Free Boys of Summer by Jessica Brody

to save up this summer.”
    For some reason I get the distinct impression that Mike is lying. He’s never been very good at it. But I’m not going to pressure him. If there’s something he doesn’t want to tell me, then there’s a reason. And I certainly can’t argue with him having to leave early because of a second job. I mean, without sounding like a spoiled, rich asshole.
    â€œOkay.” I finally give up. “But are you still coming by to watch Crusade of Kings tomorrow? Rumor has it douchey King Kleo is finally getting whacked.”
    He shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll see how I feel.”
    Mike holds out his fist to me, and I smile. My hand moves instinctively, running through the steps of our secret handshake: fist bump, then two taps on the top, two taps on the bottom, finishing off with a palm-to-palm finger wiggle. The three of us made it up when we were eight years old, thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. We still break it out from time to time.
    When we smoothly slide our hands away from each other, Mike laughs. This time it actually sounds genuine. Then he pats me on the back and disappears in the direction of the club’s main building. I turn my gaze to Harper. She’s watching him leave, a pained expression on her face.
    Don’t go after him, I silently warn her. Don’t you dare go after him.
    Thankfully, she doesn’t. She refocuses back on Bree. But just as she’s turning her head, her eyes find mine. I expect her to look away. I expect me to look away. But, for some reason, neither of us does.
    That is, until another face appears right in front of me.
    â€œHi!” says a bouncy, high-pitched voice.
    It takes me a moment to recognize the girl. Nicole. Non-Leggy Seashell Barrette from the last party. The one who stormed off my boat only twenty minutes after she stepped onto it.
    What is she so giddy about? I thought she hated me.
    â€œHi,” I reply cautiously. I lean left to steal another peek at Harper over the girl’s shoulder, but Harper has already gone back to her conversation.
    â€œHow have you been?” Nicole says, and I immediately smell the booze on her breath. She’s tipsy.
    â€œI didn’t think you’d ever want to talk to me again.” I’m surprised by my own bluntness, but I’m just not in the mood to play games tonight.
    She bites her lip thoughtfully. “Yeah, about that. I’ve been thinking. I’m sorry about everything. It was totally my fault.”
    Say what?
    â€œI was drunk and came on way too strong,” she continues. “And there you were trying to be a gentleman about it and not rush things. It was sweet. And I totally overreacted. So I’m sorry.”
    I’m 170 percent sure that’s not how it happened. She was half-naked in the bed, grinding on top of me, and I pushed her off and said I wasn’t feeling it.
    â€œI’m willing to give it another shot, if you are.”
    I look into the girl’s hopeful (half-glazed) eyes, and I feel a tug of something familiar deep inside. I could do it. I could take her somewhere right now and we could hook up and I could be the same old Grayson Cartwright I came to this island to be.
    But then, out of the corner of my eye, I see HarperJennings stand up from her chair and start walking around the pool, toward the clubhouse. I automatically search for Bree and find her in a conversation with Noah, one of Mike’s friends from school. This means Harper is alone.
    She’s going after him! The nerve of that girl.
    â€œSo,” Nicole says, bringing me back to the conversation. “What do you think?”
    I place my hands tenderly on her shoulders and say in the gentlest voice that I have, “I just don’t think it’s going to happen with us. I’m sorry, Nicole.”
    Then I take off after Harper. I may not be the same Grayson Cartwright who sleeps with random