Page 75 of Places We've Never Been

“Be creative,” Skyler returned.

We saw the lights up ahead and as we walked closer, the music drifted through the air. We arrived at the outskirts of the dance and fell silent. There were more people than I anticipated. Ty and his family, who I recognized from my tube-crashing incident on the river. Then there were at least a dozen other people I didn’t recognize at all.

Ty saw us and a smile took over his face. He sidestepped around a few people and walked over to greet us. “I thought you might stand me up again,” he said to me.

“No…” I didn’t remember standing him up a first time, so I wasn’t sure what else to say.

“Well, come in.” And byin,he meant the circle of grass and dirt bordered by three RVs. “There are drinks in that big metal bin over there and snacks on the table across the way.”

“Nice,” Paisley said, making a beeline for the drinks.

“Come on. Let’s dance,” Ty said to me.

“Oh.” Right, this was an actual dance, even though nobody was really dancing; they were all just standing around talking.

Ty must’ve noticed my gaze because he said, “Someone has to be the first.”

I nodded. “Sure, let’s go.”

The song was a fast one, which I was happy about. As Ty led the way to the middle of the grass area, I glanced over my shoulder. “Guys! Dancing is happening now.”

Ezra just smiled and pretended not to understand me. I pretended to flip him off by holding my fist in the air. Austin laughed. Was it too early to yell,Hey, is that Bighorns?

“You look nice,” Ty said.

“Thank you. I was trying to decide between this and a paper bag. I was told I’d look the same in either.”

“What?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

“Where are you all headed next?” Ty asked as we started dancing.

“Spokane.”

“We really are on the same route.”

“Oh yeah? That’s where you’re going too?”

“Yes. Portland after that?”

“No, Seattle. I have a school tour.”

“Oh, cool. Which school?”

“I’m sure you’ve never heard of it. It’s a small video game and graphic design school.” When I was only met with a blank stare, I added, “They don’t have the capacity for tons of admissions every year, so I requested an in-person meeting. I figured it could only help.” Unless my answers ended up being super boring and I dressed like a librarian (not the cool librarians with the funny T-shirts but the movie librarians who were always shushing people).

“You want to make video games?”

“I do.” Then, remembering how he had implied girls weren’t good at video games, I said, “Even though I’m full of lady parts.”

“No, I…It’s…,” he stuttered. “I’m sure you’ll do great.”

I laughed. “I’m just joking with you. I often don’t think before I speak. I’m getting worse on this trip, it seems.” My eyes shot to the food table, where the rest of our group was filling up plates and talking. Skyler appeared to be biting a cracker into different shapes and holding up the results for Paisley, who was not humoring him at all. I turned my attention back to Ty. “What about you? What do you want to do with your life? Rock collecting?”

“No, I grew out of that, remember?”

“That’s right.”