Best Friends (Until Someone Better Comes Along) (12 page)

“There's, like, a two percent chance that he is,” Ava whispered. Her voice was very matter-of-fact. “But we could find out, if you two would quit stalling!”

Bailey and I grinned at each other. I was pretty sure we were both thinking the same thing—that Ava was a different person when she was on a spy mission. Like, her usual shy-girl attitude was just a daytime cover-up for some scandalous nighttime secret identity.

We skimmed under the branches that pressed up against the sides of the cabin and made our way to the back of the Snowy Owl cabin. There were only two windows at the back of the building—one for each bedroom. The tree cover was so dense that there was almost no light around back, so I
couldn't see Bailey's or Ava's facial expressions. We all just looked like dark blobs under the trees. I could hear Bailey's ragged breathing—it made me worry she was going to have a panic attack.

“Who wants to peek first?” I asked, hoping Ava would volunteer. She seemed eager.

But instead, she said, “Not me. I did all the hard work up until now. One of you has to go first this time.”

“Don't you feel like we're, like, violating their privacy or something?” Bailey asked, after a few seconds of silence.

“Fine,” Ava said with a huff. “I'll look first. You are the biggest wimp.”

Something about the way she said it made me start laughing—hard. Unfortunately, that got Bailey going, and suddenly, we were all cracking up outside what was very possibly Brennan's bedroom window. Bailey began to snort, which sent Ava into total hysterics. We were no longer quiet and stealthy. Instead, we sounded like a pack of yipping hyenas.

The light flicked on, on the other side of the glass, and seconds later, a face peered out into the darkness. It was Brennan. “Aah!” Ava yelped.

Bailey threw herself to the ground, howling with laughter. I pulled her up, then dragged her around to the side of the
house. Because it was so dark out, I was pretty sure Brennan hadn't actually seen us—but there was no doubt that he had
heard
us. Embarrassed and freaked out, we ran, tripping on sticks as we all barreled back down the path to the fire pit.

“That is so embarrassing,” Bailey hissed as the full realization of what had just happened hit us. We'd been caught snooping at Brennan's window in the middle of the night. “Oh. Oh no. Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed.”

“Did anyone, by any chance, see what he was wearing?” Ava asked, giggling. “Was he wearing cute jammies?”

This made us all laugh even harder.

“Let's go down by the lake, where at least no one can hear us, okay?” Bailey said when we had all calmed down just a little bit. “What if his parents heard us laughing and woke up, and now they're out searching for us?”

I giggled. “I think that's highly unlikely. For one thing, it's the middle of the night and it was pretty obvious that the three giggly people outside Brennan's window weren't mass murderers lurking around, waiting to pounce.”

“So you think he knew it was us?” Bailey asked, cringing.

“Um, yes,” Ava nodded. She glanced at me, and we both started laughing again.

The path to the lake was better lit than the paths to the
cabins were. The moon guided us down to the beach area. We sat at the end of the dock and dangled our feet in the water. “Do we need to attempt another spy mission, since that one was a total bust?” I asked, poking my toes up to wiggle them on the surface of the lake.

“I don't think we're cut out for this business,” Ava said matter-of-factly. “I mean, I think I might be decent at it, but with sidekicks like you two, I'm sort of doomed.”

“We could toilet-paper Izzy's cabin,” Bailey suggested, after a long silence. “I bet her dad would like that. Maybe he'd think it was, like, some sort of new-guy initiation thing.”

I laughed. “I'm sure I'd be stuck cleaning it up,” I said. “My mom would probably make me actually
use
the toilet paper I pulled out of the trees as punishment or something.”

“That's disgusting,” Ava said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe we should just go swimming instead? Raccoons don't swim, do they?”

“I think we're safe in the water,” Bailey said.

“Night swimming,” Ava said happily. “Sounds perfect.”

And it was.

W
e all knew summer would
end, of course. It had to. But none of us really talked about what would happen next, or how our friendship might have to change now that we were returning home. I knew things would be different, but I hoped we could maintain something of what we'd developed over the summer. I'd grown really close to both Ava and Bailey, and I wasn't willing to just walk away from our new friendship.

