Page 15 of Room to Breathe

The movement must’ve caught Beau’s eye because he saw us and laughed. Hard.

He came striding across the grass. “Oh wow. This is…”

“Amazing is the only correct end to that sentence,” I said.

He smirked at me.

Both Caroline and Ava went in for a hug and enclosed him into our little pod, my body smashed against his because I was in the middle and I had no arms to stop it.

“Itisamazing,” he said by my ear. My brain knew he meant the costume, but my body, in a deep betrayal of everything I knew to be right in the world, had a reaction to his words, his closeness. More than just a fluttering heart. My stomach flip-flopped andmy skin tingled to life. I tried to step back, but I was at the mercy of my counterparts. They were too busy laughing and telling him that he was a loser for underdressing for his character.

“You could’ve at least sprayed your hair blond,” Ava said. “Or worn an orange kerchief. Is that what they’re called? Kerchiefs? Kerchieves?”

“Claustrophobic!” I yelled to the sky.

They thought this was funny too and smashed together even closer.

“You’re horrible people,” I said, and finally Caroline backed up, setting Beau free. He took a few steps back. We met eyes for a brief second and quickly averted them.His body didn’t betray him just now. That’s not why he gave me that look. He has a girlfriend after all. We are just friends.

“You’re the one who said we couldn’t leave the pod all night,” Ava said.

“I might be reconsidering my stance,” I said.

“How were you planning to eat in this?” Beau asked me.

“I have two hands.” I nodded toward Caroline and Ava.

“Yes, she does. We get our little pea anything she needs,” Ava said.

“We are one,” Caroline said.

“Jealous?” I asked Beau.

“Actually,” he said, our eyes colliding again, “kind of.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, Beau. You’ll always be a pea in our pod. Now point us to the food.”

For the next hour we stayed together as a group of three. It was nearly impossible to do anything, even sit. All the chairs had armrests. We tried to sit on the grass at one point but fell onto ourbacks and rocked there like flipped tortoises until someone helped us up.

Now we were just standing, talking to the girl with the glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth—Ali. I was having to listen hard because her words were contorted by the teeth. Considering it was the only piece of her costume, I appreciated that she hadn’t removed them, was sticking to the bit.

“Oh, Cudy is here,” she said.

“Cudy?” I asked.

“No, her namer, Cudy.”

I was confused. She pointed.

I craned my neck but couldn’t turn enough to see anything.

“Her neighbor?” Caroline said. “Harper’s?”

“Yes!” Ali agreed. “He must’ve crashed, he wasn’t inmited.”

“I have to pee!” Ava announced. “And I’m doing it alone.”

“Did you really think we were going to pee with you?” I asked.