Point of Retreat

the fry goes over her head. I take Lake’s plate from her and scoot it to the other side of me, out of her reach.
     
    Lake shrugs her shoulders and smiles at me. “Sorry.” She grabs a fry off my plate and puts it in her mouth.
     
    “Your turn, Mr. Cooper,” Eddie says. She stills calls me that occasionally, usually when she’s trying to point out the fact that I’m being a “bore.”
     
    “My suck was definitely registration, too. I got Monday, Wednesday, Friday.”
     
    Lake turns to me, upset. “What? I thought we were both doing Tuesday, Thursday classes.”
     
    “I tried, Babe. They don’t offer my level courses on those days. I texted you.”
     
    She pouts. “Man, that really is a suck,” she says. “And I didn’t get your text. I can’t find my phone again.”
     
    She’s always losing her phone.
     
    “What’s your sweet?” Eddie asks me.
     
    That’s easy. “My sweet is right now,” I say as I kiss Lake on the forehead.
     
    Kel and Caulder both groan. “Will, that’s your sweet every night,” Caulder says, annoyed.
     
    “My turn,” Lake says. “Registration was actually my sweet. I haven’t figured out the statistics yet, but my other four classes were exactly what I wanted.” She looks at Eddie and continues. “My suck was losing my best friend to an eleven-year-old.”
     
    Eddie laughs.
     
    “I wanna go,” Kiersten says. No one objects. “My suck was having bread for dinner,” she says, eyeing her plate.
     
    She’s ballsy. I toss another slice of bread on her plate. “Maybe next time you show up uninvited to a carnivore’s house, you should bring your own fake meat.”
     
    She ignores my comment. “My sweet was three o'clock.”
     
    "What happened at three o'clock?" Gavin asks.
     
    Kiersten shrugs her shoulders. "School let out. I butterflying hate school."
     
    All three of the kids glance at each other, almost as if there’s an unspoken agreement between them. I make a mental note to talk to Caulder about it later. Lake nudges me with her elbow and shoots me a questioning glance, letting me know she's thinking the same thing.
     
    “Your turn, whatever your name is,” Kiersten says to Gavin.
     
    “It’s Gavin. And my suck would have to be the fact that an eleven-year-old has a larger vocabulary than me,” he says, smiling at Kiersten. “My sweet today is sort of a surprise.” He looks at Eddie and waits for her response.
     
    “What?” Eddie says.
     
    “Yeah, what?” Lake adds.
     
    I’m curious, too. Gavin just leans back in his seat with a smile on his face, waiting for us to guess.
     
    Eddie gives him a shove. “Tell us!” she says.
     
    He leans forward in his chair and slaps his hands on the table. “I got a job! At Getty’s, delivering pizza!”
     
    He looks happy for some reason.
     
    “ That’s your sweet? You’re a pizza delivery guy?” Eddie asks. “That’s more like a suck .”
     
    “You know I’ve been looking for a job. And it’s Getty’s. We love Getty’s!”
     
    Eddie rolls her eyes. “Well, congratulations,” she says, unconvincingly.
     
    “Do we get free pizza?” Kel asks.
     
    “No, but we get a discount,” Gavin replies.
     
    “That’s my sweet , then,” Kel says. “Cheap pizza!” Gavin looks pleased that someone is excited for him. “My suck today was Mrs. Brill,” Kel says.
     
    “Oh lord, what’d she do?” Lake asks him. “Or better yet, what did you do?”
     
    “It wasn’t just me,” Kel says.
     
    Caulder puts his elbow on the table and tries to hide his face from my line of sight.
     
    “What did you do, Caulder?” I ask him. He brings his hand down and looks up at Gavin. Gavin puts his elbow on the table and shields his face from my line of sight as well. He continues to eat as he ignores my glare. “Gavin? What prank did you tell them about this time?”
     
    Gavin grabs two fries and throws them at Kel and Caulder. “No more! I’m not telling you any more stories. You two get me in trouble every time!” he says. Kel and Caulder laugh and throw the fries back at him.
     
    “I’ll tell on them, I don’t mind,” Kiersten says. “They got in trouble at lunch. Mrs. Brill was on the other side of the cafeteria and they were thinking of a way to get her to run. Everyone says she waddles like a duck when she runs, and we wanted to see it. So Kel pretended he was choking and Caulder made a huge spectacle and got behind him and started beating on his back, pretending