“Martin’s fine with it,” Cassidy interjects.
Sophie gives Cassidy aplease be quietlook.
Cassidy mimes zipping her lips.
“What’s going on with you?” asks Sophie.
“I’m fine,” I say.
“No, you’re not,” Cassidy says. She pushes herself off the door and sits down next to Sophie on my bed. “You’re cynical and a pain in the—”
Even though she’s right, I feel defensive, like I’m the focus of some kind of intervention. But I’m not the one who needs saving.
“I don’t think you guys should date,” I blurt out.
“See?” Cassidy says turning to Sophie. “I knew it!”
Sophie looks down at her hands. “But why?”
“I’m worried about what’ll happen to our friendship when you guys break up,” I say as gently as I can. But there’s no way to say a thing like that gently.
Sophie folds her arms tight across her chest and taps her foot. “Who says we’re going to break up?”
“I mean…most couples break up eventually, right?”
Weirdly, it’s Cassidy who tries to save me from myself. “Eves, come on. We’re in love. Just be happy for us.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, shaking my head. “I can’t pretend to be happy about the end of our friendship.”
It’s funny how many different kinds of silences there are. This one is shocked and disappointed and final.
I could tell them about Dad getting engaged to Shirley. Cassidy would get angry on my behalf and Sophie would be sympathetic. They’d both forgive me for the awful things I just said, but I don’t. I’m just trying to stop them from hurting each other. From hurting all of us.
They stand at the same time. I feel their eyes on me, but I stare down at my feet. I don’t look up as I hear my bedroom door open or as I hear their footsteps heavy on the stairs or as I hear the slam of the front door.
I know our friendship was going to change anyway. We’re all going to separate colleges in the fall. But I thought we still had the rest of the summer for our epic road trip, for things to be the way they’ve always been. Now it turns out we don’t have any time left.
CHAPTER 30
Off the Cliff
WHEN I GEThome from school the next day, Mom and Danica are at the kitchen table peering at Danica’s laptop screen.
Mom says a quick hello before she goes back to typing something.
Danica sighs and takes the laptop away from her. “No, Mom, you have to say something interesting about yourself,” she whines. “Don’t make it about being a mother. Make it aboutyou.”
I don’t have to see Mom’s face to know she’s smiling herlook how much you don’t know yetsmile. “Those are the same thing,D!”
“But being a mom is not sexy.”
“I’ll remind you that you said that in about twenty years,” Mom says.
I can’t believe Danica is trying to talk Mom into dating. First Sophie and Cassidy, then Dad getting engaged and now this?
When Martin texts me five minutes later to meet him at La Brea Tar Pits, I get on my bike right away. Anything to get me out of my own head.
La Brea Tar Pits is called La Brea Tar Pits because it’s on La Brea Avenue and has quite a few…tar pits. The largest one, Lake Pit, is just off the main entrance. The tar is greenish-black, thick and always oozing. Occasionally a bubble of stinky air burps to the surface.
