Chapter 24 Then
Then
“Did you get a car?” Ava asked when I climbed into hers. There was a lot of moisture in the air today and my hair felt frizzy, my skin clammy.
I stared out the window at the used Honda Civic my mom had helped me buy the day before. She had obviously paid for the majority of it, but when we got home I transferred every single cent in my bank account to her. And the entire paycheck I’d gotten this morning.
I liked the car…loved it, but it also felt like some sort of weapon my mom had wielded in the battle that was happening in our house. And that made it feel gross. It made me feel like I had picked a side.
“Yes, I did,” I said.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Caroline asked.
“It just happened yesterday. It was a surprise.”
“That’s cool,” Ava said.
I looked at Beau. He was staring out the window at my car as Ava pulled onto the road. He was probably wondering why I hadn’t called him last night. Told him. Or maybe he was still thinking about how I’d cheated off his test on Monday. How he was glad I hadn’t called him.
“That means you can start helping with carpool,” Ava said.
“I can help with carpool too,” Beau said.
“Nobody wants to sit in the back seat of your car,” I teased, trying to find our friendship rhythm again.
Instead of laughing at my joke, he mumbled something like “It’s not that small,” then unzipped the backpack on the floor between his feet and started riffling through it.
“Speaking of carpool.” Ava held up the Slurpee cup. “It’s Friday.”
“Oh,” I said. “Can I add later? I forgot cash.” I had no cash. Zero. I felt bad. Another thing I’d have to ask my mom for. Maybe I’d ask my dad.
Ava replaced the cup in the holder. It had several bills in there—contributions from Caroline and Beau, I was sure.
“Oh!” Caroline said, looking at her phone and letting out the surprised exclamation.
“What?” I asked.
“Class rankings came out.”
That made sense. They always came out on Fridays.
“Okay,” I said. We didn’t normally make a big deal over them. Beau and I were always in the top ten of our class. Caroline and Ava weren’t. The only person who ever looked them up and rubbed them in was Beau, because he was always ahead of me and he thought that was funny. I mostly did too.
“You jumped in front of Beau,” Caroline said.
Beau’s head shot up from whatever he was doing in his backpack and locked onto the back of Caroline’s head. “What?”
“Indy is three now, you are four.”
“How?” he asked. “We’ve only had one test since the last rankings came out.”
The test. The one I’d gotten a third of my answers for off his paper. I was not about to say Guess I scored higher than you. But I must’ve. I must’ve gotten a couple of the other questions right that he didn’t. I was stunned silent.
“Oh, poor Beau,” Ava said. “You’re in the same place Indy was last week and somehow this is devastating to you.
” She said this in a fun, mocking voice, a voice that on any other day, after any other test, he would’ve just laughed at or done some pretend angry fist at the sky.
But this time his eyes went dark, his scowl deepened.
“Seriously?” Ava asked. “You’re for real mad about this?”
“He can be mad,” I said.
“Don’t,” he said to me.
Something in me shifted. For the first time since the seventh grade, I felt a huge crater between Beau and me, one I didn’t know how to cross.
To Ava, Beau said, “It’s fine. I’m not mad.”
Caroline cringed, raised her eyebrows, and kept her eyes out the side window for the rest of the drive.
When we approached the school, Ava slowed down and asked, “Is something going on with you and Cody?”
He was riding on the sidewalk next to us. He gestured for me to roll down the window. I did, and as Ava turned into the parking lot he grabbed hold of the door. “Hey,” he said.
“Cody,” Ava said. “You’re going to face-plant.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” he said. Then he leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I assumed he meant that it wasn’t his first time holding on to a moving car while skateboarding. But he also could’ve meant that it wasn’t his first time kissing someone through an open car window.
“Seriously, Cody,” Ava said. “Let go of my car.”
He laughed and did just that, riding away.
It wasn’t great timing as far as the tension that already existed in this car with my friends went, but my heart was racing with the stunt.
“A new car, a new boyfriend,” Caroline said. “What else aren’t you telling us?”
Beau popped his eyebrows at me, probably dying to add “a cheater” to the list of new things about me. He didn’t.
“He’s not my boyfriend” were the only words I could think of to say.
“But you like him?” Ava said, turning into our normal parking spot.
Everyone went silent, waiting for my answer.
“I think so,” I said. My feelings had been all over the place in the past couple of weeks. Mostly I was angry. But I did feel other things when Cody was around. That had to be good.
Beau let out a loud sigh and opened his door, slamming it shut behind him.
“He’s in a bad mood today,” Ava said, turning to face me.
Caroline didn’t get out of the car either, just twisted in her seat. “Is something wrong, Indy?”
“Because I like Cody?” I asked, with a little too much bite.
“No. Well…that too.”
“He’s not your type,” Ava chimed in. “He’s mine.”
Caroline nodded, then said, “You seem off.”
“You seriously do,” Ava said. “You and Beau both. Are you two fighting?”
“No,” I said, which was true. We weren’t fighting. Probably because we weren’t really talking. “My parents have been fighting, though, and I haven’t been sleeping well.”
Caroline reached back and squeezed my knee. I felt guilty because I knew that I’d been the one hurting her feelings lately and here she was comforting me. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” I said.
“What are they fighting about?” Ava asked.
“I don’t know.” I’d already told them as much as I could. “Everything?”
“Ugh,” Ava said. “Well, you can stay at my house after Harper’s birthday party.”
“Harper’s birthday party?” My mom’s birthday had been a couple days ago, and after ditching my friends to celebrate with her it had been pointless.
We had a quiet, awkward dinner and an early bedtime.
I should’ve escaped to Caroline’s after all.
Maybe I could make up for it with this sleepover.
Try to mend things with them a little. Beau would come around.
Maybe when all the drama in my life was over and I could tell him everything that had happened.
Would I ever be able to tell him? Even when my dad was cleared?
“Yes,” she said. “Her party is tonight. Did you forget?”
I definitely had. “No. I still need to get her a present, though. What did you all get her?”
“Makeup,” Ava said.
“A gift card,” Caroline said.
Me and my empty bank account could get her neither of those things. I’d have to look through my room and see if there was anything I could regift.
“So are we having a slumber party tonight?” Ava asked.
“Yes,” I said.