Page 91 of You Met Me There

Without warning, Natalie starts screaming. “There’s a snake!” She pulls her legs out of the water and thrashes, screaming and bumping me with her elbows.

“Natalie, stop!” I say, but she can’t hear me over her own voice.

She scrambles in our tiny space, unable to actually go anywhere. And like a yawn, her screams are contagious. Sandra screams, then Jules, a chorus of high-pitched shrieks and twisting in tubes. It’s the domino effect in action.

“Where?” I demand, balancing my weight in an attempt to keep us afloat. I try to hold Nat in place, but she won’t calm down. Cam and Ty look at the water too, their eyes darting, like mine, to find the snake.

“There!” Sandra lifts her rear end from the water, planking across her tube. It’s actually quite impressive. She points a long finger at a shadow in the shallow water.

Natalie keeps screaming. “We’re moving toward it!” Her body is heavy as she bounces on top of me, trying to climb me like a tree. This could be sexy if she weren’t screaming in my face. I can’t even see around her body to glimpse what she’s actually looking at.

Cam’s voice sounds over the shrill squeals. “Nat, I don’t think it’s a snake, I think it’s just a⁠—”

I don’t quite hear what he’s about to say, because without warning Natalie is trying to stand up. On the tube. It’s wide and made of thick material, but it’s still just an unstable rubber band filled with air.

Natalie puts a foot on either side of the tube, her heels brushing my fingers as I grip the handles. She begins straightening to a standing position.

“Natalie, don’t stand up. You’ll make us tip!” I shout.

She doesn’t listen. “Don’t let it touch me!” she shrieks. Nat’s right foot unbalances the tube, tipping us until we go into the river with a splash, the tube flipping out from under my legs. She screams as she falls, and then I go under.

Chapter 45

Luke

It took some convincing to get Natalie to stop freaking out about the snake. The convincing looked like this: Cam hopped off his tube, waded through the chest-deep water toward said snake, and tugged on it, releasing a brown stick from the murky depths.

The girls all stopped screaming after that.

“I feel so bad about freaking you all out,” says Natalie as we sit in the back of the red van shuttling us back to our cars. “It really looked like a snake.” Her face is red from the sun, but also flushed from embarrassment as she chews on her lip.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sandra says, reassuring her by placing a hand on Nat’s shoulder. “I’m also sorry about all the screaming I did too. I’m a sympathetic screamer, and anything can set me off.”

Nat and I chuckle at her honesty, and Tyler taps my shoulder from the row behind me. “You ready for round two?”

I frown. “Round two? On the river?”

“Round two of screaming for the day.” His voice is hushed, keeping the conversation between just the two of us.

My wet shorts squeak against the plastic seat as I turn to face him. The girls are in their own conversation, so they don’t hear us, and Cam is near the front of the van with Jules.

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

He ruffles his damp, dirty-blond hair. The color and length is a lot like mine, but his is curlier, especially when wet.

“I have a surprise for Sandra up at Jules’s house,” he whispers behind his hand. “The girls are going to flip. You and Nat can come over, right?”

I nod, wondering what he’s alluding to. “Sure. We’ll go straight there.”

A smile erupts across his face. He bumps his fist against my shoulder and sits back, shirtless against the sticky leather seat.

Once at Juliet and Cam’s house, everyone changes into dry clothes before gathering on the back deck for snacks and cold drinks. Nat’s mom and dad—who forcefully insist I call them Shirley and Kent rather than Mr. and Mrs. Berns—join us as our group talks animatedly about the river events. From start to finish, Shirley and Kent listen with their eyes lit up, taking in the joy of having all their kids here in one place.

I wonder what it would be like to have grown kids who enjoy one another and do things together. I imagine it would be fulfilling, if the faces of these two parents are any indication.

“So then Nat is screaming and climbing on top of Luke,” Juliet recounts, poking Nat in the shoulder. “And of course she topples them, and they capsize.”

“Oh, Natalie,” her mother croons. “All that over a stick?” Her words are made playful by a huge smile that shows her pearly white teeth.