Sunburn

SEVEN

            The next time I saw Owen at work, he invited me for a drink.

It didn't mean anything, but Erin (of course) assumed otherwise.

"You're hanging out. Alone. For the second time this week."

"So?"

"So there's something going on," she said, like it was that straightforward. "There has to be."

Like usual, we were in the office at the arcade. I was in my chair with my feet propped up on the desk, while Erin was sat cross-legged on the floor, looking up at me. Technically, we were both meant to be working—her lunch break had become suspiciously extended, and though I was in the right place, my mind wasn't anywhere near finance. But I'd learned how to look busy on short notice if Greg popped his head around the door, and Erin could talk her way out of anything, so I figured we were safe.

"Well, there's not."

It wasn't enough to convince her. "And you're not hoping it'll lead to something?"

"Seriously," I said, folding my arms and leaning back in the office chair. "I don't know why you're so adamant about this. There's nothing going on. It's just two friends hanging out."

"Because you've got to admit it's a little weird. Even just in principle."

"It's not weird."

"He's your ex," she pointed out, like this hadn't crossed my mind pretty much every waking moment this summer. "You haven't spoken for years. And now you're getting on really well—to the point where you're hanging out increasingly often without his girlfriend knowing. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Who said anything about Katie not knowing?"

"Well, does she know?"

"I—" Just like that, she'd shut me up. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't swat her away with a well-prepared answer. "I don't know."

"That sounds like a no to me."

"There's no reason for her not to know," I said. "Owen's allowed to have friends, isn't he? And I know we've only met a couple of times, but she doesn't strike me as the psycho girlfriend type."

"Well, if you're willing to stake your life on it." She tried to stare me out, all serious, but it only lasted a couple of seconds before breaking out into a smile. "Sorry, Sydney. I'm not trying to be the psycho friend here. You know I want the best for you. But you also know I'm not the type to bullshit, so... I'm telling you what it looks like. It's your job to assure me otherwise."

I couldn't hold it against her. The more time we spent together at work, the more I was growing to love her. I'd never had a friend who came close. There was, of course, the no-bullshit attitude, but also everything else. The way she pulled off violet hair, even in a clashing red polo. The maturity that was sometimes remarkable for a sixteen-year-old, and put my own teenage self to shame. How she could smell an incomplete truth from a mile away.

"It's okay," I said. "I know it might look that way from the outside, but if you could see it, you'd know there's nothing going on."

"Nothing?" Erin raised an eyebrow. "Or absolutely one-hundred-percent never-in-a-million-years nothing?"

I couldn't help smiling. "The second one."

"Well, I'm glad to hear it." And there it was: a note of finality in her voice that made me think maybe, just maybe, she was going to drop it. About time, too. "Just make sure I'm the first to know if anything changes."