Up for Air

by Laurie Morrison

  “You swam well, too,” Jeremy said. “I mean, obviously.”

  A mosquito buzzed between Annabelle and Jeremy, and they both went to swat it. Annabelle laughed as their hands knocked into each other and then checked to see if Connor had noticed. He was busy listening to something Jordan was saying, though.

  Jeremy finished his ice cream and tipped the cup toward him so he could slurp up the melted liquid. It got all over his mouth before he pulled a napkin from his pocket and wiped it off. Annabelle thought of Mia, who would have teased Jeremy about how his lips were covered in chocolate lipstick if she were here.

  “Hey, so I know I already asked you this same thing once,” Annabelle started, scooping out a bite with a big piece of peanut butter cup.

  “You don’t want me to tell Mia about tonight,” he said. She let the bite fall off her spoon. “How did you know that’s what I was going to say?”

  Jeremy shrugged. “’Cause you didn’t want her there that day at the pool. And . . . how things have been with you guys.”

  “How things have been with us?” Annabelle echoed.

  Things had been weird—she knew they had. But she didn’t like the idea that Jeremy had noticed. Or, even worse, that Mia might have said something to him.

  And if Jeremy was hanging out with just her and not saying anything about it to Mia, did that mean he was also hanging out with just Mia and not saying anything about it to her?

  Jeremy balled up his napkin and pressed it into the bottom of his empty ice cream cup. “Well, yeah. I mean—”

  But Annabelle never got to hear the rest, because Jordan stood up from the bench. “You know what I could go for?” he called out. “A nice, refreshing dip. Who’s in?”

  Connor stood up, too. “Let’s do it!”

  Annabelle looked at Jeremy, who shrugged. She felt that same surge of frustration as she had when he kept apologizing to everyone they cut in line. It was annoying how often Jeremy shrugged. Had he always shrugged this much?

  “I’m in,” she said, pushing herself up off the curb.

  Chapter 18

  Annabelle had assumed Jordan meant they’d run down to the ocean. There was a beach just down the hill from where they were eating their ice cream. She figured they’d wade partway in. Maybe go in up to their knees, or far enough to get the bottoms of their shorts wet.

  “It’s less than a mile up the road,” Jordan announced. “And Dennis and his wife are gone for the weekend.”

  “Wait, Dennis Martin?” Annabelle asked.

  The famous movie guy? The one Jordan and Ruby had been talking about the other week at the pool?

  Jordan pointed at her. “Ding ding ding!”

  “What about that huge fence?” Ruby asked, and Jordan wiggled his eyebrows.

  “I know the code.”

  “Dennis Martin gave you the code?” Connor asked.

  “Well, technically his wife gave it to the pool guy. But I was listening! And I happen to know their security system’s busted, because I also heard her setting up an appointment for somebody to come fix it next week.”

  “Nice,” Connor said, clapping Jordan on the back. “Well done, man.”

  Ruby was practically jumping up and down. “I can’t believe we’re going to swim in Dennis Martin’s pool!” She squeezed one of Jordan’s arms and one of Connor’s, which was just greedy. Shouldn’t she at least have to choose? And how were they going to swim in a pool when none of them had bathing suits? Were they going to swim in their clothes? Or—ack—not in their clothes?

  “This seems like a pretty bad idea,” Jeremy whispered as the whole group started the trek across the street.

  He and Annabelle were at the very back, and Annabelle was thinking the same thing: This seemed like a terrible idea. Especially after Ruby took out one of those e-cigarettes. In theory, Annabelle knew there were high school kids who vaped or smoked or whatever. But she’d never actually been hanging out with any of them when they did, and now the ice cream she’d rushed to finish churned in her belly.

  Kayla hung back to wait. “You guys should bike home now,” she whispered.

  Annabelle looked down the side street where she’d parked her bike, and she pictured herself safe and free, riding back home with Jeremy like they’d done a million times before. The still-warm evening air would rush through her hair as they watched the horizon go orangey-pink and talked about Bertha the shark, or what made the sky change colors at sunset, or which talking animal video was the funniest. They’d pedal themselves away from Ruby’s vaping and Jordan’s seagull laugh and even Connor, who thought swimming in some famous person’s pool sounded like a great idea.

