Chapter 25 Playlist Obviously
TWO DAYS LATER I’M walking along the beach to my lunch shift at Pearl’s when Kat FaceTimes me. I’m early as usual, so I pause near a couple of huge boulders and find a smooth section to sit on before I swipe to answer.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hi.” She’s in her dad’s apartment. It’s quiet, which is unusual. The few times we’ve done this throughout the summer, she’s been somewhere outside or with at least two other people. Her smile’s a little off too.
“Make it back okay?” I ask, even though it’s obvious she did.
That day at Summerfest, we met back up a few hours after what I’m now calling the Grilled Cheese Incident to watch the volleyball tournament.
Shelby was with me, and Ruby and Julian joined us too.
Other Kingfisher High classmates continued to cycle by when they heard Kat was back, but none of them stayed long.
While I’ll admit it was no hardship watching Gregory play volleyball—especially after he tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it off to the side, because he’s objectively good-looking and has a nice body—he…
How do I put it delicately? He sucked. Bad.
Their team was out after two games. My dad was grumpy for three days, but Gregory was completely unbothered.
He came right over and sat with us, breathing hard and smiling, ready to cheer on other teams for the rest of the tournament.
Felicity tried flirting with him again, and he somehow ignored her while also being perfectly polite about it. It was impressive.
Kat and Felicity went back to Kat’s mom’s after that, and I didn’t see them again before they drove back to Pinecrest the next morning. It was nothing like the visit I’d expected at the beginning of the summer.
“Yeah,” Kat says. “Did you have fun?”
I nod, but say, “It was… different this year, for sure.”
“Yeah,” Kat agrees. “It was.”
She doesn’t say anything else for a long moment, and I just wait. Despite our growing distance over the last few months, I know Kat well enough to know she called for a specific reason.
“I’m sorry,” she blurts.
That, I was not expecting. “Really?”
She grimaces. “Yeah. It might seem like I haven’t noticed, but I do realize I’ve been kind of an asshole.”
I’m not altogether sure how expansive we’re talking about, here.
“Like, about the sandwich thing?” I ask.
“Well, yeah, that’s part of it. That wasn’t cool of me.
I shouldn’t have told them it was my recipe.
It’s just… I made it that day you sent it to me, and while I paid for it in the bathroom later, it reminded me how freaking good it is.
So I made it for some other girls, and they were so impressed…
and they don’t know you… so I just let them assume I came up with it. I’m sorry.”
“I mean, it is impressive,” I say, smiling a little.
She quirks an answering grin, but only for a few seconds. “But I guess I’m also apologizing for being a bad friend this summer.”
“Oh.”
“I know I kind of went MIA. Even though I wanted to go for the tennis part, those first couple of days were harder than I expected. Maybe it was selfish of me, but it was easier to stay busy and lean into making new friends than to miss my best friend and be lonely. I guess I didn’t really think about how that would feel for you. ”
“It wasn’t great,” I admit. “It was pretty awful for a while, actually.”
“I’m sorry,” she says again, her voice a little shaky.
“It’s okay,” I say. “I mean, it still sucks that you left, but I want you to do what you need to do for your future. I just don’t want us to lose touch and stop being friends, you know?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t either. We won’t, I promise. I won’t disappear again.”
“Okay. Good.”
“But I’ve gotta say,” she says, lifting a brow, “it sort of seems like you’ve ended up making even more friends with me gone…?”
“Gregory doesn’t count,” I immediately say.
Kat snorts, and the familiarity of it is a balm to my soul. I really have missed her. “Oh, he counts. The hot new kid in town is, like, obsessed with you!”
“If by that you mean ‘obsessed with pissing me off,’ yes. You’re right.”
“He’s a teenage guy. Isn’t that standard-issue crush behavior?”
I shrug. “Flirty is just his default setting. I don’t think he means anything real by it.”
She looks at me like, Come on. “He means something by it. I think he means a lot of things by it. And I also don’t think you mind one bit.”
“What?” I sputter. “I’m not into Gregory like that.”
“Amelia. Two months away doesn’t mean I don’t know you better than anyone else, and you’re completely different with him than any other guy I’ve seen you around.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“I don’t know… It’s like something came alive in you the second he showed up. Whenever we used to go out with other people, you withdrew a little bit, you know? But with him you were comfortable in a way I’ve only ever seen you with, well… me, I guess.”
“Maybe that’s because he’s become such a good friend?” I’m not sure why it comes out like a question.
“Maybe,” she says, but I can tell she doesn’t believe it. “You two are also very… physical. You’re always touching.”
I consider that for a second, and realize she’s right. “It’s just easy with him.”
Kat cocks a brow. “Um, exactly my point.” Her eyebrow drops, and she frowns a little, leaning in like she’s looking closer at her screen. “Did you really not know you’re into him? Because it’s pretty obvious to the rest of us.”
I blink. Is that true? It’s obvious to everyone else?
Is it obvious to Myles?
“I… don’t know?”
She just stares at me.
I say nothing else.
“Fine,” Kat says with a sigh. “I won’t push you. But he seems really nice. And he’s protective of you. I mean, dude got pretty pissed at me about your sandwich.”
“I made it for him once. I think he’d put it up for a James Beard Award if he could.”
“It was kind of adorable.”
I kick my feet in the sand. “He sucks at volleyball,” I point out. “Plus, he’s moving back to Arizona when school starts.”
“What? No! That sucks.”
I frown, because it really does. More than I even realized.
“But I have to agree about the volleyball part,” Kat says, laughing. “He’s no Myles Ford, not that it would matter.”
I stiffen a little at her mention of Myles, and I hope she didn’t notice. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, just that Myles may be good at volleyball, but you wouldn’t date him anyway. With the pact and all.”
A boulder drops in my gut, twisting my insides into a mess of shame.
A breeze comes through and ruffles my hair, and I lift my eyes a little above the screen to the blue sky.
What if I came clean? Just ripped off the bandage and told her the truth? It’s probably a good time, now that we’ve decided to make sure our friendship stays intact.
“About Myles…,” I start.
She’s looking at me through the screen, waiting, even when I pause. “Yeah? What about Myles?”
I swallow. I can feel my heart beating in my throat.
God, I can’t do it. “I… hear he’s thinking about going to USC for college. Where his brother Matt went?”
“Really? I wouldn’t have thought he’d go so far away. But you know, the surfing is pretty awesome over there.”
I force a laugh, trying to keep my hands steady. “If anyone would pick college based on the wave quality, it’s Myles Ford.”
“Totally.” She doesn’t seem suspicious at all. “Did he tell you that at work or something?”
“Yeah,” I say, hoping it sounds casual. Relaxed. “All of us servers chat during downtime. Well, except for Anders.”
“Who’s Anders?”
It’s a testament to how little we’ve talked this summer that she doesn’t yet know about the strange but lovable old guy at Pearl’s with the mystery tattoo.
I spend the next ten minutes trying my best both to describe him and make sure she’s a fan, because pretty much all of us are.
He’s one of those crotchety people you can’t help but adore.
I bet Gregory will be exactly like him someday.
When I realize what time it is, I tell her I’d better go so I’m not late to work. She promises to text me later, and this time I believe her.
But even if we made a small repair to our friendship today, I worry it won’t last long.
Because I’ll have to tell her about Myles at some point, and unless she miraculously decides to dissolve the pact or discovers a deep well of forgiveness neither of us knew she had, we’ll be worse off than before.