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had agreed to last summer.
    “Working, you know.” I shrugged, swallowing my laughter. I could feel it jiggling around underneath my skin, aching to break the air, but I wouldn’t let it. I knew Sasha would hate it if I laughed at her just then, that she’d be angry and disappointed all over again. “Hanging out. No big plans.” Dad had been on my back about planning weekends at his place, but Sports 2 Go was the perfect excuse. I couldn’t commute from his place to Courtland in a hurry. The car trip was nearly two hours, and seeing as I’d just turned sixteen last month, I wasn’t eligible for a full license for another seven months. “How about you?”
    “Not much,” Sasha replied. “Just what I was telling you before.” Right, the sailing. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say about that. There was a big black hole surrounding our conversation. I shouldn’t have chased after her in the first place. There was probably a reason we never talked. Nothing. To. Say. The whole thing was making me feel uptight, and that was the last thing I needed—the ruination of my pre-summer vibes. “You and Nathan should drop by the lake sometime,” she continued. “I can get you into the beach for free.”
    “What about Keelor?”
    Sasha shot me an impatient look: Can we stop backsliding on this, Nick? “I think not,” she said, sounding like Ms. Raines, the voice of maturity and intellect.
    “I’m just kidding.” I smiled to prove it. “Yeah, I’ll tell Nate. And you know where I am if you’re looking for me.” The truth was that I couldn’t get a read on Sasha. Telling me I was a total dick wasn’t the best way to get me to visit her at the lake. I touched Sasha’s shoulder, determined to leave this time and feeling all the better for it. “Have a good summer, okay?”
    “Yeah, you too.” She jammed her nine-year-old-girl hands into her pockets and nodded at me.
    “Yeah,” I repeated, and sailed down the hallway, already recovering. Complications were not on my summer program. I wanted the complete opposite of that, to drift from one event to the next with no apologies or explanations. Pure. Unplanned. Perfect. Nobody talking me into anything or feeding me guilt trips. I wanted things easy for my sixteenth summer.
    I swung by Keelor’s locker on the way to Media Arts, ears ripe for whatever had put that dirty grin on his mouth. Everybody’s got a dirty mind, that’s what Sasha said at the mall. So what’s wrong with thinking out loud? Shut up, I said to myself. Who gives a shit what she thinks?
    “Yo.” Keelor nudged my shoulder. “Wondered if I’d find you here. You disappeared in a hurry.” We stopped in front of his closed locker, ready for business.
    “So what’s for my ears only?” I asked, shrugging off the last hour.
    “Oh, man, lucky you.” Keelor smiled gleefully as he hugged the news to himself. “You’ll love this, man, but you can’t know, okay? Act surprised when she does it.”
    “Keelor, what?” My voice strained like a rubber band pulled taut. I hadn’t guessed this was about me; that cranked the suspense up two notches.
    “Right.” Keelor composed himself as best he could, which wasn’t saying much. “So you want to know what I heard.” He lowered his voice and slanted his head towards mine. “This comes from Vix, so it’s reliable.” He paused, the two of us listening for a silent drumroll. “Word is Dani’s going to give you something special at the party tomorrow.”
    My jaw dropped. I clamped my mouth shut and gripped my notebook. “Shut up,” I said incredulously. “If this is a joke…”
    “No joke.” Keelor was grinning at me with an almost-fatherly pride. My best friend, about to receive his first blow job. Few moments are quite so emotional. “You think I’d joke about something like that?”
    “Why would she say that?” I wondered aloud. My body was humming underneath its skin, waiting.
    “She wanted technical advice, from the