“No, I live with my parents as well. I’m only seventeen; they’d never let me move out on my own.”Yet.
“We’re the same age.” Her face lights up, and I find myself smiling with her. “I’m an intern at the observatory this summer, but I’ll be a senior at Blaire High School in the fall.”
“Same,” I say. “I mean, not that I’m going to Blaire High, but I’ll be a senior in the fall too.” A second later I realize she may ask more questions about where I go to school or where we came from—questions I don’t want to answer. So I change the subject. “You’re an intern at the observatory?”
She nods. “I’m headed there now and can show you around if you have time.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Maybe next time,” I say. Knowing Gavin is there at this very moment, I would rather be anywhere but the observatory. “What do people do for fun around here?”
“Fun?” She considers the word. “There’s not much…,” she starts saying, and my frown deepens. “But Blaire does have one place where most of the locals hang out.”
“Hang out?” I perk up.
“Yeah, it’s a cafe. Would you like to go? I can take you there now,” she offers.
“I don’t want to make you late for work.”
“Oh, you won’t,” she says with a curious smile I don’t know what to make of. “Let me just drop off these things, and we can go.” She lifts the box in her hand.
I tell Callie I’ll wait for her by her car, since I’d rather not see Hal again. Somehow he is impervious to my charm. I’m a person who usually likes to confront my haters head-on, but in this case, in the absence of my cloak of invisibility, a.k.a. my reputation, I think avoidance is best.
Callie is back in a flash, and we both hop into her Jeep. She revs her engine on and starts driving down the path, and in the far distance I see a crossroads.
“Is it far from here?”
“Not too far. Just left at the fork in the road.” She points. When we turn at the intersection, there’s a satellite-dish-looking structure peeking out of the treetop landscape that looks like it came right out of a science fiction movie.
“That’s the radio telescope,” she explains. “Isn’t it cool?”
“Yeah,” I say, trying to conjure up enthusiasm.
“And this is the main building of the Blaire Observatory.” She pulls into the parking lot of a stand-alone brick building that is bigger and notably nicer than anything else in this town, similar to the ones on Wilshire.
“Wait. I thought we were going to a cafe.”
“We are,” she says with the same coy smile.
Even though I don’t comprehend, I follow her into the building, where she takes me through the large open space of the lobby, which is lined with linoleum-tiled floors and tall ceilings with exposed pipes, making it seem slightly industrial. There are a handful of people coming in and out of the elevators, but it’s otherwise empty.
“The cafe’s this way,” she says, heading toward an archway at the end of the lobby. We’re technically in the same building when we walk through the archway, but the look and feel of the place become strikingly different. Where the lobby is sterile, like a hospital, the cafe is cozy, with colorful red booths and natural-wood-paneled walls. “I’m sure you noticed, but Blaire is a small town, so the cafeteria isn’t only for the observatory’s employees; it’s for everyone in the town,” she says.
“Oh, that makes sense,” I say.
“Why don’t you find a table for us to sit at, and I’ll grab us some water?”
“Great. I could use a Perrier.” While Callie leaves, I look for a place to sit. Most of the tables and booths are occupied, and the room is filled with a white noise of pleasant conversation. It feels welcoming to be among other people. As though this were a civilized society. Maybe there’s hope for this place after all.
That is, until I spot an eyesore.
“Ew, what’re you doing here?” I find myself staring at Gavin sitting comfortably in one of the booths. “I thought you were on a tour.Or did you just tell Mom and Dad that you were going so you could uphold your reputation as the responsible one?”
Gavin folds the menu and sets it down with an eye roll. “As it turns out, I did go on the tour. It just ended, and I happen to be here with a friend. He’s getting me a drink.”
“Ha,” I say dryly. “Your first mistake was not coming up with a more believable lie.”
Gavin somehow finds my comment offensive. “I am capable of making friends.”
“Since when? And don’t say Sonya, because she doesn’t count.” I tsk.
