The Way You Make Me Feel(47)
His entire face lit up—he was Christmas Day and Disneyland all rolled into one. “Her birthday? I’m so glad we invited her then! We have to prepare!”
I pulled my dad’s black Dodgers cap down lower over my head, avoiding the sun. “All right, calm down. Let me respond to her first.”
I wished her happy birthday with some dumb bitmojis that were sure to infuriate her, then told her where to meet us.
A few minutes later, Hamlet and I were in a dollar store ransacking the aisles for the worst possible party favors.
I held up a tiara with tiny baby bottles attached. “What in God’s name do you think this is for?”
Hamlet tilted his head, which was currently wearing a pink cowboy hat. “I have this wild suspicion that it’s related to princess baby showers.”
“What is wrong with people?” I put it back on the rack, frowning.
“We need to get this,” Hamlet announced, holding up a SpongeBob pi?ata.
“What about SpongeBob SquarePants screams Rose to you? I am really curious.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t. That’s why it’s funny?”
I laughed. “Actually, that’s a good idea except we can’t really do pi?ata stuff at the cemetery.” We were headed to Hollywood Forever, an old cemetery where a bunch of golden-age movie stars were buried, like Judy Garland. Every summer they showed movies—their whole motto was “Watch the stars under and OVER the stars.” Pretty messed up. And rad. Hamlet had never been before and neither had Rose, and I was excited to share it with them. That’s the thing about having new friends—everything you like and do feels fresh again.
Again, I felt a flash of guilt for not inviting Felix and Patrick. Hollywood Forever was usually our thing. But I knew it would be awkward, and I didn’t want to worry about everyone getting along. It’d been getting harder and harder to separate my social life between the two groups. Hamlet never said anything, but I’m sure he was wondering why I hadn’t introduced them to him yet. But when I told Patrick and Felix about dating Hamlet, they didn’t take it seriously at all (“TO BE OR NOT TO BE!”) and thought I was just working a lot.
After the dollar store, we grabbed a cake at the grocery and some sandwiches at the deli counter. The best part of the cemetery movie screenings was that you got there early, staked out a spot, and had a picnic. Hamlet didn’t need to know that this would be my sixth time going with a boyfriend. Sixth different guy. And when he insisted on blasting some dated pop music in the car, I couldn’t help but marvel at how different from the others he was. How I didn’t care that he had kinda bad music taste. How I liked how confident and assured he was in the things he liked because he was so free of judgment himself.
He tapped his hands on the steering wheel and sang along.
“Hamlet.”
“Yes?” Without tearing his eyes off the road, he slid his hand up the back of my neck, his fingers pushing into my hair.
See, one second Hamlet’s singing some dorky pop song and the next he’s doing sexy stuff like this, and the juxtaposition of it all really got to a person. That person being me. Only me.
Before I could truly savor the moment, my phone buzzed. A text. I wriggled a little so that Hamlet would let go of my neck. He glanced over at me with a questioning smile. I smiled back and his eyes returned to the road and he continued singing. The text was from my mom.
Get a load of the hotel where we’ll be staying in Tulum!
It was accompanying a link to a hotel website. I scrolled through the photos and groaned.
“What?” Hamlet asked.
I held up my phone to him, but of course he kept his eyes on the road. “My mom just sent me a link to the resort in Tulum. It’s killer.”
“Tulum?”
“Oh! I’m going to see my mom in Mexico next month!”
He lowered the volume of the music. “Cool, that should be fun.” Hamlet knew the lowdown on my parents and, without his saying anything, I could tell he had some chilly feelings about my mom. Loyalty to my dad and all. It both annoyed and pleased me.
“I plan on flying out early enough to get back in time for the food truck contest. Best reward ever for my summer of the KoBra.”
We turned into the parking lot for the screening, driving by the sidewalk filled with people waiting in line for the movie. Hamlet reached for the parking ticket at the entrance. “Do you really think your dad’s gonna let you go since your punishment was for the entire summer?”
I texted my mom back with the heart-eyed emoji then slipped my phone into my pocket. “I have zero doubt in my mind. My dad always caves.”
Hamlet grinned. “Well, you’ve got a way.”
My heart flipped in my chest, and I resisted rolling my eyes at myself.
CHAPTER 21
The sun was starting to set, and the sky was a pale lavender and pink that I always felt was specific to a certain kind of hot day in LA—when the sun had been so brutal for hours on end that even the sky needed a minute to chill. So the sunset took its sweet time, letting the light blue fade at a lazy pace under the thick blanket of ever-present smog, and turning the sky into a palette of hazy, desaturated pastels.
It was against this backdrop that we found Rose, an elegant silhouette, waiting at the front of the line and clutching a lawn chair.