I chuckle. Um, sort of. “Yeah. It’s pretty windy out there tonight.”
She clicks her tongue. “Matt and Ches are upstairs.”
I race upstairs and find Matt rolling around on the carpet of his bedroom while Ches sits with her legs crossed, encircled by color-coded note cards organized into piles.
“Faith!” he moans. “Thank God you’re here! She’s making us study. On a Friday!”
Ches looks to me and shrugs. “What else were we going to do? Fart around and watch movies?”
“Um, yes,” says Matt. “That’s exactly what we were going to do.”
They both look to me. Lucky me, the tiebreaker.
“Maybe we could study for a little while and then watch some scary movies or something?” I ask.
Ches turns the page of her notebook to her handwritten review for physics, the one class all three of us share. “I made note cards. We could start there.” She chews on the cuticle around her thumbnail and takes a big gulp of the energy drink she brought with her.
Matt looks to me, desperation in his eyes.
I shrug.
Do something, he mouths to me.
“Ches,” I say her name sweetly as I try again, “how about we study for a bit and then blow off some steam with a scary movie? We’ll even try one of your spooky games.”
Matt throws his head backward. Despite his deep, unwavering love for Ches, the boy hates scary movies and is way too superstitious to dabble with her tarot cards or witchy antics.
I throw up my arms. What? I mouth back to him. If he wants her to ease up on studying, our best shot at convincing her is with something she loves to do.
Ches stills for a moment and spins to face us. “Two hours,” she says. “We have to make it through the review and the flash cards.”
“Got it,” I say.
“And light as a feather, stiff as a board,” she says.
“Not it,” says Matt.
“Fine,” I say. “Whatever.”
Mrs. Delgado is so impressed to see us studying on a Friday night that she makes us Rice Krispies treats with Fruity Pebbles mixed in. The first time I spent the night here after moving to Grandma Lou’s after Mom and Dad’s accident, I woke up crying and begged to go home. Grandma Lou sleeps about as heavy as a brick, so Mrs. Delgado had no luck calling her. Instead, she stayed up with me all night and we made Fruity Pebbles Rice Krispies treats. I’ve had a soft spot for Mrs. Delgado ever since.
“So,” Matt says, elbowing me as Ches alphabetizes the flash cards we’ve already gone through. “You excited about your day with Dakota mother-freaking Ash tomorrow?”
When I told Matt over lunch that I was not only going to Dakota’s house but visiting the production offices and set, his head nearly exploded. And then after he had a moment to process, he playfully asked if he could be my plus-one. Then I had to very awkwardly explain to him that this didn’t really feel like a plus-one situation, but that if something else came up, I’d totally ask to bring him. Since then, he’s only teased me about my plans with Dakota once or twice, but I know he’s jealous. I feel bad. I wish I could take him with me. And yet, I’m also relieved to have something that’s just for me. It still feels weird to not be able to properly freak out about this with him, but I definitely don’t want to gloat.
Ches looks up. “That Dakota girl?” she says. “She was super gay for you. I could sense it.”
Both Ches and Matt look to me, waiting for me to respond. My best friends are amazing, wonderful people who seem to know exactly who they are and exactly who they like. For me, though, figuring out what exactly my sexual orientation is has felt a little more abstract. One thing I know for sure is I feel a spark with Johnny and Dakota. Very different kinds of sparks.
“She’s just charming,” I finally say. “That’s her job, after all. She’s America’s heartthrob, for goodness’ sake!”
Ches snorts. “All right, back to work.”
I’m a very good pupil. Honestly, I’ll do anything not to bring up Dakota again—for a multitude of reasons. And Matt is well behaved too. Until his phone starts to buzz and whoever he’s messaging back and forth is sending him into fits of giggles.
I can feel Ches’s agitation growing as I ask her Physics questions. I can practically see her brain misfiring every time Matt chuckles or his phone pings. Then he hits play on a video of a chicken clucking and a woman yelling at it. He turns down the volume, but it’s still so distracting.
Ches reaches over and rips the cards out of my hands before throwing them in Matt’s lap. “I’m going to get some fresh air.”
Matt stops laughing abruptly as he notices the cards in his lap and Ches slamming his bedroom door behind her before trotting down the stairs.
He looks to me and shrugs. “What?”
“You know what,” I tell him.
“Faaaaaith, it’s a Friday night. What are we even doing?”
“Not exactly how I’d planned on spending Friday night either, but we promised Ches.”
He rolls his eyes. Matt hasn’t done a great job of taking Ches and her efforts to turn her grades around very seriously. Even though this is just one instance of him being distracted on his phone, I know it’s a lot more to Ches.
“Alphabetize those while I go check on her?”
“Fine.”
I walk out into the hall to find that Mrs. Delgado has already gone to bed and downstairs Mr. Delgado is asleep in his recliner. I check out front, but Ches isn’t there, so I go around back and find her swinging in Matt’s old swing set. Of the three of us, she’s definitely the smallest, and still she looks like a giant compared to the playground equipment.
“You want some company?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer, which is as good as an invitation to me.
I climb to the top of the slide, which isn’t much of a climb at all, and sit there with my legs dangling over the side.
“He was just really excited for the weekend, ya know? I don’t think he meant to be rude.”
She pumps her legs into the air, clad in forest-green leggings and her Docs. She wears a T-shirt she cut into an oversize crop top that says Witch Please. “He doesn’t get it,” she says. “I’ve known him my whole life and he doesn’t fucking get it.”
“Get what?” I ask. “You can talk to me, Ches.”
“You’re smart,” she tells me. “Like, really naturally smart. I know life hasn’t been peaches for you, Faith.” She turns to me, nothing but earnest. “I really do, but you’re going to land on your feet.”
I try not to laugh. If only she knew. Landing is the hardest part, honestly.
“This all comes so easy to you. You went to freaking journalism camp! You’re on the newspaper. You don’t have to study. And you run a badass blog with legions of fans. And Matt! He charms everybody, and his parents will always be his safety net.”
“You’re smart too, Ches.” I wish I could tell her that she has a safety net too, but the truth is, no matter how great Ches’s mom and brothers are, none of them have the means to put her through school or to bail her out if things ever get rocky. Grandma Lou might not have much, but it’s more than Ches has to fall back on.