Queen of Cool Grandmas. Seriously. She’s the one who taught me how to drive. And I’m talking, like floor-your-car-to-the-max kind of driving. She taught me how to swim too, in a pool that was closed. We had to sneak in through this hole in the fence. She even let me try beer for the first time.” I pause, realizing something. “You know, without her, I might have ended up lacking a lot of necessary life skills. Well, beside the drinking-the-beer part. I don’t think that’s a life skill.”
“Oh, that can be a life skill,” he assures me with a devious grin, and I repress one of my own, not wanting to encourage him. “She does sound pretty cool, though.”
I bob my head up and down in agreement, fully aware of how lucky I am to be going on this trip with the coolest grandma ever.
“You’ll have to post some pictures so I can see all the awesome things you do on this trip,” Kai says, squinting against the sunlight.
I snort a laugh. “Oh, Kai, and your silly little jokes. We both know I’m not cool enough for social media.”
“That wasn’t meant to be a joke.” He stuffs his hand into his pocket and retrieves his phone. “But if you’re really that anti-social, then I’ll give you my number and you can send all of your awesome photos to me. It’ll make me feel special too.”
I roll my eyes, but give him my number so he can text me his. I don’t really think he’s going to do it, but two seconds later, my phone vibrates from inside the pocket of my jeans.
“Have fun on your trip. And I mean that, Isa. Have fun. You deserve it, more than anyone.” He gives me a strange look as he puts his phone away, like he can’t quite figure something out, then swiftly clears his throat. “Yeah, but the whole point of me coming over here was to give you a little advice.”
I pull a wary face. “I’m not sure I want to hear your advice.”
He offers me one of his infamous sexy, playful pouts. “Why not?”
“Because . . .” I sigh heavy-heartedly when his sexy, playful pout turns into genuine sulking. “Fine. You can give me advice, just as long as it’s not an ‘It’ll Get Better After High School’ speech. I don’t want to hear any of those. I’ve heard too many of those kinds of speeches.”
“It’s not one of those. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle through Hannah’s eye.” He draws an X across his chest, giving me a lopsided grin.
I can’t help but grin goofily back at him. “I’m surprised you remember that.”
“Of course I remember that. We used to say it all the time.”
“Yeah, but that was a long time ago, back when we were actually kind of friends.”
An awkward quiet fills the air between us as the past hovers over our heads.
See, once upon a time, Kai and I used to hang out. And not in the way Kyler and I hung out for a few weekends while I helped him improve his free shot skills and he opened up to me once. Unlike Kyler, Kai and I were actually friends. Well, sort of. For most of seventh grade, he walked home with me after school. He always seemed sad about something as we strolled up the sidewalk toward his house. While I could never figure out what had him feeling so blue, I did learn some stuff about him that no one else knew. Like he’s secretly into comic books. Likes zombie movies. And listens to 80s punk rock.
During the time we spent together, I always tried to cheer him up—it was the least I could do for him for not being too embarrassed to walk home with me. Sometimes my jokes made him smile. Other times, he seemed too stuck in his head. But even if the walk was filled with quietness, it was nice to have a friend.
After a few months of walking home together, he started hanging out with me on weekends. We’d mostly stay in my room, and sometimes we’d go to the park. I was really starting to believe we had a chance at becoming real, seen-in-public friends. But then came the dreaded day when one of his friends caught us hanging out at the park, and he started making fun of Kai for ‘being in love with a loser’. Kai panicked and told his