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“Yeah it is. Look at his gaze trained on you. I never had a chance.” Kimber poked my side. “For my sake, lick his face for real. And soon.”
My face flamed, just in time for Isaac to sit down on the bench next to me.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” we all responded.
Isaac’s knee bumped mine under the table. “Everything’s good now?”
“Yep. We’re fine,” I said.
“Sisters before misters has been in force a long time,” Kimber added, ever so helpfully.
The silence that followed only broke when Ally couldn’t hold her laughter in another second.
“Anyone want gum?” I asked, pulling my purse onto my lap and desperately searching for my pack of mint gum, and something else to focus on for the moment. I found my pack of bubble mint in one of the pockets and handed pieces around. “So, um. I told them we were pen pals as kids.”
“That’s good.” I could tell he meant it, but I saw the way his expression turned troubled for a moment. He was thinking about his regrets.
I hadn’t mentioned any of that to Kimber and Ally, nor did I intend to. Lots of people lost contact with old friends. I stole the gum wrapper out of his hand and smoothed it out against the edge of the table. “Isaac didn’t want to be pen pals with a girl at first.”
Just as I expected, he immediately took offense. “That is not true. You assumed I didn’t want to be pen pals with a girl because of that whiny kid in your class. I just wanted to know if you had any cool scars.”
“Which I didn’t.”
Isaac picked up my hand and examined it. “What’s this one then?” He traced a faint line going down my thumb from my nail line into my first knuckle, and I concentrated on not letting my face react to his touch.
“I lost a fight with an apple I was cutting in half. I was fourteen or fifteen.”
“Ouch.” Isaac’s fingers continued to trace over it, and I met Ally’s raised eyebrows across the table with a look of nonchalance.
“What was Carmen like as a little kid?” she asked.
Isaac glanced up and smiled. “How much time do we have?”
I took my hand back and crossed my arms. “Remember, I have dirt on you, too.” But we both knew it was an empty threat. For every story I had on Isaac, he had two better stories about me. My childhood misadventures were numerous and well-documented, thanks to all the letters, emails, and texts we’d sent back and forth.
Isaac rubbed his jaw as he thought. “Carmen’s a big fan of April Fool’s Day. Did you know that?”
Knowing exactly where he was going with this, I pinched his arm, but he scooted out of my reach. “One year, she wet the front of her pants with water from the bathroom sink right before school and walked into class. Only…” Isaac started laughing, and suddenly I could picture him again at thirteen, his braces flashing as he laughed so hard he cried. “Only, it was March thirty-first.”
“I was never good with calendars. Or waiting.”
Ally reached out and squeezed my hand. “Oh no, Carmen. What did you do?”
“What could I do? I waited for it to dry. And, um, it sort of caught on, because most of the boys showed up the next day with wet pants. My poor fourth-grade teacher. And then it was every time they came back from the bathroom.”
“Carmen’s a trendsetter.” Isaac jumped up before I could come after him. “And she accepts gummy worms as currency.”
“I do not.” I stalked him around the table, much to Ally and Kimber’s delight. “I wasn’t allowed to accept money for my drawings. What was I supposed to do?”
“Ask for a candy that doesn’t get stuck in your pockets on a warm day?”
“You’re dead, Zac.” But the words came out between fits of laughter, and every time I moved, he counter-moved, staying directly across from me.
“I have so many questions.” Kimber’s gaze ping-ponged between the two of us. “What drawings?”
“Pokémon characters,” I answered before he could. “And zombified Disney princesses.”
