by Amber Garza
I cringed. It was obvious from his tone that he wasn’t happy about it, and nothing I could say would make it better. As we sat in silence, something hit me. Nobody’s life is perfect. When I’d first seen Austin with his family, I’d felt irrational jealousy at what I assumed was a life devoid of issues. But clearly he had experienced pain and disappointment just like I had. Maybe not in an identical way. But pain was pain, right?
However, even in the midst of him losing the sport he loved, he managed to enjoy his life and make the best of it. From the moment I met him, he exuded fun. I wanted to be more like that. Perhaps the more I hung out with him, the more it would rub off on me.
SEVEN
The next two weeks flew by. Austin and I spent almost every day together. We bodysurfed, hung at the beach, went into town for ice cream, and played soccer at the park a few more times. Dad even seemed to like him being around. Then again, it did make things easier on Dad. Ever since Austin and I became friends, I’d been happier, less argumentative. Plus, I’d been playing soccer, and that was something Dad constantly encouraged me to do.
Luca acted like Austin was his friend, but Austin was a good sport about it. He’d even played video games with Luca a couple of times. At first I was irritated, but when I saw how happy it made Luca I softened. Besides, it gave me a chance to answer the million texts Grace sent me every day.
They were all the same. She wanted information about Austin. Her summer wasn’t exactly going as planned. Once Ava and Brody started dating, she became the third wheel. Therefore, she was now living vicariously through me.
I gave her as much information as I could, but I hadn’t been able to get up the courage to send a picture yet. Not because I didn’t want her to see what he looked like. If anything, I desperately wanted to show him off. If she was jealous at the idea of him, she’d die when she saw what he looked like. There was no way my descriptions did him justice.
The real reason I hadn’t sent a picture was because I didn’t have one. The other day when he and Luca were playing in the waves, I held up my phone with the intention of sneaking a picture. But then Austin’s head bobbed up and he glanced at me. Embarrassed, I pretended I was taking a selfie. I even did the stupid duck face as if to make it more believable. Later I wished I’d chosen a different excuse since Austin teased me endlessly about the fact that I spent my afternoon sitting on the beach taking selfies.
“Let me see them,” he’d teased, trying to snatch my cell phone out of my hand. “I want to see what you spent your afternoon doing.”
When I wouldn’t let him, he said, “What’s wrong? Have you not perfected the duck face yet? Cause I can help you with that if you want.” Then he’d chased me around my house, puckering up his lips. It was supposed to be funny. Dad and Luca sure thought it was. To me it looked like he was trying to snag a kiss, and it only drove home the realization that I would’ve liked him to.
As much as I tried to convince myself that I was okay with a strictly platonic relationship, deep down I’d always known that was bull. How could I have been okay with it? He was the most gorgeous guy I’d ever seen, and for some reason he chose to hang out with me. It was crazy and wonderful and confusing all at once.
But I was determined to shove my feelings away. It was counterproductive anyway. I wasn’t allowed to date, and, besides, Austin wasn’t asking me to.
Grace only became more insistent about the picture though. She’d even started saying that by not sending a picture I was basically confirming that he was ugly. This lit a fire in my belly. I had to show her. I had to prove her wrong.
I wasn’t sure why it was so important to me. Grace was having a terrible summer. I shouldn’t have wanted to flaunt Austin in her face.
Then again, a part of me always felt like I was below Grace. I knew that if a boy was to want to date one of us, it would’ve been her. She did have those two boyfriends, after all. It’s not that she ever made me feel that way, I just did. This was the first time I had something she didn’t.
The only caveat was that I had no idea how to get the picture. Like I said, sneaking it wasn’t working. Besides, even if I was successful I’d look like some crazy stalker if he caught me.
“Summer girl,” Austin interrupted my thoughts.
My face flamed as if he could read my mind. “Y-y-yeah.”
“Luca beat me at the game, so what do ya say the three of us get some ice cream?”
