41.
once
“Hey!” I called out to Syd and Alex. “I’ve got the food!” I held up a bag from Home Run Deli.
Alex and I are heading to Flatrock at noon,Syd had texted.Maybe no Ella this time?
I hadn’t been bugged. We’d spent a lot of time with Ella lately. It was okay to still do our own thing sometimes.
Sure,I’d texted back.
Bring food,Syd had added.Am feeling like Home Run. We’ll get drinks.
I didn’t even have to ask what they wanted: Syd, turkey on white, no onions, add avocado. Alex, roast beef, extra cheese, no lettuce, on sourdough. I handed them each their sandwiches before sitting down on a rock near the edge of the river and taking out my own. I breathed in deep as I unwrapped my sandwich—club on wheat, easy mayo—and stuck my feet straight into the water, not bothering to unstrap my sandals.
“So no Sam?” Syd shielded her eyes to look at me. She was sitting right in the river in her bikini, her legs stretched out in front of her, her drink stuck in a shallow alcove to keep it cool.
“He’s working.” I didn’t quite understand the slight edge I heard in her tone. Wasn’t she glad I hadn’t brought Sam for a change?
“I assumed you’d have him with you,” Syd said. For some reason, she didn’t sound pleased. I felt oddly out of place, like a third wheel, with her and Alex sitting next to each other and me on my own.
Alex slid a small cooler toward me. I leaned over to open it up. A couple of bottles of water, a Sprite, two Cokes, a cream soda. I took a water.
“So righteous,” she said. “Coach would be proud.”
We weren’t technically supposed to drink soda—Coach hated it when we did—but most people broke that rule from time to time. Not me, not during the season. And Syd knew that.
But youcouldget kicked off the team for drinking alcohol.
I leaned back and took a huge bite of my sandwich, watching the kids splash around in the middle of the river, parents standing by. A toddler slipped, but her mother had her up again before the kid’s butt even hit the water.
Flatrock was exactly what its name suggested. There was a spot at Fall Creek where the water got wide and the rocks were long, flat slabs. In the middle of the summer, the water ran just a few inches deep, perfect for wading, or for leaning back in and sunbathing. Lower down, there was a small spillway, nothing like the one out near the jump. This spillway was only a few feet high, and everyone used it like a slide. It was below us, and I could see kids getting into position at the top, ready to go down. A thin suspension bridge hung over the river below the spillway, barely visible from here. In the early mornings, mist came off the rocks and long-legged herons stood, dipping their beaks. Flatrock was at the first part of the Fall Creek run wedid on Fridays, and I loved how different it looked on summer afternoons, strewn with people.
Syd stood up, reaching for her shorts near the edge of the bank. “I’m going down to the spillway.”
“I’ll be right there,” Alex said. “Just going to finish this.” He held up the last third of his sandwich.
“Take your time,” Syd said. That edge in her voice again. She stepped into her shorts. I couldn’t see her eyes behind her sunglasses, but I watched her walk away, sure-footed and smooth across the shallows of the river.
Alex finished his sandwich in two bites. “You eat like a wolf,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes. “You tell me that every time I eat.”
“You wolf every time you eat.”
“I’m a growing boy.”
I pretended to throw up, and Alex walked out into the river, laughing.
Something that only Alex and I knew was that we had once liked each other.Likedeach other, as in boyfriend/girlfriend, as in we decided we should be together and see how it went. We didn’t tell anyone because that way if it didn’t work out, no big deal. We could go right back to being friends without any drama.
Which is exactly what happened. We went out for exactly two days and we kissed exactly one time, and it was kind of nice but we also burst out laughing right after. And I think during those two days we realized what we both had to lose, if we did do this for real.
And neither of us wanted that.
I ate my sandwich slowly and looked out at the dappled water, listening to the little kids, watching the tweens. Remembering how when I was a tween I wished I were me, a teenager with a car and friends at the creek. Now I was exactly all of those things.
Alex came plunging back through the water. “Thirsty,” he said, and I raised my eyebrows. He laughed. “Not that way.” He reached into the cooler, and I saw Syd waving me out to join her.