But the thing that kept bothering me was, I didn't know what would happen when seventh grade started. I wasn't sure how Bailey and Ava would fit into my world back home. They were great summer friends, but I didn't know if they could really be
forever
friends. What would Heidi and Sylvie think
if I suddenly started hanging out with these girls we'd teased so much in our first year of middle school? I knew my home friends would probably hate both my summer friends, the way that I had when I'd first arrived at the lake.

“I guess I'll see you next week,” Bailey said, as she helped her mom pack the rest of their things into their car. My family had been slow to get going, since my mom felt it was her job to clean every last nook and cranny of our cabin before we could leave. I guess it was a decent thing to do, but seemed a little like overkill. My dad and I just let her go at it while we hung around outside, saying good-bye to everyone else and taking one last swim.

“Yeah,” I said, letting Bailey pull me into a hug. “See you next week.”

“It's going to be different when we get back, huh?” She was still hugging me when she said this, so I couldn't see what kind of expression was on her face.

“Definitely different,” I agreed. I don't know why I didn't say something at that moment to reassure Bailey—and myself—that our relationship at school
would
be different, now that we'd spent part of the summer together. I should have told her that I wanted to try to find a way to have our friendship work when we returned home. But I couldn't say
it. Because I wasn't sure it would work. I felt like something about me had changed in the month I'd spent with Bailey and Ava, but I wasn't sure if it would
stay
changed when we got back home. Things didn't usually work like that.

Bailey stepped out of our hug and nodded. “Well. See ya.”

Ava came bounding over and pulled both of us into one of her tiny hugs. “Good luck with dance tryouts next week!” I said, squeezing her close. “You're going to be amazing.”

She smiled at me. “I hope so. Thanks, Izzy. And I know it's super-dorky for me to say it out loud, but I just wanted to tell you it was really fun getting to know you this summer.”

“You too,” I agreed. “Both of you. I had the best summer ever.” I was about to go on, to tell them that I'd look for them in the hall. Or that maybe we could have lunch together one day. Or maybe, one night, they could come over for a sleepover at my house. But before I could say anything, Bailey screeched and the moment had passed.

“Oh! Oh!” she said, digging for something in her pocket. “Look what Brennan gave me just before he left.” She couldn't even wait for us to open the piece of paper to see what was inside. She blurted out, “His phone number! He told me to call him when I got back to the city, and maybe we could hang out sometime.”

Ava and I both squealed. “You're going to, right?” I asked. “Call him?”

Bailey shrugged. “Maybe.” Then she grinned, and her nose crinkled up the way it sometimes did when she was super-happy. “Definitely!”

Bailey's mom started the car, and Bailey blew us both kisses before they took off. “Mwah!”

Moments later, Ava was driving off with her sister and her dad too, and then it was just my family left. Coco and I piled into the backseat, and as my mom navigated the car down the winding dirt road—back toward civilization—I thought about how much had changed since the first time I'd been on that road.

“I think we got a lot of great ideas pulled together this month. We're going to have some good campaigns to share with our clients this fall.” My dad was obviously very cheerful in the front seat. Then he turned to look at me. “You survived?”

I smiled at him. “Definitely. I had a great time.”

He looked surprised. “What got into you? Who took my whining daughter?” he asked.

“No one. Nothing,” I said, annoyed that I was getting criticized, even when I was trying to be optimistic. “I really did have a great time. Thanks for bringing me along.”

My dad gave me a look that made it obvious he thought demons had possessed me, then quietly turned back to watch the road ahead.

I gazed up into the canopy of trees that had seemed so dark and ominous when we'd first arrived at the lake. Now, they reminded me of thunderstorms and swimming with friends and roasted marshmallows and Liar and Spy and Canoe Wars. Once I'd let myself just enjoy it, I had realized the woods was full of all good things, nothing creepy at all. Except raccoons, which still skeeved me out. Oh, and ticks. And mosquitoes. Also, sometimes the weeds at the bottom of the lake were a little spooky. Okay, so maybe there were a few creepy things—I was still a city girl at heart. But the good things were so much better than the bad that I learned how to overlook some of the
ew
stuff after a while.

