I wasn’t sure if my time was up in the booth, but my head hurt so I climbed out. Diego waited with a towel open for me. I stepped into it, and he wrapped it around my shoulders.
“You okay?” he asked. “You kind of have a bad habit of hitting your head on metal objects.”
“Only when you’re around, it seems.”
He chuckled. “Does it hurt?”
“Maybe.”
“You need some of my magic, right?”
I knew he was kidding but I leaned forward anyway and he drew a V on the top of my head.
“All better,” I said, stepping back and trying not to blush. “By the way, I used that on Cora the other day and it totally worked.”
“You did?” he asked as if this surprised him.
“Yes, I think your mom’s tradition is cute.”
“She’d be happy to hear that.”
What was I doing? He was so easy to be around. Too easy. I took another step away from him.
“Kate!” Alana called. “Save me!”
Frank still had her in a bear hug and was now shaking his wet hair all over her. She pushed out of his hold and ran to hide behind Diego. She grabbed hold of the sides of his T-shirt and I averted my gaze.
“Saved by the only one here who doesn’t deserve to get wet,” Frank said.
“I need to go change before the bell rings,” I said.
I headed toward the locker room and they all followed me. Alana had linked her arm through Diego’s, for protection or closeness I wasn’t sure. Probably a little of both.
Frank was walking on Alana’s other side. I met his eyes. I cleared my throat, then cleared my throat again.
“Just spit it out,” Alana said.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“What?” Frank asked. “Was that for me?”
“Yes. I’m sorry for making it seem like you didn’t care if we all got in trouble last Friday.”
“Oh. Right.” We walked a few more steps toward the gym and he said, “It’s hard to break our habit of saying whatever jerky things we want to each other.”
I laughed a little. “It is.”
“I’m glad we’re trying.”
“Me too.” And I meant it.
In the parking lot after school, Alana handed me a grocery bag full of Post-it notes. “Are you sure Diego works at the tutoring center today?” she asked me.
“Yes.”
“Okay, after lab, Frank and I will meet you over there. Will Diego see you?”
“No, I think they make employees park in back to save the spots out front for customers.”
She nodded.
“Which color am I using to spell out the words?” I asked, putting the bag in my car.
“The blue is to spell festival and the question mark. The orange is to cover the rest of the car.”
“This is going to be cool,” I said.
“Let’s pray for no wind.” Alana grinned at me. “Anyway, I think he’ll be so surprised he’ll have to say yes.”
An hour later, Alana and Frank met me behind the tutoring center, where I still hadn’t finished covering Diego’s car.
Alana snatched a packet of Post-its out of the bag by my feet and threw the packet to Frank. “Start coating, baby.”
The three of us got to work. A few minutes passed, and Alana said, “Post-its always remind me of Hawaii.”
“They have a lot of Post-its in Hawaii?” Frank asked.
“No, but they have these open-air markets where locals sell trinkets and jewelry,” Alana explained. “Mainly to tourists. My mom used to help set up. There was this one lady who loved Post-its and she’d use them to price all her stuff. One day I was bored and I switched all the price tags around. Every time that lady saw me after that, she shooed me away while mumbling something in Pidgin.”
“So you’ve always been a brat,” Frank said.
Alana backhanded him across the chest but then said, “Yes.”
I laughed.
It took us nearly another hour to finish Diego’s car. Then we moved to the back fence and sat down on the curb to wait for Diego to come out.
“Are you nervous?” I asked Alana.
“Of course not,” she said, and I completely believed her. I would’ve been nervous. Who was I kidding. I was nervous. In the darkest reaches of my obviously horrible heart, I wanted Diego to turn her down. This made me an awful friend.
No. I wanted him to say yes. Then my horrible heart would get the hint. Then I would know, beyond a doubt, that Diego had been talking about her on the podcast all this time.
Frank had been pretty quiet during the whole car decorating and I wondered why.
When he spoke, he seemed to answer my unspoken question.
“And after weeks of calling in to the show, he finally gets his girl.”
I widened my eyes and looked at Alana.
“Seriously?” Frank said. “You thought I didn’t know it was him? I do know the guy. And us podcasters do not, in fact, manipulate the voices until after the fact.”
“We don’t?” Alana asked in mock surprise.
“You’re not going to tell him, are you?” I asked Frank.
“She still thinks I have no integrity,” he said to no one in particular.
“No, it’s not that. I just think … I don’t know.” I was rambling. “I don’t want him to find out that we’ve all known all this time.” I couldn’t imagine he’d feel good about that. Why hadn’t we told him again?
“He won’t find out from me,” Frank said.
I squeezed his arm. “Thank you.”
“How’s your phone, Frank?” Alana asked with a smile.
He bumped his leg into hers. “Totally dead, courtesy of the dunking booth incident, thank you very much.”
We all heard the back door open, and we all jumped up simultaneously.
Diego saw the car first. How could he not? His whole face lit up with a smile. Then he searched the surrounding area until his eyes locked on to the three of us, standing against the fence.
“So?” Alana asked when he didn’t say anything at first.
“Oh! Yes!” he said.
Alana ran forward and threw her arms around his neck in a hug.
My heart seemed to fall to my feet.
At least it got the hint.
“Wait here,” Frank said to me. Before I could ask him what he was doing, he ran the ten feet to his car and started rooting around in the trunk. Meanwhile, Alana and Diego walked over to me. She held Diego’s hand in hers and she was beaming.
Okay. Alana and Diego. It was about time this thing between them started moving forward again. It felt stalled for a while there, which was odd for Alana. She always got her man, and usually fast. This one had been a little more work. But, by the look on her face, it had obviously been worth it.
“I hope you guys are sticking around to help me clean this up,” Diego said, meeting my eyes.
“Of course,” Alana said.
Frank headed back toward us, one of his hands behind his back.
“Kat,” he said, breathless.
“Kate,” both Diego and I said at the same time.
I gave him a playful nudge with my elbow. “Jinx.”
“Kate. Right, sorry. I just listen to a lot of podcast talk.” Frank had a weird smile plastered on his face, and I couldn’t figure out why. Alana seemed to be confused by this interaction, too, because she dropped Diego’s hand and crossed her arms.