“She calls me Eleh-nerd,” Elena said. “And Short Stuff. Wednesday Addams. Virgin Daiquiri. Ukelena . . . Ukelele . . . Lele. My Little Pony. Thumbelina. Rumpelstiltskin . . .”

Gabe laughed a little. “Why do you let her call you all that?”

“I don’t even hear it anymore,” Elena said. “Plus it’s different, I’m her friend. I can have her stop calling you names, if you want.”

“It doesn’t even matter,” he said.

They were quiet for a minute. Elena was trying to figure out whether she was mad . . . She wasn’t.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked. “That we already knew each other.”

“I didn’t want you to call me Geekle,” Gabe said. “I didn’t want it to catch on.”

Elena nodded.

“We should sleep,” he said. “This is our last night.”

“Yeah,” she said.

He pulled up his legs and folded his arms. How did he sleep like that?

Elena curled up as much as she could. She kept trying to get comfortable. It was so bright under the lights.

“Gabe?” she said after ten minutes or so.

“Yeah?”

“Are you asleep?”

“Sort of.”

“Are you still mad?”

Gabe sighed. “In a larger sense, yes. At you, in this moment, no.”

“Okay. Good.”

Elena hunkered down again. She watched the cars driving by. She would be really, really glad to be home tomorrow night. After the movie. The movie . . .

“Gabe?” she said.

“What?”

“I can’t sleep.”

“Why not?”

“Star Wars!”

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Something strange happened at 6 A.M.

Darth Vader got in line.

It was one of Troy’s friends. He kicked Troy’s feet off the cooler and shouted, “The Force awakens!”

“Yeah, we’ve heard that one,” Gabe grumbled, sitting up.

Elena was watching everything from a gap between her hat and her sleeping bag.

“I haven’t slept in a week,” Gabe said. “I think you can die of that. I think I’m dead.”

Troy woke up and welcomed his friend, who eventually got in line behind them.

Elena and Gabe walked together to Starbucks. She gave him some of her baby wipes; they were both in dire need of a shower. Gabe looked like he was growing a beard. It was coming in redder than his hair. Elena painted new Yodas on her cheeks.

“You into Star Wars?” the barista asked.

“Nope,” Gabe said.

“Yes,” Elena said.

“I’m going to see it tonight,” the barista said. “Midnight showing.”

“Cool,” Elena said.

“There are already people in line over there,” he said. “Have you seen them? Just three miserable dorks sitting on the sidewalk.”

Elena smiled brightly. “That’s us!”

“What?”

“We’re the three dorks—well, two of the three.”

The barista was mortified; he gave them their coffee for free. “May the Force be with you!” Elena said.

When they got back, there were four new people in line.

By noon, there were twenty, at least half of them in costume.