I Know It's Over by C. K. Kelly Martin

and want to take it back?”
    I reached out and grazed her hand. “It’s okay, Sasha.” I scanned the dip in her top, not low enough to show off the valley between her breasts but low enough for me to imagine it. I thought about laying her back, pulling her V-neck down and kissing that spot. Would she taste like watermelon too? My chest tightened and I opened my mouth and forced air into my lungs.
    “Thanks,” she said lightly. “I guess I should let you get back to work.” She stopped walking and held her ice cream out in front of her like she was tired of it.
    “No, I mean it’s okay,” I repeated. “I’ve been thinking about you.” It felt like the truth and I guess for the most part it was. I hadn’t thought about her much since school had ended, but I’d watched her in class plenty of times. Maybe I’d even wondered what she was really like and wanted to find out. The ground between us was shifting and it was hard to say exactly what it was like before. “Look, I have to go, but we should talk about this. When’re you at the lake?”
    Sasha and I smiled at each other, on the verge of nervous laughter. “Tomorrow afternoon.”
    “Okay, so I’ll see you then,” I told her. “Maybe I’ll bring Nathan.” It occurred to me, seconds too late, that including Nathan wasn’t the best idea if we wanted to talk. I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly. My chest still hurt. I couldn’t stop thinking about how it would feel to pull her V-neck down and expose that spot.
    She bobbed her head like she’d forgotten all about Nathan. We both took a step back, then Sasha called out: “But what about Dani? I heard you two—”
    “I told you—I’m not with Dani.”
    Sasha hesitated, her eyelashes fluttering. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    I swung around and began walking in the direction of Sports 2 Go. The chocolate fudge tasted sickly sweet in my mouth. I tossed it into the nearest garbage and resisted the impulse to turn around and watch Sasha go. I pictured her in my head, striding off with her thin fingers wrapped around the unwanted pistachio. She was smiling to herself but still not sure about me. I’m not sure about you either, I thought. And by the time I gave in she was gone.

 
    five
    I dropped by Dani’s house after work that night. She shut her bedroom door behind us, grabbed my ass, and ground her pelvis against mine. Downstairs, her uncle was painting the hall and we could hear him lecturing Dani’s mother in a sharp voice: “Voting is a social responsibility. It’s plain lazy to opt out.”
    We switched Dani’s TV on and fooled around quietly on top of her bed. I pulled her top off and kissed her breasts, thinking about Sasha. That wasn’t what I’d planned; I thought messing around with Dani would push Sasha out of my head. Things never turn out how you plan, ever notice that? Mom was considering going back to school before Dad left. She wanted to get a degree in sociology, to expand her mind. Now she spent most of her energy trying to avoid the toxic fallout from Ms. Scofield’s constant power struggles. After he left, Dad said the last thing on his mind was another relationship. Enter Bridgette.
    Keeping plans to a minimum was obviously your best bet. So why was I going to the lake tomorrow? Because Sasha liked my story? Because she made me feel like an asshole that day in June? I didn’t have an answer, just an uneasy feeling that gnawed at the inside of my ribs and told me to call Nathan and ask him to come with me.
    Millside Lake was man-made and surrounded by neighborhoods filled with upper-middle-class suburbanites who, thanks to their plastic surgeons and fitness trainers, grew younger every year. The majority of the lake was off-limits to swimmers; you had to pay to get wet. Nathan and I joined the line as soon we got there. “I feel like a third wheel,” he said. “Wouldn’t this be better without me?”
    A group of gawky preteen girls were standing outside the