Текст книги "Endless Summer"

Автор книги: Jennifer Echols

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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

Outside in the fading sunlight, Adam leaned against the wall. When he heard the door squeak open, he stood up straight and took a step toward me, worry lines deep between his brows.

I carefully closed the door all the way, then skittered toward him.

“I’ll take care of it,” we whispered at the same time.

“No—how will you take care of it?” I said quickly. We didn’t have much time to talk before someone discovered us together again. “I’ll go with Sean to the party tonight and horrify my dad.”

“You won’t!” Adam exclaimed, voice edging above a whisper, eyes intense with anger. “You promised you wouldn’t.”

“I did, but that was before you got sent away!” Surely he saw the difference and understood what was at stake here.

We stared each other down, stubborn, the heat from a whole day of sun breaking loose from the sidewalk under our flip-flops and rising between us.

“I will take care of it,” he growled, a threat. He stepped past me and hiked along the showroom wall, up his yard, toward his house. I wished he would take care of it, but he did not have a stellar track record for getting himself out of trouble.

Out the corner of my eye I saw Sean sliding the big metal door of the warehouse closed for the night.

I knew what I had to do.

First I shaved. This was harder than I thought. I’d only shaved stubble before, not the full mountaineer beard I’d been working on. I had to hack at it for a few minutes to get it off.

Then I ironed. I dragged the iron and the board from my parents’ room into mine and pressed a pair of shorts, then a long-sleeved button-down shirt. I would roll up the sleeves like an asshole. I would have worn a suit, but that seemed like overkill. I was going to see Lori’s dad and I wanted to look like a presentable guy who should be allowed to date his daughter, not a criminal who’d dressed up to face the electric chair.

But first I had to get through the ironing. It took a lot of patience. I had none. It took forever, and then I had to press the whole shirt again to get out the creases I’d pressed into it.

Finally I got dressed and examined myself in the mirror. I looked like Sean.

Ready as I’d ever be.

I ran downstairs and walked through my yard, past the tree house, into Lori’s yard, and across the driveway—the scenes of various crimes. I rang the doorbell.

Her dad opened the door and looked down at me. I wished the garage wasn’t a couple of stairs below the kitchen, because I seemed a lot shorter than him.

I pretended it didn’t bother me. I said, “I would like an audience. Sir.”

He frowned at me, but he didn’t send me away. He jerked his head in the direction of the den.

I followed him through the room and onto the screened porch. He sat down in the chair where he’d obviously been when I rang the bell. It looked like he’d been spending a lot of time there lately. Spy novels were piled on the table beside the chair, along with a pair of binoculars. McGillicuddy wasn’t kidding about his dad watching Lori and me.

“Sit,” he said.

I would not say woof. I would not. I sat down in the chair facing his.

“Shoot.” He tried to sound casual, but he kept frowning at me.

I took a deep breath. It came out shaky. I cleared my throat. “When Lori and I stayed out so late, that was an honest mistake. And when we were in the woods together the next day, we just wanted to talk about what had happened and what we could do about it.”

“That’s not all you wanted,” he broke in.

I paused over that. He had me there, but to admit this seemed counterproductive. To lie would be more counterproductive, because I was an awful liar.

I went on. “Last night, we were saying good-bye. We agreed not to see each other anymore, just like you said.”

“I said that three weeks ago,” he insisted, leaning forward in his chair.

“Yes, sir,” I acknowledged, “but you seem to think we’re not people. We are, and we had stuff to work through and things to wrap up.” There was a long silence. He stared at me. I tried to meet his gaze, but loud tapping on my chair distracted me. I looked down and realized it was my finger.

I would not do well under his scrutiny. I knew better than to try my hand at poker. So I threw all my cards on the table face-up. “I love Lori. I have always loved Lori.

And you may be right, I may have some ulterior motives at times, which you do not want to hear about. But I would not do anything to hurt her.” He lost his cool. “You convinced her to jump out a window last night!”

I winced. “I caught her.”

“And you expect me to just say, ‘Okay,’ and let you near her, and then tell your parents not to send you to military school?” He might have looked taller than me when he was in the kitchen and I was down in the garage, but now I had the upper hand. Compared to him, I sounded calm and reasonable as I said, “I don’t expect that. Frankly, I don’t expect much out of anybody anymore. I just wanted somebody to listen to me for once.” I stood up.

“Sit down,” he ordered me.

I sat down.

