Page 72 of June

“Well, I’m weird. I like to tear the breading off and eat that with ketchup and the hot dog part with mustard. I don’t eat them together.”

Caroline’s eyes widened.

“Was that the wrong answer?” Enid asked, seeing her reaction.

“No, I’ve just never felt so seen,” Caroline said.

“What?” Enid laughed.

“That’s what I do, too.”

“No way.”

“Yes, way,” Caroline said. “I’ve never seen anyone else do that before.”

“So, I’ve passed the test, then?”

“It wasn’t a real test, but yeah.” Caroline smiled at her. “So, want to split it?”

“Only if we split the pizza, too.”

“Deal,” Caroline said before she stood up and headed to the condiment bar, where she grabbed what looked like everything and returned, dropping packets of mustard and ketchup onto the table along with napkins and straws.

They talked as they ate, and Enid hadn’t felt alive like this in a very long time. She found herself staring at Caroline as she told her about her family and upbringing. Caroline was an only child of overachieving parents, so the pressure she felt made a lot of sense to Enid, who was the oldest child of overachieving parents and had always put pressure on herself even when her parents hadn’t.

“So, your parents had you, waited six years, and decided to have your brother?”

“I was a surprise,” Enid revealed after picking up a fry. “My parents were planning on waiting to have a kid, but then, I showed up. They waited after that and had my brother.”

“I don’t want any surprises,” Caroline said and shook her head. “Not even sure I want kids, honestly. Maybe I do. I still go back and forth about it. I’m twenty-years old, though, so I plan on waiting a very long time if I do decide.”

“Me too,” Enid replied. “I know my brother and I are only six years apart, but my parents worked a lot, so in a way, I feel like I helped raise him. We had babysitters, obviously, but he wasmybrother. I was going to make sure he was okay and had what he needed better than they would.”

“And now, he’s all grown up and video-sexing girls,” Caroline teased.

Enid laughed and said, “He’s a good kid. He’s annoying as hell most of the time, sure, but that’s because I shouldn’t be living at home, and he’s ready to be at school away from our parents’ house. I was, too.”

“You just called him a kid, but I’m only two years older than him,” Caroline noted.

“He’s my little brother,” Enid replied. “I’ve seen him in and out of diapers, so it’s very different.”

“Well, let’s hope you don’t see me in diapers until we’re both old and gray and wearing those adult ones,” Caroline remarked.

Enid laughed and said, “That’s a weird thing to hope for, but okay.”

“Do you want to play some games before we leave?”

“Can I try and fail to win you a prize?” Enid asked.

“Maybe we can work together, combine our tickets, and winbothof us a prize,” Caroline replied.

Enid leaned over the small table and said, “Let’s talk strategy, then. We’ll get exactly twenty bucks worth of tokens – or points or whatever this place uses – and we’ll pick the games we’re the best at to try to rack up our tickets and then get the biggest prize we can.”

“Forty bucks,” Caroline countered. You throw in twenty. I’ll throw in twenty. It’s only fair.”

Enid smiled and dipped a fry into the ketchup puddle they had made on the napkin between them. Once they’d finished their food, they loaded up two cards and walked around the small arcade that had about thirty or so games. The guy standing behind the ticket redemption counter, where all the prizes were, looked very bored and ready to go home, but Enid couldn’t have been having more fun. Caroline chose the game that had the biggest risk but also the biggest reward. It cost the most for the game, but if they hit the jackpot, they would win five thousand tickets. Enid chose to play something a little cheaper that would give her a decent amount of tickets. After Caroline used up all of her money on the game that involved pressing one button at the perfect time to win those five thousand tickets, and she had only won about one hundred tickets, Enid walked over and rubbed her back.

“You okay there?”

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