“I know!” I said, standing. “But you’re a good sister and I want you to have it.”
She laughed and gave me a little push. “Go get your music festival.”
And that’s how I ended up on my way to Brooks’s cabin, where I was going to tell him exactly how I felt…about everything.
I paused in front of his door and listened for a moment. There was nothing but silence. Odds were that he wasn’t there, but I knocked anyway.
When I’d left the lodge, it had been close to five. He was probably finishing up his list for the day and heading to dinner. As my mind calculated the most efficient route to the dining hall, a voice called out to me, “He’s not here.”
I turned. D stood on the porch of her cabin. “Okay.” I pointed down the hill. “I’ll just…” Crap. How could I explain why I was in employee village standing at Brooks’s door?
She locked her cabin and joined me as I walked. “He left camp,” she said.
“Oh, okay. W-wait, what? Left where? Did he get in trouble? Did he go home? Is everything okay with his dad?”
She was shaking her head midway through my sputtering questions. “No, not home. He and the guys decided to spend the night in Roseville tonight so they wouldn’t have to deal with traffic and stress tomorrow. They left like thirty minutes ago.”
“Oh.”
“Brooks didn’t tell you?”
“We…no.” That completely derailed my plans. Maybe this wasn’t meant to happen. No, I was done letting supposed signs dictate my choices.
“Just let it be, Avery,” D said. I hadn’t thought she remembered my name. “Ian is back.”
So she knew a lot more than any of us thought. She’d probably seen me in the back room practicing with Brooks those two weeks. “Why didn’t you turn us in?”
“Because I obviously care about what happens to him. You couldn’t care less.” Did she like Brooks? Is that why she’d hated me all summer?
“This is about his future, not just this summer,” I said.
“And you think his future is you?”
“I think his future is music,” I said.
“And with the band, he can have both this summer and music.”
“So you’re saying you’re going to tell Janelle if I sing with him?”
She let out a frustrated sigh. “No, I’m just saying that if you really cared about him, you wouldn’t.”
I really didn’t feel like I needed to defend myself to her, but I was going to anyway. “I disagree. This isn’t a one-sided relationship. We’ve always looked out for each other. I’m taking this shot and I think he’d want me to.”
I picked up my pace to get ahead of her. At the end of the path I turned around. “Thanks for not telling on him!” Because I knew she wouldn’t. She was probably in love with him. And maybe I was too. But that had nothing to do with this. This was for me.
“It was Life Is Beautiful, in Vegas five years ago,” Dad said from the driver’s seat.
“That was at least seven years ago,” Mom said.
“Seven?” Dad said. “No way.”
They were arguing over when the last time they’d been to a music festival was as we drove to Roseville.
“It was,” Mom responded. “I remember because Avery was ten and she told me she was old enough to go.”
Lauren, who’d been recording my parents on her phone, panned it over to me. “Do you remember said incident?” she asked.
“In fact, I do not.”
“Didn’t happen,” Lauren said.
Dad didn’t react to Lauren; he just said, “Really? Seven?”
Mom continued to think of several other things that had happened that same year.
Lauren put down her phone and reached over to grab my hand. She still had the crappy friendship bracelet I’d made tied around her wrist. “It will work out,” she whispered. Apparently, I wasn’t hiding my nerves well. I hadn’t told my parents what I was doing…again. But this time it was because I didn’t want to disappoint more people if it didn’t happen, not because I didn’t think they would support me.
“I want both,” I whispered back. “And I’m afraid I’ll only get one.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I want to sing,” I said. “But I also want Brooks.”
She pursed her lips. “You think he’ll break up with you over this.”
“We got in a big fight a few days ago. I think we broke up. Or he thinks we did. I don’t know.”
“A fight doesn’t mean you broke up.”
“I know, but I said ‘Screw you, Brooks.’ Pretty sure there’s only one way to take that.”
Her eyes went wide and then she started laughing.
“It’s not funny,” I hissed in a whisper.
“Imagining you saying that is very funny.”
“He didn’t stand up for me with the band, Lauren. I know I should’ve fought for myself, but he should’ve too.”
She squeezed my hand, her laughter gone now. “He’s a good guy.”
“I know, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he wants me to sing with the band when he has another option.”
I kind of hoped she’d disagree with me but she said, “I know.”
Energy poured through the late afternoon air as we parked the car and walked across a dirt lot toward the sound of music in the distance. People were everywhere, talking and laughing. Once we hit pavement, the smell of food competed with the music for air space. Food trucks and lights directed the crowd down the path and to a big grass field crowned with a large stage.
“This is bigger than I expected,” Lauren said from next to me. She had her phone out and was taking it all in.
“Don’t remind me,” I said, but she didn’t have to. I could see for myself. This was bigger than I had expected too.
“You girls want food?” Dad asked. “I want food.”
“No, we want to find a place to sit,” Lauren said.
I held up the blanket we’d brought.
“Okay, keep your phones on,” Mom said. “We’ll text you once we have food.”
“Texting,” Lauren
