her light brown hair a nice strawberry color from the sun she had gotten over the summer. “I thought it’d go away over break, but I feel like it’s gotten stronger.”
“I can’t remember the last time I had a crush on someone,” Lin said. “Not that there aren’t some seriously hot guys at our school, I just . . . I don’t know. It’s hard for me to develop feelings for people.”
There was a silence, and Pike realized it was her turn to share her romance-related woes. And she had several. Oh, did she have several, but no one knew about it and wasn’t supposed to, at least not yet. Pike shifted toward the ocean, where the sand turned cool and tight. “I’ve been really into this—” pronouns, Pike, be careful “—guy actually. Like we talk every day, for hours, and I never feel bored or disinterested. You know that feeling you get when you’re on the phone for too long, even with a friend or something, where you start pacing around and need to do something with your hands, like play video games?”
Lin laughed. “You’re playing video games while you’re talking to us? Nice, Pike, good to know you care.”
“Sorry,” Pike said, embarrassed by her confession. “I am listening when I do that, but being still for that long makes me jittery, and I need to give my body something to do.”
“Right, right, no, I get that,” Riley said. “I’ll start organizing things in my room for no reason."