Cherry (13 page)

Oh now look who's cocky!
Alex texted.

Thank you, Emma. Thank you so much
, Zoe added.

You're welcome. But seriously, now what do I do?

Do it again. Do it better
, Layla texted.

HA! That's basically what you said when there weren't any fireworks.

Guess that's how it works. You do it again when it's good and you do it again when it's not as good
, Layla texted, feeling like there must be a metaphor in there somewhere.

Emma, you did say sex was like pizza
, Zoe managed to add.

IT IS LIKE PIZZA,
Emma texted back, again in all capital letters.

Layla actually laughed out loud at her phone screen. The texts paused for a moment, and Layla was pretty sure everyone else was laughing too.

Em, that still makes no sense
, Layla insisted.

IT ACTUALLY MAKES SO MUCH SENSE.

OK
,
OK,
Layla texted.
Start from the beginning . . . mental picture ready go.

Alright.
Emma obliged.
So. I was in the darkroom after school . . .

I like this already
, Alex texted.

Ohmigod.

Guys. Let Emma type.

And they did.

And she did.

She described all the details, especially the fireworks—and the way that they
felt . . .

Is this turning anyone else on?
Layla finally had to ask, disobeying her own instructions to let Emma type. She couldn't help it. It was all too good.

YESSS
, Alex texted back quickly.

Really?! Ohmigod.

OHMIGOD YES, ZOE
, Alex teased.

Layla's face hurt from smiling and her chest hurt from laughing and her heart felt full and her whole body felt warm . . .

I couldn't possibly love you more
, Layla texted.
ALL OF YOU.

SAME
, Alex and Emma texted back at exactly the same time, one right after the other. It looked like Zoe had maybe also tried to text the word “same” at the exact same time as the other girls, but it ended up showing up in The Chat as
SMALL
instead.

Small what, Zo?
Layla asked, knowing she was being an asshole.

Damn autocorrect
, Zoe texted. Then she tried again:
SMAEE.
And again:
SEMA.
And one more stupid time:
SMALL.

Layla couldn't stop laughing as she thought about Zoe's adorable little fingers, struggling with the touch screen keys.

Ohmigod . . .
Whatever
, Zoe texted.
I told you, this keyboard sucks and autocorrect hates me. At least you all love me . . .

THE MOST
, Layla, Alex, and Emma all texted at the very same time.

EMMA
sat at her usual computer in the yearbook room.

She was the first one there, and the rest of the computers were still empty.

It wasn't like Emma to be early, ever, but she'd woken up a full hour before her alarm clock this morning. Apparently, Emma still couldn't sleep, but at least now it was from excitement and contentedness and not fear.

“Hey!” Savannah suddenly appeared in the doorway.

“Hey . . . ,” Emma replied. Something about the look on Savannah's face told her to proceed with caution.

“Heard you had a good night last night. Or afternoon maybe.”

“You
heard
?”

“Well,
over
heard. I was being nosy,” Savannah said as she sat down at the computer next to Emma's and flipped open her notebook.

“Uh-oh. Why do I feel like I'm not gonna like this?”

“Sure
sounded
like you liked it,”
Savannah teased a little, knowing it would get under Emma's skin.

“You're the worst.” Emma smiled, shaking her head. She liked Savannah's playful demeanor, but she didn't like the sinking feeling that Nick was spreading rumors about her.

“Not rumors, exactly,” Savannah clarified. “His ­locker's near mine, so I just heard him talking to a couple of his friends.”

“About
me
?”

“Well, yeah. Specifically, you and him . . . in the darkroom.”

“Oh God,” Emma said, burying her head in her hands. “I'm gonna die . . .”

“Don't die. He said you were great . . .”

“Too late—I'm already dead.”

“No. Stop. Come back. It's not a big deal. I swear I only listened for a minute or two—”

“A minute or two? How long was he talking about me?” Emma asked, mostly embarrassed, but maybe the littlest bit proud, too. “Why is he telling people?”

“Because he's excited. You told your girls, didn't you?”

“Yeah, but that's different.”

“Is it?”

“I tell them everything.”

“Maybe he tells his boys everything.”

“That's not exactly making me feel better.”

“I'm just saying, I don't think we can blame him for bragging about you . . . You're way out of his league.”

“Thank you,” Emma
said with a laugh. That
sounded
like a compliment, but she wasn't entirely sure.

“You're welcome.” Savannah laughed back. “Whatever. Good for you.”

“Yeah.” Emma nodded. And then she couldn't help but add, “It was my first time. Well, my
second
time, but the first one was with Nick too, and it was just this past Saturday, so . . .” Emma could feel the blood rushing into her cheeks. She pushed her hair behind her ears just to give herself something to do.

“Lucky guy . . . ,” Savannah said with a strange sort of bite in her voice.

Emma couldn't help but think Savannah sounded a little bit, well . . .
jealous
.

  *  *  *  

LAYLA
could feel Logan's phone buzzing in his front pocket.

Layla and Logan were in the midst of a particularly heated afternoon make-out session. They'd gone off campus during their common free period to get lunch at the sushi restaurant at the bottom of the canyon near school. Off-campus privileges were one of the biggest perks of being a senior, and Logan and Layla liked to take full advantage, but today Logan's phone would just not stop buzzing—and it was killing Layla more and more with each new vibration.

“Do you need to answer that?”

“Answer what?” Logan managed to ask without ­taking his tongue out of Layla's mouth. Layla shook her
head and refocused her attention on their kisses . . .

. . . until another buzz interrupted them.

And then another.

Layla couldn't take it anymore.