“Sure,” I answered, my gaze sliding over his shoulder to a smiling Luca. I giggled at his look of pure triumph.
“Cool, because I promised Mr. Video Game Champ over there a triple cone.” Austin pointed to Luca with his thumb, and Luca’s smile widened so large it looked like it might split his face in half.
“Wow. A triple cone, huh? You think Dad’ll be okay with that? We haven’t even had dinner,” I pointed out.
Luca shrugged, wrapping up the video game chords. “He’s busy working. We don’t even have to tell him.”
“Nice try.” Walking past him, I mussed his hair with my hand. It was sticky with sweat, and I winced. “I’ll go tell him, and I’ll be right back.” Leaving Austin and Luca in the family room, I sauntered through the kitchen toward the office. Dad’s voice floated under the door. Assuming he was on a work call, I pressed my back to the wall and waited. Blowing out a breath, I listened to him. But something about his tone caused the hairs on the back of my neck to prickle. Shoving off the wall, I moved closer to the office. The door was open a crack, and I peeked in. His chair faced away from his computer, and the screen saver was up, bubbles popping all over the screen. His lips were curled up at the corners like he was smiling, but he was talking so softly I couldn’t make out what he was saying. It seemed intense though. He swung his chair to the right by pushing on the ground with the toe of his shoe. I couldn’t move out of the way in time. He spotted me, his eyebrows shooting clear up to his forehead. After saying a swift goodbye, he clicked off his phone. Dropping it on his desk, he stood.
“Hey, Mina.” The casual smile he offered did nothing to erase the reminder of how he appeared a moment ago. Clearly, he hadn’t wanted me to know who was on the phone. As if sensing the question lingering on my tongue, he said, “Just a work call. What’s up?”
Studying him, I decided that he must have been telling the truth. Why would he lie? And it would make sense that he would seem intense talking about work. He loved it. It was his passion. Letting it go, I said, “Luca beat Austin in a video game and so Austin has to buy him a triple cone. That okay?”
Dad chuckled. “A triple cone, huh? Yeah, I guess it’s fine just this time. I still have a lot of work to do anyway, so we’ll have dinner late tonight.” Reaching into his pocket, he fished out his wallet. Yanking out a twenty, he thrust it into my hand. “Here you go. Get yourself a triple cone too.”
“Ugh.” I glanced down at my stomach. “I don’t think I need a triple cone.”
“You’re gorgeous, Mina,” Dad said, causing my cheeks to burn. “You can have as much ice cream as you want.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, a little uncomfortable. But the truth was that I appreciated the comment. It made me feel more confident as I strutted into the family room to meet Austin.
“Triple cones it is,” I announced in response to Luca’s expectant expression.
“Yes!” Luca punched the air the way he always did when excited. Oh, to be twelve when an ice cream cone was the thing you most desired.
Glancing briefly at Austin, my stomach fluttered like a million butterflies were swarming it. His ability to do this to me was unnerving, and I shook out my arms in an effort to calm myself. When he noticed, he raised one eyebrow.
“Getting geared up, huh?” He winked.
Face flaming, I lowered my head.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to challenge you in an ice cream eating contest, summer girl. You can give that competitive streak of yours a rest for the night.”
This caused my face to heat up even more
. It was true that I was competitive, but I hated that he thought that was all I was about.
“Besides, I’d totally beat you,” he added, and my head snapped up. “With a figure like that, I’m guessing you don’t usually eat triple cones.”
As he followed a chattering Luca out the front door, I stared after him, mouth gaping. It was the first compliment he’d given me about my looks, and my heart swelled. Smiling, I hurried after them.
***
Turns out, the triple cone was my answer.
On the way to the shop I’d told the boys I would get one, but once I saw Luca’s I was sure I could never eat that much ice cream. The three large scoops he ordered – vanilla, chocolate and mint chip – towered over his cone, precariously leaning to one side.
After Austin ordered his, he bobbed his head to me. “Your turn, summer girl. What three flavors are you getting?”
