“Any way you cut it, though,” Harun said, “no one is to blame for what happened tonight. We weren’t being rude, and the Myers weren’t working against us.”
“Yeah,” Jenny said. “If you ask me, they were just looking for an excuse to leave. Maybe we made it easy on them, but it didn’t take much for them to blow up in our faces.”
“I think we’re all agreed on that much,” Clarissa said. And she didn’t add (though she didn’t have to) that it didn’t make Kadie’s accusations any less of a fact.
So what was Poe’s excuse? Yeah, he’d stuck his neck out and it hadn’t worked, but he wasn’t stupid enough to believe it was our fault. So why had we been on the receiving end of his attack? Why had I been on the receiving end?
“Let’s get out of here,” Odile said. “I totally need a shower after all that.”
“The sick or the lecture?” Clarissa asked.
“Both!”
“How are you all feeling?” I asked.
Ben shrugged. “Fine. I guess I got it out of my system.”
“I know the righteous anger burned all my nausea away,” Demetria said. “And, I reiterate, can I go kick her ass now?”
“I have no problem with that.” George pushed to his feet. “And I second the shower idea.”
Clarissa laughed. “Not together, bonehead.”
Though I didn’t exactly feel my freshest, I’d already used up my shower points for the day, and certainly didn’t need them as much as my fellow knights, so I let them commandeer the island’s meager water supply and walked with them back to the cabin, where they left me behind (after thorough toothbrushing all around) and I contemplated the logistics of a cold sponge bath.
I was just stripping down when there was a knock at the screen frame. I tossed on a fresh shirt and went to the door.
“Amy,” Poe said.
I crossed my arms and glared at him. “What do you want?”
“To talk. Let me in.”
I shook my head. “Don’t think so.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Are you all right? I can’t believe I didn’t ask you that before.”
“You’re not the only one.” I chewed on the inside of my cheek.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
“You shouldn’t have doubted us,” I prompted.
“I—” He sighed. “No, you’re right. I shouldn’t have. It was just…reflex.”
“Reflex!” I said, incredulous. “Reflex to attack my club?”
“Reflex to get screwed over by people I’d been trying to help.” He narrowed his eyes. “Remember last fall, when you topped off my horrible year by kicking me out of the tomb?”
I blinked, but my eyes started to burn. “Yes,” I said softly. “I do. And you repaid me by casting your lot with Elysion.”
“I wasn’t the only one.” But he’d been instrumental in getting that group founded. He’d been the one to tell them about the secret meeting spot inside the tomb. He’d been the one to lie to my face about it when I’d gone to him for help. And yet, I’d forgiven him. I’d forgiven all of them. The club was reunited.
Of course, Poe wasn’t in our club.
“Jamie, that’s water under the bridge by now.” Wasn’t it? He had to believe that.
He looked away. “All I know is that this isn’t the first time you’ve told patriarchs to go fuck themselves when they’re not convenient to you. So I’m sorry for jumping to that conclusion, but you should at least recognize why I did.”
I put my hand against the screen. “You’re not convenient to me, you know.”
He laughed, mirthlessly. “I know that. Believe me, Amy. It’s painfully evident how difficult it is to work me into your schedule.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He turned his gaze to mine. “That’s what I mean, though. Your friends can’t stand me. And you’d pick them in an instant.”
“I’m not picking anyone!” I said, though at that moment, all I could think of was Clarissa telling Kadie that our club stood on our own. “Or rather, I’m picking everyone.”
He looked at my hand on the screen, then back at me. “Yeah, right.”
The Diggirls would be back soon. I opened the screen door and stepped out onto the dark porch. “Let’s take a walk.”
Poe didn’t miss a beat. “Fine,” he said, in a voice that meant See? but still he followed me out into the darkness. We went to the edge of the forest behind the cabin and stood there, alone except for the sound of night insects and the scent of ocean breezes. “I told Malcolm,” he said abruptly.
My heart raced. I was tempted to ask Poe why he’d spilled the beans, but I knew the reason. Society oaths trumped all. And if he was confused, who better to go to than his favorite brother? “Oh?” was all I could trust myself to say.
“He says he never thought I’d be this stupid.”
The words were like a slap in the face. Why would my big sib say something like that about me? It was as bad as Lydia and Josh. “That’s not—”
“I think he’s wrong, for the record.”
“Oh?” I repeated, eloquent as a rock.
“I can definitely be this stupid.”
I looked at him, heart breaking. Malcolm was right. I never should have dragged Poe into this. Not if he liked me the way Malcolm believed he did. And from the past few days, I was starting to believe it, too. “This was supposed to be easy,” I whispered. “Like back on the beach that day.”
“When I said I’d smash the Nazi plates in the tomb for you?”
“A lover’s token?” I said with a little laugh.
“Yeah, but for that kind of vandalism, I’d expect a lover’s reward.” Now he laughed, too, right before he got serious again. “I wish it could be easy, Amy. I do.”
I nodded, slowly.
“Sorry.”
Not as sorry as I was.
The rest of the evening passed with relatively little drama. Whatever affliction my fellow knights had suffered, it was entirely gone by the time they were back from their showers, and everyone was in high spirits again. There was even talk of returning to the crescent beach and actually doing the stunt, but as soon as we surveyed the damage to the costumes, we nixed that idea flat.
Good thing, too, because apparently Ben and Demetria hadn’t turned their faces over the side of the boat when they got sick. They said the sea monster was a real mess.
Instead, we settled into the couches of the rec room and sampled the meager offerings of Cavador Key’s video library. And I do mean video, as in VHS. Let’s put it this way: I had no idea that Steven Seagal made as many movies as he did.
“Are you kidding?” Demetria exclaimed, pushing the first into the ancient VCR. “He’s a legend! He’s an eco-warrior!”
“And a vegetarian Buddhist,” Kevin added.
“And so not as hot in real life,” Odile said.
Everyone stared at her.
“Well, he’s like sixty now,” she said in her own defense.
“And not hot…like ever!” Clarissa pointed out.
Jenny looked at the screen, tilted her head to the side, and made a noncommittal grunt. I noticed she was sitting next to Harun, their shoulders all but touching, and began to feel some of that jealousy Clarissa had mentioned.
Wait a second…vegetarian? Wasn’t Poe one as well? I’d certainly seen vegetarian cookbooks in his apartment last fall, and I’d never actually seen him eat a piece of meat. When we’d gone out for pizza that time, I’d been the one to try the white clam, while he’d stuck with tomato, basil, and mozzarella on his slices. Furthermore, for all Malcolm’s talk of spearguns, I never got the impression that Poe had taken part in bringing in the catch.
And yet, he said he’d eaten “just as much lobster as the next person.” Either he ate seafood after all or…he was lying.
The only question was, why?
18. Sweetness and Light