Page 76 of 16 Forever

“What were you guys laughing so hard about?” Lizzy asks, smiling, and I realize she and Bodhi are holding hands. They might not beconcerned with labels, but everything they do in public seems like it should come with a giant one that reads,We are a couple!

“Mostly how bad I am with this camera,” I say, holding it up.

“Oh!” Tatiana hops up and comes around to the open space on the bleachers next to me. “Gimme.”

She holds out her hands. I take the camera off my neck and pass it to her.

“My mom is all up in the world of photography,” she says, staring down at all the buttons and dials. “So I know a lot of shit.”

“Oh. Amazing.”

She scrolls through the images I’ve taken so far. “Huh. These are...”

“Bad. I know. You can say it.”

Tatiana lets out a loud laugh and leans her shoulder into mine. “I was gonna sayphotographically challenged, but okay, yeah, if you’re gonna letbadfly, let’s go with that.”

Tatiana and I have had this flirty relationship ever since Shana’sparty where—so I’m told—we made out. She’s really cute and smart and fun, so I could see us making out again, though, to be honest, I’m not feeling it as much as I want to be.

But Maggie is probably kissing Chord on the cheek and/or mouth at this very moment.

“I’ve been getting better at pictures where people aren’t moving fast,” I say, “but once people are running or jumping, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

“Guess it’s lucky I’m here, then.”

Tatiana proceeds to take me through every feature on the camera, different speeds, how to focus the lens to create a variety of effects and styles. The whole time our bodies are close to each other, and Tatiana keeps putting her hand on my arm, and she smells like an ice cream sundae intermingled with lilacs, and if we weren’t in the stands at a basketball game, we’d probably be kissin—

Maggie.

Not in my head. Actual Maggie.

I’d glanced to my right to see if Bodhi and Lizzy were still here (they’re not; they must have gone to get snacks or something), and instead I see Maggie sitting alone farther down the bleacher just behind us. Staring at me. I don’t think she was expecting me to turn my head at that moment because her eyes are open deer-in-headlights wide. She gives me a wave without smiling.

I cautiously wave back, in case she’s actually waving at someone behind me.

She lowers her hand. She was waving at me.

Our first interaction since the concert. Which was more than a month ago.

I’m turning my head to look back at Tatiana, who’s now alsolooking toward Maggie, but Maggie raises her hand and gestures for me to come over to her.

I point to her like,You want me to come over there? To you?

She shrugs, like,I guess I do, yeah?

“Tatiana, just hold on a sec,” I say.

She was in the middle of showing me two variations in depth of field on shots she just snapped of the empty court. “I’m gonna go say hi to, uh—”

“Yeah, I know,” she says. “It’s cool.” But it doesn’t sound like she’ssocool with it.

“Um, okay.” I feel kinda bad, but I can’t ignore Maggie’s beckoning. “I’ll be right back, this’ll just be a second.”

I slide down the bleacher toward Maggie.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hi,” she says.