Robyn (11 page)

“Are you still giving me a ride?” I called out after her, grabbing my tote bag, and hurrying to catch up with her.

“Don’t see that I have much choice. Who else are you going to ride home with?”

Mr. T was standing at the entrance, adding a personal touch, saying good night to the employees.

“Great idea, Whitney,” he said as she and I walked through. “Went over really well. Sorry we couldn’t get the movie set up here in time, but it’s in the works and as soon as it’s ready we’ll have employee movie night.”

“Thanks, Mr. T.”

“Good night, Robyn,” he said.

I nearly tripped over my feet. He knew who I was? “ ’Night.”

The white stretch limo was waiting near the front.

“Your dad had to work again?” I asked.

“Yep.”

The driver opened the door for us.

“David, we’re taking Robyn home.”

“Yes, Miss Whitney.”

He had a wonderful British accent that reminded me of James Bond.

Whitney and I crawled inside. I settled back against the seat. “So your dad works a lot.”

“Oh, yeah. All the time. But that is so boring to talk about. So do you like Sean or not?”

I groaned, wishing I could just disappear into the seat. “Yes. Do you?”

“I like him, but I don’t want him for a boyfriend.”

“But he might want you for a girlfriend,” I told her.

“If that was true, why was he holding your hand tonight?”

“Because yours wasn’t around?”

She laughed. “Are you really that dense? Do you not see the way he looks at you?”

“I guess not.”

“He likes you. Big-time. So are you going to tell Caitlin you like him?”

“No!” I buried my face in my hands. “She so won’t understand.” I peered through my fingers at Whitney. “Caitlin thinks he’s irritating.”

“Of course she does. He’s her brother. What’s important is what you think.”

Was I actually considering confessing everything to Adorable Girl?

“I thought he was irritating, too, until this summer. And now, I … I don’t know. I like him. He works hard, and he’s nice, and he worries about people. And he’s fun.”

And he knew so much about me, like
maybe he’d been noticing things about me all along — while I’d only started noticing things about him this summer. Was it possible that he’d never talked to me before because he liked me and didn’t know how to tell me? That maybe he worried about what Caitlin would think as much as I did?

I always thought that the first time I started falling for someone that I’d talk to Caitlin about him. But I couldn’t tell Caitlin. And here was Whitney willing to listen. When had I become friends enough with Whitney to tell her how I was feeling?

Everything was changing this summer. I was so confused.

“So what you are going to do?” Whitney asked.

“I don’t know. What if tonight was just an aberration? What if we were hanging out together because there was no one else?”

“There were plenty of other people. I think he was with you because he wanted to be. The real question is: Why were you with him?”

When Whitney dropped me off at home, she offered to give me a ride to work the next day, which meant that I needed to let Sean know not to pick me up. But I didn’t have his cell number, which was a good thing / bad thing. Good because I didn’t have to talk to him. Bad because I had to talk to Caitlin.

I was sitting on my bed, staring at my cell phone trying to figure out how to say what I needed to say. When had I started to worry about telling Caitlin anything? We’d been friends forever. We always confided in each other. She never judged me.

Maybe I’d just never done anything that needed judging.

I was about to quick-dial Caitlin when my phone rang. It was her.

“Hey,” I said when I answered.

“What were you doing hanging out with my brother?”

Just like Caitlin to get straight to the point.

“How was your date with Tanner?” I asked, trying for a subject change. “Did he kiss you?”

“No, he didn’t.” She sounded majorly disappointed. I didn’t blame her. He was cute and they’d hung out all night.

“But you were together all night.”

“And you were with my brother. Did he kiss you?”

“No.”

“Did you want him to?”

“Caitlin, let’s talk about you and Tanner.”

“You did!”

“Caitlin,
shh
! He listens at the door.”

“What? No, he doesn’t.”

“Sometimes he does. Listen, I want to talk about you and Tanner.”

“I need to know what’s going on with you and my brother. He’s acting weird. I can’t explain it. It’s like he’s upset, and I don’t like to see him upset. What did you say to him?”

“Nothing. Things have suddenly gotten really complicated. Whitney is giving me a ride to work in the morning.”

“Whitney? What is it with you and Whitney? Is she your new best friend?”

“She’s my new friend. You’re my best friend. You’ll always be my best friend. But just tell Sean not to come get me on his way to work tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t even know who you are anymore.”

Would it make her feel better if I said that I didn’t know either?

“I’ll see you at lunch,” I told her. Then I hung up before she could say anything else.

I rolled over onto my side, curled up, and tried to make sense of things. But no matter how hard I thought about everything, nothing made sense.