“I hope you can see my perspective on this,” he said. “When you have a teenage daughter, you won’t want someone like you coming anywhere near her.” I almost said, I can see your lips moving, but I can’t understand you . e things he was blathering about made that much sense. But I remembered what Lori told me a couple of weeks ago about shooting myself in the foot. I was trying to solve this problem, not make it worse. I didn’t say a thing.

He must have seen me squinting at him, though, because he said, “Never mind. My point is, Lori is my only daughter. Ever since her mother died, blah blah blah, very important stuff, blah blah blah, a very, very important explanation for why I have treated you like shit.” I figured that was what he was saying, but I’d stopped paying attention because of what I saw over his shoulder.

A screen wall kept the porch mosquito-free. If you got near the screen, it was harder to see through, but from this distance it was all but invisible. Beyond it, bright green maple leaves rubbed against it, trying to get in. e maple leaves formed a bower, a perfect frame for Lori’s dock. And on that dock stood Lori, kissing Sean. e red words spray painted on the bridge way in the distance seemed to hover above their heads: LORI LOVES ADAM.

“In addition,” Lori’s dad said, “blah blah blah, why I have never trusted you as far as I could throw you and how I always knew you were trouble.” Sean’s hand slid down to Lori’s ass.

“Some more crap,” Mr. McGillicuddy said. “And an invitation to you to incriminate yourself.” Lori put her hand on the inside of Sean’s thigh.

“Adam,” Mr. McGillicuddy said. “Over here.” He waved his hand, blocking my view of my two-timing ex-girlfriend and my asshole brother.

“Sorry.” I shook my head. “ADHD. What were you saying?”

“I was saying you and Lori can date again. And I feel responsible for the military school thing. Your parents might have been headed in that direction already, but I certainly pushed them to the doorway. I’ll get you out of it.”

He was telling me that he would give me everything I’d hoped for when I came over here. I won. I could at least be happy that I wasn’t going to military school. My brain kept sending signals like this to my muscles, prompting a reaction, but I couldn’t move. My fists gripped the armrests as I watched Lori slip her arms around Sean’s waist and hug him hard.

“Why the long face?” her dad asked. “I thought this was what you wanted. Don’t worry about anything. I’ll call your mom right now. Trust me. I’m a lawyer.”

“Yes, sir.” I jumped up from my chair before I broke it into pieces by squeezing it with my fists. I extended one of my hands to Lori’s dad and he shook it. What we were shaking on, I had no idea. I just wanted out.

He walked me to the door and called after me across the yard, “I am very impressed with you, young man.” That was a new one on me, and I would have laughed at how ridiculous it sounded if I weren’t so intent on reaching a certain point in his yard with a certain vantage point from which to see a certain dock.

I peered through the trees. I hoped what I’d seen from the porch was a trick of light on water or an all-out hallucination. But there were Lori and Sean, still standing on her dock. The kiss had ended, but they were wrapped in each other’s arms.

That was supposed to be me.

Maybe it was me. I put my hand on my skull-and-crossbones pendant to check.

Nope, I was me and that was Sean.

I turned away. I couldn’t quite get my head around what my eyes were telling me. But it was catching up quickly, and my anger simmered. I had talked to Lori’s dad for her. I had shaved my beard for her—a huge disappointment, because I’d enjoyed my three weeks looking like a bank robber. I had ironed for her. I dwelled on these petty things to keep from descending into the bottomless pit that gaped in front of me. I had gotten us out of our mess. I had told her I would take care of it, but she had stopped believing in me.

Maybe she never had.

Or maybe she really was using our troubles to catch Sean, who she’d loved all along.

I wasn’t sure which was worst.

I was so angry that lights flashed behind my eyes, which told me I needed to think this through before I acted. Intellectually I knew I was jumping to conclusions about her and Sean. But even if she wasn’t after him, she had betrayed me again. I had fixed everything, for once. And she broke her promise to me. She had done the one thing I’d asked her never to do. I didn’t need a girlfriend like that.

I walked into the kitchen of my house to yet another horror. e air was filled with the scents of pizza and bitesize egg rolls and pretty much any crappy snack my mom could find in the deep discount section of the frozen foods aisle. She was preparing an extra-special spread for the party tonight. I’d almost forgotten about the party.

When she heard the door close, she looked around the corner at me, then came out from behind the kitchen island to hug me hard. She held me at arm’s length, searching my face and smiling. “Lori’s dad called.”

“Woo-hoo.”

