Chapter Twenty-Seven
Day 11
Or not.
No matter how many times I practiced silently to myself, the words dried up in my mouth when I tried to talk to Laurel. Because how do I tell my best friend she can’t hang out with me when that’s all I’ve wanted this entire trip?
So I’m not completely surprised the next day when Andy freezes in place on the subway train. “You can’t be serious.”
“Laurel?” Isa leans closer to Andy, trying to spot what he sees through the crowd of riders.
“Her whole team,” Gibs chimes in.
“Maybe they’re going somewhere else?” Isa says.
“Like where?” Gibs twists around the pole, then back again. “All the other clue locations are back in the opposite direction.”
The train stops to let off passengers. More people enter, the doors shut, and we’re off again.
“What’d you tell Laurel yesterday, Ellen?” Isa asks.
“Nothing about the clue. I promise! I just said we were going to Park Güell today. But I didn’t say they could come with us.”
All true. But I also didn’t say they couldn’t.
“I guess there’s not a ton we can do if they want to see the park, too.” Andy frowns.
“Yep.…” Isa says. “I feel bad for Cody, though.”
Me too. If I’d asked Abba to switch teams, Cody would definitely be further along on the scavenger hunt, at least.
The train stops. My teammates pretend not to see Laurel’s team as we exit the station.
But no one told Abba not to talk to them.
“More intrepid travelers! What are the odds?” He makes his way toward them, forcing us to wait. Andy shoves his hands into his pockets, shoulders rounded.
“Just ignore them,” Gibs tells him.
Isa nods. “We can still do our own thing.”
Andy’s shoulders relax a little.
Once Abba returns with the others, we head up a hill.
“This isn’t as steep as Montjuïc,” Isa says, “but I definitely wouldn’t mind a cable car right now.”
“For real,” says Gibs.
I trail behind them, walking between both teams. The smack of flip-flops against sidewalk precedes Laurel pulling up beside me.
My teammates look back, too.
“We won’t bother y’all, promise,” Laurel says. “We’re just excited to see the park.”
“Cool.” Gibs throws the word over his shoulder.
“So.” Laurel turns to me. “I’m pretty sure I figured out the first clue last night.”
I glance at her. “Oh?”
“Well, you helped me, technically.”
I blink. “I did?”
“On Monday, remember?”
I do not remember.
“You showed me that church on the cable car,” Laurel says. “It’s literally the only thing you talked about on the ride up, so last night I realized you were giving me a hint.”
I look down. If Laurel’s team goes to La Sagrada Família, they’ll waste another day.
As we walk past a fenced-in soccer field built into the hill, I make up my mind. I’m not allowed to share the clue location, but there’s no reason I can’t tell Laurel she guessed wrong.
“What?” I wince as Laurel’s voice rises. She drops back to a whisper. “Well then where is it?”
I press my lips together.
“Come on, Elle… please help? I don’t want to get in trouble with Señor L. We promised him we’d solve the clue today.” When I stay quiet, she sighs. “Sorry. I know that’s not fair to ask. Things just would’ve been so much easier if your dad had let you switch teams.”
Guilt flares in my stomach. She’s blaming Abba for something he didn’t even do.
“He didn’t know.”
“What do you mean?” Laurel asks.
“It’s not his fault I didn’t switch teams. I never asked him.”
“But you said…”
“No, I didn’t.” I shake my head. “I tried to explain during the group dinner, but…”
I trail off. My words sound flimsy.
“Seriously, Ellen?” I flinch at the sharpness in her tone. “If it was too loud or whatever, you could’ve told me in our room. Or literally anytime after.”
I know. I know. “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”
“Well, you did. You lied, Ellen. To your best friend.”
Laurel heads back to her team, leaving me alone. Stuck between two teams.
I walk in silence. I was wrong about my pun. Laurel might still be the cheetah, but I’m a lion.
“Everything all right?” I look at Isa, who’s studying me.
“Careful, Mr. Gibs!” Abba calls.
