Crashing Into Blue

Chapter 6

After what feels like hours but is only minutes, Samson and Indigo walk through the gift shop doors. It takes all of my self-control not to run around the front counter and shake the answers right out Indigo. But sensing the urgency, she beelines straight towards me, not dawdling around the various display cases like Samson. We both lean onto the counter at the same time.

"Spill everything, now."

"Okay, so I was just minding my own business on the front porch swing, finally getting into my latest read, the one I was telling you about where a time travelling widow finds a bit of her deceased husband in a different man in every time period she travels to..."

I cut her off by waving my hands in her face.

"Indi! I don't need to hear the plot summary of your latest romance novel right now, just tell me what you saw."

She waggles her pointer finger at me. "It's not only what I saw, it's what I was told, too."

"Wait, did you talk to Patrick?!?"

"In the flesh," adds Samson as he finally makes his way over to us, holding a dolphin statue made of seashells. He puts it down on the counter, and points to it.

"How much for this?"

"Samson, I don't get why you always look at the useless crap in here. It's all just gimmicky stuff for the tourists. And it's twenty dollars."

His eyes widen until they look like two chlorinated pools.

"Twenty bucks for some seashells arranged into a dolphin shape? You're robbing people blind over here!"

I shrug my shoulders at him. Indigo drops her head onto the counter.

"I don't know how we ever get anything done with you two together," Indigo mumbles.

Samson pats her back. "Don't be jealous because you're not part of the witty banter, Indigo. We still love you even if you can't keep up with our verbal smack downs."

Indigo abruptly straightens up and grabs the dolphin statue off the counter.

"I'll show you a smack down." Ah, another day in the life: Indigo easy to anger, Samson eager to bait. She pulls her arm back, holding the dolphin by the tail, getting ready to throw it at Samson.

"Guys, cut it out! Marlene is around here somewhere and I don't want to lose my job over this dolphin; there's no way that I'm going back to Chippy's. Plus, you break it, you buy it."

Indigo deflates, and Samson grabs the dolphin out of her hand and starts cooing sweet nothings to it. Why we're all so weird, I will seriously never know. Maybe it's too much salt exposure.

"Now that we're all in a calmer state, can we get back to the story?" Indigo turns back to face me.

"Yes, sorry, where was I?"

"You talking to Patrick."

"Oh yes. Well, like I said, I was on our porch, and all of a sudden I see Patrick walking up the sidewalk, and he stops in front of our house. He's just standing there, staring at me, because I guess he couldn't tell at a distance whether it was me or you." I notice that Samson rolls his eyes at this. I focus back on Indigo.

"So after some awkward staring, I yell out It's Indigo, Patrick. So he makes his way up our steps, and he says to me I like the pixie cut, Indigo. It suits you. We make some more small talk, blah blah blah and all that, and before long he's asking me where you are. So I tell him that you're at work. He nodded at this and started shuffling his feet. It was then that I decided to do some digging for you. I said to him I thought you weren't coming back this summer. Being premed and all."

I could just picture Indigo saying this to him all nonchalantly, but hoping every word landed with the impact of a punch. It's moments like these where I find myself so grateful to have a sister, someone who can stick up for me and ask the tough questions that I never would. I reach out to squeeze her hand, silently communicating this to her. She squeezes right back.

"I wish you could have seen his face, Lia. He got all red and started saying how the prep courses don't start until the middle of August so he has a month and a half to make his way to Yale."

Samson snorts at this. We both turn our heads towards him.

"What?" I ask him.

"How that guy got into Yale still amazes me. That's like if I got into Harvard. I've seen him struggle with carnival games; there's no way he made it into an ivy league like Yale."

"Just because he can't throw darts or aim water into a tiny pinhole doesn't mean he's not smart."

"No, he's only an uncoordinated klutz, a great quality for a future physician." Indigo gets in between us, as if she's a better barrier than the counter.

"I'm going to stop this before it starts." She grabs Samson by the arm and makes her way to the door, pulling him behind her. She stops though, and hesitantly she turns back towards me.

"Last thing, Lia: he's not alone this summer."

"I know that, he always comes with his family."

Indigo turns her eyes to the floor, and even Samson looks a bit uncomfortable. He awkwardly shuffles his weight from foot to foot.

"It's not just his family, Lia. His girlfriend is also here for the summer."

As if the news about him being in town wasn't enough to tilt me off my axis, this sure as hell causes a complete one-eighty.