Page 33 of Sunday Morning

“You don’t care that Heather’s in the barn with Isaac?” I asked Tyler.

He popped the top to a Dr. Pepper. “We’re not really together. She can do what she wants.”

“Come here,” Matt said, pulling me onto his lap. “I can’twait for everyone to leave,” he whispered in my ear as I stared at the flames. “I think we should take a drive. Are you in?”

My gaze shifted to the left, searching for Heather or Isaac.

“Sarah?”

“Hmm?” I turned my head toward Matt.

“Did you hear me?”

“Sorry. What?”

“Do you want to go for a drive when everyone leaves?” He cupped his hand over his mouth at my ear. “I have more condoms.”

Sex. He was suggesting sex. A second attempt.

Yes. I wanted to have sex. And with him, of course. Who else would I have wanted to have sex with?

“Okay.” I smiled, leaning the back of my head against his shoulder while returning my attention to the direction of the barn.

Ten minutes passed.

Twenty minutes passed.

My anxiety hit a boiling point. “I’m going to check on Heather,” I said, resting my hands on Matt’s thighs to stand.

He nodded without taking his attention off Tyler as they chatted about their next baseball game.

Isaac had already impregnated one girl; surely, he would not make the same mistake again. But there was a lot they could do that didn’t involve actual sex. Or maybe he carried a condom on him at all times, having learned his lesson.

To my relief, they weren’t in the barn. It was getting dark, but as I approached, I could see Isaac leaning against the side of it, puffing on a cigarette. He offered it to Heather, and she tookit.

“Heather Renee Goeff!” I yelled like her mother.

She quickly handed it back to Isaac and took a step away from him. “Sarah, you scared me.” Heather pressed her hand to her chest. “What are you doing?”

“What areyoudoing? Please tell me you weren’t going to put that cancer stick in your mouth.”

“Jeez, Sarah. I was going to take one puff. So what? I’m an adult.”

It irritated me that she was using the adult card. That was my play.

“I’m going with Isaac to a late movie. If my parents ask, will you say I was with you?”

I coughed and waved my hand in front of my face when Isaac exhaled the smoke. “No. I’m not lying.”

“Sarah, come on. I’d do it for you.”

“Yeah,Sarahhh.” Isaac smirked. “If you cover for Heather, I won’t tell your parents that I bought Matty his own box of condoms.”

Heather’s eyes bugged out as she covered her mouth.

I didn’t know who I was most upset with—Heather for her willingness to run off with a virtual stranger who was six years older than her, Matt for asking his brother to buy him condoms as if he wasn’t old enough to do it himself, or Isaac for messing with everyone around me.

Never mind. With one glance in his direction, I knew the answer.