image
image
image

Chapter 53

image

Zoe

“So,” Emma said, looking around the now mostly empty church basement. “What are we going to do for the next four hours?”

Zoe dragged a chair over to the broken window. “We wait.”

“I wish this little brat wasn’t such a night owl,” Jason said, looking out the window. “I have to get up early tomorrow for weightlifting.”

“You don’t have to stay,” Zoe said, though she very much wanted him to stay. “Emma and I can handle videotaping the world’s worst most unartistic tagger.”

Jason snickered. “I can’t believe we have a tagger in Carver Harbor.”

“You don’t,” Zoe said quickly. “I shouldn’t have called her that. She doesn’t deserve the title.”

Jason stood up straighter. “I’ll stay. I don’t want to leave you two unprotected.”

Zoe and Emma exchanged a look. Did he really think that the two of them couldn’t handle an eighth grader?

“I’m sorry Mary Sue couldn’t stay,” Zoe said to Emma.

“That’s okay,” Emma said. “Jason is like my back up best friend.”

Zoe expected Jason to bristle at this claim from a junior high girl, but he laughed. “Yep. We’ve already been through war together.” He rolled his neck. “I’m definitely going to get tired of standing here. Can we go hang out in the bell tower instead? We’d have a better view.”

Emma gasped. “I hadn’t thought of that! That’s a great idea.”

Jason stepped back from the window. “Great! To the bell tower we go!”

Zoe was a little disappointed. She’d grown attached to the basement, but Jason had a point. They would have a much better view up there. She picked up her blanket and pillow and followed them up the stairs.

Jason gave her pillow a look. “Are you planning on spending the night here?”

“No, but I might as well be comfortable while we wait.”

Emma was the first one up the stairs. “Brr, it’s getting cold.”

She was right. Zoe was glad she’d brought a blanket.

They stepped out into the small bell chamber.

“Oh wow,” Jason said, pulling up his collar. “I’m glad she didn’t paint the sign in January.”

Zoe giggled. “Who wishes they’d brought a blanket now? And won’t the sign be buried in snow in January?”

“You’ll be surprised,” Jason said. “We don’t get much snow here. Well, it snows all the time, but it doesn’t stick much. I think we’re too close to the ocean.” He looked at Zoe and then at Emma. “I’ll take the first watch, but it’s going to be a lot easier now. He sat on the floor and peered out through the slats in the woodwork. “Shoot. I can’t see the sign from here. Maybe not so easy.” He pulled himself back to his feet.

Zoe had just started to sit down, but now she stopped. “I’ll go get you a chair.” She went back down the stairs, grabbed a folding metal chair, and then headed back up to find he’d wrapped himself in her blanket with just his face poking out.

Emma was giggling.

He started to take the blanket off. She protested, but he still handed it over to her. “I was just kidding. Just trying to get a laugh out of you.”

Now she felt bad for not laughing. He was going to think she had no sense of humor. She tried to remember the last time she’d laughed. Maybe she didn’t have a sense of humor. “I’m going to get another chair.” She looked at Emma. “You want one?”

“I’ll come too.” Emma followed her back down the stairs.

They each grabbed a folding metal chair, and then Zoe headed for the stairs again.

“You like him, don’t you?” Emma whispered.

Of course she did. But did she want to admit that to Emma? It was so ridiculous, like a toad having a crush on Bob Morley. “We’re just friends,” she said in a monotone voice. Then she hurried up the stairs.

Embarrassed to be out of breath, she tried to keep her panting quiet as she unfolded the chair. Then she picked up her blanket, plopped down into the chair, and covered herself up. Realizing Jason was looking at her, she avoided his gaze and looked out at the sign. “We should probably stop moving around so much. We’ll make too much noise and scare her off.”

“You give her far too much credit,” Emma said, and Zoe could sense serious disdain in her voice. This chick did not like this wannabe tagger, and Zoe thought this dislike was about more than the tagging.

“What did she do to you?” Zoe asked.

Emma and Jason exchanged a look. “She’s just awful,” Emma said, which told Zoe exactly nothing.

Annoyed that they apparently weren’t going to share the story, she settled in to stare at Jason, and unpleasant thoughts began to chase one another around her head. He was so gorgeous. He was so nice. She had been worried that she was falling in love with him, but it was too late for that: she was in love with him. And this made her angry. With herself, mostly. Why had she done that? Why had she allowed her heart to do that? But she was also angry with Jason. Why was he so unreasonably nice to her? Now, seeing how kind he was to an eighth grader, she thought he was probably this nice to everyone. Hadn’t he said something like that on Friday? That he was nice to everyone because he wanted to be liked? But it was still obnoxious. And thirdly, she was mad at God. If there was a God, he had brought her here to Carver Harbor to give her a fresh start, a clean slate, and he’d plopped her right down beside a guy she couldn’t help but fall in love with, a guy she could never, ever have.

God did have a sense of humor, and it was a cruel one.