Jennie rested her head on my shoulder and slept during our ride home. I was exhausted, too, after such a long day. Too exhausted to go camping, especially given that I’d only agreed in the first place after a lot of convincing from Jennie.

When we got home, I nudged her awake while mid-yawn myself, and then admitted, “I just want to go to sleep.”

“I know, right? I didn’t expect it to be so draining.”

“Maybe Appa will let us take a rain check,” I suggested. That woke her up pretty quickly. She looked concerned.

“Oh, no, you can’t cancel on him. It’ll hurt his feelings.”

“What if I promise to let him take us next weekend?” I suggested. “We can spend the whole day at the camp ground instead of just an evening. And we won’t just be sitting around yawning the whole time, wishing we were back home in our own beds.”

She let out a sigh, like she knew I was just making excuses, but that sigh soon morphed into another yawn and she shrugged her shoulders. “Just try to be nice to him when you tell him.”

“I will,” I insisted. “I feel bad. But who knows? Maybe they’ll want the quality time anyway.”

* * *

As it turned out, Dad and BoA did not want the quality time. As BoA sat quietly beside him on the couch, Dad folded his arms across his chest and said stiffly, “First you didn’t want to go. Then you told me you would go if Jennie could come along. And now you’re telling me that we’re supposed to be leaving in ten minutes and neither of you want to go?”

“We do! Just… not tonight,” I mumbled. “We’re tired. We spent all day walking around. We thought we could handle it and we couldn’t. I’m sorry. You should go without us.”

“We will,” was all he said. He wasn’t as angry as I thought he’d be, but I had a feeling that had something to do with BoA being in the room. She wouldn’t look me in the eyes as he added, “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Go to your room.”

I did. And once I was safely inside, I pulled out my new phone and messaged Jennie. She sent back a frowny face, but I knew she was just as relieved as I was. She’d had even more of an eventful day than I had, thanks to our trade-off and the resulting time she’d spent going on rides with her dad. The two of them were cute together. Kind of the way I wished my dad and I could be, were we both not such homebodies.

It occurred to me, then, as I sat on my bed, that maybe Dad saw some of the same things in BoA that I saw in Jennie.

* * *

I made plans with Jennie and Hoony the next day, and made sure to leave the house before Dad and BoA were back. Hoony picked both Jennie and I up and drove us out to my parents’ old secret spot by the cliff and the lake-like body of water. We brought swimsuit this time, but I laid out on a towel in the sand with a comic book while Hoony swam around. Jennie stood at the water’s edge, clearly antsy, and kept glancing up to the top of the cliff.

“Don’t even think about it,” I reminded her. “Rocks.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed out, and then waded out into the water. “Come in with us!”

“I’m reading!” I called back.

Once she was deep enough to immerse herself, Jennie flipped herself onto her back and - away from me. I felt her judgmental gaze on my face even when I looked away from her.

“What are you reading?” she eventually asked me.

“A comic book Hoony loaned me,” I told her.

She laughed. “You guys read comic books?”

Hoony swam toward her and stopped just a few feet from her head, treading water. “It’s Batwoman. You might like it.”

She scoffed. “I didn’t know I was hanging out with nerds. Jeez.” She flipped around and immersed herself in the water, then swam away without resurfacing. Hoony arched an eyebrow at me.

“She’s kidding,” I elaborated.

“If you say so.”

Jennie came back up for a moment, and I called out to her, “Hey, don’t go too far, okay? We don’t have life vest.”

“Life vest and comic books: you’re super cool, Lisa,” she joked and dived down again.

“I can see why you like her,” said Hoony.

“She’s kidding! Again.”

He swam toward me, leaving Jennie behind, until the water was at his knees. He stopped there and sat down on the rocks, relaxing with the water halfway up his stomach. “So, how have you been? Really?” he asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m okay. Not great… but okay.” “You can always call me,” he reminded me. “I’m just… socially awkward and . You know that.”

I forced a laugh. “Yeah, I know. I’m glad you made me leave work early the other day. I needed a break.”

“Are you still thinking about quitting?” he asked me.

“Yeah. If I had another way to make money, I definitely would, but as of right now, I don’t.”

“What about your dad’s new girlfriend?” he suggested. “If they get married, your family income just doubled, you know.”

I gaped at him. “Oh my god, that’s awful. And besides, they definitely aren’t getting married any time soon.”

“That’s probably true.” He paused, and then lowered his voice. “So…” Then he turned and looked over his shoulder in a move I instinctively knew was to make sure Jennie wasn’t close enough to overhear.

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