The cute girl working the ice cream counter was busy piling Austin’s choices on top of his cone. Luca was frantically licking at his ice cream to keep it from melting.
I shook my head. “I think I’ll play it safe and stick to one scoop.”
The girl behind the counter handed Austin his cone. When their fingers brushed, she smiled shyly, batting her eyelashes. Oh, geez. Could she have been more obvious? Austin didn’t seem to mind though. He was too busy throwing me an incredulous look.
“Wait? Did I hear that right?” With his free hand, he cupped his ear. “Did you just say you’re playing it safe? Since when does my summer girl play it safe?”
My heart flipped in my chest. It was cute enough when he called me “summer girl”, but when he tacked on the word “my,” it was almost too much.
“Since I don’t want to puke ice cream all over myself later tonight,” I responded.
“What can I get you?” The girl at the ice cream counter asked in a nasally voice.
“She’ll have a triple cone too,” Austin answered.
“No, I won’t,” I responded.
The girl’s hand hovered over the cones as if she had no idea what to do. Her gaze shifted between us, and I worried we were going to give her a mini panic attack.
“Come on, summer girl. You’re not gonna chicken out on me now, are you?” Austin asked before taking a giant bite out of his top scoop of ice cream. The bottom scoop was already melting down the cone.
“I’m not chickening out,” I insisted, glancing over at Luca. He was still trying and failing to keep his ice cream from melting.
“Bock, bock, bock.” Austin crowed, but didn’t flap his arms. Most likely for fear that he’d drop his cone.
The other patrons were gawking at us. My cheeks heated up.
“Fine,” I hissed. “I’ll get the three scoops.”
“So, a triple then?” The ice cream girl appeared relieved that we’d made a decision.
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Rocky road, strawberry and butter pecan.”
“Odd choices, summer girl.”
“What? Just because you’re boring?” I said dryly.
“Vanilla is classic,” he pointed out.
“You got three scoops of vanilla. Trust me, that’s not classic. That’s boring.” Ice cream girl handed me my cone, and I in turn handed her my money.
“No. Wait.” Austin walked up to the counter, standing so close to me that our shoulders brushed. “I owe Luca his.” He shoved some money into the ice cream girl’s hand. After she gave me my change, I started to spin around.
But Austin stopped me with his free hand. “Just for the record, ordering three scoops of vanilla doesn’t mean I’m boring. It means I know what I want, and I’m not afraid to ask for it.”
His words, coupled with the intensity of his stare, caused a shudder to ripple through me. However, when his easy smile returned, I decided I’d read too much into it. Clearly, it was just another one of his philosophies on life he loved to share.
When Austin and I joined Luca, his eyes widened. “You did get the cone, Mina!”
“Yeah.” I pointed to Austin. “Someone talked me into it.”
“Man, no one back home is ever going to believe that I ate this much ice cream,” Luca said, peering up at me. “And they’re definitely not going to believe you did.”
It was then that the idea struck. “Then why don’t we get a picture to prove it?”
“Yeah.” Luca nodded. Then his smile dipped, and he looked down at his sad cone. “But I already ate a lot of mine.”
“That’s okay. Austin and I still have ours almost all intact. And it’s obvious that you did have three scoops at one time. We’ll just get all of them in the picture, okay?” It couldn’t have gone better if I had planned it in advance. I pulled out my cell phone and held out my arm. “Okay. Let’s all squish in,” I motioned to Austin and Luca who were on either side of me. They both did as they were told. Once we were all in the frame, our ice cream cones positioned in front of us, I snapped the picture. Then I took a couple more just to be safe.
“Okay, Miss Selfie Queen,” Austin said, pulling back. “Let’s eat our ice cream before it melts. Besides, I don’t want to get sucked into your selfie lifestyle.” He glanced down at Luca. “Pretty soon she’ll have us doing duck faces.”
Luca giggled. “No way.”
