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I turned back to Harper. “How are things with Brody?”
She eyed me. In her pause, I realized I’d jumped from complaining about my relationship with Sawyer to asking her about her relationship with her boyfriend. Basically, I’d admitted I liked Sawyer way more than I should.
If Harper read my mind, though, she kept it to herself, as usual. She said enthusiastically, “Things are good with Brody.”
“Have you . . .” I winked at her.
She looked around us—with good reason. Half the girls on this van had dated Brody in the past. Satisfied that they were involved in their own confabs, she said quietly, “Not yet. I did get on the pill, like I told you, but I still don’t think I’m ready.”
“That’s okay,” I assured her. Harper had never dated anyone for long. Suddenly becoming the steady girlfriend of one of the most popular guys in school must have been a shock to the system.
“But we’ve . . .” She bit her lip and looked guilty.
“You’ve what?” I insisted.
“Done stuff I can’t tell you about on the cheerleader van.” She raised her eyebrows knowingly.
“Sounds serious.”
“I guess we’re pretty serious. But serious makes it sound like we’re under pressure, when we’re the opposite. My dates with other guys have been ex-cru-ci-a-ting. So awkward. Now”—she shrugged—“I’m just making out with my cool new friend. And really enjoying it.”
“Have you thought about what you’re doing after graduation?” I asked. “Will you try to stay together?”
“We’re both applying in state, mostly. Oh!” She gripped my arm. “A scout from the University of Florida came to the game tonight to see Brody and Noah play.”
“That’s fantastic!” Brody was the best quarterback our school had scored in years. Noah was the right guard who kept him from getting sacked—or tried to. The opposing team tonight had been tough. Despite Noah’s efforts, Brody had landed on his ass a couple of times. “What did the scout think?”
“He told Coach he’s impressed. What if Brody got to play for the Gators? And I’m sending Florida my portfolio. They have a killer journalism department. Maybe I’ll get a scholarship out of it.” She held up her hands. “It might not work out, but we’re trying to go with whatever happens. It’s not a definite plan, like you and Aidan applying to Columbia together.”
“Right.” After all my pining after Sawyer tonight, I still needed to make up with Aidan. The thought made me a little ill.
“I hear you and Aidan had a problem in the student council meeting today,” she said. “Good thing you’re sleeping over with me. We’ll talk through what happened. Or help you forget about him, whichever.”
“Yeah.” I did look forward to spending the night at Harper’s tiny cottage where she lived with her mom, behind their huge Victorian bed-and-breakfast. Harper and Tia and I didn’t have much time left together. We’d be going to different colleges next August. And if Tia and Will both got into drum corps like they wanted, we wouldn’t see much of her past June.
But tonight I would get to hear about Tia’s night in marching band with Will, her polar opposite. I would hear more about the mysterious experiments Harper and Brody had been performing on each other. If I couldn’t pry the details out of Harper, Tia would. And they would ask about Aidan and me, kissing and making up and then exploding again in the student council drama . . . but they would be reserved with their questions. I could tell their enthusiasm about my relationship with Aidan had waned over the years. Kind of like Aidan’s own enthusiasm, and mine.
That was normal when two people had been dating for all of high school. Aidan and I had something good together and, moreover, long term and stable. Hardly anybody else in our school could say that. It didn’t make sense for us to break up just because we’d been dating forever and there might be someone better around the corner—like Sawyer, of all people. That kind of search would drive a person crazy.
Harper leaned toward me to whisper, “There will be a surprise waiting for you when you come over.”
“Oooh, what is it?” I couldn’t imagine. Her parents’ divorce was finally going forward, which she said was good. But her mom had a hard time keeping the B and B afloat. There was definitely not any redecorating going on.
Harper looked around the van again before she said, “Sawyer.”
I felt the blood rush to my face and goose bumps break out on my arms in the air-conditioned van. “What do you mean, Sawyer?”
“You know,” Harper said, “he and his dad have been living in a rental house on the same street as my granddad.”
“No, I didn’t know.” It made sense that Sawyer lived near our little downtown, which enabled him to get drunk outside the Crab Lab, then walk to our friends’ parties and then home without getting behind the wheel and killing anyone. But I’d never given a lot of thought to where home was for him. He just appeared.
“He had a big fight with his dad a few nights ago,” she said, “and he left. He stayed with my granddad at first. They know each other because Sawyer cuts my granddad’s grass. Anyway—”
“How could Sawyer leave?” I’d had some huge fights with my mother before, but it had never crossed my mind to sleep at someone else’s house because of it.