  “Mom wouldn’t want you doing this,” Kayla said to Jeremy. “Your mom wouldn’t either, Annabelle.”

  Jeremy let out a snort-laugh. “And you think Mom would want you breaking into some movie star’s yard?”

  Movie director, Annabelle thought, annoyed that Jeremy didn’t know.

  “It’s . . .” Kayla’s eyes darted up to the rest of the group. “It’s different for me.”

  Annabelle blinked. She’d thought Kayla saw her as an actual friend, not just Jeremy’s little buddy. She’d thought being on the relay team together made them more equal and it didn’t matter that Kayla was three years older than she was. But maybe that did matter to Kayla after all?

  Jeremy looked at Kayla for a long time, and Annabelle recognized the expression on his face. It was the same one he used to get in math class before he got moved up, when he would hold himself back from answering every single question because he didn’t want to rub it in that he knew more than everybody else. He had something else to say to Kayla now, but he hadn’t decided whether or not to say it.

  Finally, he shook his head. “Whatever, Kay,” he said, and then he turned to Annabelle. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  And somehow, knowing that Kayla thought she and Jeremy were too young to come along and hearing Jeremy suggest exactly what she’d just pictured doing made her change her mind.

  She hadn’t even gotten to talk to Connor yet, and he’d specifically invited her. Plus, even if Kayla didn’t want them to go, she was going along with it, and she wasn’t the kind of person who got in trouble. It couldn’t be that terrible an idea if she was doing it.

  “I think this sounds like an adventure,” Annabelle said. “You can go home if you want, but I’m in.”

  Jeremy and Kayla sighed almost in unison.

  “Fine. I’ll stay, too,” Jeremy said.

  As if he thought Annabelle needed his protection or something. But the rest of the group was too far ahead for them to wait back here any longer, so she let it go and texted her mom that she was hanging out with Jeremy and Kayla as they all speed-walked to catch up.

  At least Ruby wasn’t vaping anymore by the time Annabelle squeezed herself into the pack of people, as close to Connor as she could get without seeming desperate.

  “You really up for this, HB?” Connor asked.

  “Oh, yeah, definitely,” she said, and her voice sounded more like Mia’s lacrosse-girl voice than her own. She peeked back at Jeremy, who hung a few feet behind. He kicked a pebble that bounced up and barely missed Connor’s calf.

  “Nice. You’re the best,” Connor said, reaching his hand out for a high five.

  And everything inside her glowed like the sunset-striped sky that transformed all around them, vast and magical and bright.

  Annabelle stayed in the middle of the group as they crossed the cobblestoned streets of town and then passed the row of fully occupied bed-and-breakfasts. Jeremy still sulked a few steps behind her with Kayla and her friends, but he had chosen to come along. She hadn’t asked him to.

  A steel-gray convertible sped by, kicking up the sand along the side of the road.

  “My dad has a car like that,” Ruby said. “I thought he’d let me practice driving on it, but no. I’m getting my mom’s old Volvo, since it has better safety ratings, even though the convertible’s fine
for him to drive.”

  Connor glanced past Ruby, toward Annabelle. Their eyes locked for a split second, and he raised his eyebrows. Annabelle knew what that look meant.

  Ruby was a summer person, and getting her mom’s hand-me-down expensive car was a summer person problem. Annabelle and Connor were on the inside of something in that moment. Ruby was outside of it, and she didn’t even know.

  After a few minutes, Connor and Jordan started talking about some rumor involving people from Gray Island High who Annabelle didn’t know but Ruby somehow did.

  Annabelle didn’t want to be like those bobbing seals at Bluff Point, waiting for any tiny opening so they could push their way up onto the rocks. Behind her, Kayla and the other girls were talking about someone’s sweet-sixteen party—a party Jeremy definitely wasn’t invited to and definitely didn’t have any interest in discussing.