They were in the backseat of his car, and she was sitting on his lap, and his phone was in his front pocket, and all the buzzing was just too close for comfort. “It's nothing,” he insisted. But before they could resume their kisses, another flurry of text messages came pouring in.

“Logan. Really. I need that to stop,” she said, squirming off him.

“You don't like the vibrations?” Logan teased.

“I can only get so excited, knowing they're from Vanessa,” Layla grumbled.

“How do you know it's her?” Logan asked as his phone buzzed yet again.

“
Seriously?
There'd better be, like, a giant fire or something . . .”

“No fire, she's just . . .”

“Oh, so it
is
her?” Layla said, thoroughly annoyed but also vindicated.

“They're printing the posters for the food drive,” Logan explained, “and they can't decide if they should be vertical or horizontal, but Vanessa wants it to be in the shape of a can. She needs approval from the school board.”

“Is that your problem?”

“Not exactly, but I know what they'll be expecting. Layla, I don't know if you're aware, but I'm actually president of the
entire
student body . . .”

“
Are you trying to tell me you're important or something?”

“
Very
important.” Logan smiled, flashing that dimple of his, but Layla still shook her head, not quite ready to let the Vanessa thing go. “
Really?”
Logan asked, recognizing the look on Layla's face. “Don't be mad at Vanessa. It's my fault. I offered to help.”

And there it was.

Of course
he had offered to help her.

Logan was way too nice like that. He was always extra-offering and overextending himself, which was all fine and good for friends and teachers or whatever, but not for Vanessa.

Layla knew that Vanessa didn't want his help.

She wanted
him
.

“Look. It's off.” Logan held up his phone for Layla to see. “Okay?”

Layla nodded, even though she honestly didn't
feel
okay.

And then they went back to making out in the backseat of Logan's car, but Layla couldn't stop thinking about Vanessa, and, even worse, she couldn't stop thinking that Logan might still be thinking about Vanessa too.

  *  *  *  

ALEX
had apologized to Zoe almost a hundred times.

She didn't know what else to say.

“There's nothing
to
say,” Zoe said sharply, poking her California sushi roll with a chopstick.

Alex looked over at Emma, who had just joined them and was now biting into a slice of pizza. She didn't seem to be
nearly as upset as Zoe was. Alex had called both of them last night and told them the truth about camp and Cameron and her virgin status. She'd been planning on telling them at school, but then after Emma's fireworks and all the text messages that followed, Alex didn't feel right about waiting any longer.

Again, Alex had planned and God had laughed.

Luckily, Emma had laughed a little bit too when Alex told her the truth.

“You're telling me
I
was actually the first one of us to lose her virginity? I totally would've lost that bet,” Emma had said. And then Alex apologized a few (dozen) more times, and Emma accepted all of her apologies, and the whole phone call was more or less painless.

Zoe, on the other hand, didn't take the news nearly as well.

The first problem was that Zoe was hoping for a call from Dylan that still hadn't arrived, so, admittedly, she was in a bit of a mood when Alex called. The second problem was that she was confused as to why Alex was calling in the first place. Alex said it just wasn't a text message kind of conversation. Honestly, it wasn't really a phone conversation either, more of an in-person sort of thing, but it was already past Alex's curfew, and she didn't want to wait until morning now that Emma had already had sex twice and orgasmed once.

  *  *  *  

ZOE
was confused as to what Emma's orgasms had to with anything.

But, before she could ask for clarification, Alex had
launched into a long apology slash explanation that started with: “I did not have sex at sleepaway camp.”

Alex explained that it was all just a misunderstanding. She described all the technical difficulties. She insisted that she was just trying to protect Cameron and something about a Mona Lisa smile or whatever, and then she finished by adding that sometimes the truth feels more like a lie than an actual lie.

Zoe could tell that the whole story made sense in Alex's head.

But to Zoe it mostly sounded more or less like bullshit.

Zoe didn't care about the other girls at camp. And she didn't care about Cameron's feelings either. Or Alex's ego. Or any of that. All Zoe cared about was The Crew. And their friendship. And the balance that existed among the four of them . . .

. . . but now she knew that Alex had been lying to them.

For
years
.

Alex said she was sorry.

And all Zoe could say was “all right.”

And then Dylan was finally actually calling, so Zoe got off the phone with Alex pretty quickly to talk to him. She honestly didn't want to talk about it anymore, but now she and Emma were sitting at lunch with Alex, and Layla was off campus with Logan, and Alex wouldn't leave the whole thing alone.

“I just wish you weren't mad at me,” Alex said, trying not to get frustrated.

“I'm not mad—”

“
Or hurt. Or whatever you are—”

“I don't know what I am!” Zoe said more loudly than she expected. “You lied to all of us for two years. I think I should get more than twenty hours to process the situation.”

“I swear I never meant to lie,” Alex said after a bit of silence. “I just need you to know that.”

“That's fine. And I do know that. But that's still what ended up happening,” Zoe said sharply. “I spent the past two years believing something that wasn't true. We all did. Whatever you
actually
meant to do, that feels shitty to me now.”

“I'm sorry,” Alex said more softly this time. “But it was . . . a year and a half.”

“What?”

“Camp was only a year and a half ago. Not two years.”

“Ohmigod,
really
?
That's
what you want to fight about—”

“I don't want to fight about anything!”

“Cool. So, what then?
Now
you're worried about the accuracy of your story—”

“Jesus, Zoe, I'm sorry! I should've told you what really happened as soon as it really didn't happen, but I can't exactly go back and change it now. And I know it sucks, but ­honestly, what happened with Cameron sucks for me too. I have these dreams about it, over and over, and they make me feel shitty every single time . . . but I guess I just figured there'd be another boy right away, and it would happen with him for real, and then the camp thing just wouldn't matter—”