Caleb looks nervous but happy when he makes his way through the kitchen to us.
“You came,” he says, like he’s both surprised and glad that I’m here. He sidles up next to me and puts an arm out. I carefully try to give him a hug while avoiding the red cup he has in his hand. It’s awkward but not horrible.
“I did.” I wish I could think of something flirty or clever to say, but I just feel caught off guard. Something about Asher being nice to me has made me feel less like myself.
Kara has a little smile pulling her lips tight, and she looks like she’s about to explode with happiness that the two of us are standing next to each other.
Caleb takes a sip from his cup. “Anyone stalked you around the grocery store lately?” His voice is light and teasing. “You know that’s my job.”
I smile back at him. “No one picks out apples like you do.”
Kara looks between us like she’s confused why this is funny.
“Caleb is a produce expert, did you not know?” I explain.
“Guilty,” Caleb says, lifting his cup a little.
Kara and Caleb are talking about a disgruntled customer at River Depot, explaining who everyone is to me, when I feel someone next to me. Kara’s eyes drift to my side nervously, and I look to see Asher there. He holds a cup out in front of me, and I look at the cup and then him. “Stilldriving us,” I say, eyeing the shot glass he has in his other hand. “Stillnot drinking.”
“It’s Diet Coke,” he says, leaving it there in front of me.
“Oh.” I take the cup hesitantly, and turn back toward Caleb. I sniff it, just to make sure it isn’t a giant cup of soy sauce that I’m going to spit all over myself.
There’s a soft tickle against my ear and the smell of alcohol. “You’re welcome,” Asher whispers, and it sends a little shiver up my spine. He needs tostopdoing that. I don’t turn to look at him until I know he’s walked away, because I’m afraid of how close he was to me.
I take a long drink from the cup. Kara is looking at me like my hair is on fire.
Caleb shifts from foot to foot, like he’s not sure if he’s going or staying. Or like he’s got something in his shoe. “Are you guys… a thing?” he blurts out.
“Definitely not,” I say, at the same time that Kara says, “Theyhate each other.” She says it in a very matter-of-fact way, but looks at me questioningly, her brows knitting together, as if I need to confirm this. I nod, my eyes wide. What iswrongwith people? You accidentally show up in matching shirts and suddenly the world is spinning inreverse?
“Okay, it’s just that you match, and he seems—”
“Deranged?” I look from Kara back to Caleb. “Weliveto mess with each other,” I say. “I was being weird about what I was wearing, and he had this stupid swimming shirt on, because he thinks he’shilarious,and I told him to change, and he said he would, butthenhe put that matching shirt on, just to be an ass…” I’m rambling, and I’m not sure how to stop myself. Kara mumbles something I can’t make out but her eyes cut to Asher across the room.
“Got it.” Caleb smiles and sets his cup down. “You wanna sit down somewhere?”
Do I want to sit down in the shortest skirt I own? No. Do I want to talk to Caleb somewhere that isn’t the grocery store produce section, or in the middle of the next beer-pong game? Yes. Kara gives my arm a squeeze and says she’s going to find some friends that are supposed to be here. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Kara lives here. She has a million friends, a job. She’s the only friend I have here, but for her, I’m just one tiny piece of her life during the summer.
Caleb and I sit on a blue love seat pushed against one wall of the living room. Like Kara said, he had some trouble at work, and he spends most of the night telling me about how ridiculous the tourists are that come to River Depot. The kids from the city who have never held a paddle before, and the moms and dads who think they’re going to need Mace to fend off wild creatures as they canoe through the woods. “As if Mace would help them,” Caleb says, laughing. I wonder if he’s forgotten thatI’mtechnically a tourist. Though I don’t feel like one—Riverton is my second home.
Every once in a while I hear Asher’s voice boom across the room and it startles me. It isn’t angry, it’s just loud. Louder than I’ve ever heard him. I can’t make it out, but I can’t help trying. I spend the rest of the night with 60 percent of my attention on Caleb, and the other 40 listening for Asher. Toward the end of the party it sounds like his voice is being muffled by something, like maybe he’s outside or in the basement. He seems off tonight.
An hour later, Caleb looks at his phone and frowns. “I have to go. We have a training thing in the morning.” The same thing Kara has to go to.
“Okay. Well… I’m glad we got to hang out.” Smooth, Sidney. Smooth.
“Me, too.” Caleb runs a hand over his short blond hair. “You wanna go out tomorrow night?”
Something tightens in my chest. “Yeah. Definitely.” I hand him my phone. “Text me.”
Caleb smiles and gets up, reaching his hand down to pull me up from the couch. It’s the first time we’ve touched all night—even on the little couch, we were at opposite ends. I’m not sure if I should just shake his hand while I’ve got it, or hug him, or…
He pulls me by my hand and wraps his arms around me, making the decision for me. “Night, Sidney.”
“Good night.”
When Caleb is gone, I wander through the house. Kara is long gone; she sent me a text an hour ago saying she was leaving. But I still have to find Asher. I weave through the kitchen, to the little room that looks like an office. I poke my head out into the yard, but don’t see him. Finally, on my second pass through the living room, I see him coming out of the stairwell. Hewasin the basement.
