Page 69

“Yeah, fine, I’m in.”

“I think it’s a brilliant idea, Jackie,” said Dale, confirming what Jack already knew. Three down, two to go.

“Eli?” Jack prompted.

Eli glared morosely up at the passive-aggressive ceiling fan. “If I get in shit for this, you’re a dead man, McCoy.”

Jack cheesed a grin at Greer. “Majority rules,” he said. “You don’t have to come, you know. I’m sure you have some college friends around you could talk about Descartes with or whatever.”

Greer held his stare for a long moment. “Ugh, whatever, I’ll come, but I want it on the record that I’m technically against this and think it’s a very dumb idea.”

“Consider it formally noted.”

And so the plan was set. That night, as the neighborhood lay sleeping, the You Agains crept from the seedy streets they called home to the blocks of three-story houses with perfectly manicured lawns stretched out before them on the other side of town. Jack had walked by these houses every day on his trek to and from his summer job slinging hot dogs at the movie theater, had even said hello to a few of the moms in capris with chunky highlights in their hair and the dads on riding lawnmowers. One family even offered him lemonade on a particularly hot day. It was why he knew that very family would be out of town for the week. A family that, most crucially, had a pool.

Jack had never been inside a house with so much unused space. There was a whole dining room all to itself, a kitchen with sprawling marble counters, and a living room vast enough for multiple couches.

“Don’t touch anything,” he hissed at the others behind him as he slipped his lock pick back into his pocket. They slunk through the kitchen, toward the door to the backyard.

“Can I touch one thing?” Eli asked as they made their way outside.

Jack cocked his head in a question mark.

With a cheeky grin, Eli opened the fridge by the back door. The shelves contained an array of cheeses and meats and a twelve-pack of beer. Eli grabbed a can and tossed it at Jack. Jack should’ve protested. They weren’t actually here to take anything, they’d just come to cool down. But the icy can curved so effortlessly against his palm, it seemed almost rude to say no.

Jack pulled the tab as Eli passed the other cans around, and soon the You Agains were in the pool with a buzz gently fogging their minds. The sky above them was clear, a spattering of stars winking down at them. The pool lights gave the water an aqua tint, as though they were swimming through a cartoon. The whole night had a not-quite-real quality to it that was only enhanced by the alcohol and the unrelenting heat. Jack leaned back on the inflatable pink flamingo chair gliding him over the water and breathed in his success. Now this was how you spent your last few days of summer.

Greer swam over just as Eli blasted the water with a cannonball. She was a mermaid glistening in the moonlight, wet hair slick to her scalp, eyeliner running. Jack could feel his face stretch into a dopey smile even as he told it not to.

“Jack,” Greer said, and Jack nearly fell upward into the stars. “I’m worried about Jules.”

This snapped Jack back to earth. “What? Why?”

“She’s on her second beer, and I don’t think she’s doing great with it. She’s never had alcohol before, has she? I mean, she is still just a kid, whether she wants to be or not.”

Jack scanned the pool surface and the artfully placed stone slabs surrounding it, searching for Jules. Shit. Where was she? She wasn’t the best swimmer in the group. Gym class was an unrelenting nightmare for her for a multitude of reasons, her lack of proficiency in anything beyond the doggy paddle being one. But swimming when buzzed? He should have known better than to let her drink tonight.

Finally he spotted Jules sitting on the pool’s top step, lying back on the ground, face angled up toward the sky. Was she breathing? From the other end of the pool, he couldn’t be sure. Heart rate climbing, Jack scrambled off the floaty and swam over to her as fast as his arms could drag him through the water. He emerged beside her and she gently lolled her head toward him. Jack allowed himself to breathe. She was fine. Thank god she was fine. He’d made a promise to protect her, and tonight he’d done a pretty shit job of it. Well, that all changed now. He wouldn’t leave her side until they were back on dry land and out of harm’s way.

He sat himself on the step beside her and laid his head next to hers.

“You good?”

Jules went back to looking at the night sky. “You ever wonder what we look like from up there?”

“Small,” Jack said. “I bet we look small.”

“Like the way stars look from down here?”

“Even smaller.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” said Jules. “You think we glow?”

Jack found Jules’s freckle-spattered face from the corner of his eye. “Some of us, maybe.”

“Hmm.” Then she took a deep breath. “It’s gonna suck with you gone.”

Jack couldn’t argue with that. He was at once thrilled by the prospect of freedom after graduation next June and concerned about what would happen to Jules without her friends at school to protect her.