The Unexpected Everything - Morgan Matson Page 0,113

talking to her. Palmer had won the last three Ping-Pong games and decided to quit while she was ahead, and we’d been lying on loungers next to each other while Tom and Clark tried to dive through the hole of the donut raft, often with disastrous results.

“I’ve got this,” Tom said as Bri steadied the donut in the water for him. “I’m just visualizing my victory. And—”

Clark didn’t let him finish, just pushed him in, and Tom belly flopped spectacularly, sending water flying.

“My hair!” Toby yelled, scrambling to her feet—and I could see she’d been squarely in the splash zone.

“Hey!” Tom said as he resurfaced, sputtering. “Not cool, man. I could have died.”

“Did you have to do that?” Toby snapped, glaring at Tom. “Really? I was trying to keep my hair dry—it’s the one thing I wanted, and you guys just—you just . . .” Toby’s voice broke, and as I watched in horror, she started to cry.

Bri was out of the pool lightning-fast, putting her arm around Toby’s shoulders and steering her toward the house. I looked at Palmer, who nodded and helped pull me to my feet.

“Um . . . I’m sorry,” Tom called, sounding baffled as to what was happening.

Palmer and I found them in the kitchen, where Toby was sobbing into a paper towel and Bri was rubbing her back. “Sorry about your hair,” I said, even though I knew it wasn’t about the hair.

Toby started to smile, but then gave up the attempt partway through and shook her head. “It’s so stupid.”

“It’s not,” Bri said immediately.

“I just keep thinking that one of these days he’ll look over and really see me, you know?” She wiped under her eyes, where mascara had started to streak down.

“I know,” Bri murmured, pulling her in for a hug. I mouthed She okay? to Bri, who gave me a small smile and nodded. I’ve got this, she mouthed back.

An hour later, things had calmed down somewhat. Toby had pulled herself together and had done a spectacular swan dive into the water, clearly giving up on her hair for the night. After a serious game of sharks and minnows earlier that had ended with Palmer doing victory hand stands in the shallow end, I was on a lounge chair with Clark. He was sitting behind me, and we were wrapped up in the same towel. Bri and Toby were sitting on the edge of the deep end together, feet dangling in the water, laughing. Palmer was floating on her back while Tom treaded water next to her, saying something that made her smile.

“Did I tell you?” I asked, shaking my head as I leaned back against Clark.

“You told me,” he said, leaning down and kissing a spot that I’d never even thought about before, but drove me crazy whenever he came near it, right on the edge of my shoulder. Over the course of many hours of making out, my formerly rigid boundaries—just kissing, and nothing more—had gotten a little fuzzier. Clark wasn’t the one pushing me—though he seemed thrilled every time we ventured just a little further from my self-imposed limits. It was mostly me—everything was just feeling so good and so right that I was having more and more trouble remembering why I’d decided that was all I could do.

“They’re never leaving,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I felt rather than heard Clark laugh behind me, and I leaned my head against his neck and closed my eyes for a moment—breathing it all in. The faint smell of chlorine on his skin, the way I could feel the pulse in his neck beating against my cheek, the soft terry of the towel around us. I looked up and saw the stars, and despite what had happened before, I felt really peaceful—Clark was next to me, I could hear my friends’ laughter so close, and I knew for a fact that there was an unopened bag of chips inside in case we got hungry later. It felt like a really perfect moment that nothing could ruin.

“Hey,” I heard Wyatt say, and I raised my head to see that he was sitting on a lounge chair across the pool from me, near Bri and Toby, and he had his guitar with him. “You guys mind if I jam out?”

“Sure,” Toby immediately replied, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Of course.”

“No,” I said, struggling to get up, only to have Clark tighten his arms around me. I