Day 6 #2
“You mean your tampons?” she says as we step into a living room filled with people.
This house isn’t like the rental houses right on the lake.
It’s a normal house that people live in all year, with family pictures on the walls and furniture that matches.
And it doesn’t smell like it’s closed up for six months out of the year as the Michigan winters blow through.
But it doesn’t have the lake or the river.
It’s on a side street in the country, outside of Riverton’s little downtown area.
We’re only two feet into the house before Kara is on us. “Wow,” she says, and I’m already regretting that I didn’t run on sight. “You guys look like a matching pair.”
Sidney puts her hands on her hips and makes a little strangled noise.
“Like prom dates or something,” Kara continues, giving my pink button-up a once-over from top to bottom.
I roll my eyes.
“Why are you so dressed up?” Kara looks from me to Sidney, a can of Diet Coke in her hand. She’s in a Riverton Football T-shirt that’s tied tight at her back, and a pair of worn jean shorts. She looks like she just threw clothes on, but she has about ten times more makeup on than Sidney.
“Am I?” Sidney says with a groan, running her hands down her skirt again. “I should have texted you.”
Kara’s voice is soft and soothing. “No, you look great.” She glances over at me with a smile. “You, too, Ash.”
“Thanks, Kara.” I give her a one-arm hug and walk toward the kitchen, looking back to see Sidney’s bewildered eyes fixed on me.
She’s looking at me like I’m standing in the middle of the room naked, not like I just hugged someone I’ve known for five years.
Someone who does go to parties. “Getting drinks, you want anything?”
Kara pouts. “Not me. I have to get up ridiculously early tomorrow.”
Sidney just shakes her head.
Sidney
I scan the room, letting my eyes wander over all of the people I don’t recognize.
“He’s not here yet,” Kara offers with a smile that tells me she knows who I’m looking for. “He mentioned at work he might be late. They moved him from the The Grill to livery crew.”
“Livery crew?”
“The guys who pick up all of the canoes at the end of the line. They had some equipment to track down from people who got out at the wrong spot and just abandoned their canoes.”
“Ah.”
Kara tips her head toward the kitchen. “You wanna go see what’s up over there?”
“Sure, I’m up for whatever.”
Kara laughs. “Yeah, that sounds like you.”
I pull on the little nubbin of fabric at the back of her shirt and she squeaks out a little hey.
In the kitchen, the countertops are covered in plastic glasses and various partially empty bottles of alcohol.
There’s a giant case of cheap beer at one end of the counter, and a clear glass bottle filled with a greenish-brown liquid that just says NOT YOURS on it, in black marker.
Beyond the kitchen, there’s a little dining room area where a long wooden table fills most of the space.
A big blue tarp is spread under it, and the top is littered with more red cups.
Near the table, Asher is throwing back a shot of something with two guys. I’ve never seen them before, and I wonder if he even knows them, or if he’s just being Asher: friend to all. He tips the glass back, and when his head comes down, his eyes meet mine.
“You wanna play?” Kara says, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the table.
Asher is at one end, standing with another guy. Kara and I take our places at the opposite end.
“Can we play?” Kara says. “Wilson, you think you can handle double-fisting? I’m not drinking tonight.”
The guy smiles and snorts, like Kara’s being ridiculous. “For sure,” he says, leaving his side of the table to join ours.
“All three of us?” I say.
Asher laughs. “You’re with me, Chipmunk.”
I growl and Asher laughs again. Is this an alternate dimension I’ve fallen into? Does Party Asher have no self-control? “Why can’t Kara and I be a team?”
“Because neither of us is drinking.” She shoves a hand against my back. “Get over there.”
Asher hands me the Ping-Pong ball. “Try not to suck, okay?”
I stick my tongue out at him and he pretends to grab at it. “What the hell?” I can’t help but laugh, because it’s such a goofy, un-Asher-like thing to do. “Get a grip on yourself, Marin.”
Asher smiles and waves a hand toward the table as if to say it’s all yours.
Unfortunately for Asher, I really do suck at this game. It takes me three shots to not over-throw and even make contact with the cups.
Asher doesn’t tease me again. He shouts “so close” and “next time” whenever I miss, and high-fives me like I just won the Olympics when I finally sink my first shot.
