“But,” Paige hastened to add, “I get that that’s not a conversation you and I should be having. What I want to ask has to do with something else. It’s just not going to make any sense to you.”
Aubrey braced. Maybe if she played dead, the earth would take pity and open a crevasse directly beneath her. “I—”
“Please, just tell me if you can do this.” Paige stuck her tongue out and rolled it into a tube.
Aubrey stared. Stared some more. “What?”
“I know.” Paige fidgeted. “I told you it wouldn’t make sense. I just... Please. Can you do it?”
Aubrey shook her head, which did nothing to clear her confusion. “I, uh, don’t think so?”
“You don’t think, or you know? Will you try?” Paige rolled her tongue again, then waved ayou-go-nexthand, her eyebrows tented upward, her eyes as wide as a hunted deer’s.
Aubrey stuck her tongue out. She curled. Twisted. Try as she might, she couldn’t replicate what she’d been shown. “No. I can’t.”
Paige plastered her hands over her face. “Oh my god,” she muttered, over and over.
Aubrey cast around for help, but the parking lot yawned wide and empty, most of the students having left for the day. After a moment, she said, “I have no idea what’s going on, but do you need me to call someone? One of your parents, maybe?”
Paige dropped her hands. Her eyes brimmed with...relief? “No, no. Nothing like that. God, sorry. I know I must seem like such a mess right now.”
“Hey, we’ve all been there. I just don’t know how to help you.”
“You already did, actually. I just... need a minute.”
They stood in silence, until Paige’s ragged breathing smoothed out. She swiped at her too-bright eyes. “I’m okay, I swear. Anyway, thanks for coming to math club.”
“You’re... welcome?”
Paige bobbed her head. Miraculously, she seemed to have shed a hundred-pound weight in the past minute, even if a fifty-pounder still remained. “And thanks for trying the tongue thing. I know this is all coming out of left field, but I’ll explain at some point.”
“You don’t have to. Whatever’s going on, it’s none of my business.”
“Yeah,” Paige said softly. “I thought for a minute it might be, but you’re right. That doesn’t mean I won’t still tell you, though. I’m kind of an open-book sorta person, if you hadn’t noticed. Anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow? At the floats?”
Aubrey gulped down the sourness bubbling in her throat. “Yeah, about that... You should know I talked to Megan about switching jobs. But not because of you. I’ve enjoyed every minute of working together.”
“Oh.” Paige nodded. “Right. You wanna avoid my dad.”
Aubrey hesitated. But lying felt disingenuous, and Paige had gotten a step ahead of her, somehow. “I think that’d be best for everyone.”
“Look, I get it. But you don’t have to worry. He’s not coming tomorrow. He went out to the farm last night to finish up the welding, and he’s bundling on the chicken wire tonight. All we have to do tomorrow is attach the corn. And I’d really like to finish up with you. If you’re okay with that.”
Something violent took place inside Aubrey’s chest. Nick was avoiding her, too, then, and now her heart was... what? Soaring? Crashing?
She couldn’t tell. Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like she hadn’t made the same decision, first. “Wouldn’t workingtogether make you uncomfortable, though? It must be weird knowing your dad and I were... close, once.”
Paige tugged at her braids, a shy smile curving her mouth. Bizarrely, this subject seemed to unsettle her less than the tongue-trick thing. “It’s really not. It’s kind of a relief, actually. Knowing he’s capable. Because I just want him to be happy. Really. I figure it’s best if you know that now. Up front.”
Aubrey paused, utterly unsure of what to do with that statement. “Uh, I want him to be happy, too.”
“Oh, good,” Paige said, earnest. Some of her usual brightness had crept back in. “At leastsomeone’son the same page with me.”
When Aubrey didn’t respond, Paige said, “Get it? Same page? Same Paige? With me?”
Aubrey shook her head, her mind full of blank white fuzz.
“Okay, well, puns aren’t for everyone, I guess. That’s fine. Just don’t expect me to stop trying. Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow?”