Her brow wrinkled in confusion, then rose. “He says you can date Lori again. And now he’s trying to convince me not to send you to military school.” I nodded.

She put her hands on her hips. She was frustrated with me for not showing more joy at this fantastic news, but she wasn’t quite ready to let go of her own happiness yet.

“What in the world did you say to him to make him change his mind?”

I shrugged. “I manned up.”

“Well. I have to say, I’m bowled over.”

“I’m so glad.”

“You should be. Much as I hate to look like Trevor McGillicuddy is jerking my chain, he makes a very good case for you. I’ll speak to your father and convince him that we don’t need to take that tour of schools.”

She waited for me to foam at the mouth with gratitude. I did not.

“Adam.”

“What.”

“I am telling you we’re not sending you to school and you can date Lori again. Isn’t that what you wanted? Are you hearing me?”

“What do you want me to do, thank you for treating me like a dog for three weeks?”

She stared at me really hard, and I thought she was going to lay into me. Then she asked, “Did you have an argument with Lori?”

“No!” I stomped past her, ran up the stairs, and slammed the door to my room. This time when my tenth grade player-of-the-year trophy teetered on its shelf, I let it fall.

It crashed to the rug, and the football broke off the quarterback’s hand.

I flopped onto my bed, fished my phone out of my pocket, and called Rachel.

“Hey, Adam!” she squealed. “I’m so glad you got your party back! I can’t wait! Sean doesn’t have a date, does he?”

“You could say that,” I said. “I just saw him sucking face with Lori out on the dock.”

Rachel giggled like she always did at everything I said. Only this time, it was a maniacal giggle, like a psychotic bluebird. I was afraid she might start hyperventilating.

“Oh, God! Oh no! This is exactly what you’ve been warning me about all along!”

e giggle stopped abruptly, as if she’d never been on the brink of hysterics. “I’m sick of being nice,” she said with determination. “I can play Sean’s game. What time are you picking me up?”

I ran toward Sean at the warehouse. He looked in my direction and kept turning keys in the dead bolts on the door like he knew I was up to no good.

I snagged his hand and dragged him after me.

“Whoa there, woman,” he said as he stumbled, keys jingling.

“Come with me.” I led him down the grass and around the seawall until we reached my dock.

I stopped him with my hands on his chest. After an examination of my screened porch through the trees, I pushed him six inches to the left. “My dad is probably out on the porch,” I told Sean. “While he’s watching, I need you to act like we’re together.”

His eyes widened, and he put his hands up in the air. “No way. I don’t want to get sent to military school.”

“Yes way,” I said. “You’re going to college in the fall. You’re free and clear.”

He glanced toward the porch too, I thought. But I realized he was looking at the window of my brother’s room when he said, “I could get thrown off Chimney Rock.” I gave him the meanest look I could muster. “Sean Vader,” I seethed, “you put your hands on me in an ungentle-manly fashion this instant.” I must have looked like I was going to kill him or give myself an aneurism, because he quickly put his hands on either side of my bare waist, just above my bikini bottoms and Adam’s cutoff jeans.

With my fingertip I pressed his chin until he tilted his head down. I stood on my tiptoes and balanced my forehead against his, gazing into his pale blue eyes. Close-up, he appeared to have four eyes. This was neither sexy nor conducive to a productive discussion, but I figured it looked frightening to my dad.

“You know about my plan,” I said. “I’ve been dating boys who are worse than Adam so my dad will give in and let me date him again. You are the worst boy I can think of.” I closed my eyes and kissed the side of his mouth.

Sean breathed a little harder through his nose, which made me feel powerful. But then, infuriatingly, he said, “Adam and I made a pact. I’m not getting in his way by messing with you, and he’s not getting in my way by messing with Rachel.”

My stomach twisted. Adam and I made a pact too. But I was trying to save him from military school, which was more important than my promise to him.

“You’ve already screwed up everything with Rachel,” I reasoned. is might have hurt Sean’s feelings, but if he still carried a torch for her, he sure hadn’t done anything about it in the past three weeks. “And pact or no pact, Adam will thank you for this later. My dad will agree to let Adam and me date. en he can talk your parents out of sending Adam away, because I was the cause of all that trouble in the first place.” I kissed Sean’s cheek. is was the path Adam had taught me: corner of the mouth, then cheek. Next stop, ear.

“In case you haven’t noticed,” Sean said, “Adam and I don’t do each other any favors.”

