Between Us and the Moon - Rebecca Maizel Page 0,77
got in town at the local pharmacy. I’ve seen Scarlett wear that style before.
“I bet you will hear from him,” I say. “He seemed really into you.”
“Every summer I meet a guy and I think we’ll stay in touch, but we never do.” She slides down her chair, crosses one leg over the other, and brings a hand to her chest. She says in a very heavy Southern accent, “As the leaves change color and fade away, so does summer love.”
I laugh. “Hey! That was pretty good!”
She sits back up. “What the hell happened when you left the other night? Did you break it to that guy that you’re not into him?”
I can hide my eyes behind my sunglasses, but my nose scrunches up when I say, “I kind of . . .” I roll my eyes at myself even though Claudia can’t see it. “I just said all of that stuff in front of you guys . . .” I groan and hide my face in my hands. “I didn’t mean it. I was nervous or something. It was so stupid.”
“Nervous about what?” she asks.
“That you wouldn’t like me or something. So I just showed off. I am actually completely into this guy.”
“He’s hot,” she says. “Who wouldn’t be?”
The sound of families talking and kids yelling from the shore fills the uncomfortable silence.
“Why didn’t you think we would like you?” Claudia asks.
I chuckle but shake my head at myself. “I’m not—I’m not the most popular girl in school,” I finally say. “I have friends and everything, I just don’t have anything to say to those girls.”
The name Becky is on the tip of my tongue.
“You thought I was one of those girls?”
Dad’s words about me assuming people don’t like me swirls through my head again. I don’t want Claudia to be offended.
“No. No. I don’t mean a snob or anything. I just thought you seemed—cool. And I wouldn’t know how to hang out with you.”
“Girlfriend!” she says and leans forward to me. “I am cool.” We share a laugh.
“You don’t think I’m lame?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “I never know what to say to people. I just act all dramatic, quote plays and movies, and try to be funny so I don’t have to try to think of original things to say.”
It seems amazing to me that Claudia would be worried about how to fit in with other people. She seems so confident. I like that we both have no idea who to be all the time.
“So . . . ,” she says and sips on a water. “Tell me what the hell happened! What’s his name? What’s he like?”
“Well,” I say. “His name is Andrew . . .”
I tell Claudia the whole story but purposefully leave out the lie about MIT and my age. Just like I did for Ettie, I shave off two years so she doesn’t know Andrew’s real age. As I talk, she leans in, laughs, and asks me to tell her how he kisses. This is like having Ettie here, but different because Claudia has already dated a few guys. I wouldn’t trade Ettie for anything but Claudia is great too.
We finally get to the part about Curtis and last night.
“How’s your wrist now?” she asks.
“Okay, it’s just a little sore.”
“If I were there I would have kicked his ass for you.”
We laugh again and split some homemade sandwiches.
“Are you going to be okay?” she says.
“Yea, I just need to think it through more.”
“I would too,” Claudia says.
As I bite into my ham and cheese, I think maybe, just maybe for real this time, I’ve made a new friend.
TWENTY-THREE
THAT EVENING, RIGHT AROUND THE TIME THE traffic leaving the beach is over a mile long, I slide into the passenger seat next to Andrew.
“Am I your girlfriend?” I ask plainly.
Andrew nearly spits out his soda. He swallows and looks over at me, laughing.
“I don’t know; do you want to be?”
“You beat up your friend. You punched him because of me. One would logically deduce that I am your girlfriend.”
The smile is gone instantaneously.
“I punched him because no one in their right mind should ever grab another person the way he did. No one should talk to you the way he did.”
Oh.
“And because you’re my girlfriend. I mean, if you want to be?”
“You know I do.”
He leans in and kisses me, and I can taste the Coke. His lips are cold from the icy soda can.