Fire with Fire

AFTER SCHOOL, ASH CALLED AND GUILT-TRIPPED ME into coming over to her house. She kept saying how we haven’t had alone time in ages. Which is true—we haven’t. I’ve barely seen her outside of cheering practice.

So imagine my surprise when I pulled into her driveway and saw Rennie’s Jeep. I almost turned right around and drove back home, but I didn’t want to hurt Ash’s feelings. And, deep down, maybe I hoped that Rennie was in on it, that maybe she wanted to make up.

But when I rang the doorbell and Rennie opened the door, she looked like she wanted to slam it in my face. She didn’t, but I could tell she wanted to.

Now here we are in Ash’s rec room watching TV and doing our nails on the beanbag chairs she won’t let her mother throw away. We had to come down here because her mother doesn’t like the fumes; she says they give her migraines.

Ash is trying to get a conversation going, but nobody’s really talking. We’re all concentrating on our nails.

“Pass me the nail-polish remover,” Rennie orders. Dutifully, Ashlin hands it over.

I’m painting my toenails mint green. Ash has the best colors of all of us. I’m on my second coat when Ash asks, “Have you guys started on your college apps yet?”

“Hardly,” I say, unwrapping a fun-size Snickers I found in my purse. Even though she has the best nail-polish colors, Ash’s house never has any good snacks. Her mom’s on a gluten-free diet. “I’ll probably spend every weekend until January first working on my personal statement.”

Ash turns toward me. “Are you still applying to Boston College, Lil? ’Cause I’m thinking I might apply too, for my reach school. If I get in . . . roommates?”

“Duh!” I say. “Matching comforters and everything.”

Ash is a total pig, and there’s no way I would ever, ever room with her. Plus, I doubt she’ll get in. But I don’t care, because Rennie’s looking at us with narrow eyes.

Doesn’t feel good to be the odd one out, does it, Ren?

Ashlin squeals and claps her hands together. “Yay! Would you want to live on campus or get an apartment off campus?”

This is too easy. “I think on campus, at least for the first year. That way we won’t miss out on all the fun stuff. You know, late-night study sessions and, like, flirting with boys on our hall and ordering pizza at four in the morning. We’ll want to have those experiences together, you know? Then we can move off campus sophomore year.” Instantly I feel mean and petty and small for trying to make Rennie feel bad. I feel like . . . Rennie.

“What about you, Ren?” Ashlin asks. “Are you done with your application?”

“Yup. My app took me, like, two seconds.”

I guess the Jar Island Community College application is extra easy. I wonder if she even had to write an essay. When Rennie used to talk about going to the community college, she was sour about it. She’d say how she was the only one that was going to be stuck here. But today she doesn’t look sour at all. In fact, she’s practically humming to herself.

She’s putting on a top coat, her hair falling in her face, when she says, “There’s no point in me even applying to a four-year college right now. Reeve and I won’t know where he’s going to play until his leg is healed, and he’s talking to recruiters again.”

I want to say, Oh, and there’s just the small matter of how your grades suck and you have no money for college, but I bite my tongue.

“I’m going to do a semester at JICC and get straight As and transfer to wherever he’s at.”

Ashlin pipes up, “You and Reeve are so gonna get married. You pretty much saved his life by carrying him through this whole tragedy.”

Tragedy? A tsunami devastating an entire village is a tragedy. Reeve is a jock who broke his leg. He’ll be fine.

“He’d do the same thing for me,” Rennie says, and I can’t believe she can keep a straight face saying it. As if Reeve would lift a finger for anybody but himself! “Oh, and speaking of that, I’m not going to be at practice for the rest of this week. Reeve’s got a few appointments off island to see a sports-medicine specialist.” She smiles to herself, pleased. “He’s getting his hard cast off tomorrow, right on schedule.”

My head snaps up. “Why do you have to miss practice for that?”

Rennie ignores me and says, “Ash, can you be in charge?”

Ashlin shoots an uneasy look my way. “Sure. Lil and I can do it together—right, Lil?”

Incredulously I ask, “Are you quitting the squad or something?”

“No, I’m not quitting the squad,” Rennie snaps. “That’s not what I said.”

“Well, you have missed, like, three practices already,” I say, and my voice shakes a little as I say it, because I’m scared. I’m actually calling her out on her BS for once.

Rennie’s cheeks heat up. “When I signed on to rep Reeve’s number, I signed on for the whole season. I’m not abandoning him now.”

Ridiculous. Abruptly, I stand up. “I’m going to get a soda.”

Rennie doesn’t look at me as she says, “I’ll have a Diet Coke, no ice.” Like I’m a waitress and she’s placing her order with me.

Ash gets up too. “I’ll help you, Lil. I hid some ice cream behind my mom’s soy pops. It might still be there if my dad didn’t find it.”

As soon as we’re in the kitchen and out of earshot, I go into the fridge and grab two cans of Diet Coke and say, “I wish you’d told me Rennie was going to be here.”

“But then you wouldn’t have come,” Ashlin whines.

“Exactly,” I say.

Ash hops up on the kitchen island. “I hate that you guys aren’t getting along. That’s why I invited you both over here today.”

I know she doesn’t mean it. There’s nothing Ash likes better than playing the middle. “It’s not that we aren’t getting along. It’s that Rennie’s being a total bitch to me for something that’s not even my fault.”

Ash says, “I know she misses you.”

Hope flickers in my chest. “Did she say that?” I ask.

“Not in so many words. But I can tell.”

Hmph. I take a sip of soda. “Are she and Reeve, like, together now?”

“Basically,” Ashlin says. “She’s his ride-or-die chick, you know? I think the accident is what made him realize how much she’s been there for him all these years.”

“I’m happy for her,” I say, and I mean it, I really do. If Rennie and Reeve are officially a thing now, maybe she’ll finally get over what happened at homecoming and things can go back to how they were before. And at the very least, they deserve each other.