“Maybe you need to start,” I said. “After all, he wouldn’t be headed to military school if it weren’t for you.” I put my mouth on his ear.

“Me-he-he-he!” he exclaimed. Obviously he was caught off guard by the ear treatment. He gripped my waist harder, but he managed to croak, “You just admitted this was your fault.”

“It’s my fault Adam keeps getting in trouble for being with me,” I whispered in Sean’s ear. “It’s your fault that your parents thought he was so awful in the first place. If he’d suddenly started acting out, nobody would be talking about sending him away to school. But he’s been getting in trouble since I met him. You and I know about twenty-five percent of that is ADHD and the other seventy-five percent is you doing something and then blaming it on him—either just to get yourself out of trouble or specifically to screw up his life. I’ve known this all along, and I can’t believe I wanted to be with you until recently.” I kissed my way back to his cheek.

“I have issues,” he whispered back. “That makes me vulnerable. Chicks dig it.”

“If you say so. Shut up and kiss me.” Without waiting for his decision, I kissed Sean Vader full on the mouth.

Sean was a great kisser. It would be hard to compare him with Adam because they were totally different. Sean kissed as suavely as he talked, with an understated smoothness that left me wanting more. Adam’s kisses were much more intense. And that’s why, even though I cracked one eye open occasionally to get a delicious peek at Sean with his eyes closed, kissing me slowly, looking so much like Adam, I never forgot who I was kissing.

He slid his hands onto my butt. I froze at first. Adam’s brother’s hands were on my butt. But this was great for the plan that I had dragged Sean into. I had to remember I was doing this to save Adam from military school.

Still, I began to feel guilty, and I thought I’d better lighten the mood. “Am I good at this?” I joked against Sean’s lips. “Are you actually maybe a little turned on?”

“Until you started talking.”

“Good.” He wasn’t falling for me any more than I was falling for him. I licked my lips and prepared to move in again.

But I couldn’t lean forward. I stayed stuck where I was, staring into his light blue eyes that really weren’t all that much like Adam’s after all, now that I examined them up close.

“What’s the matter?” Sean asked.

I squeezed my eyes shut against the tears. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”

“No.” I couldn’t see him, but his low voice sounded almost sympathetic. “What are the chances that your dad is watching us right now? Or that he would care in exactly the way you need him to care? Or that he has good enough vision to tell it’s me and not Adam?”

“You’re right. It hasn’t worked yet. I don’t know why I keep trying. I guess I just don’t want to face the fact—” I looked up into his eyes. He watched me with concern.

“—that I can’t fix it!” I burst into tears. My whole world seemed so hopeless and empty and meaningless. Adam was getting a punishment he didn’t deserve because of me. If I couldn’t fix it, what good was I?

“Aww,” Sean said. “Come here.” He pulled me forward into his arms and rubbed my back, soothing. With his chin on my head he said, “I’ll talk to my mom, okay?” I was too busy sobbing and soaking his T-shirt with my tears to respond.

“I mean, Adam needs knocking around to toughen him up. I’ve done him a favor. But you’re right—sending him to military school makes no sense. I’ll try to talk my mom out of it. If anybody can do that, it’s me.” He patted my back absently. “Maybe it will get back to Rachel that I’ve done a good deed.” I sniffed gigantically. “Maybe you should talk to Rachel and tell her you want to make up with her, you moron.” He held me at arm’s length and looked at me like he’d never seen me before. “That’s an idea.” A few minutes later, I hiked back up my yard and went into my house. I had tried my best to freak out my dad, but I was used to my plans to get Adam out of the doghouse falling through, and I was resigned to the fact that my last try with Sean had not worked at all. erefore I was astonished when my dad knocked on the screened porch door and motioned for me to come outside with him.

Cautiously hopeful, I edged onto the porch and eyed him. He relaxed in his customary chair with a full view of our dock, beaming. He would not be beaming if he’d noticed Sean and me making out right in front of his nose. Damn it, we must have won the lottery!

“I know what you did,” Dad said.

“You do?” I asked carefully, just in case I had a much poorer understanding of parental psychology than I’d thought.

“Yes. And I think it’s commendable.”

“You do?” Was he talking about Sean and me? I hadn’t volunteered at the Humane Society since the beginning of the summer.

“Yes. I’m not wrong about your curfew, Lori. I’m not wrong about keeping you safe.” He reached forward to pat my arm. “But I may have flown off the handle about restricting your movements. Frances keeps telling me that it only backfires. I think that’s what we’ve seen in the past few weeks. You may date Adam again, and I’ve put in a good word with his parents. I doubt they’ll send him away to school.”

