Page 75 of Happiness for Beginners

My eyes had popped open, and I couldn’t seem to close them again. I should have given them some privacy, at least. But it was like rubbernecking at an accident, and I literally couldn’t look away, no matter how traumatizing I knew the sight would be. They were facing the direction of the road, at least, and so there was little chance of them turning around to see me. But I couldn’t have looked away if I’d tried.

“Don’t you think we’re kind of too filthy?” Jake asked.

She shook her head. “Our mouths are the only clean parts we’ve got.”

She had a point. Tooth-brushing was just about the only hygienic behavior allowed.

“You don’t care that I literally smell like a skunk?”

“Not really.”

“We’re doing this now, then?”

He was stalling, I thought, as Windy said, “Yep.”

This couldn’t really happen, could it? I know the Sisters had said that Jake liked Windy, but I hadn’t truly believed them. Deep down, I’d held tight to the idea that it was me he was taken by. That all this other stuff was just misunderstandings and twenty-something shenanigans. My dumb, stubborn heart just kept insisting there was something genuine going on between us, even if nobody knew what it was.

Until now. Now, he leaned in close and pressed his mouth against hers, and at the moment of impact a crazy thing happened to me: For a second, I couldn’t breathe. It was time to take a breath, but I couldn’t make it happen. It was like I was drowning in plain air. It wasn’t until I looked away that I could breathe again. When I glanced back over at them, I was terrified that, in my panic, I might have made some gasping noise that would have the two of them staring at me. But I hadn’t—or if I had, they hadn’t heard it. I might as well not have been there at all.

And so, theylocked lips, sucked face, made out,andsmooched. For the longest few minutes in the history of time.

Once I’d glanced back, I could not look away.

“Now that’s too bad,” a voice said then.

I startled. It was Hugh. Awake, and watching them, too.

“I always thought, deep down, that you were the one he really liked.”

I frowned at him. “That’s not what you said yesterday.”

“I was just messing around,” Hugh said. I gave him a sip of water, and he added, “Hey, I’m sorry about all this.”

“Me, too. Just don’t die, okay?”

Hugh gave me a little grin. “Right back atcha.”

When I dared to glance back over toward the picnic table, Jake and Windy had wrapped things up. Just past them, an ambulance rounded a corner and pulled into view. The sirens weren’t on, but the lights flashed, and the driver gave a little “woop” as he pulled to a stop in front of our lean-to.

Jake hopped down from the picnic table and walked out to meet the two paramedics and the BCSC administrator, who stepped out of the passenger seat and ran around to get a look at Hugh. She had a taut ponytail and aviator glasses.

“This’ll make the papers,” she said. “How did it happen?” she asked Jake, who looked, I suppose, the most in charge.

Jake turned to me. I stood up and walked over. “He stepped on a fallen log,” I said, “but it was rotten, and he fell.”

“Didn’t your instructor tell you not to do that?”

“Several times,” I said.

The administrator closed her eyes and sighed. “So we’re not liable.”

“His dad is a lawyer, though,” Jake said, nodding at Hugh. “So I’d get him fixed up real good.”

“Thanks,” she said, like he’d given her a great tip, as he stepped away to meet the paramedics and fill them in.

It took a long time to get Hugh off our homemade litter and into the truck. Everything we’d done, they had to redo properly. I stayed right by Hugh’s side, even though they wouldn’t let me touch him. Once he was finally secured on their gurney, I pushed my way close to him, anyway, and gave him a little kiss. “Be brave,” I told him.

“Always,” he said. He was a little breathless from the pain, but he met my eyes and then glanced over at Jake. “You too.”

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