“Sorry. I don’t want to bother you.”
“You’re not,” I said. At least I didn’t think I was bothered. It was hard to tell, sometimes, the difference between excitement and dread. Another thing that had come unhooked? “Do you want to hang out during the day?”
There was a pause. “Why not?” he said. “Come by the store tomorrow. We’ll pretend to be tourists and go to the carnival.”
Great. Me and Cal and—“Can my friends Ari and Diana come, too?”
“Ari Madrigal? Oh man, it sucks so much about Win. Of course she can come.”
So we made a plan. A date.
Ari and Diana met us at Waters Hardware. They stood just inside the front door, next to a display of cleaning products, wearing almost identical expressions of discomfort.
I wanted them to come in and join me by the registers, but I could tell they weren’t going to, so I went over to them. Cal leaped over the counter to join me and nearly made it without falling, but he was off balance from his jump, and he landed on his knees right in front of Diana and Ari. We all reached forward out of instinct, trying to either stop him from falling—too late—or help him up.
“Ow,” he said, smiling, and popped back up without anyone’s help.
Diana smiled back at him, but Ari looked as if his lack of coordination was a personal affront to her, and tucked her outstretched hand firmly back under the opposite elbow.
“Can we go?” she asked.
“Jeez, Ari, it’s like you’re afraid to run into me.” Markos Waters appeared from the depths of the store.
“Hey, Markos,” Ari said. Diana stepped toward him but stopped short when she saw he wasn’t looking at her.
Cal went to punch Markos in the arm but whiffed. “Dude, come out with us, we’re going to the carnival.”
Everyone but Cal looked appalled at the idea. I knew I should have appreciated his generosity and inclusivity, but part of having best friends meant enjoying that you were a part of an exclusive club. He messed that up by inviting other people in.
“You ever find anyone to get you that money?” Markos asked Ari.
There was a moment of confused silence, and then everyone spoke at the same time.
“Money?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“What money?”
“Let’s just go.”
“Did you pay or not?”
“Maybe we should talk about this some other time.”
“It’s going to get crowded if we don’t leave soon. . . .”
“Wait, why do you need money?”
Ari raised her voice. “Everything’s fine. I don’t need money. Let’s just go.”
She left the store. Diana waited for a second, looking back and forth between the door and Markos, but then Markos turned back into the depths of the store without saying anything and her shoulders slumped and she joined Ari out on the sidewalk.
Cal grabbed my hand and pulled me to the door. “Come on!” he said.
I pulled back, and he stopped walking. “Don’t you think that was weird?”
“What—Markos?”
“Yeah, and Ari asking him for money. Did you know about that?”
Cal shrugged. “Everyone has their secrets.”
“But he’s your brother.”
“I’m not in charge of my siblings. Do you know everything your sister does?”
I pictured Mina at the bonfire, walking away because I told her to mind her own business. Maybe Cal was right and I should expect a certain level of hidden surprises, even with best friends. It didn’t feel right, though. It felt as empty and disappointing as his hand holding mine, sweaty even in the air-conditioning of the store.
The four of us went to the carnival, which was set up in a parking lot at the end of the main drag. Cal didn’t seem to mind that Ari was surly and snappish, and that Diana was withdrawn and distracted. He bought me a stuffed hippo after he failed to win the ring toss five times. He stuck with us all morning and didn’t flirt with other girls.
Tourists crowded the carnival in bright colors, laughing loudly. Games and souvenir shops lined border of the lot, with a few games and rides in the middle. On one end, there was an arcade with a dozen ancient machines—Skee-Ball, the claw, pinball—and on the other end, high enough to look out over the ocean, stood the Whirlpool, an octopus-like contraption that spun in a circle and side-to-side and up and down. We waited in line for it. Mostly potheads and dropouts got summer jobs at the carnival, but Cal knew the guy who ran the ride and he promised to sneak us in without tickets.
Cal asked Ari about dancing. She described the program she’d be joining in New York in the fall, and the audition process, and where she and Jess were planning to live. I stood next to Diana.
“You doing okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“Because back at the store you seemed—”
“I said I’m fine, Kay.”
“Markos can be such a jerk, seriously.”