Maybe getting the job a second time had really gone to her head—it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest. For goodness’ sake, there was an entire section dedicated to how we had to teach the Red Cross swimming levels and how we couldn’t stray from them at all. There were also another two paragraphs on how much of our lessons could be dedicated to fun games. I was going to have to find a different way of dealing with her this year, one that was less reliant on just avoiding her—partly because there was a paragraph on not going into the locker room at any point during our shifts, even though our contracts said that if we had a break and no other work on the pool deck to do, we could go wherever we wanted.
I was just finishing reading the email when the doorbell rang. Violet had made good time if she was already at my house. I threw my phone on the bed and started to go to open the door for her, but hesitated as I left my room and became very aware of the fact that I was still only in a towel. Should I throw on some clothes for the time being?
I hesitated in indecision, shifting my weight from one foot to the other as I debated. But my decision was basically made for me when the doorbell rang a second time. Getting dressed, even quickly, would take a couple of minutes and leave her standingoutside in the summer heat. Anyway, what did I care? It was just Violet. I ran downstairs, carefully holding the side of my towel closed just in case, and threw the door open. But the person on the other side of the door was most definitely not Violet Evers.
“Looking good, Mads!”
five
Oh.My. Gosh.
“Charlie!” I stumbled back a couple of steps. I just opened the door to my brother’s best friend—the boy I’d had a crush on for ages—in a towel. Not just a towel, but with wet hair and a face mask on too. Holy crap, he would never let me live this down.
My stomach twisted in embarrassment while also erupting in butterflies because my emotions could never be normal or stable in any way. “You were supposed to be Violet!”
“Violet?” He looked around like he thought someone might appear out of nowhere to surprise him. “Why would I be Violet?”
“Because I was expecting Violet, you idiot!” I held the towel tighter to me. I felt a little bad about calling him an idiot—god only knows if someone greeted me like this, I would also be very confused—but I didn’t stop to apologize. “If I knew it was you at the door, then I would have…”
“Worn clothes?” he suggested. I could barely hold back the whimper of embarrassment that was residing in the back of my throat. Why, oh why, did Matthew never tell me when he was having people over? “Don’t worry about it, Mads. I’ve seen you in a bathing suit hundreds of times, and this is basically the same thing.”
Was a ratty towel that barely covered my torso the same as a bathing suit? Well, I guess he wasn’t totally wrong on that front since it did cover more than a bikini, but that didn’t make this situation any less mortifying. But I refused to let embarrassment show in front of anybody—least of all in front of cute boys.
“I’d like to think I look better in a bikini,” I said as smoothly as I could. “Anyway, like I said, Violet’s coming over, so I need to get dressed.”
“Oh, so I’m the only one who gets the free show?” He smiled cheekily. “Lucky me.”
“Don’t make me punch you.”
“If you can manage it without dropping the towel, I’ll give you ten bucks.”
I scoffed and shook my head. “Matthew’s in the backyard. Just to warn you, he’s only in a bathing suit, so save some of your remarks for him.”
I spun on my heel and walked upstairs. I was tempted to run as fast as possible, but the stairs were wood without any sort of carpeting, which meant they were very slippery and the last thing I wanted to do was face-plant in front of Charlie Owen of all people.
“It was nice seeing you again, Madison!” Charlie called after me. “Hope we can do this again soon.”
Kill. Me. Now.
six
Mattand I had to share a car today, so he was supposed to drop me off on his way to work. It was a great plan, except we left late (his fault, of course) and he claimed Bayshore was too far out of his way, so he dropped me off ten minutes away and left me to walk the rest of the way.
Classic brother move.
So, of course, I called Violet because she and I hardly ever stopped being on the phone during the summer.
“So are you excited to see Courtney?” Violet asked. I just groaned in response. I’d called her to take my mind off where I was walking to, not to think about it even more.
