“Lemme put it this way,” I say. “If you look up ‘TMI’ in the dictionary, you’re not gonna see a picture. You’ll hear a highly inappropriate sound bite. And that, my friend, is what’s going on upstairs.” I start laughing like crazy. Molly grips my shoulder before dropping to the floor in giggles.
“And lemme tell you,” Molly adds. “It wasn’t pretty. Not that I saw anything because hey, maybe …” Molly tries to stop laughing, “Maybe, ha—maybe, they, maybe they were just exercising.”
“Cross-fit or yoga is my guess,” Justin says, putting down the game controller.
“Want to take a walk?” Sean asks me.
“I could watch you guys play video games all night long but sure, I can walk.”
Justin jumps up. “Holy shit! I just realized I have a six-pack of HotShotz in my car. Hell yes.”
“Let’s go get it,” says Molly. She winks at me. “We’ll meet you guys back here later.”
Sean and I step outside of the basement’s sliding glass doors. We tread up the small hill to where the dock and main level of the house is.
“Looks like Kyle made Kallie pick up all traces of alcohol.” We survey the patio. All signs of the beer can and clear plastic cup debris from earlier have been erased. “Big change,” says Sean. Just a few hours ago and this place looked like a bomb went off.”
“I know, right? I’m kind of glad Kyle came. It was getting …”
“Bananas?” We exchange a smile, then he says, “I’m glad Kyle came and we got to hang out in that closet. And I’m glad we didn’t get caught, so we can hang out more. Ya know?”
“Yeah.”
We sit on the dock for a while, laughing about the party. How funny it was to see Brian outside of school, Molly too. I tell Sean I’m surprised; everyone’s pretty nice and fun. I’m about to joke how drinking might actually be a good thing for Molly when we hear her and Justin traipsing and laughing their way back from getting the alcohol. We turn around and Justin’s arm is wrapped around her shoulder. Molly stumbles over something—probably her own foot—and then she’s literally rolling down the hill. Like a hot dog in jeans and a pink sweater on a conveyor belt. I’m not going to lie: It’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.
“Is somebody gonna catch her? She’s rolling.” Sean laughs.
“Like a hot dog.” I laugh.
Justin does a running skid down the hill and the second he reaches her, she pukes.
“I’m not on puke patrol tonight. Let’s go,” I whisper to Sean, grabbing his wrist. We run into the woods, laughing in whispers and squeezing each other’s hands. I lead him through the edge of the woods and onto a path.
“Where are you taking me?” he asks.
“The Point. It’s where the Vates’ land ends and Lake Crystal Woods meets Lake Belmont. It’s been me and Kal’s spot since we were twelve. It’s the place where all the magic happens,” I say. “You know, swimming, tanning, maybe doing stuff we don’t want Kallie’s parents to know about.” Smoking, practicing kissing, sharing her brother’s Red Bulls because Kallie’s mom wouldn’t let her have caffeine.
“I didn’t bring swim trunks,” Sean says. “But it sounds like a plan.” We walk along the dirt path, branches and leaves extending from the trees. The smell of lake and mossy spring heat is so heavy it feels like summer. We reach the end of the path and head down the sandy hill that meets the lake. We kick off our shoes and peel our socks off, rolling our jeans to sit in the sand with our ankles and feet dipped in the water.
I break the silence. “This is nice.”
“I like that we can just sit here and not say anything,” Sean says.
I want to tell him that I have a lot of things to say, but I’m scared. I tuck my foot under his, feeling the sand and water glide between my toes. All of this feels so good and almost perfect. How he had me give him a ride home from Java Joint instead of Jane. The way his eyes and voice warm up when he calls me Breeze or Breezy. How he wrote the haiku and Prom song, and showed me his old house and played the guitar. How I got soincrediblyclose to losing my virginity the night after the drive-in. Telling him about Maisey in the closet. Hearing about his dad. Sharing wine.
We lace our fingers together and they sink into the sand.
“I wonder if this is what falling in love feels like,” I finally say out loud.
“I wouldn’t know,” Sean says. My heart does a quick dip into my gut.
“Right, yeah.” I roll my pants up a little more as if it’s a very important task.
“I wouldn’t know because falling sounds like it takes a while. But a real fall is so quick that it only lasts a few seconds. If it’s not that big of a jump, you don’t have time to feel it.” His fingers trace over the top of my hand, then locks his fingers back in mine.
“You lost me at jump. What?”
“What I’m saying is that I don’t think you’re the kind of person I could’ve spent a long time falling in love with. It was too easy. Just a short jump. Like one second I had a crush on you and the next second I was already in love with you, there was no time to fall.”
“Oh, wow. That’s … thank you.”
Sean leans in and says, “I love you, Bree. Bree Hughes.”