Page 3 of Class Clown

“So am I.”

He huffed; a big whoosh of air meant to convey his desperation. Cole was often desperate, and it would not be considered exaggeration to say his calls always caused a few ripples in my world. Every family has that one member that cannot settle into adulthood gracefully, and he was ours. We’d all been raised in the same house, with the same life instruction, but he’d been the Teflon Kid, letting all those lessons bounce off him. He lived in a perpetual state of near-poverty, and seemed happy about it until he wasn’t - and that’s when the phone calls came. He could have been calling for a million different reasons and I was never sure if it would improve my life or throw it into turmoil, but I did know that he wasn’t messing up my summer. Bodhi had already done that, and I sure didn’t need two men stomping on my dreams.

“Mom says you haven’t found a summer job yet,” he stated.

Ugh. I sank into a slouch and rested my elbows on my knees. My long, still wet, hair draped forward and tickled at my arms.

“Thanks for the reminder,” I replied sourly.

I always got a summer job - because let’s be super real about the fact that an elementary school nurse position pays enough to keep a girl in baked potatoes and butter noodles, but doesn’t exactly bring home any bacon. I always supplemented with summer income. However, due to having been sucked in by a pretty thing named Bodhi Gallagher, I’d been too busy daydreaming about our epic Summer of Loveto get around to job hunting.

That made me a fool twice over. And I did not like feeling foolish.

“Ruby?” Cole broke the silence. I made a non-committal noise. “Why aren’t you working?”

“I had summer plans,” I replied, grumpily, reflecting on that moment two short days ago when Bodhi had disappeared from town with only a text saying he’d ‘catch me on the flip side’.

What did that even mean? I mean, I know what it means, but really? Who says that? Flipthisside, Bodhi. Catchthis, Bodhi.

“Had?” Cole sounded rudely happy about the past tense.

“Might still have.” This was a lie. I had no plans at all. Unless you count eating cinnamon rolls morning, noon, and night a plan – which I technically did, because delicious.

“Is this about a guy?”

I scoffed. “Not everything is about a guy.”

He made a humming noise. “In my experience with you, it’s usually about a guy.”

“It recently ended.”

“Well, can you afford not to work? Because I can pay you.”

“Come again?”

He chuckled. “I can pay you if you’ll come.”

Hmmm. I was going to have to find a job, and the pickings would be slim since I’d waited this long. I sat up, suddenly remembering my mom mentioning something about Cole working at a sleep-away camp for kids. I was always interested in what Cole was doing, but didn’t necessarily think much about it because his employment changed so frequently. And honestly, I did my best to not get sucked into his schemes, but money coming to me rather than toward him was new.

“You can pay me?” I clarified. “Because it usually goes the other way.”

“I’ll ignore the dig and assure you that you will be paid.”

I wiggled my toes on the cold black-checked linoleum and considered the uncomfortable fact that heartbreak can’t be redeemed at grocery stores for actual food.

“How, exactly, would you pay me?” I asked, intrigued because he’d poked at a weak spot. “And why Arizona? Last I heard you were living by Mom and Dad and doing some sort of kid’s camp counselor gig.”

“I was, but that same company runs a summer sleep-away camp in Arizona and hired me to be their camp director.”

I tried really hard, I did, but my voice came out heavy with skepticism. “You’re in charge of an entire summer camp filled with dependent children and other staff?”

“Yes, Rubes.” I could picture his eye roll. “I’m a capable adult. Look, I happen to know that all your best friends are coupled up and you’re going to want to hang with them all summer, but they’ll be too busy, and you’ll wish you’d taken a summer job after all. You’re going to be bored.”

Stung, I huffed, “Only boring people get bored, Cole.”

The silence stretched for a second and I could practically hear his brain working on his next angle. I reached behind me to flush the toilet. No, I hadn’t actually used it, but I knew he would think I had and I was looking to poke back.

“What was that noise?” he asked.

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