CHAPTER 16
Delaware
Ryan was sitting in his dad’s police car. The window was down, but there wasn’t much of a breeze in the sticky summer heat.
“Dad, do we really need to deal with this now? I have a whole year to figure this out.”
“If you’re going to want to attend the police academy—”
“Yeah, I know. I need to take some community college classes first. But I’m not a hundred percent sure whether I even want to be a cop.”
“I think you need to give it serious consideration. It’s a family tradition—starting with your grandfather—and I always thought you’d make a great cop. You’ve been talking about it ever since you were a kid.”
“Yeah, but every little boy wants to be a policeman or a fireman. That doesn’t mean it actually happens when he grows up.”
Ryan stuffed his earphones in to indicate that the conversation was over. He bobbed his head to the music.
His father shook his head.
“Hey, Dad, stop the car. I’ll get out here.”
Ryan pointed to two of his friends on the sidewalk. He snagged his backpack out of the backseat.
“Fine, but we’ll talk more tonight. You need to have a plan.”
“Yeah, OK. Bye!” Ryan slammed the door and ran after his friends.
“Hey, Justin. Wait!”
They thumped each other on the back, and Kim asked herself how the coolest guys in the school could behave so idiotically without being laughed out of town. Then again, she wasn’t exactly calling them out.
“Greetings, Ms. Journalist,” Ryan said when he finally acknowledged that she was there.
“Hi, Ryan,” Kim said.
“Say, have you heard from Sam? Does she miss me?”
“I don’t think so. I think she’s been a little distracted.”
“What do you mean? She’s not seeing some guy in a skirt, is she?”
Ryan seemed a little shaken by the idea. Perhaps to boost his self-esteem, he whistled at two fifteen-year-old girls on the other side of the road.
Kim snuggled up to Justin, smiling to herself. “Well, from what she said, she seems to really like what she’s found under the skirt.”
“What? Is she crazy?”
“Ryan, Ryan… Have you forgotten Ashley already? Why should you be the only one to have fun this summer?”
They arrived at the lake. Kim spread out her towel and Justin lay down next to her. Ryan rolled up his jeans and sat down in the sand. Kim took off her T-shirt, and Justin zealously rubbed sunscreen onto her back. The black bikini really looked good on her, Ryan had to admit. He wondered why it had taken him so long to notice Kim and Sam. They were both pretty cute. Oh well, better late than never, he thought.
“The thing with Ashley is over, by the way,” Ryan said. “That was so last year.”
“Last year? The first week Ashley was here, you were glued together,” Kim retorted. She was, after all, the editor for the school paper; she noticed everything.
“I thought that would help me forget about Sam, but trust me, it just made everything worse. Please, Kim… Sam really means a lot to me. Can’t you try to put in a good word?”
“All right, you idiot. But if you screw up again, even I won’t be able to help you anymore.”
Kim turned onto her stomach and dug a magazine out of her bag. Justin trickled some sand onto her back until she jabbed him in his side.
“Stop it!”
“And what if I kiss every single speck of sand off your skin later?”
That was too much romance for Ryan. He jumped up and pretended to gag.
“God, you two are disgusting! I’m off, see you later.”