polishing off the spoonful of cereal. “I was blindsided a bit, thank you very much. But it’s fine. It’s a job right? We have to be professional.”
He grins. “There’s my girl.” He turns to the clock on the microwave. “I’ll see you soon.”
He fluffs my hair before leaving the room. “Love my ladies!” he calls from the door.
I look at Mom who is still pretty zoned out. I finish half the bowl before my stomach starts to knot. I hate to lie to Dad but I made a promise to myself not to let Will get to me. My phone chimes.
Another text from Lily: Driveway
I down the rest of the coffee and scoop up my bowl placing it in the sink. Mom is particular about who loads the dishwasher. Only her. Not that we ever complained. I kiss her on the cheek and leave the kitchen. “Ethan!” I call up the stairs.
“What?” he groans from his bedroom. He takes after Mom as another late-riser.
“I’m leaving with Lily. Will is walking over in about a half hour if you wanted to go with him.”
“Mm-yeah,” his voice is softer now, hovering over sleep again.
“Don’t be late!”
“Yeah.”
I grab my purse and open the front door. The temperature has warmed significantly and I can already feel the stickiness in the air. Lily’s head is tipped back on the head rest as I flop into the passenger seat. The cool air conditioning feels fantastic and I turn the vent toward me.
Lily jumps as if she had actually been asleep. Not surprising due to her late night texts.
“You know we need to be there early on the first day,” I say, eyeing the two extra large travel mugs that I know are filled with black coffee. Neither are for me.
She blinks a few times and settles her hand on the shifter, a wild grin spreading over her face. “It was so worth it.”
I laugh. “I don’t want to hear it!”
But I do hear it. The whole ride. Lily is usually pretty straight forward with discussions of her dates, but this one, nearly ten minutes long, has me thinking that she actually might be interested in a second date.
“He’s going to the fireworks Friday, he said he’ll bring a friend.”
I groan. “Are you setting me up on a blind date?”
“It’s not a date. I just mentioned that my very hot friend is single and he mentioned his also-single very hot friend will be coming along. Well he didn’t call his friend hot, but I made sure he was attractive to guy standards.”
She pulls into the park and I shake my head. “You know Carter is going to be there.”
“I don’t see the problem. This is what single people do.”
“I just wanted—” I pause, unsure of what I really want.
She groans. “Wanted what? This is what you wanted. You aren’t tied down. You can go out with whoever you want. I’m not telling you to sleep with the guy but you can’t be a hermit until college. Don’t feel guilty about Carter. He’ll be fine. The girls at the pool are already plotting.”
My head snaps in her direction. “Who?” I shove down the reflexive jealousy that floods my veins. He’s not yours anymore, remember?
Lily eyes me and takes a large swig of her coffee, draining the first mug. “It’s how guys get over girls. By replacing them with another.” She catches my look. “What? It’s a simple fact of manhood. You just need to accept it. It’s not fair to hold onto him when you know the outcome at the end of the summer.”
“You’re right,” I concede.
“Yes I am.” She pulls into a spot at the back of the community center that houses all the town’s events throughout the year. During the summer its rooms are used for the campers’ activities and lunchtime. I get out of the car and head for the door, but soon realize I’m alone. Lily leans her hands against the car, her forehead resting against them.
“Come on!” I urge.
“Give me a minute,” she grunts. She drops her sunglasses over her eyes jumps back and forth on her feet, shaking her hands at her sides in some crazy wake up dance. I laugh and she stops. “Let’s do this.”
The back entrance to the building filters into a hallway with several different rooms on either side. For the purpose of the camp these are divided into the various activities that take place during the summer. Inside one of them there are paint supplies and canvases the next one has gym mats set up across the floor.
Lily chugs the last bit of her coffee and lets out a whoop, as if I had been the one to challenge her to do that. Her voice bounces off the concrete walls and we follow it to the front entrance. Several six foot tables line the entrance. Five cardboard boxes wait patiently next to the tables, ready to be dug into.
Her nose wrinkles at the boxes. “Ah, registration duty.”
I twist my hair, pushing it behind my shoulder. “A little organizing never hurt anyone.”
She rubs her head as if it just might.
“And there’s always that,” I say, hearing someone entering the room.
Dad comes into view carrying bags from Donut Joes. Lily’s eyes light up. “Please tell me you got the chocolate croissants!”
A condition of Lily helping me out, since most years I did this by myself, I had told Dad her favorite pastry from the bakery.
“Six in fact,” he says, putting the bags down on the farthest table. “But this is for after we get the welcome packets on the tables. I don’t need chocolate all over the paperwork.”
Lily bobs her head and digs right into the first box.
I give Dad a “told ya” look and he winks.
“You know the drill?” he asks. If there’s one thing he didn’t have to worry about at camp, it was me. I had lived and breathed this place my whole life and it started to sink in that this was the last time I’d be doing any of it. Dad had made that very clear to me earlier that year. He wanted summers in college to be filled with places outside of Spring Falls. It was unlike any other parent that I’ve come across, but he and Mom never got away from this town and it was the only thing he wanted for me. And it wasn’t like me to disappoint him. And I was going to be living in the most amazing city in the world. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever want to come back.
Lily is already halfway done with her box before I open mine.
I laugh. “Maybe I should bring chocolate croissants everywhere with me. Like Lily treats.”
“Yeah, well,” she says, distracted, rearranging two of the folders in front of her. “Whatever they put in them is like catnip for me. Unless you want me to roll out of this place, I wouldn’t suggest doing it.”
“I’d pay to
