“My mom?”
We stopped with a jerk. The lights in the back of the truck immediately came on, bright all around me, and I caught a glimpse of the contents of that bucket for real. Ugh.
“Thank goodness!” I heard Celeste say. She had to be standing outside in the lot. “My arm’s about to fall off from waving.”
“I’m coming right back to work,” Roo explained. “Just have to drop someone off. Everything okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” Celeste said. Beside me, Bailey opened her own purse, pulling out some breath mints and tossing a handful into her mouth. Suddenly everything smelled like wintergreen. “I just saw you coming and Gordon really needs a YumPop.”
“What’s Gordon doing up this late?” Bailey hissed to me, cracking her mints in her teeth.
“She’s up late,” Roo noted to Celeste.
“Joe and Mimi went to Bly County for the night and Trinity’s too grumpy to be around anyone,” Celeste explained. “Poor Gordon, she’s tired and bored. I’ve beentexting Bailey and Jack, but of course neither of them are answering their phones.”
“Can you turn this light off?” Bailey whisper-hissed from beside me. Roo, still focused on Celeste, shook his head almost imperceptibly.
“I think we can manage a YumPop,” he said, pulling the truck’s brake and getting up. “What flavor, Gordon?”
My head was hurting now, and I was pretty sure I had never in my life been so thirsty. Gordon’s voice sounded very small as she replied, “Chocolate?”
“Move,” Bailey said to me, giving me a shove as Roo came toward us, pointing at the cooler. I started to slide down, then fell instead, landing with a bang on the floor. Ouch.
“What was that?” I heard Celeste say.
“Just some junk falling,” Roo told her, shooting me an apologetic look. “Chocolate, you said?”
“Oh, crap,” I heard Celeste say. “That’s the store phone. Can you just give it to her, and I’ll see you when you get back? And if you hear from Bailey, tell her to call me and that she’s in trouble.”
“What?” Bailey whispered. “What did I do?”
“You’re hiding from her,” I pointed out from the floor. She ignored me.
“Chocolate!” Roo announced, pulling a wrapped cone from the cooler. “I’ll bring it to—”
Before he could finish this thought, however, his driver’s-side door creaked open and Gordon stuck her head in, looking down into the truck at us. “Saylor? Are you okay?”
“She’s fine,” Bailey told her. “And keep it down. You didn’t see us, you hear?”
Solemnly, Gordon nodded. She was still looking at me. “Are you sick?”
I shook my head, but even as I did so, I felt it: shame, thick and hot, creeping up from my chest to my face. Here I was, in front of the only person who probably would ever think I was perennially awesome, drunk and sprawled on the floor of an ice cream truck with what I was realizing was probably vomit on my shirt. It was a horrible impression to make on anyone, but especially a kid. They were supposed to be protected from things like this, their world consisting only of chocolate YumPops, swimming, and a warm, safe place to sleep at night. Not this. I knew how scary it could be. Because I’d been that kid.
“I’m fine,” I said to her, but even to my ears my voice sounded rough, uneven. “I’m just not feeling great right this second.”
“Now take your ice cream and go act like you never saw us,” Bailey added as Roo walked back up to the front, handing it to her. “Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Gordon said. She was still watching me.
“Good girl,” Roo told her. “See you when I get back, okay?”
Gordon nodded as Roo took his seat, cranking the engine again. The lights went out. But I could still see her, the market lit up behind, as we drove away.
“What’s the over-under of her telling Celeste everythinganyway?” Roo asked as we pulled out onto the main road.
“About even,” Bailey told him, hopping up on the cooler again. “But either way, she’ll wait until she’s done with the ice cream. So step on it.”
He did, the engine rattling as we accelerated. From the floor, I watched the Lake North sign approach in the windshield, then disappear over us. I couldn’t get Gordon’s face out of my mind. Luckily, Bailey was not so distracted.
