I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the main thing—theperson—I wanted wasn’t on that list. Not to mention that my brother would kill me for even thinking about it.
“And my list will make sure that you do,” Violet said as we pulled up to a red light. “Hey, is that Courtney?”
Just the sound of my supervisor’s name sent a chill down my spine and made me want to hide in the backseat of my car. My motto of the summer last year had been that the only time Courtney liked me was when she couldn’t see me. Anytime I had a break, I would get out of the pool before she could even realize what was going on, and would beeline for the changing room orone of the other designated areas that I knew she never ventured into.
“Where?” I asked.
“Over there, by the cable box,” Violet said. My eyes scoured the intersection, looking for her classic dirty blonde high ponytail. “Oh, she’s kissing that boy now. I can’t see her face.”
I finally saw what Violet was talking about and it took two seconds flat for me to recognize that it was definitely Courtney. I may not have seen her often outside of school or work, but even in her regular clothes, I would recognize her anywhere. Just like I would recognize the boy she was with.
A lump formed in my throat as I watched Charlie Owen pull away from Courtney and brush his thumb across the side of her face. I shouldn’t have been surprised; like me, he was always dating a new person every other week, and the two of them ran in similar circles. Heck, Courtney had spent half of our staff meetings last year flirting with all the lifeguards, Charlie very much included. It was naive of me to assume that he would never flirt back.
“I think they put more espresso in this drink than I wanted,” Violet said, completely oblivious to the mental anguish she had caused me by pointing out Courtney. “I wonder if…” I was pretty sure she was still talking, but I didn’t catch it as I watched Charlie and Courtney start to kiss again. Her back was pressed against the cable box now, so she was mostly hidden from view, but there was no missing him. No mistaking the way his hand slipped into her back pocket or how he would pull away occasionally to whisper something in her ear.
Gosh, would this red light ever turn green? It was like the universe wanted me to see this and remind me just how off-limits Charlie was to me.
I probably stared at them for too long, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away. I wondered what he said to her when they werehugging like that. Did he tell her he loved her? That he wanted to spend every moment of the day with her like I did with him?
Did he tell her she was the best kiss of his life… or was that reserved only for me?
three
“You know,this is the last time we’re going to be here as students.” Violet dropped another binder onto the floor. I cringed as the sound echoed through the empty hallway and pushed my sunglasses further up on my nose. My headache had only worsened since this morning, and the fluorescent lights of the school were killer.
“Don’t say that, Vi,” I said. I hoped she thought I was saying it to stop her from going on a downward spiral about how this was the end of an era, but the truth was I didn’t want to recognize that this was the end of being students here. As a whole, I wasn’t a very emotional person, but this felt big, and the more that everyone talked about how this was the end, the more that I felt like I might actually show some emotion in front of everyone else, which would ruin the persona I tried to have on at all times—I wanted the lasting impression everyone at school had of me to be someone cool. “Besides, it’s not like we’re leaving forever. We’re both going to be working here all summer.”
I was working as a swim instructor again with the lessons running out of Bayshore’s pool, and Violet had just gotten a new job as a tutor. The major benefit of it was that it meant we were both working at Bayshore and could go to work together. Whileneither of us had cars, Jaxon did and he had already said he was all right with me catching a ride with the two of them every morning, which would save me a lot of time.
Violet leaned dramatically against her open locker door and stared at me wide-eyed. “Come on, Mads,” she said. “Aren’t you even a little sad this is all over?”
I shrugged. “I guess. But think of the upsides: no more of our worst teachers. Or 8 a.m. starts. Or listening to O Canada every single morning because that’s a thing for some reason.”
Violet frowned in thought. “Do you think the national anthem and all that still plays every morning during the summer?”
“It does,” I said. I held back a groan as I remembered my boss last summer that made us stand still for it every day like we had to do during the school year—those two minutes made a surprisingly significant difference in setting up the pool on time.
Violet’s face scrunched up. “That sucks.”
“You get used to it.”
“Evers!” Jaxon’s voice boomed down the long hallway, and I quickly slapped my hands over my ears as if that could retroactively stop me from hearing him.
“Jaxon!” I snapped as he came sauntering down the hallway. “Could you be any louder?”
Jaxon smirked at me. “Hungover, McKinnon?”
I just groaned and shook my head in response, my messy blonde ponytail hitting my back continuously. Jaxon had no leg to stand on to ask that, considering he was the one supplying all the drinks at the party last night.
“Don’t worry about her,” Violet said. She happily wrapped her arms around her boyfriend’s neck and kissed him. They held it for a little longer than I personally thought was necessary, but I couldn’t complain after how much I made Violet suffer throughwhenever I had a boyfriend. Right now was one of the rare times that I was single. “How’s it going?”
“Not too bad,” Jaxon said. He eyed Violet’s locker, which was now only half full. The whole thing was like a feat of engineering with her able to organize all her textbooks and notebooks by class while also having space for her jacket, backpack, two extra pairs of shoes, and her spirit clothes that she left here just in case she forgot about the spirit-wear day (which had never happened—as head girl, she always knew what was going on). I felt like it had to have some magic spell on it for there to be enough space for everything.
“I still don’t understand how you kept your locker so organized for the whole year.”
“I perfected my organization system years ago,” Violet said. She let go of Jaxon and turned toward the locker as well, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m actually a little sad that I have to take it all apart now.”
“Look on the bright side,” Jaxon said. “You can look forward to organizing your dorm room next year. It’s like a bigger and better locker.”
