August

by Edwards, Maddy

  After we greeted each other I said, “Where are Carley and Nick?”

  “I think they went for a walk. They said they’d be back in a while. I told her she shouldn’t be out alone with a boy, but…” she said, frowning at the TV.

  “Okay,” I said, not wanting to get into it. “I’m just going to wait for them in my room.”

  “I’ll let them know if I’m still up, but I’m going to bed soon,” said Mrs. Hightower.

  I headed up to my room. I was tired and confused. It had been a very long day, and the news about Katie was still upsetting. Without bothering to shower I got into bed and tried to read a magazine until Nick and Carley came home. I was going to see Carley in the morning because we were working together, but I wanted to make sure I told them what Samuel had said as soon as possible.

  While I flipped through the pages of the magazine I tried not to think about Holt. His letter was safely in my drawer, but I’d already taken it out and looked at it once that day. It made me feel closer to him, less frustrated and guilty. He had written that we would see each other again, and I desperately wanted to believe that.

  I knew he was trying to keep everyone safe. I knew that he felt like he had no choice, and honestly I didn’t know what I could say to him if he did come back; it’s not like I could stand up to the Cheshires. At least not if I wasn’t a Fairy. But I still wanted him to come back. I was sure that if he did, we could figure something out. Maybe Mrs. Cheshire would find somebody better to harass.

  While staring blankly at the magazine, I realized that I had to talk to Susan. Maybe she could get me in touch with Holt, by passing along a message or telling me where he was. She’d always been nice to me, and happy that Holt liked me. She must know something about what was going on.

  With that comforting thought, I started to doze off. When I heard footsteps and two soft voices on the stairs, I woke up a little. I knew that Carley and Nick were coming home and I was looking forward to telling them about Samuel. I didn’t get out of bed, because the light in my room was still on; they would know I was awake. I heard a door open – it had to be Carley’s – and then shut. I didn’t hear any more voices after that.

  Carley and Nick had gone into Carley’s room without even saying hello to me. I guess they really were sick of me. The other night Samuel had said I was tough, but I didn’t feel tough, I just felt totally alone. Fighting off tears, I pulled the covers over my head and went to sleep.

  Chapter Three

  When I got down to breakfast the next morning, Nick’s car was gone and there was no sign of Carley or her mom. Mrs. Hightower being gone wasn’t unusual. She usually went for walks with some of the other women who lived nearby in the morning, then out to brunch or tea. But Carley not being there was odd. She and I usually got up together, late when possible, but early today because we had to work. I toyed with the idea of waking her up but decided that if she wasn’t going to come say hi with Nick, she could get up on her own.

  When it was fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be at work and there was still no sign of Carley, I left the house. If she wanted to be late that was her problem.

  I walked to work alone. There were hardly any people out and about at this time in the morning, which was good. I hadn’t slept well. It was one of those days where I wanted to hit snooze forever.

  When I stepped through the door of UP, UP and Away, I was shocked and irritated to see Carley standing behind the counter. She was already in her work uniform of white shirt and black pants, making a drink at the barrister station for Jill.

  “Morning,” said Jill brightly.

  “Hi,” I said, barely looking at her as I glared at Carley.

  “Why didn’t you wait for me?” I demanded, walking up to her.

  “Oh, I didn’t think you’d mind,” she said offhandedly. I could see a blush creeping up her cheeks. It only annoyed me more.

  “What if I’d overslept and been late for work?” I asked, feeling put upon.

  “You didn’t,” Carley pointed out.

  “Whatever,” I said. I went around the counter and grabbed my apron. It was definitely going to be a long day.