“No way is right,” Austin agreed.
While they continued to tease me about my selfie addiction, I relished in the fact that I now had three very good pictures of Austin in my cell phone.
EIGHT
“You weren’t kidding,” Grace gushed into the phone. “He’s gorgeous.”
Warmth spread through my belly. “I told you.”
“I know,” Grace said. “Wow. I’m so jealous that you get to spend all summer with that beach hunk.”
I giggled at her calling him a beach hunk. Austin may have been good looking, but I didn’t think he’d like Grace’s nickname for him. While Grace continued to go on and on about the picture I sent, I ran a brush through my hair and swiped some gloss on my lips.
“Are you even paying attention to me?” Grace said. “Or are you busy daydreaming?”
“Sorry.” I rubbed my lips together. “I’m just getting ready. Austin and I are seeing a movie today.”
“A movie?”
“Yeah.” I dropped the lip gloss into my purse.
“Do you think he’s going to make his move?”
I wish. “I told you we’re just friends. Besides, it’s not like we’re seeing something romantic. He’s taking me to that new superhero movie.”
“Trust me, Mina. Guys don’t take a girl to the movies unless they’re interested in them,” she said in that condescending tone she sometimes used. “I know a little more about guys than you do.”
“Oh, yeah?” I bristled. “Because of your two boyfriends in junior high?” A chuckle escaped through my lips. “Yeah, you’re right. You’re totally the experienced one.”
Silence filled the line, and shame washed over me. Why had I said that? She was already having a bad summer, and then I’d thrown that in her face. What was wrong with me?
“Grace, I didn’t mean--”
“No,” she cut me off. “It’s fine. You’re right. Have fun with Austin today.”
“Grace,” I started, but it was too late. She’d already hung up.
Groaning, I quickly shot her off a text.
Me: Grace, I’m so sorry. I never should’ve said that. You are more experienced than me.
Holding the phone in my palm, I waited for a response, but none came. The minutes ticked by slowly, my phone remaining eerily silent. Grace and I never fought. At least never to the point where we stopped talking to one another. Sometimes we got in an argument, but we always cleared things up quickly.
However, things had changed. Not just with Grace, but with my family.
And with me.
***
“You okay?” Austin asked as we walked into town, making our way toward the movie theatre.
“Yeah,” I lied. Grace
still hadn’t responded to my text, and I was becoming increasingly worried.
“Really? Because you seem quiet.”
“Is that your way of saying I talk too much?”
“Your words, not mine,” he quipped, nudging me with his shoulder.
My lips curved slightly at the corners. We walked for a few more minutes in silence, and then I glanced over at him. “Is being here all summer hard on your friendships back home?”
“A little,” he answered. “But it doesn’t take long for things to get back to normal when I return.”
I nodded, certain that he was right. Things were weird between Grace and me right now, but that’s because we were miles apart. Once we were back together, things would return to normal. I was sure of it.
“Oh, look. There’s Penny.” Austin pointed to a woman walking on the other side of the street. She was around my mom’s age. Pretty. Dressed nicely. “I wonder if your dad’s around here as well.” The woman walked into the same movie theatre we were headed to. “Maybe they’re seeing a movie too.”
“Dad’s at the beach with Luca,” I said robotically, my entire body numbing. “But why would you think he was with that woman?”
Austin’s head whipped in my direction. “What?”
“Why would my dad be with that woman?” I asked again, this time enunciating every single syllable.
“Who said he was?”
I froze. Usually I liked Austin’s teasing. It made me feel special, like I was in on some inside joke. When my grandpa was alive he was constantly sarcastic. My dad once told me that one of the ways my grandpa showed people he loved them was by teasing them. He said that the more my grandpa teased me, the more I knew he loved me. And that’s how I felt with Austin. Like maybe all this teasing meant that I was special to him. But in this moment I needed him to be straight with me.
“You did, and I want to know why.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I pinned him with a stare, willing him to come clean.