  Connor’s attention was now 100 percent focused on whatever juicy thing Jordan was saying, so she slowed her pace, falling into step with Jeremy.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey.” He kicked another pebble.

  And yeah, it had technically been his choice to stay, but it wouldn’t have been all that easy to go home when nobody else was.

  She sighed. “You know, we’ve barely gone to see the seals this summer.”

  When he didn’t respond, she added, “We’ve got to go back before you leave for Boston next week for your program. Get some more Bluff Point time in.”

  He still didn’t say anything, so she elbowed his arm gently.

  “Remember the Mia seal last summer?”

  One day they’d watched an especially blubbery seal lie out in exactly the same position as Mia: on its belly with its little flippers bouncing up and down the same way Mia bounced her feet. Jeremy had taken video on his phone, going back and forth filming one and then the other, and he’d added hilarious music in the background.

  Mia had thought it was just as funny as Jeremy and Annabelle had, when they’d showed it to her. She almost never got offended when people teased her, which is probably why she was so good at teasing other people.

  “Maybe Sunday,” Jeremy said.

  “Deal,” Annabelle replied. “Maybe . . . um . . . maybe Mia will come, too. Unless you think she wouldn’t want to? If you think she’s mad at me?”

  “I think she just misses you on the swim team.” Jeremy sped through the explanation too fast, as if it wouldn’t be so obvious that the words weren’t true if he said them quickly enough. Or that they weren’t the whole truth, anyway.

  Annabelle was about to ask more, but then the whole group walked up to the edge of Ashton Road—a road their parents wouldn’t let them bike on even during the day because there was a turn so sharp you couldn’t see cars coming. Annabelle felt a pang, thinking about what her mom would say if she knew what was happening.

  But the sky still glowed bright, and the night was quiet except for the sounds of their talking and the chirp of crickets. They would be able to hear a car for sure.

  Jeremy’s head darted back and forth as he searched for headlights, and he picked up his pace in the middle of the road and grabbed Annabelle’s wrist to pull her along with him as they crossed.

  Annabelle jerked free. “Whoa. Relax.”

  Jeremy drew back a little, as if her words had stung. But seriously: She could handle crossing a street by herself.

  “Here we are!” Jordan announced as they approached an enormous house with a towering iron fence.

  Annabelle bit down on her bottom lip as Jordan stepped up to enter the code. They were really doing this. She had known where they were going, of course, but she’d almost let herself forget.

  Jeremy caught her eye, and she had to look away so all his nervousness wouldn’t crash into hers.

  When Jordan punched in the numbers, the keypad beeped once and lit up red. He cursed and Ruby groaned, but Annabelle’s nerves began to calm down.

  “We can’t get in?” she said, trying her best to sound disappointed.

  “Patience, grasshopper,” Jordan replied.

  Everyone else laughed, so Annabelle did, too.

  “Got a plan B?” Connor asked.

  “Let me think about it,” Jordan said.

  Connor narrowed his green eyes and tapped his chin to show he was thinking. “I have an idea. If Hummingbird’s game.”

  And boom, Annabelle’s heart thudded against her rib cage. “Sure,” she said, even though she had no clue what he was about to suggest.

  Connor put one hand on either side of her waist, and she let out a yelp as he lifted her off the ground. Hanging there in the air, she was aware of every individual rib his fingers touched.

  “Yeah, she weighs nothing,” he said, setting her down. “Plus, look how long her arms are. If we lift her up high enough to grab onto the top, she can pull herself over and let the rest of us in.”

  The breeze had cooled down enough that Kayla and Ruby had both put on sweatshirts, but warmth spread throughout Annabelle’s body. Kayla’s forehead crinkled up with concern, but Annabelle didn’t let that bother her. She felt dainty and desirable and important. Connor needed her for this plan. Everybody did.

  Connor stood on Annabelle’s left side, and Jordan stepped up to her right. They counted, “One, two, three,” and then Annabelle was in the air, higher than when only Connor had lifted her. They pushed her toward the fence, and her elbow banged against an iron bar.

