Page 100 of Room to Breathe

“What kind of presents?” Ava asked. Her eyes in therearview mirror were hard to read. It seemed like she was teasing me, though. A good sign.

“You’veforgiven her?” Caroline asked, turning in her seat to look at Beau.

“More than forgiven her.”

“What happened in that bathroom?” Ava asked. “Miracles?”

“There’s something about peeing in front of another person…” I mumbled.

Caroline let out a surprised laugh.

Ava pulled into the parking lot at school and parked in her normal spot. Then she too turned around in her seat. Beau was still gripping my hand and her eyes went there first.

She pointed between the two of us. “Is this what you mean bymore than forgiven?”

“Yes,” he said.

“What?” she asked in disbelief. “I was kidding. You were supposed to sayno.”

“What?” Caroline said. “What am I missing?”

“They were doing more than peeing in front of each other in that bathroom,” Ava said.

“That makes it sound much worse than what we were doing,” Beau said.

“What were you doing?” Caroline asked.

“Talking,” Beau said at the same time I said “Kissing.”

Caroline’s eyes went wide and she finally noticed our hands. I felt like I was holding on to him for dear life. I wondered if I was cutting off his circulation.

“Wait?” she said. “You two are together now?”

“We’re going to be fourth wheels,” Ava said.

“There’s no such thing as fourth wheels,” Beau replied.

“Obviously there is.”

“No, the saying calls for an odd number,” he said. “You can be a third wheel or a fifth. But fourth by nature, means you won’t be left out. You’ll have a buddy.”

“We were always fourth wheels,” Caroline said.

Ava groaned. “Regardless, you’re going to ruin our group.”

“We’re not,” Beau said.

“When you break her heart?”

“I’mgoing to breakherheart? Maybe she’s going to break mine.”

“You’ll both pick him anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” The words came flying out without much thought, and I pressed my lips together. Apparently, while trying to earn their forgiveness, I had forgotten I had some things to be mad about too. Relationships were complicated.

The car went quiet.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“No,” Ava said, meeting my eyes. “You’re right. We picked sides. We were hurt. We thought it was about Cody, not your dad.”