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I hiked into the office with Harper behind me and told the salesman we wanted to go for a test drive, carefully listing the make and model rather than saying “that red car.” I sat in the back while Harper drove and the salesman rode shotgun. It sounded like a car to me. I couldn’t vouch for the engine, but at least the sale included a warranty. Around closing time Harper and I drove back toward downtown in separate cars.
We both pulled in to the movie theater parking lot just as Tia and Chelsea were walking out. They oohed over Harper’s new ride and over how smart she’d been to ask me along. Despite myself, I beamed with pride. My mother might not think I had much sense, but somebody did.
“We’re glad you came by.” Chelsea grabbed my arm. “Aidan is in the movie,” she said in a stage whisper, “with . . . guess who.”
“Angelica!” I said.
“I have a theory about what old Angelica’s up to,” Tia said conspiratorially. “She dated DeMarcus last summer. Then Xavier. Now Aidan. She’s systematically cycling through all the likely candidates for valedictorian. She even hedged her bet by going out with Will once, just in case he comes from behind and pulls off a long shot. So you know who’s next!” She looked pointedly at me.
I said in my best redneck accent, “Shee-yut, I ain’t wasting no time with that girl. I hear she don’t put out.”
“Is sex all you care about?” Tia shrieked, putting the back of her hand to her forehead and pretending to swoon, at the same time Chelsea said, “You are a shallow, sexist person.” Harper snorted.
“Speaking of putting out,” I said, “why are all of your menfolks missing at one time?”
“They’re with your man,” Chelsea said. “Didn’t you know that?”
“What?” I asked, glancing from Chelsea to Tia, who was giving me shifty-eyes, to Harper, who looked downright alarmed. I prompted them, “DeMarcus and Will and Brody are all with Sawyer?”
“Well, you’re obviously not supposed to find that out,” Chelsea said self-righteously. She slapped the back of Tia’s head. “Thanks for warning me before I blabbed.”
“You already blabbed it to Aidan and Angelica,” Tia said. “Could I have stopped you?”
I raised my brows at Tia, waiting for an explanation.
Exasperated, she said, “Sawyer is so in love with you.”
Harper nodded vigorously at me. “He is.”
Again I looked from one of them to the other. I’d been to this movie theater and stood in this parking lot a hundred times in my life, but suddenly the everyday scene seemed foreign because my heart was pounding and my life was shifting around me. I put one hand up to my face and repeated, “He’s in love with me?”
“That’s why he moved out of his dad’s house in the first place,” Tia said. “His dad said something about you that Sawyer didn’t like.”
I didn’t ask what that something had been. I knew. For a white person insulting a black person, that something was always the same. The only part of this revelation making no sense to me was the timing. “Sawyer moved out before Aidan even broke up with me.”
Tia and Harper nodded solemnly. And that meant Sawyer had been into me, intensely enough that his mean dad knew about it, before we’d even doubled down on toying with each other.
“Why doesn’t he act like he’s in love with me?” I cried. “I threw myself at him last night, and he dissed me. Again! ”
I must have sounded hysterical. Harper put a hand on my shoulder. Tia said as gently as she could, “He’s terrified, Kaye. He doesn’t want to start something with you. He’s certain it won’t work out.”
“Well, it’s too late. He’s already started it!” I exclaimed. “And why are y’all keeping me in the dark about this?”
“I promised him,” Tia said solemnly.
“I promised him too,” Harper chimed in.
“I had no knowledge of any of this shit,” Chelsea said.
“Where are the boys?” I demanded, turning to Harper. “Are they at your granddad’s beach?”
Harper looked at Tia hopelessly. They were at her granddad’s beach, all right.
I headed around Harper’s car to reach mine.
“Don’t go to the beach,” Tia pleaded.
“Why not?” I asked, opening my door. “Are they drinking?”
“Will’s not.” She was stalling. Will didn’t drink.
“Is Sawyer drinking?” I clarified. “Because that would be a great way for me to get over him. Problem solved.” I started my engine.
I already knew I wouldn’t be catching him by surprise, though. Before I’d driven out of the parking lot, Tia was on her phone.
As I drove the few short blocks down the main road through town, my mind raced with everything that was happening behind my back. I could hardly comprehend it all. Sawyer was in love with me. He wanted to be with me. But he was afraid I would break his heart. All my best friends knew. He’d gone drinking down at the beach to find solace with his guy friends. And he was content to leave me at home, out of the loop, innocently obsessing over The Red Badge of Courage. Was he even worth the trouble?
I pulled onto the sandy road that led to Harper’s granddad’s property, punched in the combination to open the gate, slowly drove through, and pulled the gate shut behind me. My car crept through the palm grove. No trucks were parked ahead of me. Possibly the boys had left when Tia sounded the alarm. More likely, especially if they were drinking, they’d walked here from their houses downtown.