Just like that, everyone’s attention shifts, including Isa’s.
Gibs slows down just long enough to check both ways, then sprints across the street toward a stone wall. A lizard statue stands in front, positioned like it’s crawling up toward a row of colorful mosaics.
While the rest of us wait for the light to change, Gibs makes a beeline over to the statue. He turns to take a selfie. Then, movement. The statue shifts. It’s not part of the wall at all, but a person in a lizard costume.
We all watch it sneak up behind Gibs. It waves as Gibs lifts his phone. Gibs yelps the moment he spots it, jumping high enough to slam-dunk a basketball.
Andy cracks up, and laughter ripples past me, all the way back to the other team.
The only people not laughing? Laurel and me.
By the time we reach Gibs, he’s recovered. He snaps pics as the person in the lizard costume poses like a swimsuit model.
We buy tickets, then enter the park.
I pause as the others head toward a set of stairs that lead to a terrace held up by stone columns. Mosaic tiles run along the top of the stone wall that circles Park Güell. Rocky stone structures rise out of the ground in every direction, accented with rainbow colors.
I take out my phone and pan it around. Recording everything, looking at nothing.
Halfway up the stairs, Gibs stops and pumps his fist in the air. “I found El Drac!”
Isa makes it to him first, and the rest of my team isn’t far behind. Laurel’s group snaps a quick photo, then continues the climb with Mrs. West and Abba.
“Dude, take a pic of me with my dragon-lizard buddy.” Gibs passes Isa his phone.
“Dude,” Isa mimics Gibs. “I’m not a dude.”
They hold the camera out, then wait.
“Right, sorry.”
As soon as he apologizes, Isa snaps the photo. A family stands off to one side, waiting to take their own pictures. We move so they can have their turn.
“A little closer together,” the dad says in English. “I want to get the whole salamander.”
Isa and Gibs glance at each other, then back at El Drac.
“Looks like we all might’ve been wrong.” Andy laughs.
Gibs takes the next few steps two at a time, then looks down at us. “Maybe El Drac is too epic to be just one thing. Or he’s different things to different people.”
“That is ridiculous,” Isa says, “but also kind of deep.”
Gibs gets to the terrace first. He disappears behind a column as the rest of us reach the top step. Above us, the ceiling shimmers with red and yellow mosaics. Cooler-colored tiles surround them in blue, green, and purple.
Gibs and Isa head toward the middle of the terrace, phones lifted over their heads. Andy wanders along the edge, where there are fewer tourists. I trail behind him, recording.
“Are you sure this is the right place?”
Madison’s voice drifts over to us from the other side of a nearby column.
“Right? Like, how is there supposed to be an attic museum in a park?” That’s Sophie-Anne. “Are you sure Ellen gave you the right info, Laurel?”
Andy and I both freeze.
“This has to be right,” Laurel says. “Elle said the first clue wasn’t at the church.”
Andy whirls on me. “You told them?”
“No!”
I flinch as his arm flies up, but he points past me, to Laurel’s team. “They just said you did.”
Laurel appears from behind the column, then Cody and Sophie-Anne. Finally, Madison.
“Ellen was just trying to help,” Laurel says. “Our team is really behind.”
“Whose fault is that?” Andy fires back.
Madison steps forward, hands up.
“Is it all right if I talk to Andy alone? I think I can get this straightened out.” Her gaze darts to Andy, then down to her sandaled feet. “Plus, we should talk just in general, don’t you think?”
Andy takes a deep breath, then lets it out. His arm lowers. He nods.
Laurel, Sophie-Anne, and Cody head back toward the stairs. I join Gibs and Isa.
“What was that all about?” Gibs asks.
“Laurel told her team that I said this is the location for the first clue. But I swear I didn’t.”
Isa looks past me, toward Andy and Madison. “I can’t believe she lied and followed us here after you told her we didn’t want to hang out with them.”
Heat forms in my chest. It rises to my arms, my neck, my cheeks, until my body hurts. I look down at my sandals, staring at my unpainted toenails.
