Page 24 of The Summers of Us

We started to feel the effect of the June afternoon sun and escaped under a shaded picnic table. We ordered steamy corndogs from a vendor for lunch. It was almost too hot to eat them, but Holden still challenged me to an eating contest. I objected, but Haven took him on. Holden won, but I told them both I was the real winner for still having my corndog.

“I missed you, Quinn.” Saray laughed heartily, revealing the wrinkles around her eyes. Mom had those same wrinkles whenever I actually got a laugh out of her.

Saray’s phone pinged. “It’s Everett’s mom. She wants us to meet them at the front.”

“You’re going to love Everett.” Haven grabbed my wrists and said with a laugh, “He’s just like us—can’t find his name in the gift shops.”

I laughed and bit the last crunchy part of my corndog on our way to the front. I didn’t have the heart to say I’d recently found my name on a few items.

Haven had told me little bits about Everett Bishop, their new friend from school. His mom, Liezel, immigrated to the United States from the Philippines and met his dad, Hank, in Chicago. Everett grewup in Chicago and moved down here once Hank sold his construction empire and used the profits to build a beach house, have a simpler life with his wife and son. What an impossible dream.

“He’s way too nice and mature to be one of us.” Haven looked at Holden, smirking. “I know an immature teenager when I see one.”

Holden rolled his eyes and flipped her off, just like an immature teenager would. Saray couldn’t resist a laugh, despite the promise to ground him later.

At the mouth of the Boardwalk, I saw who I assumed were Everett and Liezel. He had black hair curled like the ocean waves crashing below us. He was taller than her already, standing with his hands in the pockets of his board shorts.

The moms did some secret parental exchange while Everett joined us past the ticket booth.

“Everett!” Haven said, grabbing his wrist. “Meet Quinn!”

“Hello to you, too,” he said to Haven. He turned to me and waved. “Hi, Quinn. I’m Everett Bishop. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

I made a point to look him in his brown eyes, trying to make mine look just as happy as his. “Same. I mean, I’m Quinn Kessler, not Everett Bishop. I’ve heard a lot about you, I mean.”

What in the hell, Quinn?

Everett laughed.“So Haven was right, you are funny.”

“Thefunniest,” Haven said.

What other things had Haven told him about me? He was probably expecting my dirty blonde hair and freckles, but was her story similar to what she told Jorge and Mason two summers ago?

If she told him I was funny, did she also mention the not-so-funny things? It didn’t seem that way, because he seemed interested in me. Or maybe he really was as nice and mature as Haven said. Or both.

“It’s great to meet you.” I smiled and stared at a beauty mark in the center of his cheek.

It had to have been put there on purpose by some universal force that kissed little brown dots on people’s cheeks. It was the same force that gave me and Hadley our freckles, but it must have lingered with Everett, molding his with more purpose so he could still wear his kiss long after summer was gone.

“I’m bored. Can we go ride rides again?” Holden faked a yawn, earning another sharp look from Saray.

“I forgot the world revolves around Holden Rivera-Sanchez.” Everett crossed his arms and smirked, which earned a few laughs from everyone but Holden, who seems surprised someone finally played along.

We said goodbye to Liezel and headed to the end of the Boardwalk where the rollercoasters were. It smelled like a weird mix of fried Oreos, onion rings, soft pretzels, and popcorn. We slunk past the arcade’s midday neon and the rigged games for the people who liked to throw money away.

When a game attendant noticed us, I looked down and pretended my ears didn’t work, just like Mom taught me to do whenever a stranger tried to talk to me.

Back at Tsunami, I was a speck, a mere whisper among the distant screams, squealing chains, and groaning wood. Holden and Haven headed for the line, their hair waving goodbye for them. My sandals were stuck, melted in the sun like a piece of gum. Haven and Holden shrank from our sight.

Everett looked at me. “You don’t want to ride it?”

If I hadn’t been frozen here in this blistering heat, wearing fear on my face like sunscreen, I would have thought this Everett was very perceptive. Or maybe Haven told him more than I initially thought.

I shook my head. He must have thought I was so lame. Saray looked between us, sorry but silent.

“We could do the Ferris wheel instead.” Everett pointed to the other towering structure above us.

Looking at it was dizzying. It felt like there was a wheel going round and round in my head. The Ferris wheel was a spindly, shaky monster that stared straight at the parts of the ocean deep enough to drown in. From that high up, it turned wooden slats into concrete bricks, people into ants, me into a pancake.

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