September Girls by Bennett Madison

slightly in the breeze, and she reached into her drink and pulled out an ice cube with her fingers and dropped it into her mouth, crunching on it loudly. She didn’t say anything. This time, when she noticed me looking at her, she looked away.
    “What the fuck?” I finally said. “Seriously, what the fuck?”
    “What?” she said, with a final crunch. Then she fished for her lime wedge and, having extracted it from the bottom of her glass, was sucking on it, eyebrows raised. The juice from the lime dripped down her chin. “What?”
    For some reason I was actually emboldened by the way she was looking at me, by her hair and her hips and her breasts, quivering in her bikini. It had made me shy and nervous before, but now it just made me want to know who the fuck she thought she was.
    “So what was that about?”
    “What was what about?”
    “Earlier today. You know.”
    It was the first time I had seen her seem nervous. “You’re such an American. You all make such a big deal about everything. It wasn’t remotely a big deal. I was just trying to be friendly. I just wanted you to know we were friends. That you can trust me.”
    “Funny you should put it that way,” I said. “I met this guy today. He was weird; it was like he’d had his heart sucked out through his nose. I didn’t even know him. I barely said anything to him. But you know what he told me?”
    “Let me guess,” Kristle said. She didn’t guess.
    “He told me not to trust you.”
    Kristle hooted. “Me? He told you not to trust me? That’s a laugh. I don’t even know any guys other than your brother. I only know girls and assholes. How should some random guy I’ve never met know anything about me?”
    “He wasn’t talking about you specifically,” I said.
    “Oh, not me specifically . Of course. So who was he talking about?”
    “You know who he was talking about. All of you.”
    “All of us.”
    “All of you. He said not to trust any of you.”
    “And I’m the one getting blamed for some unknown, untrustworthy thing all of us supposedly did? I don’t even know who this person is. Like I said: you’re such an American.”
    “I never trusted you anyway,” I said. “I don’t know if you’re trying to fuck with me or fuck with my brother or if you just like fucking with everyone or what. It doesn’t take someone telling me to make me think you might not be so trustworthy. But it does help.”
    She recoiled, wounded and angry. “You have no idea what I’m about,” she said, and she turned out to face the ocean and leaned over the street, balancing her weight on her palms and lifting her heels into the air. “Some people have no fucking clue.”
    That night, Jeff and Kristle decided to sleep at her place—wherever that was. While Jeff was gathering his stuff up, Kristle cornered me one more time.
    “Listen to me,” she said. “Listen carefully. I want you to know that I really like your brother, okay? Like, I really like him. Please don’t mess with that.”
    “I’m not the one messing with it.”
    “I know,” she said. She tugged at her hair, and she really did look sort of upset. “I know. But still.”
    I stared at her for a few seconds. “Okay,” I finally said. And then: “Can you tell DeeDee to say hi sometime?”
    Kristle tilted her head one way, then another, considering it. “Yeah,” she said. “Sure. Fine. I mean, it’s not like she listens to me ever. But fine, who cares? If that’s really what you want. But did you ever think maybe it’s not me you need to worry about trusting?”
    Then Jeff appeared with his backpack, ready to go. “Hey,” he said with a cocky wink, “you hitting on my girlfriend, bro? Uncool.”
    “I’m nobody’s girlfriend,” Kristle said. She was smiling and Jeff just laughed in his usual dopey, good-natured way, but I could tell he was bothered.
    At first I was pleased to have them out of my way for the night, but after I’d been sitting alone in the living room for an