‘ank you!” I screamed, throwing myself on top of my dad. “ank you so much,” I gushed. “I’m so glad. Adam is great. You just have to see past… a lot. ank you, Dad.” I eased off him because he seemed to be having trouble breathing, like I was crushing him or perhaps kneeing him in the ribs. “Thank you.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “Have fun at the party tonight.”

“I will. Thank you so much!”

I banged into the house and ran upstairs to get ready for the party, which would start in less than an hour. In my bathroom I laid out some things I needed for the party and was liable to forget if I got too excited: mascara, eyelash comb, earrings, and my mother’s diamond-and-pearl ring, which I’d only been wearing since my birthday. It still felt funny on my finger.

It wasn’t until I stepped into the shower that I thought through what my dad had said, and started to have doubts. My dad thought it was commendable that I’d made out with Sean in order to save Adam from military school? at would only happen if the world were run by reality-show producers. I wanted to have another conversation with my dad about this. However, I wasn’t sure how I could phrase the question. Hey, Dad, what exactly were you commending me for just now when I acted like I knew what the hell you were talking about? And I was afraid whatever I’d done for Adam would be reversed just because I asked.

Oh well. I was sure the mystery would be solved soon enough. Right now I would slip on the miniskirt Adam seemed so fond of and run to his house to celebrate with him.

At school my friends were always telling me how lucky I was to live next door to the Vader boys and go to their famous parties in the summer. I’d told my friends the parties were no big deal to me. I didn’t elaborate on why: I felt awkward going to them. I knew I was wearing the wrong thing but I had no idea how to fix it. I wanted Sean to like me and he was in a dark corner, manhandling some other girl.

Since I’d been with Adam, of course my opinion of the parties had changed. A party had gotten Sean and Rachel together, which had opened the door for Adam and me.

A party had hosted my first make-out session with Adam. e last party had been awful—Adam and I got in a huge fight, he punched Sean, and their dad discovered the tiny beer stash and took away party privileges for two weeks.

is party would be perfect. As I walked through the trees toward Adam’s house, big and rambling in the orange light of sunset, I could feel the electricity in the air, even though no other guests had arrived yet. Except for the Vaders’ cars and trucks, there were no vehicles in the driveway. Even Adam’s pink truck was gone.

Maybe Mrs. Vader had sent Adam to town to get more food for the party. But on the off chance that someone had borrowed his truck, I entered their house without knocking. I was Adam’s Girlfriend and that was my right.

In the kitchen, Mrs. Vader placed appetizers carefully on plates on the bar, and Sean quickly ate them. Without letting Mrs. Vader put down what she had in her hand, and therefore risking a grease spot on my Slinky Cleavage-Revealing Top, I grabbed her and hugged her. “ank you so much! Is Adam upstairs? Can I see him? Is he gone?

Should I wait here for him? Everything is on the up-and-up. I can sit here and wait for him and not even hide it from you! Such luxury!” Mrs. Vader chuckled as she extracted herself from me. “Adam just left.”

“Where’d he go?”

“He didn’t say, but…” She pointed a chicken wing at me. “Adam thinks that you two are in an argument.” My body zinged into alert mode. My mind didn’t know what Mrs. Vader meant, but my body already did. Even Sean glanced over at her with a cautious look.

“He does?” I asked faintly.

“A bad one,” she confirmed.

“How could we be in a bad argument without me even knowing about it?”

Sean laughed nervously.

“All I know is, your dad called me to say I should reconsider sending Adam away to school,” Mrs. Vader said. “en Adam came back from talking to your dad. I told him that we weren’t sending him away, and I thought he should have been happy, but he was very angry with you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t sending him away to school?” Sean asked.

“Well, Sean, I wasn’t sure you’d care.” Mrs. Vader’s gaze switched from Sean to me and back to Sean again. She must have heard what I’d tried to tell her about Adam and Sean over all that tapping on her keyboard.

Sean gaped at her. I didn’t care. ey could work out their important family issues later. I had teen intrigue to manage. What I wanted to know was, “Why did Adam talk to my dad?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly what was said, but they had a man-to-man talk about Adam’s behavior, which is what changed your dad’s mind about him.” Now what my dad had said to me made sense. He hadn’t commended me for making out with Sean in order to get Adam out of trouble. He assumed I’d sent Adam over for this man-to-man talk. He thought I’d dealt with my problems and Adam’s in a responsible, adult manner, when nothing could have been further from the truth.

