Cruel Summer | ✓

chapter thirty-six

I have visions of the three of us hanging out on the dock all morning, Lou and Issy getting reacquainted and Issy and me getting to know each other, but Lou has lessons from nine until noon so when I get up at nine thirty, after finising the coffee she brought to me in bed, I'm alone with Issy. She's lying on a towel on the dock, holding a book above her head and using it to shade her eyes from the sun. I grab a pair of sunglasses on my way out to her; they weren't there yesterday so I can only assume they belong to her.

"Want these?" I ask, waving them at her. She nearly drops the book on her face when she hears my voice.

"You walk very quietly," she says.

"I think it's the grass. Natural muffler."

I hold out the sunglasses to her. She takes them, puts them on over her actual glasses, a precarious balance.

"They're not prescription?"

"Nah. Haven't got around to it. This works fine for now," she says, holding her head in a very specific position so she won't lose both pairs of glasses. This kid. "Thanks, Charlie."

"You don't need to worry about your first impression, by the way," I say as I sit next to her on my own towel. "You told me not to judge you based on last night, but if you'll let me, it's a very positive judgement." I sneak a look at the book she's reading. Something heavy and non-fiction and physics-based. "School reading?"

"Oh, no, this is for fun. I haven't started on the reading list for my classes yet."

"You're reading about"–I peer at the book–"how to die in space, for fun?"

"It's not as dark as it sounds. It's more like this epic tour of the universe and how deadly it is, in a cool way, like how many different ways stars can die." She puts the book down and sits up, the sunglasses falling off. She catches them, snapping them shut. "Listen, we don't have to do this."

"Do what?" Shit. Have I fucked up already?

"The whole, like, awkwardly getting to know each other thing," she says. "I trust my mom. She loves you, and I love her, and I know she doesn't throw around feelings like that easily. I mean, my dad's been dead fifteen years and you're the first person she's shown any interest in."

"Um. What're you saying?"

"I'm saying you don't need to try to win me over or anything. I'm already won. Welcome to the family." She holds up a hand. I high five it. She smiles and it's the opposite of Lou's smile. Issy's is all teeth.

"That was easier than I was expecting it to be," I say, sitting on my hands. "I was worried it was going to be awkward."

"Why?"

"Mostly the age thing, I think. I'm only five years older than you."

Issy shrugs. "Age is just a number. I think it loses its significance once you're an adult and there's nothing the law prohibits you from doing because of your age."

"The law prohibits me from running for president for another decade." Eleven years, actually. Well, ten and a half.

She laughs. "I don't care about your age, Charlie. My mom's a grown woman, she can do what she wants. I don't live here anymore. It's not up to me to dictate who she dates. I've been waiting for this for years – you have no idea how excited I got when she told me about you."

"When did she tell you?"

"Officially, a few days ago," Issy says, "but the minute she told me that you were staying with her after that storm messed up your hotel, I had a feeling. I was just waiting, ever since then, for her to drop the G word."