Fireworks

5

Two days later I get a text from Isa.

Isa Gonzalez: Feel like meeting some co-workers? The tent is finally set up and looks decent

I don't hesitate to respond with a yes. I haven't left the house since I saw her for lunch over a week ago, aside from grocery shopping and a few study sessions in the park near my house.

When Colton was still alive, my mom would always ask about who I was hanging out with, what my plans were, the times and locations and details of every event I went to. Now I just let her know I'm heading out and she tells me to be safe.

I never asked my mom about the job.

I doubt she would care, but I know myself. That job is much too chaotic for someone like me. The craziest thing I've ever done is get my septum pierced. It was a dare from Colton one night while we had been hanging out with a few friends.

We were being dumb and playing truth or dare while eating some snow cones at SnoHutt. It was almost a year ago now, the last summer I had with Colton.

"Truth or dare, little duck." Colton's friend Maria asked me, tapping my head.

"Dare," I say with my mouth full.

Everyone groans. I never picked truth, way too much potential for embarrassing information to be spilled to the wrong people. Clearly, they were all sick of my reluctance to give up a truth. "I'm running out of dares here," Jeremiah said tauntingly from across the picnic table we were sitting at.

"I dare you to pick truth," Maria says, and everyone laughs. That's totally against the rules.

"Hey," I defend myself. "Maybe you guys are just bad at picking dares."

Everyone shouts in protest, and Colton grins at me from across the table, a little bit of mischief in his eyes. "Alright, alright, everyone, let's think about this," he says, ever the leader. "Since my baby sister is so brave, let's just pick a dare she can't possibly go through with."

Everyone had murmured their agreement, and I felt my heartbeat pick up speed.

All of my other dares had been easy. Jump in the fountain at the mall for longer than five seconds, ask a stranger for gum, let Jeremiah take me out on his motorcycle. Nothing serious at all.

Everyone calls out ludicrous ideas before Colton raises his hand and everyone quiets down. "I've got it," he announces, looking at something over my shoulder.

"I dare you," he pauses dramatically, "To get a piercing of our choice at that tattoo shop."

Everyone freaks out, and I feel my stomach drop in an unpleasant sensation.

"Colton, you know Mom's going to kill me," I protest, already shaking my head as they drag me towards the tattoo parlor across the parking lot from SnoHutt.

I was about to give in. I really didn't want to go through with it. My mom would hate me for all of eternity if I got a tattoo or piercing other than the standard lobe piercings I have now. And I barely even wore earrings. If I did they were studs.

I went through with it, though. I was about to say no when they pointed to the diagram on the wall pointing out the septum ring. I was expecting them to do something like my belly button, where I at least had a chance of hiding it from my mom, but that was very visible on my face.

Colton had convinced me though, insisting that he actually thought it would look good.

I went through with the dare, and to my surprise everyone loved it. I was 16 but the parlor was sketchy and didn't care enough to ID us after we told them it was just for a dare and promised not to give names if we ever got any questions. My brother was easily able to charm the female behind the counter, much to Jeremiah and Maria's amusement. Colton told me he thought I looked badass with it, and everyone else said it made me look more interesting. I didn't have a necessarily plain face, but even I had to admit it made me look more exciting.

When I got home that night, Colton stayed by my side as I faced Mom's wrath, and he even stuck up for me after my mom said it made me look like a bull. After she got so upset, I was going to get rid of it, but Colton convinced me to keep it.

That was the extent to which my life gets spontaneous or exciting in any manner.

I was a teacher's pet, and never broke rules. If I did disobey my parents, I always came to them with the truth, and accepted my punishment eagerly, though the worst I've ever done was get my septum pierced on that fateful July evening.

I know that if I took this job, the amount of chaos and unpredictability I would be around would not be good for me at all. Plus; people. I'd have to deal with people if I was selling a product, and I wasn't great at that. Every week I teach a piano lesson to my neighbor's kid, but that's basically the most I interact with anyone nowadays.

I say yes to meeting Isa at the tent, though.

I like her, and to my embarrassment, I've caught myself thinking about Arlo a couple of times since meeting him. He's only said a total of 14 words directly to me. For some reason, my brain has cataloged that useless information, much to my dismay. I wonder how he's related to Harriet and her family. He must be adopted since he called that woman Mom, though his skin color was so starkly different from Harriet's pale complexion.

When 6:00 rolls around, I tell my Mom I'm going out for dinner at a friend's house and start towards the tent. There's probably a faster way to get there, but I go the way I went last time, passing by Vinnie's and going from there. When the field comes into view, I have to admit I'm impressed.

It's insane how different it looks. A massive red and white striped tent takes up the middlemost section of the field, and the dirt road is now more gravel than dirt. There's a small line of cars parked in a part of the field that I guess is reserved for parking, and I pull in beside the white truck that Arlo dropped Isa off in the other day.

When I put my car in park, I sit for a moment, taking deep breaths.

Here we go.