“He kind of gives me the creeps,” Val admits. “The way he’s always watching us.”

“George isn’t so bad,” Jude says. “Did you guys know he’s friends with Jimmy Buffett? Like they used to hang out and shit.”

“Who?” Lex asks.

“Seriously, Lex?” Val shakes her head.

It only takes us a few minutes to reach the restaurant, a little shack just up the road from the theatre. anson’s lobster, the sign says. It’s right on the water, and a six-foot-tall, bright red crustacean greets us in the parking lot. He’s cut out of plywood, his arm frozen in a permanent wave, and he looks awfully cheery, considering he stands around presiding over the murder of his kin all day.

“You ever had lobster before?” Cole asks me as we pile out of the van.

“Yeah.” I roll my eyes at him, because I’m from Dallas. Not Mars. “We have a Red Lobster like two minutes from our apartment.”

He laughs out loud, and it hits me again how much I love the sound of it. It’s deep and real and open. “Trust me,” he says. “That doesn’t count.”

We wait in line to place our order. I settle on a hot lobster roll and clam chowder, and we all gather up at a picnic table on the water.

Val leans against me. Her head is lazy on my shoulder. And it feels so good. “Jesus,” she says. “Could this place be any more perfect? This whole summer is like a fucking postcard.”

Jude has his arm slung around Lex, and Lex looks so happy and relaxed. They’re taking selfies. The two of them with wide smiles and sunglasses. Big, colorful sailboats in the background. I have this pang of sadness when I wonder what happens for them in three weeks. But I push that thought out of my head. I don’t want to think about it.

I don’t want to think about what happens to any of us when this ends.

Not yet. Today is for living in the moment.

Jude leaves to use the bathroom, and a crackly voice comes over the loudspeaker. “Number twenty-seven.”

“That’s us,” Cole says, and he gets up to grab our order. Val offers to help him. When they see how long the line at the pickup window is, Cole looks back at me and shrugs.

Lex slides into the seat next to me, filling Cole’s empty space.

“How you doing today?” he asks me. His voice is low, and his blue eyes are worried.

“That depends,” I tease. “Are you gonna share some of your clam strips?” But he doesn’t let me get away with that.

“What were you doing back there, Av? Last night?”