*  *  *  

It was a little pretentious arriving at Paradise Falls in a limo.

“Does your dad always work?” I asked Whitney as we were walking to the employee entrance.

“Pretty much.”

“Is the limo really rented?”

“No, it’s just a little embarrassing to be driven around. I really can’t wait until I’m sixteen. Although I’m not getting a
used
car.”

I smiled at that. “Must be nice.”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll get that knockoff Ferrari that Caitlin was talking about.”

I was really starting to like Whitney. I thought she came from a different world than I did and that maybe Mom had been right: Her dad wanted her to work so she’d
learn the value of money. But our friendship wasn’t to the point where I could really ask her something that personal.

“So who were you hanging out with last night?” I asked her instead.

“Lots of different people. I like partying. I don’t like settling on one person.”

I pushed open the door that led into the employee locker room. “But you want a boyfriend, don’t you?”

“Maybe. Yeah. Sure. Someday. When the right guy comes along.”

When we got to our lockers, I saw Caitlin standing there — like maybe she’d been waiting for me.

“You’re almost late,” she said.

“Almost doesn’t count.”

I opened my locker, tossed my tote inside, and took off my shorts and T-shirt. My bathing suit was on underneath.

“So, will I see you at lunch?” she asked.

“Yeah, definitely.”

“Okay.”

She headed out, but I thought maybe she had something else she wanted to say. And I had a lot that I needed to say to her.

“I’ll catch you later,” I said to Whitney, then I rushed out of the locker room. “Caitlin, wait!”

She stopped walking and I hurried over.

“I like Whitney,” I said. “She’s my friend.”

“That’s cool. You always wanted us to be a bigger group.”

“Maybe sometime the three of us can do something together — away from the park. She gets driven around in a limo.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope. And all her knockoffs? I don’t think they’re really knockoffs.”

“So why is she working here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Mmm. Well, maybe we both need to start paying more attention to her. I’ll see you at lunch.”

I watched her walk away. Maybe I’d worked out the friendship part of my life. Now if I could just figure out the rest of it.

*  *  *  

I couldn’t believe it. Even though I’d taken time to talk to Caitlin, I still got to Splash before Whitney did.

Nick was already there. “Thought I was going to be working solo,” he said.

“I think you could handle it,” I said.

“Yeah, me too. Really, I think they need to move us around.”

“You don’t have to convince me.”

Although now I liked working here, because it meant that I saw Sean a little more. Or at least usually I did.

He wasn’t around either, which made me wonder if he and Whitney were off doing something together.

Did she like him? Would she tell me if she did? She’d told me the limo was rented, indicated it was a one-time thing but it
wasn’t. What else had she told me that wasn’t true?

I finally spotted her practically skipping toward us. Obviously happy. Maybe they’d given her a job somewhere else.

Only I wasn’t sure that I wanted her working somewhere else. Yes, she was a little quirky and not completely into actually working, but she was getting better at it.

“They figured out how to do the movie setup that we wanted. The equipment should arrive in the next couple of days,” she said when she got to Splash. “It’s gonna be awesome. We’re going to have another party and if it works the way that I think it will, we’ll start having one late night a week with a movie — for the guests.”

“That would mean we’d have to work extra,” I pointed out.

“Overtime pay.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “That would be cool, huh?”

“I didn’t think you wanted to work at all.”

“It’s growing on me. Of course, we’d have to have family films,” she said, like she was creating the schedule in her head. “Like
Finding Nemo
or
The Little Mermaid
. We need to come up with a list of appropriate water films. For us — the employees — it’s going to be
Jaws
.”

I gave a little shudder. “Just the thought of it gives me chills.”

And I could imagine guys going underwater and trying to scare us. I grinned. Might be fun.

“So what did you decide about Sean?” Whitney asked after a moment.

We were standing there, holding our rescue tubes, just watching kids slide, every now and then telling them to settle down. Like they listened to us.

“Nothing. I haven’t even seen him today.”

“He was in the office waiting to talk to Mr. T when I was in there.”

“About what?”

She shrugged. “He didn’t say. I mean, why would he tell me?”

“I don’t know. Y’all seem kinda close. That first day you were having lunch together.”

“He’s just looking out for me, because they asked him to.”

“Who asked him to?”

She waved her hand like it was nothing. “It’s not important.”

“You know, sometimes you make me feel like … I don’t know. Like, maybe you have secrets.”

“We all have secrets. You know that little boy out there sure can hold his breath for a long time.”

“What little boy?”

“The one floating in the Lost Lagoon.”