He’s dramatic about each glass of beer he has to drink, throwing his head back and chugging loudly, even though the glasses are only half-filled since the guys are doubling up.
It’s utterly surreal to hang out with Asher like this—maybe it’s all the beer he’s had to drink because of my horrible hand-eye coordination.
When we finish—not win, because Kara and Wilson absolutely annihilate us—Asher tries to pitch a cup into the trash and I slap it out of the air. “Hey! Those can get washed or recycled.”
Asher lets out a booming laugh. “Okay, Little Kris.” Asher pats me on the head. “Your mom is really rubbing off on you.”
I narrow my eyes and turn back to the table.
Asher comes up beside me and whispers in my ear. “I’m just kidding. I love your mom. Please don’t tell her I said that.” I smile, and we’re standing like that, Asher’s lips by my ear, when Caleb walks into the kitchen.
Asher looks from me to Caleb, and says he’s going to go get something from the kitchen. Kara trots over to my side of the table and gives me a high five.
Caleb looks nervous but happy when he makes his way through the kitchen to us.
“You came,” he says, like he’s both surprised and glad that I’m here. He sidles up next to me and puts an arm out. I carefully try to give him a hug while avoiding the red cup he has in his hand. It’s awkward but not horrible.
“I did.” I wish I could think of something flirty or clever to say, but I just feel caught off guard. Something about Asher being nice to me has made me feel less like myself.
Kara has a little smile pulling her lips tight, and she looks like she’s about to explode with happiness that the two of us are standing next to each other.
Caleb takes a sip from his cup. “Anyone stalked you around the grocery store lately?” His voice is light and teasing. “You know that’s my job.”
I smile back at him. “No one picks out apples like you do.”
Kara looks between us like she’s confused why this is funny.
“Caleb is a produce expert, did you not know?” I explain.
“Guilty,” Caleb says, lifting his cup a little.
Kara and Caleb are talking about a disgruntled customer at River Depot, explaining who everyone is to me, when I feel someone next to me.
Kara’s eyes drift to my side nervously, and I look to see Asher there.
He holds a cup out in front of me, and I look at the cup and then him.
“Still driving us,” I say, eyeing the shot glass he has in his other hand. “Still not drinking.”
“It’s Diet Coke,” he says, leaving it there in front of me.
“Oh.” I take the cup hesitantly, and turn back toward Caleb. I sniff it, just to make sure it isn’t a giant cup of soy sauce that I’m going to spit all over myself.
There’s a soft tickle against my ear and the smell of alcohol. “You’re welcome,” Asher whispers, and it sends a little shiver up my spine. He needs to stop doing that. I don’t turn to look at him until I know he’s walked away, because I’m afraid of how close he was to me.
I take a long drink from the cup. Kara is looking at me like my hair is on fire.
Caleb shifts from foot to foot, like he’s not sure if he’s going or staying. Or like he’s got something in his shoe. “Are you guys … a thing?” he blurts out.
“Definitely not,” I say, at the same time that Kara says, “They hate each other.” She says it in a very matter-of-fact way, but looks at me questioningly, her brows knitting together, as if I need to confirm this.
I nod, my eyes wide. What is wrong with people?
You accidentally show up in matching shirts and suddenly the world is spinning in reverse?
“Okay, it’s just that you match, and he seems—”
“Deranged?” I look from Kara back to Caleb.
“We live to mess with each other,” I say.
“I was being weird about what I was wearing, and he had this stupid swimming shirt on, because he thinks he’s hilarious, and I told him to change, and he said he would, but then he put that matching shirt on, just to be an ass…
” I’m rambling, and I’m not sure how to stop myself.
Kara mumbles something I can’t make out but her eyes cut to Asher across the room.
“Got it.” Caleb smiles and sets his cup down. “You wanna sit down somewhere?”
Do I want to sit down in the shortest skirt I own?
No. Do I want to talk to Caleb somewhere that isn’t the grocery store produce section, or in the middle of the next beer-pong game?
Yes. Kara gives my arm a squeeze and says she’s going to find some friends that are supposed to be here.
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Kara lives here.
She has a million friends, a job. She’s the only friend I have here, but for her, I’m just one tiny piece of her life during the summer.