Something else made sense too. I knew why Adam was mad at me. I put my hand over my mouth. “Sean,” I said through my fingers. “Sean, Adam saw us.” Mrs. Vader threw the chicken wing down on a pan and put her hands on her hips, glaring at me. “He saw you doing what?”

“Does it really matter, as long as it’s before her curfew?” Sean said this in a snide tone, but I could hear the vibration underneath.

Mrs. Vader shook her head as she picked up a sponge and wiped the counter. “Lori, you need to watch out around these boys.” I was still miffed at her for implying I didn’t have a mind of my own. “Maybe they need to watch out around me.” I had thought this for a while, but I never said it out loud.

When I saw the look on Mrs. Vader’s face, I wished I could take it back. “Maybe they do!” Her voice was shrill.

e doorbell rang, saving me from the possibility of the Vader matriarch throwing fried food at me. Sean clapped his hands together and said in the tone of a 1950s housewife, “There are our guests! Am-scray, om-May.” He left to get the door.

With a last withering look at me, Mrs. Vader disappeared up the stairs. She passed Cameron bounding down. “Party time!” he called to no one in particular. en he saw me. “What in the world is up with you now?”

I swallowed. “I do hope you are referring to my glamorous updo and not some bombshell you are about to drop on me about Adam.” Cameron shrugged. “Just that he went to pick up Rachel.”

I nodded manically. “But not for a date, right? Just as friends, right?” I chose a pizza roll from the spread and popped it into my mouth with a shaking hand.

Mmmmmm, cheese.

“I thought it was a date,” Cameron informed me. “He was dressed like Sean. He shaved off his beard.” I put one hand over my heart, which was pounding in protest. “Don’t you think he was just trying to make me jealous?”

“I asked him about that. He said no, he really asked out Rachel. He said you’re obviously done with him.” Cameron angled his head in the direction Sean had gone.

“Now he’s done with you. He said it was a relief because you’re more trouble than you’re worth. Which…”

“Made sense?” I shrieked.

Cameron spread his hands: If you say so. He walked into the living room and high-fived some of his friends.

Sean came back into the kitchen, leading five or six people who snagged hors d’oeuvres, jumped over the couch into the living room, and turned the stereo to full volume. I stepped up to Sean and grabbed him by the neatly ironed front of his shirt. “Adam saw us!” I shouted over the music. “He went to get Rachel! Cameron says he shaved for her and it’s a real date. Please tell me you think Adam’s only trying to make me jealous!” Sean lost his natural smirk and looked concerned for once. “Sounds like they’re really together.”

“I don’t think so.” I couldn’t think so. e possibility was too awful. I released Sean’s shirt and smoothed it. “Adam just saw us kissing and got angry. He was always opposed to the plan. He specifically told me not to go forward with the plan. But he’ll be over it tomorrow.” I thought about how long Adam held grudges against me lately. “Or next week.”

Sean shook his head. “ey’re really together. And I was going to talk to her!” His usual debonair grin was gone. He looked so morose that I lost all confidence I could explain my way out of my predicament with Adam.

I patted Sean on the back and said with more assurance than I felt, “We’ll sit in the front window and watch for them. e instant they arrive at the party, we’ll see them and we’ll talk to them just like you planned. They’ll listen to reason.”

ree hours later, Sean and I still shared the window seat that looked out over the Vaders’ front yard. is gave us a view of anyone coming or going from the driveway and the front door. But we were afraid of giving Adam and Rachel the impression we were together, so we sat side by side on the cushions, awkwardly, and without touching, looking through the glass like eager puppies waiting for their masters to come home.

Surely they were only riding around town before the party because they knew we were waiting for them. I’d tried to call Adam and Sean had tried to call Rachel, but they weren’t answering. Surely they were only punishing us. They would show up here sooner or later and we could fix everything.

“Why were you always so mean to Adam when we were kids?” I demanded. I wanted to comfort Sean in theory, but I was getting frustrated with the wait for Adam. It felt good to take out some aggression. “If you hadn’t been mean to Adam, he wouldn’t be so quick to lose it. For that matter, why were you always so mean to me? You never let us play with you. Or if you did, you made it seem like you were doing us this huge favor.”

“Junior,” he said gently, “you were really little. And really cute.” He tweaked my nose. “And I didn’t want to babysit. I wanted to play with Cameron and McGillicuddy.