  I ignored Carley for most of the morning. She didn’t seem to notice – or maybe she just didn’t care. At one point Jill and I talked a bit about Katie and how sad it was. Jill said that she and Katie had some of the same friends, and everyone had said how nice and down to earth she was. Jill also talked about her boyfriend and how excited she was to get back to school in the fall. She’d picked nursing as her major and was really happy about it. I told her there was no way I could handle the blood or the bed pans. The patients would be worse off with me. Jill threw her head back and laughed. She told me that it was a good thing she was doing it and not me then. I agreed with her. At that point in the conversation Carley interrupted, so I stopped talking.

  Right before lunch there was a lull in customers. Jill went on her break, which left me alone with Carley.

  “I’m shocked Nick hasn’t come into the store by now to give moon eyes at you,” I said.

  “He had to help his parents,” Carley murmured. “He’s probably coming later.”

  “Of course he is,” I said.

  “What’d you say?” asked Carley. She was busy making mocha for the last customer that had come in.

  “I said I talked to Samuel last night,” I told her. I had meant to tell her and Nick together, but if they were going to go sneaking off alone then I might not have the chance.

  “Oh, did he apologize for the whole water thing? Nick told me you were upset,” Carley said.

  Since there were no customers at the moment I had nothing to do but rearrange the cups behind the counter, so I did that.

  “How’d it go?” Carley asked.

  “Fine. He had a message for you and Nick, though,” I said.

  Splat!

  The mocha she had just finished had slipped out of her hands and gone crashing to the floor.

  “Oh no!” she cried. Instantly she bent down with a rag to start cleaning it up. I went and got the mop and a paper bag. I picked up all the little shards of cup I could find and put them in the bag.

  Once Carley had done what she could, I mopped up the rest. She had already started making the customer another drink. Once she was finished she went and got a voucher for a free mocha and gave it to the woman, apologizing profusely.

  “Sorry,” she said to me when she had finished. “What were you saying about Samuel?” Her hands were balled into fists in her apron and I wondered what she was nervous about.

  “He wanted to see me to tell me not to go swimming. At least not around here, until he could do something or other. I don’t really get what he wanted, but he asked me to tell you and Nick too,” I said, giving her the strangest look. She normally acted odd around Samuel, but I had thought it was because she had a crush on him.

  Carley breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, okay. Wait, what?”

  “Samuel says don’t go swimming,” I repeated.

  “None of us?” she asked, incredulous. “What kind of a joke are you two playing at? Does he realize it’s summer?”

  “It’s not a joke,” I said. “He told me not to go swimming and I told him I wouldn’t until he said it would be okay.”

  “Wa-wa,” said Carley, smiling dreamily at me.

  “What?” I asked, bewildered.

  “He likes you! He’s worried about what happened to Katie and he wants to keep you and your friends safe. That’s so romantic.”

  I scoffed. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s it. He can barely stand the sight of me.” And he never touches me, I added silently. It shouldn’t bother me, but it did.

  “You deny that he likes you?” she challenged.

  Since I was destined to be his queen, he should at least like me. But he didn’t seem to like me, let alone love me. “I deny that he told me to stay out of the water because he likes me,” I countered, wanting to get away from the subject of Samuel as a ro
mantic interest.

  “Whatever you say, Autumn,” she said. “I think it’s totally amazing that he wants to protect your friends, too.”

  “So are you going to stay out of the water or not?” I demanded.

  “Sure,” said Carley. “Anything for your future husband.”

  I glanced at myself in the mirror on the wall. I seriously don’t think my face could have been any redder if it was a legitimate cherry.

  Soon after Jill came back the lunch rush started, and I didn’t have time for anything besides taking orders and making change for customers. One of the customers was Nick, who set up with his computer for the afternoon at one of the corner tables. Another was the police chief I’d seen the night before. I gave a little start when I saw him and wondered if he’d found out anything else about Katie. I bet he’d be surprised if he thought the best place to look for answers was with crabby Fairies.

  After a busy afternoon at the café I was bone tired. I could see Carley was tired too. We were about to finish our shift when Susan came in. Working all day had held the sadness about Holt at bay, but seeing Susan brought it all back in a rush. I’d hardly seen her recently.

