“Hey! Oh my gosh. Hi, Athena!” Chloe squeals, kneeling on the sidewalk to pet the little golden retriever. Athena puts her enormous paws on Chloe’s shoulders and almost knocks her over.
“Hey, Vi,” Bea says.
It’s nice to be greeted before the dogs for once…although, to be fair, Vi knows her neighbors’ pets’ names better than she knows her neighbors’. For a good six months, the Hannigans were “the couple with that fat ginger cat named Crookshanks.”
“Hi. Are you guys working on your raft?” Vi asks.
Bea leans over to pet Juno. “No. We’re having coffee. We can have coffee without working on something.”
“You can?” Vi asks. Bea is the queen of multitasking. She usually acts as though if she stops to just breathe for a minute, the world might fall apart.
“It’s weird, right? We’re friends now,” Chloe says, climbing back into her chair.
“Oh. Okay.” Vi honestly thought Bea hated Chloe. “Where’s Erik?”
“It’s just Chloe and me. Having coffee. I’m allowed to have coffee on my lunch break without Erik,” Bea snaps.
“You’re saying ‘coffee’ a lot,” Vi points out. “Are you okay?”
Chloe laughs, and then Bea is laughing too, both hands covering her freckled face. “No. Not really. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Vi frowns. Bea has seemed more stressed than usual lately. She’s been staying up super late, baking. Usually, she only does that before big exams. Vi wonders if her sister is getting nervous about going to Georgetown. She doesn’t want to embarrass Bea by asking in front of Chloe, though. “Um, okay. See you later.”
“Thanks for walking Athena,” Chloe calls. “See you later, boo!”
Vi is ninety-five percent sure “boo” is directed at Athena, not her. She loops Athena’s leash around her wrist and heads down the street. She only gets as far as the Tabby Cat Café before she runs into another of her sisters. Kat is hauling a giant bag of trash out to the curb. She dumps it next to the already-full trashcan and heaves a theatrical sigh. Naturally, both dogs hurry over to sniff the garbage and see if there’s anything they could eat.
“Kat?” Vi says.
“Vi! Hey, are you busy?” Kat scratches her nose, leaving a streak of white paint across it.
Vi waves her free hand at the two dogs. “Kind of, yeah.”
“Oh. I have three more trash bags to bring out, and they’re heavy,” Kat complains. There’s white paint on her knee too. And on her elbow.
“Where’s Mase?” Vi asks.
“Mase. Called. Out. Sick.” Kat’s voice is brittle, and she overenunciates every word.
Vi takes a big step back. “You probably have whatever he has. Don’t breathe on me.”
Kat narrows her blue eyes. “He’s not actually sick, Vi. He’s hiding from me.”
“Oh.” There seems to be a lot going on with her sisters today. “Is—um, is everything okay?”
“No. I don’t know. I hate boys,” Kat says. “Is being a lesbian easier?”
“I don’t think so,” Vi says. She doesn’t exactly have any point of comparison.
“Wait, is today your dog-walking date with Cece?” Kat looks at her, suddenly interested.
“It’s not a date!” Vi blushes. She confided in Des this morning at breakfast that she was excited about her plans with Cece, and maybe she referred to it as a date. Kat had been lurking in the hall, eavesdropping, and overheard her poor choice of words. “Please don’t call it a date. Also, do you know you’re covered in paint?”
“I know.” Kat sighs.
Vi is surprised that her sister hasn’t already scrubbed it off then. Kat is usually immaculate in public. Vi peers at her: Kat’s long, bright-red curls are straggling out of their bun; she’s wearing jean shorts and an old Star Wars T-shirt with the neck cut out; she’s covered in paint; and she’s not wearing lipstick. Something is definitely wrong.
“I’m repainting the trim because it was all gross and gray. I figured while I’m waiting for it to dry so I can give it a second coat, I should haul out the trash. It’s full of all those ugly old cat figurines and china plates. But Mase isn’t here, and I really need his help.”
Vi frowns. She likes Mase. He’s one of the handful of openly out kids at school; he’s in the Gay Straight Alliance with her. When he came over to watch a movie with Kat the other night, she found out that he’s also a Riverdale fan. He is about a hundred times nicer than Kat’s last boyfriend. Still, something is clearly amiss. Kat looks like she’s going to cry—not fake, crocodile tears to get something she wants, but legit cry.
“Cece and I are going to walk the dogs in the park, and then I have to take them home,” Vi says. “But…I could come help you paint the trim after that, if you want.”
“Seriously? You’re the best!” Kat steps forward as though she’s going to hug her, and Vi hastily steps back.
“Don’t touch me; you’re gross. I’ll help you, but I get to choose the painting music,” she stipulates. “No Broadway stuff. I’m thinking Halsey.”
Kat nods. “Fair. Totally fair. Thank you, Vi.”
Vi watches her sister trudge back inside. Then she leads the dogs past the SunTrust and Carl’s Pharmacy and the post office with its flags hanging limp in the still summer air. The working historical replica of the USS Abigail is anchored down at the dock, with a crowd of tourists waiting to board. There will be tours every afternoon for the next week, till the Tea Party reenactment next Saturday.
Athena spots a little black spaniel across the street and starts barking and yanking Vi forward. The Chans are still working on leash training so that she doesn’t pull so much, but for now, she’s wearing a special puppy harness instead of a collar. Vi turns onto Water Street. Tall, narrow brick colonials stand like sentinels right up against the sidewalk, with gorgeous back porches overlooking the river. Vi always wonders what it’d be like to live in one of those houses. She imagines spending whole afternoons reading and watching sailboats go by. She imagines holding hands with Cece and watching the fireworks, just the two of them.
Cece has stopped by the store twice this week before her shifts at Tia Julia’s. On Tuesday, she and Vi sat inside the pirate ship beneath the stairs, their knees almost touching, and talked about their favorite books for two whole hours. Yesterday, Cece texted Vi to tell her she had seen Algernon, and then they texted back and forth about Reign of the Fallen, which Cece had borrowed and loved. Now, every time her phone buzzes, Vi’s heart leaps.