Read an Excerpt
My phone buzzes, a text from Ravi. Dammit. My drama- free night is interrupted by a boy.
Come out on your deck yo.
I get up off the couch and go to the floor to ceiling screen doors of our house—at night, you can’t really see what’s on the deck from inside the house, so I press my face against the loose mesh screen and see Adera facing the moonlight taking selfies, plus Ravi sitting beside Nate on the steps of our damp deck, smoking cigarettes and finally, Leo, crouched in the sand, facing my house, shooting my friends.
Leo taking photos of Adera and Ravi and Nate.
“What are you guys doing out here?” I ask, trying to be casual, while inside I’m doing somersaults. Leo McDimple is on my deck, at my house. I slide the screen door open and then shut it behind me. It’s hotter out on the deck than inside my house, which is unusual for Fire Island, where the tem- perature usually drops to the sixties at night. The boys are in T-shirts and shorts, except for Ravi, who isn’t wearing a shirt, which, hello, brave—the mosquitos are out too, and I slap my exposed neck, manna for them.
“This one wanted to come here,” Adera says, pointing at Leo. Adera is exquisite in a simple tank dress, white against her dark skin, formfitting, accentuating her curves.
“I was telling Leo about the view from your top deck, but he doesn’t remember it, so we figured we’d come check it out,” Ravi says. When we were all in elementary and mid- dle school, Mom would have parents come over with their kids, and the parents would go to the upper deck and drink and smoke while the kids stayed here on the lower deck, playing in the sand and running in and out of the house, letting bugs in.
“See, I don’t remember bath time and you don’t remember the deck, so we’re even,” I say to Leo.
“I don’t think so, babe. I seriously do not think you can compare a view of a sky with a view of me . . .” Leo stops talking, spins around, his fist closed at his mouth.
Did he just call me “babe”?
Everyone starts laughing and poking fun at Leo for calling me “babe.” And he gives everyone except me the middle finger, and we laugh even harder while Ravi meanders down the steps of my deck to the bay water and starts splashing about.
“Where’s Macy?” I ask as I sit beside Adera on one of the chaise lounges.
“I don’t know,” Adera answers, moving her legs, making room for my butt. “She didn’t open my Snaps.”
So it’s not just me. Macy’s blown off Adera, too.
“Yeah, this whole roll just kind of happened,” Ravi explains as he comes back onto the deck and sits on the floor oppo- site me and Adera. “These guys were at my house and Adera came over . . .” That’s typical here; everything is so casual. It’s so much better just showing up at someone’s house than waiting to be Snapped.
“What happened to the boy?” I ask Adera.
She tsks. “Girl, he blew me off.”
I scowl. I was so excited for Adera to be in like with someone who liked her back.
“And may I remind you, he”—she points to Leo, speaking in a low tone “wanted to come here.” And then she whispers, “No mention of Alice, at all.”
I nod, absorbing the information. Cautious in my urge to be enthusiastic.
“So, can I see this famously epic view?” Leo asks, the air thick with things flying across our eyes. I swat at whatever it is that lands on my forehead.
“Yeah, sure, let’s go up—maybe you’ll remember it,” I say generically to everyone, even though I really want to be in- viting only Leo upstairs.
“Can we smoke up there?” Nate asks, in a Russian accent, which of all the accents he takes on is the best I’ve heard so far. “No, dummy. My mom will lose her mind if she catches us.” Nate tsks and says something about how I’ll never stop being a Goody Two-shoes. I don’t take my preference for following the rules as an insult.
Ravi says, “Yeah, cool. You bring Leo upstairs. We’re gonna take the boat out and smoke a bowl.”
Adera nods her head, indicating that I need to take advan-tage of this moment; yes, I can interpret that much from a mere chin cocked at a certain angle, eyes wide open, nose doing a twitch.
Leo looks at me. “I’m game if you are.”
I nod, because of course I am game.
