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“What are you guys doing out here so late?” Jack said, wandering up to sit down on the bank with them. His legs were longer than Paul’s. His feet accidentally plunged into the water. He groaned and scooted back a few inches. “Gross. The grass is still wet. Anybody got a blanket?”
Paul shook his head. “Shoulda brought one if it bothers you so much. You too good to get your butt wet?” He sounded impatient, out of character for him. Sally and Jack just studied him, their gazes meeting over Paul’s lap. The difference is Jack frowned while Sally swallowed a smile. Paul always defended her, even when Jack didn’t notice.
“What’s your problem?” Jack asked him.
Paul threw a blade of grass into the creek, watching as it landed on the surface and floated away. “My problem is you laughed at Sally today.”
Jack’s mouth dropped in indignation. “I did not. What Laura said was mean.”
Paul plucked another blade and twisted it between his fingers. “At least we agree on that. It was mean. Laura Kennedy is a jealous brat. But you still laughed. I saw you, and so did Sally.”
Jack’s outrage transferred to both of them, his eyes darting back and forth. “You’ve been out here talking about me?”
Paul tossed the blade of grass down. “Nope. Sally hasn’t said a word. She didn’t have to, because I saw you. You laughed, and I didn’t like it.”
“Paul…” Sally whispered, uncomfortable with the confrontation.
“Someone’s got to defend you. Might as well be me.” Sally stopped talking then. It was nice to be defended, though she hated that it was against Jack. Sally had always had a soft spot for Jack, but sometimes he treated her like an unwanted toy in a pile for Goodwill. Sometimes he picked her up in a moment of weakness, but usually, he left her in a heap unless Paul was paying attention. Jack only wanted something when someone else had it.
“Might as well be me,” Jack mimicked in the way he always did when he got caught and didn’t know what to say. “It’s always you defending her, even when she didn’t ask you to. I didn’t laugh no matter what you say.”
Paul shrugged. “Alright, you didn’t laugh. Just remember that next time it happens, I’ll be watching to make sure you don’t laugh again.”
It’s a bold statement that makes Jack stand up in a huff. “Fine, watch then. And you’ll see that you’re wrong. I’m going home. You two can stay out here and freeze to death if you want, but my mom bought a chocolate cake, and I’m going to eat some. See you tomorrow at school.”
While Jack stomped off, Sally’s mouth watered. Cake. It’d been so long since she had any that she almost forgot what one tasted like. She wondered what Paul was thinking because even though he wasn’t nearly as poor as her, she knew he wasn’t rich enough for cake. At least not the store-bought kind. They sat side by side for a long moment, each of them thinking of Jack’s parting words.
“I hope he chokes on it,” Paul finally whispered. It broke the tension, and Sally giggled. Soon they were both laughing, wishing Jack would choke on the one thing they both desperately wanted but couldn’t manage to have. “Want to come get some leftover lemon bread on your way home? My mom baked some this morning, and I cut a piece for you. Hid it in the barn when no one was looking right before I walked down here. I woulda given it to you already if you had waited for me like you were supposed to.”
Inwardly, Sally smiled. Lemon bread wasn’t cake, but it was close. And it sure enough wasn’t pancakes. “I’ll come get some. But first…” She felt her face heat at the words she was about to say.
“But first, what?”
She looked down at her feet, knowing she couldn’t avoid the subject. He wouldn’t leave until she came out with it. Besides, it had been three days already, and she couldn’t wait for another one.
“I came down here to take a bath. That’s why I didn’t wait for you. Because I couldn’t.”
She heard him swallow, felt his mortification grow up and out until it was tangled in a mess with hers.
“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “You were gonna do that out here, all by yourself?”
She didn’t say she didn’t have a choice, just blinked at him, quietly hoping he wouldn’t ask her anything else.
“Okay, well, you go ahead and take one. But I won’t leave. I won’t watch either, but I’ll wait over here behind that tree. Think you can hurry? I’m supposed to be home in a few minutes, and I don’t want my pa to come looking for me.”
Sally froze, uncertain what to do. On the one hand, she hated being out here alone in the dark. As much as she thought it might be nice if the tree monsters ran off with her, she didn’t want that to happen anymore. Sometimes her mind lived in fairy tales, but her body preferred the real world. On the other hand, what if his pa found them out here with her in the creek. Even worse than that, what if Paul looked? She couldn’t bear to think of him seeing her. It was bad enough when people looked at her fully clothed in the daylight. Undressed in the dark would reveal secrets she didn’t want to share.
“Sally, I promise I won’t look. See?” Paul scooted around a big willow tree with a trunk the size of a tire and covered his eyes with his hands. “I’ll sit just like this and won’t move a muscle. Just…hurry.”
She hesitated only a second before running to the creek’s edge and stripping off her overalls, and diving headfirst into the water.
“Sally?” Paul said, his voice a little louder than it should be if he was still staring straight ahead and away from her.
“Don’t look at me!” she yelled back at him, panicked.
“I’m not looking at you, I swear. But do you have any soap? I didn’t see any with you.”
She hated to say no, to admit that even when she tried to get clean, she didn’t have any real way to do it. So, she said nothing at all.
