Page 115 of Next to Everything We Wanted

Forrest jumped back, nearly slipping into the pool. “You did not just do that!” Fury washed over his face. “What made you think playing dead was funny?”

Celeste frowned. “I-I was just getting you back from dunking me in the water. That’s the first thing I thought of.”

Ellis put a hand to his chest. “I thought we were going to have to make another visit to the hospital.”

“We definitely don’t need that,” Forrest muttered, crossing his arms. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“I-I’m sorry. I won’t.” Celeste got up from the patio. “Um, I’m going to use the bathroom.” She scurried into the cabana bathroom and slammed the door.

Forrest shook his head and went back into the pool, and the rest of us joined him. It didn’t take us long to calm down, relieved that we didn’t need to make another visit to a hospital. Still, the back of my head pounded from the tension in the air. The good mood everyone was in before had completely evaporated.

After a few minutes, I looked at the clock. It’d been ten minutes since Celeste had gone into the bathroom.

“Gosh, is Celeste taking a dump?” Forrest said as if he were thinking the same thing. “She’s been in there forever.”

Ellis shrugged. “Maybe she’s changing a tampon.”

Forrest scrunched his nose. “Like I neededthatimage in my brain.”

“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Maybe we should check on her.”

“Maybe she’s pulling another prank,” Forrest grumbled. “I don’t want to walk into fake poop or blood everywhere.”

“Where would she get either from?”

“Gosh, guys, I’ll check on her.” I got out of the pool and wrapped myself in my towel.

I knocked on the bathroom door. “Celeste?” When I didn’t get an answer, I creaked the door open to see nothing except wet footprints along the carpet. The air conditioning rose goosebumps on my skin, causing me to shiver.

The door to the family room was cracked, so I opened it and stepped inside. Celeste stood a few feet away in the kitchen, searching through the fridge.

She jumped, a hand flying to her chest. “Oh, I was just getting something to eat.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She took a sandwich my mom had made out of the fridge. “What, did you think I was taking a dump?”

“Or changing a tampon.”

She cringed. “I’m actually a built-in-pad girl.”

Yeah, I didnotneed to know that. “I was worried since you seemed embarrassed about the prank thing.”

“I shouldn’t have taken it that far.” She looked away as she nibbled on her sandwich. “And it was stupid for me to do that after what happened on Tuesday.”

“It’s okay. You weren’t thinking.”

She put her sandwich on the counter and sighed. “You know, it seems you guys liked me better when I was one of the guys. Cracking jokes and pulling pranks and all. I was trying to get things to be like old times. I guess I’ve lost my Celeste charm.”

“You haven’t.” I put a hand on her cold shoulder. “You’re still funny. And you’re hardworking, honest, and passionate.”

“It doesn’t feel that way.”

I sighed, rubbing her shoulder. “I hope this doesn’t have anything to do with our breakup.”

“You know it does.” She shrugged my hand off her shoulder. “Almost everything between us does now.”