“Whatever,” Lacey replied.
“I was thinking about going for a walk on the beach or maybe sitting out there,” River suggested.
“It’ll be dark,” Cameron said.
“I’m okay with that,” River replied and glanced over at Kennedy, who didn’t look up from her plate.
???
“Do you want to come with me?” River asked Lacey in their room after dinner.
“To the beach? No, I’m good. I think I’d like to relax inside tonight.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked and grabbed her headphones out of her bag.
“I don’t know yet. I might try to play pool again. Cam is really terrible, so she asked if I could teach her if she teaches me air hockey. You can join us down there, if you want.”
“No, I’m good with my beach thing. Maybe later.”
“Well, be careful out there, okay?” Lacey said. “Maybe stick by the house. Don’t wander too far off.”
“I won’t.”
River smiled at her, and after checking her back pocket for her phone, she grabbed a towel she’d already pulled out of the linen closet and left the room.
Deciding that it would be faster that way and she could avoid running into other people, too, she went out the front door and headed around to the side path that led down to the beach. Before her feet hit the sand, she kicked off her shoes, choosing toleave them there, and walked down to the water until she found a spot that felt right. Then, she laid out her towel, sat down on it, put her headphones in, and turned on her relaxing playlist that she sometimes listened to while she worked. Instantly, she could almost smell melted sugar and strawberry because she reallyonlylistened to this playlist while she made candy. River lay down to be able to stare up at the night sky, but a minute later, she saw someone standing over her. She pulled out her headphones and smiled up at Kennedy.
“Hey.”
“Hey. Mind some company?” Kennedy asked.
“You’d have to share a towel,” she replied and sat back up. “Is that okay?”
“Fine with me,” Kennedy said. “Turn it sideways, and we can both face the ocean.”
River stood, turned the towel, and when they sat down, she tried not to think about how close Kennedy was to her now or how close they’d been to one another for most of the day. Instead, she focused on turning off her music and putting her headphones away.
“Needed a breather?” Kennedy asked.
“You could say that.”
“Me too,” Kennedy shared.
“You know I didn’t mean that I wanted to leave when I said that I wanted to go earlier. I only meant that I wanted to leave dinner, not leavehere.”
“But we all leave tomorrow, don’t we?” Kennedy said.
“Yes.”
“And you go home to that apartment Lacey doesn’t like.”
River laughed and replied, “And you go home to that houseyou, apparently, decorated without a game room for Cameron.”
“Hey, I didn’t tell you that so that it would be thrown back against me,” Kennedy said and bumped her shoulder.
“How bad is it for you two?”
“What do you mean?”