Coco was already fast asleep beside me, so I closed my eyes and let my mind drift off, hoping I'd dream of summer.

* * *

I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing.

“Izzy!” My mom snapped at me from the front seat. “Can you answer that? That song is dreadful.”

I dug around, looking for my phone. I guess my mom had tossed it back once we'd left the lake. I dug around on the
floor, then searched the seats, cringing as my ringtone went on and on. Finally, I found it under Coco's butt. I wondered if my mom had put it there on purpose.

“Hello?” I said, realizing too late that Heidi's name was on the screen. She hated when her friends acted all formal on the phone—she was more of a “hey” sort of girl.

“Hello?”
Heidi demanded from the other end. “What, you've been gone so long you deleted my number from your contacts or something? I get a ‘hello,' not a ‘hey' or a ‘hi' or a ‘I missed you like crazy, Heid!' You sound like your mom.
Hello? Hel-looo
.” As she teased me, she switched into a snooty old-lady voice that made her crack up.

“Hey, Heid. I did miss you.”

“Are you back yet?” she blurted out. “We have to go shopping. Stat. School starts in four days. Four! And we have major outfit coordination to do.”

I looked out the window and listened to her drone on. I sort of wasn't in the mood for Heidi, which was strange. For half the month, I'd been looking forward to getting back to see my friends, but now that we were almost back, I wasn't quite as psyched anymore. Somehow, I realized, I'd slept through almost the whole drive home—we were only a few miles from our house. That must have been why it was so hard for me to
shake out of my sleepy stupor. “We're almost home,” I said. “We should be at my house in ten minutes.”

“I'll tell Sylvie to have her mom swing by and pick you up first, then. She's dropping us off at the mall.”

I looked down at my stained shorts and ratty tank top. It was a shirt I'd borrowed from Bailey a week or so ago, then forgotten to give back. “I'm disgusting,” I said. “I should take a shower first.”

“We don't have time,” Heidi said bossily. “You can come, or you can not come—but if you want to be part of our outfit planning, be ready in ten minutes. We waited for you all month, but we're not waiting any longer.”

“Wow,” I said, slowly slipping back into the old routine. “Bossy much?”

“Shut up,” Heidi said. I could hear the smile in her voice. We always talked to each other like this. One of us would push, and the other person would bite back.

“No, you shut up,” I said back. The snippiness didn't feel as natural, but I tried to play my part. I wished Heidi and I could just have a normal conversation where we were
kind
to each other, but it didn't really work that way with us—we both kind of liked being sarcastic and snappy. It was our thing. “I'll be ready when I'm ready. You know you're going to wait for me.”

“Whatever,” Heidi said. “Missed you, you know.”

“I missed you, too,” I said. “See you in a few.”

I hung up and tucked my phone into my bag, back where it belonged. Once I put on normal clothes, I would feel complete again.

“You're going out?” My mom asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.

“Yep,” I answered.

“Were you planning to ask if it's okay?”

“I think you owe me, after holding me hostage for the last month, don't you?” I stared back at her. Finally, in the nicest voice I could manage, I said, “Could I please, pretty please, see my friends tonight after you've kept me from talking to them for the last three weeks?”

My mom sighed. “Fine.”

When we pulled into our driveway a few minutes later, Sylvie and her mom were already there waiting. Sylvie jumped out of the car and hugged me tightly. “You're finally back!” She backed up quickly. “Ew. You stink.”

“Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “I haven't showered in a while.” I looked down at Bailey's tank top and cringed. It was an ugly tank top, but I'd been super-comfortable the last week or so (I'd worn it almost every day since I borrowed it from her).
I knew I probably looked awful, but honestly, I hadn't even looked in the mirror all day. Looks never seemed to matter at the resort. Suddenly, I realized we were back in civilization where stuff like that did make a difference again.