Page 188 of Call the Shots
Montoya burned bright red. “No, I don’t mean the—the lady seashell, I meant the other part?—”
“One day, a volcano will need you, Kid’s Toy.” Elijah sighed. “You’ll be our virgin sacrifice.”
Fridge’s advicehelped me through the summer, and I planned to adhere to his ‘apologize’ rule. King was June’s best friend, and what I did to him in my jealous stupidity wasn’t cool. I wanted to say I was sorry for real. I tried to hit him up via text…
me
hey king this is bear can we grab a beer i want to talk
King junes best friend
I dont know a bear sorry you have the wrong number
Texting him didn’t work so June scheduled dinner for King, Willow, her, and me. I needed June to see I was mature enough to apologize. I just wasn’t prepared for King to have no idea what I was talking about.
“Someone was locked in a storage closet?” he asked, confused.
“No, I lockedyouin a storage closet.”
“You did that to who?”
“Toyou!” I stopped myself, focusing on calming down while Willow giggled into her drink. “I’m apologizing. I’m sorry—it was stupid, petty bullshit?—”
“You’re thinking of somebody else.”
“You’re the only one I’d do that to! Okay, look, I used to printout fake tickets and put them on your truck when we worked at the Colo?—”
“I went there—I don’t know—twice?—”
“You worked at the Colo for like thirty shifts, dude!” I stared at King incredulously while he shrugged at Willow, unperturbed.
June patted my hand. “Apology accepted!”
Willow snorted. “Oh my god, Tattoos.”
I had to down another beer before I could laugh about it with the girls. The apology didn’t go according to plan, but Ididapologize and that was a win. Because boyfriends apologize.
June and I weren’t officially dating yet, but we were exclusive friends with benefits who were each other’s emergency contacts on our medical forms. We had a running streak on Vanysh, and our okapis onZoo Cultivation IVhad their first calf together. Basically, we were dating. I just couldn’t call her my girlfriend to her face or she'd get upset with me.
“King talked about your siblings…” Willow looked at June. “Are you really named after months?”
“Mm-hmm. There’s Augustus, May, April, Julius, me, December—but I promise, Bear’s name story is way better than mine.”
Everyone turned to me, but I frowned. “Name story?”
“Why you’re named Bear?”
“Uh…I’m named Bear because my mom liked animals.”
June’s smile faltered. “The—um—documentary?”
“Documentary?”
“When they interviewed your mom?”
I had no idea what she was talking about. My mom was a Canadian park warden and that meant issuing fire safety warnings, nothing filmworthy. I wracked my brain, thinking if my Aunt Holly ever mentioned it. No, nobody had.
“It’s this—um—documentary on Canadian wildlife. Your mom was on maternity leave, but she came in anyway.” June swallowed, silent for a moment. “They wanted you as the production baby in the end credits. She didn’t know what toname you and the director joked that if she didn’t come up with a name, they’d call you Bear Cub.”
