But he looked away quickly and took off his T-shirt. “Ready?” he said, standing by the edge.
I walked over next to him. “One full lap?” I asked, dipping my toe into the water.
“Sure,” he said. “You want a head start?”
I snorted. “Doyouwant a head start?”
“Touché,” he said, grinning.
I’d never heard a boy say “touché” before. Or anyone else, for that matter. Maybe my mother. But on him it looked good. It was different.
I won the first race easily. “You let me win,” I accused.
“No, I didn’t,” he said, but I knew it wasn’t true. In all the summers and all of the races, no boy, not Conrad or Jeremiah or certainly not Steven, had ever let me win.
“You better give it your all this time,” I warned. “Or I’m keeping the hoodie.”
“Best two out of three,” Cam said, wiping the hair out of his eyes.
He won the next heat, and I won the last one. I wasn’t fully convinced that he didn’t just let me win—after all, he was so tall and long, his one stroke was worth two of mine. But I wanted to keep the hoodie, so I didn’t challenge the win. After all, a win was a win.
When he had to leave, I walked him to his car. He didn’t get in right away. There was this long pause, the first we’d had, if you can believe it. Cam cleared his throat and said, “So this guy I know, Kinsey, is having a party tomorrow night. Do you maybe want to come?”
“Yeah,” I said right away. “I do.”
I made the mistake of mentioning it at breakfast the next morning. My mother and Susannah were grocery shopping. It was just me and the boys, the way it had been for the most part this summer. “I’m going to a party tonight,” I said, partly just to say it out loud and partly to brag.
Conrad raised his eyebrows. “You?”
“Whose party?” Jeremiah demanded. “Kinsey’s?”
I put down my juice. “How’d you know?”
Jeremiah laughed and wagged his finger at me. “I know everybody in Cousins, Belly. I’m a lifeguard. That’s like being the mayor. Greg Kinsey works at that surf shop over by the mall.”
Frowning, Conrad said, “Doesn’t Greg Kinsey sell crystal meth out of his trunk?”
“What? No. Cam wouldn’t be friends with someone like that,” I said defensively.
“Who’s Cam?” Jeremiah asked me.
“That guy I met at Clay’s bonfire. He asked me to go to this party with him, and I said yes.”
“Sorry. You aren’t going to some meth addict’s party,” Conrad said.
This was the second time Conrad was trying to tell me what to do, and I was sick of it. Who did he think he was? I had to go to this party. I didn’t care if there was crystal meth or not, I was going. “I’m telling you, Cam wouldn’t be friends with someone like that! He’s straight edge.”
Conrad and Jeremiah both snorted. In moments like these, they were a team. “He’s straight edge?” Jeremiah said, trying not to smile. “Neat.”
“Very cool,” agreed Conrad.
I glared at the both of them. First they didn’t want me hanging out with meth addicts, and then being straight edge wasn’t cool either. “He doesn’t do drugs, all right? Which is why I highly doubt he’d be friends with a drug dealer.”
Jeremiah scratched his cheek and said, “You know what, it might be Greg Rosenberg who’s the meth dealer. Greg Kinsey’s pretty cool. He has a pool table. I think I’ll check this party out too.”
“Wait, what?” I was starting to panic.
“I think I’ll go too,” Conrad said. “I like pool.”
