I glance up at the pink, purple, and teal lids on the containers on the shelf. “Yup. My mom is terrified I’ll starve while I’m home alone. Even though I’m pretty sure that’s never going to happen.” I give my not-at-all-small butt a wiggle in Saylor’s direction and try to ignore the weird boost it gives me when she laughs.
“That is so cute. I love your mom. She’s the best dentist ever.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty cool. You want grilled cheese?”
“Yes, please.”
I start grabbing the stuff I need and then grab the container of strawberries my dad got from his “fruit guy.”
“Is it weird that half our school goes to see her?” Saylor asks.
“Yup. Your boy Tagger used to be weird to me about it all the time. I mean, he bullied me in general, but it started with weird jokes about my mom collecting children’s teeth and then he just started calling me fat and gay. He’s a realcharmer, that one.” Saylor’s old, old, old boyfriend was and still is a big ol’ jerk.
“Ugh, I’m sorry. Tagger was a huge ass to everyone. I never should have dated him in the first place.”
“He’s part of the reason I decided not to drive my car to school yet,” I confess. “My parents wanted to get me something nice, but I knew the minute I pulled up, he’d be on me trying to make me feel bad.”
“No, screw that. I will march down to the office myself and get you a parking pass in the fall and Tagger can deal with me if he wants to give you a hard time. I mean if you wanna drive.”
I shrug. “I do, but you know. The whole attention thing.” I set a pan on the stove and then start arranging the bread and cheese.
“Well, people will only care about the car for like a day and then they’ll move on to something else. I know school is close, but especially on really hot days or when it’s raining, if you wanna drive your car, you should.”
I glance up at Saylor, a little shocked at the force in her voice. It feels like she’s sticking up for me. Only Jake and Axel do that. “I’ll think about it, but thanks.”
“No problem. Okay, you cook, and I’ll pull up the bingo board.”
“Deal. Um—I was thinking, because of your mom. Maybe we don’t try and rush through it. I know you said you just needed a break, but really, we could stretch this out all summer. Also, my parents are never home during the day so you can like hang out here.”
“Heaven, it’s starting to sound like you almost want me around,” she teases.
“I mean, you’re alright.”
“Oh! You know what we can watch? And there’s like a million episodes,” she says, all excited.
“What?”
“Love Island!”
“Oh my god,” I groan.
“What?!” Saylor laughs. “It’s my favorite show.”
“I saw a part of it at Jake’s house last week with Bethany.”
“Oh yeah. She’s myLove Islandviewing buddy. It’s so good. I’m caught up on US. Last night’s episode was amazing, but I’m behind on UK and I have all of Australia’s winter season. We have to watch it.”
“Ugghh,” I groan again.
“Well, what are you watching?”
“I was doing aCall the Midwiferewatch. And I need to catch up on like three Star Trek shows.”
“So, let’s watch both. We can watch nurses and nuns give birth and lose their loved ones to tragic accidents. Then we can watch people fall in love in a villa in Fiji.”
“Yeah, okay. Fine,” I reply, a little shocked that Saylor knows anything about the plot of my favorite PBS/BBC show.
She smiles at me again before she turns her attention back to her phone and I turn back to the stove. I get our lunch ready pretty quickly, cutting up our strawberries. I grab Saylor some water and myself some Baja Blast. I seteverything down in front of Saylor then head back for the last most important piece.