  “Grab on!” someone called, and Annabelle tried to ignore the brief, clanging pain in her arm. She reached out and up—her fingertips grazed the top bar, but she wasn’t high enough to grab on.

  “I can’t quite . . .” she started, and Connor and Jordan grunted as they heaved her higher—high enough so that she could see over the fence, into the yard. She pushed herself forward, hooking her arms over the top. She winced as one of the pointy iron pillars scraped her right forearm, but as she adjusted her grip, she yelled out, “Got it!”

  And right then, the security alarm started blaring, drowning out her voice.

  Chapter 19

  “Run!” a girl’s voice screamed. Ruby, it sounded like. Then there were footsteps. Lots of them, pounding away from Annabelle.

  “I thought you said the security system was broken!” Connor said.

  “It was!”

  Jordan’s laugh blared over the screeching alarm, like this was all some kind of joke. He let go of Annabelle, taking off after the others, and her right shoulder dipped without his support.

  Then Connor said, “We’ve gotta get out of here. Come back down!”

  And he let go, too. As if she could slide down the iron fence and follow. He must have thought she could. He wouldn’t have stepped away if he hadn’t. But she was up too high.

  She let go with one arm—the scratched-up right one, with its sore elbow. She reached for something lower down that she could hang on to, but her fingertips only hit air. Her left arm ached from holding all her weight. Maybe the ground wasn’t so far away after all. If she let herself drop, she’d probably land on her feet.

  She took three deep breaths, and then she let go.

  Her left knee smacked one of the iron bars halfway down, and her right ankle twisted under her weight when her foot hit the ground. But that was nothing compared to the pain that knifed through her right wrist when she put down her hand to stop her fall.

  She had to get herself up.

  The alarm still wailed above her head, and somebody would show up soon. Some security officer or the police, and she’d be the only one there. She pressed one scraped palm into the ground and tried to straighten her legs, but everything was throbbing. Her hands, her knees, her ankle, and her wrist most of all.

  But then she heard them. Footsteps, running in the right direction. Toward her. Connor had come back!

  Except she could see reflective patches from somebody’s sneakers, and Connor was wearing sandals. And when she made out a flash of hair under the streetlights, it was brown, not blond.<
br />
  Jeremy.

  Relief flooded her, followed by disappointment so huge it muffled the pain in her wrist. She could cry in front of Jeremy, that was the good thing. And he was the smartest person she knew. He would figure out what to do to keep them both safe. But if Jeremy was the one coming back to get her, that meant Connor wasn’t.

  “Annabelle,” Jeremy said. “I can’t believe those dicks left you!”

  Jeremy spat out the word dicks. It sounded way too harsh, way too . . . obscene coming out of his mouth. He never talked like that.

  She stiffened. “Don’t call them that.”

  “Your knee’s bleeding. And your hands.”

  He leaned down so she could hook her arm over his shoulder, and he helped her get up. She smelled his shampoo, almost but not quite covering the scent of chlorine.

  “What hurts the most?” he said into her ear. Softly, the same way he’d whispered questions and instructions when they were partners on a sixth-grade science field trip and he didn’t want to scare away the seagulls they were observing.

  “My wrist.” She held it up. “And this ankle’s not great either.”

  He punched a text message into his phone and then switched to her other side, so that her hurt ankle was closer to him and she could put less weight on it.

  “Hurry!” she said. “We’re going to get caught!”

  “I don’t want to hurt you even more.”

  Too slowly, as the alarm kept wailing, he helped her hobble away. When they got to the side of Ashton Road, he hoisted her onto his back. The sky was getting dark fast now. She could feel his frantic heartbeat where her hands hung onto his chest, and she slipped partway down his back as he ran across the street. As soon as they were on the other side, he put her down, panting. “Hang on a second.”

  His phone dinged, and he sent a reply text and then shoved it back into his pocket. Kayla, probably.

  Annabelle pulled her phone out of her pocket, too, and sure enough, there was a group text from Kayla to her and Jeremy.

  Are you guys OK?? So sorry we lost you!! Where are you??