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“If enough people participate, we might even have a prize for the best costume!” Angela adds. I look at her sideways, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Oh, really?” I ask as the teens bustle around, packing up as they prepare to leave. “I don’t remember deciding that. Do you remember deciding that, Erica?”
My boss looks between us with twinkling eyes, but she doesn’t say a word.
“It’s a good idea though, isn’t it?” Angela jumps up from her seat. “Especially if we want to get more of them to dress up.”
“And just what prize are we going to use as an incentive?” Erica asks, resting her chin in a raised hand.
Before I hear Angela’s answer, a tug at my shirt makes me turn around. Andy links her arm with mine, pulling me away from my boss and friend with surprising strength for a skinny fourteen-year-old.
“What’s up, kid?”
“You holdin’ out on me, Miss Ortiz?” Her brown eyes glance covertly over my shoulder, but when I try to turn around, she stops me with a hand on my shoulder. I meet her alarmed eyes with concern, but it dies away as soon as she asks, “Is he your boyfriend?”
Oh god.
I shake off her hand and turn around. Theo meets my gaze with an easy grin. His hands are in the pockets of his jeans, but he raises one to wave at us. I turn back to Andy with what’s sure to be a goofy smile on my face.
“You’re too young,” I say. “I can’t have this conversation with you, yet.”
“Are you kidding? I’ve had ten boyfriends already!” I let out a gasp at this announcement, failing to hide the shock behind it. Even teenagers are better at dating than I am. “It’s about time you had one. I was starting to worry about you, ya know.”
“Okay, where’s your mom?” I pick up my pace as I lead her out the glass double doors with a hand on her back. “It’s time for you to go home.”
“You can’t get rid of me that easily,” she says. “My mom works a lot of odd hours. I’ll be right back here tomorrow, and I’ll be expecting an answer.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m off tomorrow.”
“There’s always the next day,” she says cheerily. “And the day after that, and the day after that! I will get an answer from you!”
I don’t bother entertaining her antics, only shake my head as we reach the parking lot. Outside, we’re met with the silver headlights of a navy Honda Civic. Andy’s mother emerges from the driver’s side, waving us over. I walk Andy to her mother’s car.
“How was the book club?” Andy’s mom reminds me a lot of my own. Her curly black hair is beginning to streak through with white, and its cut in a bob that stops right at her shoulders. She looks impossibly young for the mother of a teenager. That is, until she smiles and the lines around her crinkled eyes and mouth show her true age.
“Amazing!” Andy exclaims. “Marcela brought her boyfriend to help reenact the most dramatic part of the book.”
I take a deep breath. One day, when she’s old enough, I’m going to kill this girl.
“Boyfriend?” Her mom raises a perfectly arched brow, the hint of a smile playing on her lips.
“This is how rumors get started, Andy!” I shake my head before turning back to her mom. In a lower tone, I say, “It’s complicated. Neither one of us really knows what we’re doing.”
“Ah, I see.” She smiles wistfully. “I remember those early days all too well.”
I’m not exactly sure what she means by that, but I don’t get the chance to ask. Once Andy is inside the car, they both wave goodbye. I watch them leave before heading back inside. Most of the kids have left already, until it’s just Erica and Angela.
With Theo.
“Code blue,” Angela says as I reach the table. At my furrowed brows, she exclaims, “We’ve got a non-reader in the library!”
“I’m signing him up for a library card,” Erica says, nodding at Theo seated across from her. He’s bent over the table filling out a form. “I know it’s what you would’ve wanted.”
“Done.” Theo drops the pen and holds out the sheet of paper to my boss. “Can I pick out the design for my card?”
He almost sounds… excited.
“You sure can.” She hands the form to me. “Marcela, you remember where they are?”
