Like the ocean, it makes her feel small.
Maybe she does need to eat something. She skipped breakfast and didn’t have much lunch, so perhaps this woozy sense of being lost is just hunger.
“Seaside Drive’s just over there,” Audrey says, pointing to a spot past the dunes as they towel off and pull their clothes on over their bathing suits. “The pizza place is there, remember? With the arcade.”
Claire nods. They walk across the sand to a boardwalk that takes them over the dunes. There’s a sign warning them of rattlesnakes. Claire wonders if it really means to warn them about monsters.
She looks over the railing, but all she sees are vines and sand.
The boardwalk takes them over the seawall and drops them onto Seaside Drive, and as soon as Claire sees the town proper, the paved street and the salt-scrubbed storefronts and the old cars stopped at the light, she feels normal again.
She glances at Audrey, who looks over at her and smiles. “It’s always nice walking in the sun after you’ve been in the water, don’t you think?”
“Sure.” Claire shrugs. She’s just glad the world feels right.
It only takes five minutes to get to the pizza arcade. An Open sign blinks in the window, next to a flyer for something called the Stargazer’s Masquerade Ball.
“Oh we have to go to that,” Audrey says, tapping one finger against the flyer. “It’s the biggest thing in Indianola. You’ll still be here, right? In July?”
“A masquerade?” They go into the arcade. The sudden blast of air-conditioning sends ripples of goose bumps up Claire’s legs. “And yeah, I’ll still be here.”
“There’s some astronomy club or something that started it back in the 1800s. Who knows why.” Audrey seems bored by the origin. “But it’s such fun! Now, what kind of pizza would you like?”
The arcade is dark. Most of the light comes from the arcade cabinets or the little red lamps sitting at each table. Like the beach, it’s mostly empty.
“Pepperoni’s fine.” Claire looks around the arcade. The only other people here are a guy in a tan’s sheriff’s uniform sitting at one of the tables and a girl hunched over a Ms. Pac-Man game. After a few seconds, Claire recognizes her—she’s the exterminator girl. What was her name? Julie.
Claire is oddly relieved to see her.
Audrey sashays up to the counter and places the order. Her voice, perky and bright and perfectly grating, carries over the blips and beeps of the video games. Julie glances up, looks over at the counter, and frowns. There’s the ripply sound of Ms. Pac-Man dying.
“Crap!” Julie says, loud enough that Claire can hear. The sheriff glares at her. “Do you have a quarter?” she asks him.
“No.” He speaks more softly than Julie, and Claire can’t hear the rest of what he says, but it’s enough to make Julie roll her eyes. She leans away from Ms. Pac-Man and looks out over the arcade and that’s when her gaze falls on Claire.
Claire immediately looks away, her cheeks burning. She can’t believe she’s standing next to the salad bar just staring at some girl she doesn’t even know—
“Hey, Mrs. Sudek’s granddaughter!”
Claire jerks her head up, her face still warm. Julie ambles over. Her cut-off shorts barely peek out beneath the hem of an oversized T-shirt screen-printed with a scene from Vertigo.
“You found the Pirate’s Den, huh? It’s the only remotely cool place in town.”
“Yeah.” Claire smiles and Julie smiles back at her. Her smile’s genuine in a way that feels welcome after spending the afternoon with Audrey. “I like your shirt. Vertigo’s one of my favorite movies.”
“Really? Mine too!”
“I saw it at a special screening last year,” Claire says, aware that she’s probably babbling. “They had a film festival with a bunch of old movies.”
“That’s awesome,” Julie says. “I saw it on TV when I was a little kid and got obsessed. When I got a VCR it was the first movie I tried to buy.”
They look at each other in the dim light.
“So, did you come here by yourself? You can eat with me and my cousin, if you want. That’s him over there.” She points at the sheriff, watching them with his arms crossed over his chest. “Oh no, he’s got his cop stare on.” Julie laughs. “Don’t worry, though, he’s off duty.”
“I wasn’t worried.”
Julie smiles. Claire wants to accept Julie’s offer. Wants to sit at the table and watch her play old video games. But then Audrey walks over to their side, and Claire remembers she’s not here alone.
“Sorry, it took forever. No one was at the counter, and—Oh! Hi, Julie!”
Claire’s chest twinges in a weird way. It almost feels like jealousy: Audrey and Julie know each other? But of course they do, Audrey said the school only had one hundred students.
Julie blinks at Audrey. “Hi?” she says, her brow furrowed. “Do we—did I exterminate something at your house, or—”
Audrey laughs, twinkling and bright. “No, silly. We had Mrs. McClane’s trig class together last year, don’t you remember?” She wags one finger in false admonishment and puts a hand on her hip. “I know you skip out on the pep rallies, but you should still know your school’s cheerleaders.” Another laugh.
Claire always skips pep rallies at her school too. She and Josh go to Mr. Ramirez’s room and work on their projects for art class—that was how they first started talking, all those months ago. And she doubts she could name even half the cheerleaders on the squad. They’re all super friendly, but her school is so huge that she rarely crosses their paths.
If only Julie had been the one to bring her a gift basket her first day here, not Audrey.
“Yeah,” Julie says, and she rubs at her head. “Yeah, I’m sorry. No, I remember. Mrs. McClane’s class.” She shrugs. “I liked that class. Guess I was paying more attention to the math than anything else.”
“I hate math,” Audrey says brightly. There’s something insincere about her voice, though, like she doesn’t really believe what she’s saying.
“Sure.” Julie looks around. “Y’all want to come eat with us? If either of you’ve got quarters, we can play Ms. Pac-Man.” She points at the game.
Audrey just stands there with her smile frozen into place. Claire digs three quarters out of her wallet. “I’ve got some quarters,” she says, feeling stupid.
“We’d love to sit with you,” Audrey gushes, finally.
Julie looks from Audrey to Claire. “Awesome,” she says, but she looks at Claire when she says it. Claire hands her the quarters, feeling shy. “Let me introduce you to my cousin, Lawrence. He’s the cop.”
“I’m a sheriff’s deputy,” Lawrence calls out.
“Whatever.” Julie leads Claire and Audrey over to the table. Audrey immediately sits down next to Lawrence and holds out her hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” she says.
“No.” Lawrence takes her hand and shakes. “No, although—are you a cheerleader? I feel like I’ve seen you at the games—” He rubs his forehead and closes his eyes. “I’m almost certain—”