  “Hi, Autumn, how are you?” she asked when she came up to the counter. I checked over her shoulder, but there was no one with her.

  “Good,” I said, trying to plaster a smile on my face. I didn’t want her to think I couldn’t function without Holt. And now I wanted information from her.

  I was about to ask her if we could grab dinner or something when she asked, “Can I have an iced tea to go?”

  “Sure,” I said. I grabbed her the ice tea since Carley was busy filling a different order. When I brought the cold drink back to her I said, “Do you think we could hang out sometime soon?” I didn’t want to tell her that I missed seeing her and I missed seeing Holt way more, but I knew that if I didn’t ask her to get together while I had the chance I would regret it.

  Susan looked surprised, but she quickly recovered. “Um, yeah, sure. I’m meeting someone tonight, but I’m free tomorrow in the afternoon. You aren’t working, are you?”

  “No,” I said. “The afternoon works.” Nick and Carley would probably be busy having Nick and Carley time anyway. “Should I come by, or….”

  “No, um. I’ll meet you here,” she said. She smiled, but it looked about as genuine as mine felt.

  “Okay,” I said.

  She grabbed her tea and left. I turned to tell Carley that our shift was over, and when I turned back I could see Susan through the window. She was standing outside sucking on her iced tea. I watched for a minute, thinking about Holt, and then I was shocked to see who she was meeting.

  Samuel.

  Were they on good terms too? The Roths and the Cheshires were not supposed to be on good terms. But when Samuel walked up to her Susan looked happy, if a little apprehensive. I was surprised that the two of them were friends. Samuel hadn’t said anything when I had mentioned Susan the other night, but since they were the ones looking for Katie and he was the one telling me to stay out of the water, I guess it made sense that he was talking to Susan, too. I had never even seen them so much as say hi to each other before, but here they were, heading down the street together. I did notice, though, that it wasn’t one of the main streets; they were ducking around the back of a nearby building. I wondered where they were going, but I told myself it was none of my business.

  It gave me hope, though. Maybe the Roths and the Cheshires weren’t on as bad terms as I had thought.

  “Hey,” said Carley behind me, smacking a towel into my shoulder. “Did you hear me?”

  “No, what?” I asked, startled.

  “I said, let’s go see Nick,” she said. Her hands were placed on her hips; her usual pose when she was being demanding.

  “Alright,” I replied. I glanced out the window one more time, but Samuel and Susan were out of sight.

  The three of us ended up eating dinner at the café and having a really good time. Nick told stories about his school and we talked about our plans for the rest of the summer. Even though it was fun, I wanted to know why things had been a little weird between the three of us lately, so I just came right out and asked why they hadn’t come to say hi the night before.

  Carley visibly paled and Nick coughed. When neither of them answered I prompted. “Well?”

  “I thought you were asleep,” said Carley, moving her food around on her plate like it was her job.

  “But my light was on,” I pointed out. “Since when do you assume I sleep with lights on?”

  “Oh,” Carley replied in a small voice. “I didn’t notice.”

  “So nothing’s wrong?” I asked.

  They both looked shocked. “Why would you think something’s wrong?” asked Nick.

  “I just felt like the two of you have been a little weird lately,” I said.

  “I mean, Autumn, you’ve been pretty upset for most of the summer,” said Carley.

  “Carley,” I said. “I know. I’m tired of hearing about it. Are you two mad at me?”

  “No,” said Carley and Nick together.

  “We miss seeing you,” Nick added.

  “Great,” I said. I looked from one to the other of them. “I guess I’m just being paranoid.”

  Carley put her arm around me. “We always want to hang out with you,” she said.

  I smiled. “Yeah, sorry. I guess I’ve just been a little out of it lately.”

  “That’s alright,” said Nick. “Anyway, the three of us should watch a movie tonight or something.”

  “Yeah,” said Carley.

  Alright,” I agreed. “Want to see Friends With Benefits?”

