Riley began by making me promise that I’d never repeat what she was about to tell me.
“I’m not the one who opens their mouth, am I?” I joked.
“Do you not want me to tell you?” She widened her eyes, palms facing me as she shook her head.
“Sorry.” I crossed my arms. We had offered each other peace, so that comment was unnecessary.
I promised that I wouldn’t repeat. And she commenced. But since she made me promise her not to tell anyone, I don’t think it would be right to share her intimate life with you. All I can say is that I was utterly surprised. My mom caught her in a lie a few months earlier—a lie that I didn’t think she’d be clever enough to construct. I don’t even think I would’ve had the gall to fabricate a lie like that. The lie was so she could get her way with not doing a class project before winter break, not thinking that the teacher would contact my mom considering everything happening with my family at the time.
What confused me, though, was why she got into a fight with my mom. This lie happened a while ago. What could have triggered them to fight months after the dust had settled? Mom caught her in the house alone with Nate on her bed, his hand up her shirt. Which was the last straw for my mom.
“Eww. Riley. You’re only fifteen. And Nate with that dirty hair. Ugh. I haven’t even done anything like that yet.”
“Yeah, well you are a prude, Étienne. You can’t answer the phone without a shirt on and you even close your bedroom door to change your socks,” she said.
I wasn’t that bad. But she had a point.
Before turning off the dryer and returning to my room, I stopped and asked her what Grandma had to do with all of this since she got in a fight with her after spending the night.
“She’s a crazy old lady. She was bothering me.”
Yeah okay, Riley. I’m sure it was all her.
My situation was more hopeful than I had previously thought. Yes, my life was complicated. I was dealing with my own demons. But at least I hadn’t overcomplicated it the way Riley had.
“Where’d Grandma go?” I asked my mom, plunging myself into the sofa across from her loveseat. I went to the rear living room instead of isolating myself in the bedroom.
“You just missed her.” She gestured to the side door.
My mom was watching the movieEver After,the one with Drew Barrymore. My mom and I used to love watching that movie together. We also really loved anything Drew was in. I lay across the sofa deep in thought under an Afghan blanket my grandma made long ago. My mom had fallen asleep.You can never stay awake during a movie, can you?
It was close to midnight when the movie finished so I threw a blanket on my mom and grabbed a glass of water before going to my room. I wasn’t going to wake her. She usually woke herself and went to bed. Trust me, she wasn’t pleasant when not woken of her own accord.
Once in my room, I checked my phone for the time. It was midnight.
Happy birthday, I texted Thad then ran to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
You’re awake?My phone dinged, then immediately started ringing. I had barely gotten the toothpaste lid screwed back on and had to sprint across the hall to my room.
THURSDAY 12 JUNE 2008
14
BIRTHDAY
“Thank you,” he said through the phone as I lifted it to my ear.
Thad and I spoke on the phone for over an hour when he called me after midnight. I didn’t want anyone to hear me, so I sneaked outside and hid in my sister’s hammock. This time I brought Frankie with me so he wouldn’t bark at or scratch the back door. As I lay there on the phone with him staring up at the bright moon, I thought it was strange that I had become a phone call person. Really though, most people my age would rather text than have an actual phone conversation. It’s bizarre how someone can change simply by the influence of a person they like.
“I was thinking. Maybe I could take you somewhere nice to eat,” I said, rubbing Frankie’s belly as he lay on my chest.
“You don’t have to. Where could we even go?”
Where could two seventeen-year-olds go out for a nice dinner? I didn’t know.
“Well, I’m not sure. But I want to. I can look for a place.”Preferably somewhere far from our little lakeside suburb.
He apologized during our phone call for not having invited me to the party. The tone of his voice sounded like he wasn’t looking forward to it anyway. I promised him it was totally fine since we’d recently started hanging out and his parents hadn’t met me yet. They’d probably never heard of me.