The Rest of the Story(90)

“Oh, crap,” I heard Celeste say. “That’s the store phone. Can you just give it to her, and I’ll see you when you get back? And if you hear from Bailey, tell her to call me and that she’s in trouble.”

“What?” Bailey whispered. “What did I do?”

“You’re hiding from her,” I pointed out from the floor. She ignored me.

“Chocolate!” Roo announced, pulling a wrapped cone from the cooler. “I’ll bring it to—”

Before he could finish this thought, however, his driver’s-side door creaked open and Gordon stuck her head in, looking down into the truck at us. “Saylor? Are you okay?”

“She’s fine,” Bailey told her. “And keep it down. You didn’t see us, you hear?”

Solemnly, Gordon nodded. She was still looking at me. “Are you sick?”

I shook my head, but even as I did so, I felt it: shame, thick and hot, creeping up from my chest to my face. Here I was, in front of the only person who probably would ever think I was perennially awesome, drunk and sprawled on the floor of an ice cream truck with what I was realizing was probably vomit on my shirt. It was a horrible impression to make on anyone, but especially a kid. They were supposed to be protected from things like this, their world consisting only of chocolate YumPops, swimming, and a warm, safe place to sleep at night. Not this. I knew how scary it could be. Because I’d been that kid.

“I’m fine,” I said to her, but even to my ears my voice sounded rough, uneven. “I’m just not feeling great right this second.”

“Now take your ice cream and go act like you never saw us,” Bailey added as Roo walked back up to the front, handing it to her. “Can you do that?”

“Yes,” Gordon said. She was still watching me.

“Good girl,” Roo told her. “See you when I get back, okay?”

Gordon nodded as Roo took his seat, cranking the engine again. The lights went out. But I could still see her, the market lit up behind, as we drove away.

“What’s the over-under of her telling Celeste everything anyway?” Roo asked as we pulled out onto the main road.

“About even,” Bailey told him, hopping up on the cooler again. “But either way, she’ll wait until she’s done with the ice cream. So step on it.”

He did, the engine rattling as we accelerated. From the floor, I watched the Lake North sign approach in the windshield, then disappear over us. I couldn’t get Gordon’s face out of my mind. Luckily, Bailey was not so distracted.

“So we’ll drop you at the Pavilion,” she was saying. “From there, you go back to the Tides and say you’ve just been out enjoying walking and thinking and had no reception. Okay?”

“Right,” I said. I sat up, locating my purse, then dug through until I found my hairbrush and an elastic. My head was pounding as I pulled my hair up in a high ponytail, securing it, then accepted the mints that Bailey was already holding out to me.

“Don’t make any rookie mistakes,” she said. “I’m sensing this is your first time doing this.”

“What? Being drunk in an ice cream truck?” I asked.

“Trying to explain yourself out of a punishment,” she corrected me. “The most common screw-up is giving too much detail or information. Stick to facts in simple statements.”

“Like five sentences,” I said.

She looked at me. “What?”

“Five sentences,” I explained. She still looked clueless. “What you say to introduce yourself, you boiled down to the basics. It’s a lake thing.”

“Says who?”

“Roo,” I told her.

“It’s true,” he said from the front seat.

“I have never heard of that,” Bailey said. “But sure, great. Five sentences. Keep it short and sweet. Like, ‘I went to the movie. I saw a friend. We had a beer. I felt bad about it. So I’ve been out here thinking.’”

“Wow,” Roo said, and I looked at the rearview mirror just as he did, our eyes meeting. To me he said, “She’s a natural.”

“Went to a movie, saw a friend, had a beer, felt bad, been thinking,” I repeated. “Got it.”

“Tears are helpful, too,” Hannah added. “I always cry when I get busted. Sometimes the sympathy vote is all you have going for you.”

“Not too many tears, though,” Bailey warned me. “If you’re blubbering, it just pisses them off more. Or it does Celeste. I don’t know your dad, though.”

When it came to this sort of thing, I didn’t really know him either: I hadn’t ever had to lie to him about where I’d been or what I was doing. There’d been no need to until now. Which was probably just what he would say, I was sure, if none of this worked.

“Getting close,” Roo reported, slowing for a stop sign. He looked at Hannah. “You want to hop off at Campus?”

“Can you come back by and hang out before you go to work?” she asked. “We can watch a movie or something.”

He glanced at the clock on the console. “Probably not. Sorry.”

She bit her lip, clearly unhappy. “I thought we were hanging out tonight. I mean, you invited me to this party—”

“Everyone was invited,” Bailey said under her breath. But I could hear her. “Not just you.”