  “Oh yeah,” said Nick. “Definitely.”

  Carley didn’t. She suggested about five other movies to watch, but since it was what Nick and I both wanted to see, she finally agreed.

  Once we’d finished eating and cleaned up our table, we all went out to Nick’s car. The movie theater wasn’t very far away and we were a bit early for the movie, so we bought popcorn while we waited. Since it was a weeknight the place wasn’t very full and we had our pick of plush red seats. We chose some that were kind of in the middle and settled in to enjoy the movie.

  Walking back to the house a couple of hours later, I was glad I had gone. It had been a really nice distraction from the stress of the past couple of days. Once the three of us got home I said goodnight and headed inside. Carley said that she’d forgotten something in Nick’s car and she’d be in right behind me.

  When I was halfway up the stairs I realized that I hadn’t told Nick about Samuel. Without thinking, I headed back down the stairs and out the front door onto the porch. Carley hadn’t turned the porch lights on, so I flicked the switch as I went by – and almost ran directly into Nick and Carley standing on the porch making out.

  I skidded to a stop just in time. “What the!” I said, shocked.

  Nick blinked at me in the sudden light while Carley went red.

  “What are you two doing?” I asked. Stupid question. I could see what they were doing.

  When neither of them said anything, I said, “What’s going on?” I folded my arms over my chest and leaned back against the door. They exchanged looks, and finally Nick said, “After the Solstice party, Carley and I were both a little stressed. I don’t know why since it was an awesome party, but we ended up hanging out. It was when you were really upset about Holt and stuff, and.…” He trailed off. Now his face was getting as red as Carley’s.

  “Why wouldn’t the two of you just tell me if you’re dating? Why keep it a secret?” I wasn’t sure if I was more hurt that they hadn’t told me or that they’d let me think that their being weird was really my fault.

  “Because we aren’t officially dating,” Carley broke her silence and snapped at me, “and we didn’t want you to feel even worse about Holt and whatever is going on there.”

  “There isn’t anything going on there. Stop trying to protect me from everything. How
could you not tell me you’re…wait, so you’re….” A little belatedly, I realized that Nick was getting more and more embarrassed and Carley was getting mad, and that I should stop. And Carley hadn’t wanted to see Friends With Benefits....

  “Okay, well. Um, sorry to have interrupted and stuff,” I said awkwardly. Now all I wanted to do was get out of there. Right then. “I’m going to go to bed.” With that I dashed away. Carley called out to me but I ignored her, leaving my two friends standing there on the porch.

  I hurried into my room and closed the door. Once I’d showered and gotten ready for bed by putting on a massive t-shirt and brushing my teeth, I grabbed the same magazine I’d been looking at the night before and tried to read it.

  I knew I shouldn’t be angry. Even though my two best friends here had basically lied to me. They hadn’t come to my room last night because they had wanted to hook up. I hadn’t been a lot of fun most of the summer and they were probably worried about me, but how could I have missed that they were together? And why weren’t they actually dating? I knew for a fact that Nick was so completely in love with Carley that he’d probably marry her if she’d agree to it. I had been so wrapped up in my own love life, or lack of one, that I hadn’t seen what was right in front of my face.

  I still felt bad. I wished that they had felt comfortable telling me, but it explained a lot. Like why they hadn’t come to my room and why they were always disappearing by themselves.

  My eyes had become unfocused on the magazine, and I tried again to focus on the article. It was aptly titled “What to do When Friends Lie to You?”

  I snorted.

  There was a soft tap on my door, and from the other side Carley called, “Autumn? Are you still awake?”

  “Yeah,” I called back.

  Carley came into the room. She looked a little timid and her face was still red, but she tried to smile at me.

  “Sorry you had to find out like that,” she said. “It was just so new and we weren’t sure what was going on with you and…”

  I sat up in bed.

  “Let’s just forget about it. I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could confide in me,” I told her.