I spun around and saw him. He was maybe three or four. Where was his mother?

“Nick, call for help!” I yelled. Nick ran down toward the office as I jumped over the edge of Splash and landed in the Lost Lagoon. I started wading, trudging, toward the little boy.

I heard another splash. It was Whitney coming up beside me.

“Isn’t he playing?” Whitney asked.

“I don’t think so.”

I got to him, turned him over. His lips were blue. I lifted him up and hurried back to Splash where we’d at least have an area with only maybe a quarter of an inch or so of water, which kept the cement from getting hot. People used it as a path.

I set the little boy down on the cool cement and climbed up out of the lagoon. Whitney was right beside me.

“What do I do?” she asked. “I don’t know what to do.”

I didn’t have time to explain. I started breathing into the little boy’s mouth, remembering everything they’d taught us in CPR class, tilting his chin back. Two quick breaths, then pumping on his chest. Counting the pumps. Then two more quick breaths.

The little boy coughed, spit up some water, and started crying.

It was the first time I was ever glad to hear a kid cry.

“There!” I heard someone shout.

I looked over and a woman was rushing over with a couple of other people, Nick, an EMT, and Sean. The EMT got there first and started checking the boy’s vitals. I heard Whitney telling the woman she was going to have to wait.

Sean pulled me to my feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Only then did I realize that I was trembling. “You’re all blurry.”

“That’s ’cause you’re crying. It’s okay.” He put his arms around me and held me. It felt really good. Suddenly I was cold and he was warm. “You’re a hero.”

“Whitney helped,” I said. “And Nick.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Whitney said.

“Come on. We need to get you warm,” Sean said.

I looked back at the medic. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Looks like.” He winked at me. “You did a good job.”

“Thanks. But if Whitney hadn’t seen him —”

“Will you shut up already?” she asked. “You did it by yourself.”

“No, I didn’t. We’re a team.”

“You can argue about it later,” Sean said.

He took me to the first aid station and wrapped a warm blanket around me, like I was in shock or something.

“See, I knew you were dependable,” he said quietly.

“Why do you make all these exceptions for Whitney?” I asked. Maybe I
was
in shock because the question seemed to come out of nowhere.

“It’s not me making the exceptions, but I can’t talk about it.”

“Do you want her to be your girlfriend?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. Not even close.”

“Well, how’s our little heroine?” a deep voice boomed.

I looked past Sean to see Mr. T standing there, grinning broadly.

“I’m not really a heroine,” I said. “I was just doing my job.”

“Remember what you just said, because that’ll make a good sound bite when you’re interviewed.”

“I’m going to be interviewed?”

“TV stations are on their way.”

“Whitney spotted him. If she hadn’t —”

“Whitney wants to stay low-key, so we’re just going to talk about what you did. This is Amber.” A young woman with short black hair and glasses stepped forward. “She’s our publicist. She’s going to prep you and help you through this.”

“Can I stay low-key, too?” I asked.

Amber smiled. “It won’t be bad. Just a few questions and a few answers.”

“You can do this,” Sean said.

“How do you know?”

He grinned. “I just know.”

*  *  *  

“I was just doing my job.”

I didn’t sound too stupid. Mom had TiVoed the news so we could watch my interview — over and over if we wanted. Although I thought once would be enough for me. We were sitting on the couch together. She was squeezing my hand, like she thought maybe the interview was going to have a bad outcome.

The camera cut away to Mr. T, looking very important as he explained how all the students who worked at the park were trained to save lives.

Mom clicked the remote and muted the TV. “I’m so proud of you,” she said.

“I didn’t do it alone, though,” I said. “I can’t figure out why Whitney didn’t want any attention. And Nick called for help. He should have been on the news, too.”

“They helped, but you were the one who saved the little boy’s life, when you get right down to it.”

“I guess.”

Doing the interview hadn’t been as hard as I’d expected, mostly because Sean had hung around off camera, giving me a thumbs-up, making me feel like I could do the interview — could do anything, actually.

I knew he was probably being so supportive because he was my supervisor. He’d stayed with me for the interview, then checked up on me several times throughout the afternoon. They’d had a counselor come talk to me, to help me adjust to my new heroine status and to offer guidance and an ear if I wanted to talk about what had happened, what I’d done.

He’d been helpful, but Sean sitting down with me during my break and just letting me talk it out had helped a lot more. It’s kind of overwhelming to realize that you’ve saved a life. But talking with Sean made me realize that nothing monumental was going to change in my life.

Yes, I’d have some attention for a few days, but I was still me. And I still had a job to do.