I look up. “Oh. Um—” My voice retreats to the bottom of my throat. I pull out my laptop and plug it into the projector. Gilbert Baker’s mysterious drawing fills up the back wall, the woman’s boxy floral dress covering Cam’s face. He gets up from his trial chair and stands to one side of the screen.
“We found the clock, bear, snake, and octopus,” Cam says for me. He points at the clock on the screen. “That’s a fountain hidden near Coit Tower. And the bear, snake, and octopus are on a monument downtown near Union Square. Ivy found the fountain yesterday. I remembered seeing the monument.”
I notice he doesn’t tell the others we found and remembered both of those things while together.
Gabriel nods. “Okay. This is good. So it is a map, then.”
“It’s not,” I say. “The three landmarks don’t make any sense spatially. They’re not connected.”
“So let’s figure out all the others,” Sunny says. “Once we know what everything means, I’ll bet the picture will get clearer.I can research the woman with the dress. Julia, you can get the eagle and shield. Gabriel, can you do that gross floating head in the sink?”
“On it,” Gabriel says. He powers up his desktop computer.
“Okay, then that leaves the sad little naked ladies for Ivy.”
Cam raises his hand. “I can work with Ivy on the sad naked ladies.”
Somehow this entire conversation has gotten miles away from me.
“No.” Sunny points a finger at Cam. “You’re not officially in this group. Not yet, at least.”
He looks down, crestfallen.
“Come on, guys,” I say softly. “Cam gave us the key to the poem. He figured out the Golden Gate Bridge and the octopus. Plus, he and I were talking earlier, and we were thinking that tomorrow maybe we all could—”
“I vote no,” Julia says. She sets down her pen and looks at the rest of us. “I don’t think Cam should get to stay.”
“What?” Cam lifts his eyebrows.
Gabriel swivels away from his computer. “I also vote no.” He looks directly at Cam. “The Friends of Dorothy Treasure Hunting Brigade—which I might have just renamed our group—is fabulous and gay, yes. But we’re also friends first and foremost. Cam, no offense, but you don’t really exude friend energy. You’re a little too sneaky and self-obsessed. You don’t fit our vibe.”
I raise my hand and step forward. “Well, I vote yes. AndI’m technically editor in chief of the Friends of Dorothy Treasure Hunting Brigade, so if there’s a tie, I’m breaking it.”
We all turn and look at Sunny. She stares reproachfully at Cam, then makes eye contact with me.
“Sorry,” she murmurs. She shakes her head slightly. “I just don’t think he deserves to be here.”
A ball of lead settles in the pit of my stomach. For some reason, it feels like I just got kicked out of the group too. Or at least a part of me.
Without a word, Cam picks up his messenger bag and heads back up the stairs. As I watch him take step after step, I start to feel like a circus act: the Elastic Woman, stretched from one group to another. I grab my own backpack and run after him.
“Cam, wait!”
By the time I reach the top of the stairs, he’s already at the far end of the hallway, leaning against the side exit. I keep running until I’ve closed the distance between us. I can see how flustered and hurt he looks now that I’m right in front of him. His vulnerability makes my chest ache. I’m reminded of when we were kids, open to the world in a way you can never be again once you’ve been properly hurt. It never occurred to me until now that Cam’s closed himself off too. That he’s been badly hurt too.
“We can still do this,” I say, breathless. “You and me. Tomorrow.”
Cam looks at me, confused. “What does that mean? Are you leaving your own team?”
I shrug. “I don’t know, Cam. I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe, if we figure this thing out, everyone will change their minds. And they’ll want you back in.”
His eyes flash with some expression I don’t fully recognize. His pupils dilate slightly.
“Is that what you want?” he asks me.
I nod. Cam opens his mouth to say something else, but before he gets the words out, we hear steps echoing across the linoleum floor. Sunny appears at the top of the stairwell.
“See you tomorrow, then,” Cam whispers. He ducks out of the side door.
