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Meanwhile, all three girls give me more curious glances.
Once his attention is focused back on the group, Zoey leans in closer to Sebastian. “The water slide was epic, by the way,” she says, clutching the edges of her sleeves with the tips of her fingers.
“Yeah.” Seb rolls his eyes, still grinning. “Sorry it got shut down so fast.”
“So, did you get suspended again for—”
“Oh my God, you guys, check out the sky right now!” Lisa squeals. And we all turn and look behind us.
She’s right; it’s stunning. The sun is just setting, and it’s one of those pinkish-purple streaked skies, with the pastel colors reflecting off the waves. Even the sand is a pinkish hue.
“Wow… That pink is so pretty,” Zoey says breathlessly.
“The soft pink happens when sunlight gets scattered by air molecules. It’s called Rayleigh scattering,” I say.
And then immediately regret it. Because I’m pretty sure this kind of small-talk does not fall anywhere within the realm of that “semi-normal peer interaction” I was talking about earlier.
There’s a sudden heavy silence from everyone.
And then Seb lets out one of his full-bodied laughs. “Seriously? How do yourememberthis stuff?” He shakes his head, seemingly impressed. He turns to the other girls, who look from Sebastian to me, then back to Sebastian with slightly dumbfounded expressions.
“Caro’s crazy smart,” he tells them, apparently oblivious to the awkwardness in the air. “Like, ‘could probably win Jeopardy!’ level smart.” He knocks my arm lightly with his elbow. “Tell them the weird marshmallow facts you were telling me in the car.”
Now I’m the one with the dumbfounded expression. Did he seriously just ask me to repeat even more dorky facts in front of these girls?
“Uh, I don’t think—”
“Caro. Come on, at least tell them the astronaut thing.”
So of course, I have no choice but to do just that. And to my total shock, all three girls burst out laughing.
“Oh my God, that is the weirdest freaking thing ever! For real they do that?”
I shrug. “I guess so.”
“That’s awesome!” Lisa says. “What are the other marshmallow facts?”
“Really?” I ask. Because I can’t believe they actually want to hear more.
“Yeah. Totally.”
So, I tell them about Althaiophobia, and about the fact that the marshmallow is actually a plant. And they gobble it up, just like Sebastian did.
“Anyway,” Sebastian finally says. “We’re gonna head. We’ll see you guys later.”
Only Lisa insists on taking a selfie of all of us in front of the pink sunset before we go. Sebastian slings one arm around me, and Zoey has her arm around me on my other side. And everything about this moment—this whole evening—feels totally surreal. I duck my head to the side a bit, at the last minute, behind Sebastian, so hopefully you won’t be able to see me in the photo.
“See you guys later!”
“Have fun at Scoopies!”
“Bye, Sebby!” The girls call as we cross back over to the other side of the street. And as I step through the door that Sebastian holds open for me, I hear one of the girls squeal behind us, “Oh myGod,he is so flipping hot!”
My eyes dart to Sebastian, curious if he heard, too. And his gaze meets mine.
“What?” he says with a devilish smirk. “She’s not wrong.”
I burst out laughing. And the door closes behind us.
