Endless Summer

But first I had to get through the ironing. It took a lot of patience. I had none. It took forever, and then I had to press the whole shirt again to get out the creases I’d pressed into it.

Finally I got dressed and examined myself in the mirror. I looked like Sean.

Ready as I’d ever be.

I ran downstairs and walked through my yard, past the tree house, into Lori’s yard, and across the driveway—the scenes of various crimes. I rang the doorbell.

Her dad opened the door and looked down at me. I wished the garage wasn’t a couple of stairs below the kitchen, because I seemed a lot shorter than him.

I pretended it didn’t bother me. I said, “I would like an audience. Sir.”

He frowned at me, but he didn’t send me away. He jerked his head in the direction of the den.

I followed him through the room and onto the screened porch. He sat down in the chair where he’d obviously been when I rang the bell. It looked like he’d been spending a lot of time there lately. Spy novels were piled on the table beside the chair, along with a pair of binoculars. McGillicuddy wasn’t kidding about his dad watching Lori and me.

“Sit,” he said.

I would not say woof. I would not. I sat down in the chair facing his.

“Shoot.” He tried to sound casual, but he kept frowning at me.

I took a deep breath. It came out shaky. I cleared my throat. “When Lori and I stayed out so late, that was an honest mistake. And when we were in the woods together the next day, we just wanted to talk about what had happened and what we could do about it.”

“That’s not all you wanted,” he broke in.

I paused over that. He had me there, but to admit this seemed counterproductive. To lie would be more counterproductive, because I was an awful liar.

I went on. “Last night, we were saying good-bye. We agreed not to see each other anymore, just like you said.”

“I said that three weeks ago,” he insisted, leaning forward in his chair.

“Yes, sir,” I acknowledged, “but you seem to think we’re not people. We are, and we had stuff to work through and things to wrap up.” There was a long silence. He stared at me. I tried to meet his gaze, but loud tapping on my chair distracted me. I looked down and realized it was my finger.

I would not do well under his scrutiny. I knew better than to try my hand at poker. So I threw all my cards on the table face-up. “I love Lori. I have always loved Lori.

And you may be right, I may have some ulterior motives at times, which you do not want to hear about. But I would not do anything to hurt her.” He lost his cool. “You convinced her to jump out a window last night!”

I winced. “I caught her.”

“And you expect me to just say, ‘Okay,’ and let you near her, and then tell your parents not to send you to military school?” He might have looked taller than me when he was in the kitchen and I was down in the garage, but now I had the upper hand. Compared to him, I sounded calm and reasonable as I said, “I don’t expect that. Frankly, I don’t expect much out of anybody anymore. I just wanted somebody to listen to me for once.” I stood up.

“Sit down,” he ordered me.

I sat down.

“I hope you can see my perspective on this,” he said. “When you have a teenage daughter, you won’t want someone like you coming anywhere near her.” I almost said, I can see your lips moving, but I can’t understand you . e things he was blathering about made that much sense. But I remembered what Lori told me a couple of weeks ago about shooting myself in the foot. I was trying to solve this problem, not make it worse. I didn’t say a thing.

He must have seen me squinting at him, though, because he said, “Never mind. My point is, Lori is my only daughter. Ever since her mother died, blah blah blah, very important stuff, blah blah blah, a very, very important explanation for why I have treated you like shit.” I figured that was what he was saying, but I’d stopped paying attention because of what I saw over his shoulder.

A screen wall kept the porch mosquito-free. If you got near the screen, it was harder to see through, but from this distance it was all but invisible. Beyond it, bright green maple leaves rubbed against it, trying to get in. e maple leaves formed a bower, a perfect frame for Lori’s dock. And on that dock stood Lori, kissing Sean. e red words spray painted on the bridge way in the distance seemed to hover above their heads: LORI LOVES ADAM.

“In addition,” Lori’s dad said, “blah blah blah, why I have never trusted you as far as I could throw you and how I always knew you were trouble.” Sean’s hand slid down to Lori’s ass.

“Some more crap,” Mr. McGillicuddy said. “And an invitation to you to incriminate yourself.” Lori put her hand on the inside of Sean’s thigh.

“Adam,” Mr. McGillicuddy said. “Over here.” He waved his hand, blocking my view of my two-timing ex-girlfriend and my asshole brother.

“Sorry.” I shook my head. “ADHD. What were you saying?”

“I was saying you and Lori can date again. And I feel responsible for the military school thing. Your parents might have been headed in that direction already, but I certainly pushed them to the doorway. I’ll get you out of it.”

He was telling me that he would give me everything I’d hoped for when I came over here. I won. I could at least be happy that I wasn’t going to military school. My brain kept sending signals like this to my muscles, prompting a reaction, but I couldn’t move. My fists gripped the armrests as I watched Lori slip her arms around Sean’s waist and hug him hard.

“Why the long face?” her dad asked. “I thought this was what you wanted. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll call your mom right now. Trust me. I’m a lawyer.”

“Yes, sir.” I jumped up from my chair before I broke it into pieces by squeezing it with my fists. I extended one of my hands to Lori’s dad and he shook it. What we were shaking on, I had no idea. I just wanted out.

He walked me to the door and called after me across the yard, “I am very impressed with you, young man.” That was a new one on me, and I would have laughed at how ridiculous it sounded if I weren’t so intent on reaching a certain point in his yard with a certain vantage point from which to see a certain dock.

I peered through the trees. I hoped what I’d seen from the porch was a trick of light on water or an all-out hallucination. But there were Lori and Sean, still standing on her dock. The kiss had ended, but they were wrapped in each other’s arms.

That was supposed to be me.

Maybe it was me. I put my hand on my skull-and-crossbones pendant to check.

Nope, I was me and that was Sean.

I turned away. I couldn’t quite get my head around what my eyes were telling me. But it was catching up quickly, and my anger simmered. I had talked to Lori’s dad for her. I had shaved my beard for her—a huge disappointment, because I’d enjoyed my three weeks looking like a bank robber. I had ironed for her. I dwelled on these petty things to keep from descending into the bottomless pit that gaped in front of me. I had gotten us out of our mess. I had told her I would take care of it, but she had stopped believing in me.

Maybe she never had.

Or maybe she really was using our troubles to catch Sean, who she’d loved all along.

I wasn’t sure which was worst.

I was so angry that lights flashed behind my eyes, which told me I needed to think this through before I acted. Intellectually I knew I was jumping to conclusions about her and Sean. But even if she wasn’t after him, she had betrayed me again. I had fixed everything, for once. And she broke her promise to me. She had done the one thing I’d asked her never to do. I didn’t need a girlfriend like that.

I walked into the kitchen of my house to yet another horror. e air was filled with the scents of pizza and bitesize egg rolls and pretty much any crappy snack my mom could find in the deep discount section of the frozen foods aisle. She was preparing an extra-special spread for the party tonight. I’d almost forgotten about the party.