In Waves | ✔️

28 | trust me

My poor piano keys took the brunt of my frustration that night, as did the cloves of garlic I minced in the restaurant. Renato was not happy with the angry pasty heap I ended up with. But it's a new day and I'm absorbing the sun and all the color it's giving the world. Today will be good.

I hurry Rob along in the kitchen so we don't miss the bus, and I think he's going to listen and get moving when he clunks down his spoon, but then he picks up his cereal bowl and lazily drinks the remaining milk. My foot taps like mad while I wait.

He sets the bowl down with a sated sigh. "We're not taking the bus."

"Derek's letting you use his car again?"

A car honks outside and Rob scoops up his backpack from the floor. I follow him to the porch, stopping when I see Nate's car idling by the curb.

"Why, um... why's he here?"

"To be our ride. Like, on a permanent basis." Rob shuts the door. "He lives so close, it just makes sense. Pretty sweet, huh? No more bus. Thank Christ, a win for my senior year."

"I don't mind taking the bus."

Rob pauses on the steps, swiveling around. "Didn't you call it a cesspool the other day?"

"It's grown on me."

He looks to the car and back to me, assessing. "You avoiding him or something? I thought you guys figured it all out."

"We did."

I don't even know why I'm hesitating. My brain is overthinking as usual, that's it.

"DeMarcos!" Nate's leaning over the passenger seat with the window halfway down. "Asses! Move them!"

"Someone's not a morning person," I jibe as I get in the sandy backseat.

"Is anyone a morning person when they have school to look forward to?" Nate retorts.

"You're asking the wrong person," Rob says next to him. "She loves school."

"Weird."

"I don't love it. I just don't actively hate it."

"Even weirder." Nate reaches for a Tupperware container sitting on the dashboard. The mouthwatering smell of peanut butter fills the car when he opens it. "Cookie?"

"Why do you have a huge box of peanut butter cookies in your car?" I ask, taking one from the batch. Rob takes four.

"My sister's a baking addict. It's a real problem." He slides them back to the dash and pulls onto the street. "But I like being the solution."

It's funny seeing Rob and Nate interacting. I've seen them from afar in school, but it's different up close. The way they talk to each other with no lulls or awkwardness, you'd think they've been friends for years. I suppose they're the kind of people who have confidence oozing from their pores. A match made in heaven.

When I ask Nate why his brother isn't getting a ride from him, he says he's happy taking the bus. I think he just didn't want to be in a confined space with the person who beat his face in. Rob doesn't seem to feel bad in the slightest. I think the only one he feels bad for is himself having to sit through his daily detentions.

All these things that should affect a friendship: beating up brothers, making out with sisters - and they both let it roll off their backs. Boys are a strange breed.

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I'm sitting on the bleachers with Matt before his practice. We're facing each other, with my legs folded and his on either side of the bench. Matt's a pretty big guy, but he looks a lot bigger in his uniform. Especially up close. I think it's the shoulder pads. Harris must be a tank up close.