“Uh-ohhhh.” Gibs blows a raspberry. “Someone didn’t tell them.”
Now Isa stares at me. “Is that true, Ellen?”
“I didn’t tell them they could come with us.…” I shift between my feet, then look up, preparing to explain myself. But Gibs and Isa aren’t looking at me anymore. Their eyes are on Andy, who’s speed-walking back to us.
“Let’s go.” His gaze bounces from Isa to Gibs to the ground. It doesn’t land on me once.
“Are you all right?” Isa asks at the same time that Gibs says, “We just got here. What’re we supposed to tell Mr. Katz?”
“I don’t know.” Andy runs a hand through his hair and tugs. “Tell him I don’t feel good or it’s too hot out here. Just, something.”
That’s all it takes for Isa to sprint off.
I look behind me, and my eyes lock on Laurel. She mouths something that might be Sorry.
It’s too late now. For me, for her.
Isa returns, chest heaving. “All right, I told him. He said the three of us could stay with Mrs. West if we didn’t want to leave, but I told him we all want to make sure Andy gets home okay.”
Andy doesn’t say a word as Abba heads toward us.
We exit the park in silence.
Abba tells jokes on the way back to the hotel. I can tell he’s trying to make us laugh.
No one does.
On the subway, Andy sits beside Abba, head down. Isa, Gibs, and I hold on to a pole in the middle of the train car.
“We’ll talk to Andy when we get back,” Isa says. “You should’ve told Laurel what we decided, but she shouldn’t have lied to her team. Andy’ll understand.”
I can’t speak over the lump in my throat.
We head upstairs to the girls-plus-Isa floor. Abba waves, then disappears up one more floor.
“Hey, guys?” Isa looks at Andy and Gibs. “Can we talk for a sec?”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Andy’s voice is clipped.
“I think there is,” Isa insists. “Because Ellen told me and Gibs that she didn’t actually share anything about the clues. Laurel lied.”
Lied. Lion. Lied.
I thrum my fingers against one leg as the words alternate inside my mind.
Andy takes another step away. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to us,” Isa says.
Lion. Lied. Lion. Lied.
Four more taps as Gibs nods. “She messed up by not telling them we didn’t want to hang out, but she didn’t share intel. Ellen’s cool.”
For the first time since Park Güell, Andy looks at me, and I make myself look back as long as I can stand it. His hands grip the railing so hard, the color drains out of them. “She did share why I broke up with Madison.”
My fingers freeze. I definitely didn’t tell Madison that.
“Wait, what?” Gibs looks from Andy to me. “You seriously told Madison?”
“She told someone.” Andy’s voice cuts. “Because Madison knew. She told me she was ‘totally supportive.’”
Each word feels like a knife aimed at my heart.
“But that’s good, right?” Gibs asks. “She gets why you had to break up and isn’t even mad about it.”
“Ellen outed him.” Isa’s voice is so soft, I can barely hear it. “Andy wanted to decide when he was going to come out. Ellen took that choice away from him.”
“Damn.” Gibs’s eyes widen with understanding.
“Yeah.” Andy’s voice catches. “Still think she’s cool now?”
He rushes upstairs, not waiting for an answer.
Gibs glances back at Isa and me. “I’m just gonna… go.”
“Text if you need anything,” Isa says.
“Copy.”
Then there were two.
I take a step toward Isa, but Isa holds up a hand.
“You know what you did, right?”
“I—” The rest of my words catch in my throat as Isa cuts me off.
“And why it’s hard for me to trust you now?”
Pulse racing, I shake my head.
“Andy told you something private, something you promised to keep to yourself. And then you told someone else. Laurel, if I had to guess.” As Isa’s words flood out, my breaths get shallow, like I’m barely staying afloat. “I told you something about me, too.”
“I didn’t”—I try again—“I wouldn’t.”
“I can’t know that. Not anymore.” Now it’s Isa who shakes their head. “I think I need some alone time, too. Later, Ellen.”
Their door clicks shut, leaving me in the hall.