“Are we being ironic right now?” Jane asked. She sat down next to Pranav, whose girlfriend Sydney hadn’t showed up yet, and gave him a bright smile.
This boded well.
After Sydney and a few more friends arrived, we joined the mobs of people downtown. Jane and I had our faces painted: an elaborate black-and-silver mask around her eyes; a red-and-gold phoenix curved over my cheek and temple. We watched a dunk tank and a watermelon-eating contest. A water fight erupted, long sprays arching above the cobblestones. We screamed and ran through, Ellie Mae happily tossing herself about before shaking the water on innocent bystanders.
When a parade wove down the street, Evan hoisted me onto his shoulders so I could see better. I grabbed hold of him for support, laughing gleefully, while Pranav raised Sydney similarly. Jane clutched Ellie Mae’s leash and beamed up at Sydney like a star about to burn out. The crowd before us was a swirling mass of pale pink shirts and mint green dresses and lemon-yellow skirts. It moved,slow but constant, colorful and festive. More guys wore American-flag shorts than I’d ever seen before.
Then the people before us changed once again, revealing Noah Barbanel on the sidewalk, surrounded by half a dozen other teens who looked like they’d been airbrushed by wealth.
I saw Noah before he saw me, but only by a second. He froze when his gaze marked me. For a suspended moment, we both stared at each other, before I swallowed hard and tapped on Evan’s shoulder. “Put me down?”
Evan bent his knees and I swung my legs onto the pavement, intimately aware of my sopping-wet hair and my T-shirt clinging to every curve. I looked like a drowned rat. Not exactly the way I wanted to present myself to my hot island nemesis. “Noah.”
“Abigail.” His attention shifted. “Hey, Evan.”
“Hey.”
Right. Evan and Noah were both rich summer boys. Of course they knew each other.
As Evan said hello to the others, Noah and I kept our cautious gazes on each other. Then the crowds swirled us apart, but my heart kept beating fast, like prey confronted with a predator.I can help you or hinder you.
Stella grabbed my arm. The red-white-and-blue sparkler headdress she’d secured on top of her braid crown bobbed. “Was that Noah? He’s stunning.”
“Too rich,” Lexi said from her girlfriend’s other side. “He’ll give you a stomachache.”
“He’s not butter and sugar,” Stella said.
“I was making a metaphor about how he’s not healthy.”
“I’m not sure metaphors work like you think they do.”
My breathing slowly returned to tempo as my friends arguedabout the merits of Lexi’s metaphor. This was fine. I was fine. I bent over Ellie Mae, whose long pink tongue lolled as she panted. “We’re doing great, right, girl? So great. We’re so calm and great.”
Ellie barked and sloppily licked my face.
Bleh.
“Hey.” Noah’s voice sounded behind me, and I whirled around, wiping dog slobber off my face, along with red and gold glitter. Oh, wow, I’d totally forgotten I had face paint on.
Noah, on the other hand, looked as beautiful and arrogant as always, though his curls spiraled more tightly and ungainly than usual, like he’d spent the morning on the beach. “We should talk.”
“I don’t want to talk.” I glanced toward my friends, who’d meandered farther away while I’d consulted Ellie Mae. Noah and I were alone in the shifting crowds. Around us, the festivities and music continued, everyone so wrapped in their own lives we could have been in our own private room. A small child knocked into my leg, stared up at me with wide eyes, and kept going, towed away by his indifferent mother. “You threatened to blackmail me.”
“Give me a chance.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’m asking nicely.”
“This is your version of nice?”
His lips pressed together. Then he let out a deep breath.“Please.”
I crossed my arms over my clinging top, feeling exposed and going on the offense to hide it. “What do you want to talk about? Are you going to tell me not to interfere again, and I’ll tell you I’m not going to listen?”
“I want to call a truce.”
“I wasn’t aware we were at war.”
