Page 55 of Everything She Does Is Magic

He’s driving two miles an hour with his head leaned out of his rolled-down window. “You goin’ to the carnival? My parents made me come back home to pick up a basket for them. Something they swear they need. I was like, ‘Mom, you can’t be serious.’ But she was deadass. I was in the middle of a legendary basketball game. People were gathering around me. I made something like one hundred or two hundred baskets in a row.”

“That’s a wide estimate,” I interject.

“Yeah, well, they cut me off to come do this. I had to let go of the exact stats, or it’d eat me up inside. Anyway, I feel like I’m living your life right now. The errand boy.”

“Yep.”

“I can give you a ride,” he says. “Since we’re headed the sameway.”

“No need. I can walk just fine.”

“Is this about Anya?”

This gets me to change directions. I don’t know what my plan is, but I’ll cut across the creek and swim if needed. Anything to avoid this conversation.

Kyle puts his car in reverse.

“C’mon,” I plead. “I don’t want to talk to you about her. Not when you’re the one who told her that you and I are ‘kind of dating.’ ” I say the last part in his tone of voice, an impression so mocking that it teeters on the edge of being mean-spirited.

He parks his car in the middle of the street and gets out. It would seem imposing, maybe even scary, if he wasn’t looking at me with such surprising…kindness?

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he admits. When he moves, it’s not to reach for me but to grab my bike so he can be the one to wheel it along.

“You don’t even know where I’m going,” I say.

“Neither do you.”

Touché.

“I could tell that she liked you,” he says, bringing the conversation back to Anya. “And you liked her. And, you know, I can admit that I got a little threatened at first, all right? I know that’s not cool to say, but it’s true. That’s why I called her your girlfriend at the orchard. I want you to know I’m okay with it now. I’mnotokay with her taking my apple bobbing prize, though. That five hundred dollars was for my Lego castle.”

“Lego castle?”

Kyle does a flailing movement with his hands, like he’s only just now realized what he said and he knows there’s no way to take it back. “My little brother is obsessed with them. We have the medieval town square already, and he really wants to add the castle.”

“It costs five hundred dollars?”

“Basically. They’re super expensive. But they’re really cool. Very detailed. You can do all kinds of stuff with them.”

“Like be a charming prince?” I tease.

“Yeah,” he says with a grin. “Exactly.”

I can’t tell if Kyle would really spend that much money on making his little brother happy, or if he’s lying and it’s actually for himself. Either way, it’s sweet. Kyle’s just so Kyle, I never once thought about how he bonds with his brother. It’s a good reminder that even when you think you’ve got a person all figured out, they might still have some surprises up their sleeve.

“I’m sorry you didn’t win. And that you’re on errand duty. I really do get how much that sucks,” I tell him.

“It’s fine. Anya better take you out on a nice date with all that cash.” Someone honks at Kyle’s parked car, and both of us turn. “Are you sure you don’t need a ride?”

“Actually, yeah,” I say. “I do.”

We leave my bike against the last shop on the boulevard, and I hop into Kyle’s car.

“You really like her, huh, if you’re breaking your whole Fableview rule?” he asks.

“I do,” I admit.

“Nice,” he says. “She’s kind of intense, though.”