“Don’t be wack, of course I’m going with you.” She pulled out her phone and sent a message to her mom. “She’ll be here in fifteen. Let’s see who’s upstairs, quick.” She pulled me behind her, with a wave to our friends; I looked back down the stairs, but couldn’t catch Daniel’s eye at the pool table before we were out of sight. See you at school, wasn’t that what he’d said?
I dumped the half-drunk beer bottle in a bin as we circled the upstairs and met Liam’s dad in the kitchen. He seemed crazy tan for this time of year, and too fit to be a dad. Then he introduced his girlfriend, who didn’t look much older than we were. “She’s in law school right now,” he proudly announced, squeezing her waist. Watching them, I could still feel the weight of Daniel’s hand on my back, what that was like, to be claimed by someone. They were both drinking glasses of red wine and seemed not to care too much what any of Liam’s friends were doing. I was happy that he didn’t notice who I was—no recognition of being “that girl’s sister,” no questions.
We finally saw Liam on our way out and he grabbed Tessa in a hug, lifting her off the ground. “Where have you been—did you just get here?”
“We’re leaving!” She giggled as he put her down.
“Hey.” He clapped me on the shoulder, like I was one of his buddies. “How’s it going?”
“Okay,” I started to say, then I realized he didn’t really care, he wasn’t even looking at me. He seemed super drunk already.
“Don’t go!” he said to Tessa, holding her hand as we went to the door.
Tessa’s cheeks burned red but I could tell she loved it. “My mom’s already here,” she said. “Sorry we didn’t get to really hang.”
Liam put on a fake pouty face, long blond bangs flopping over his forehead. He really was kind of adorable, I thought, as he watched us climb into the car from the doorway.
“Who’s that?” Tessa’s mom asked.
“That’s Liam! Oh my God, Mom!” Tessa yelled.
“Oh, so that’s Liam,” she murmured. “Cute.”
The whole ride home, Tessa only wanted to know if she had done it right—hanging out and being cool with the best friend, playing hard to get with Liam when he actually noticed her. “I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think he really wanted you to stay,” I reassured her.
“Right? He seems to be totally over Kelly. But still, have to wait a week at least,” she pointed out. When we pulled up outside my house, it was still before eleven.
“Thanks for getting me to go and everything.” I leaned into Tessa and hugged her.
“I’m just psyched you’re back, I missed you! Call me tomorrow, ’kay?”
“Tessa, leave her alone, would you?” Tessa’s mom joked.
I laughed and thanked her mom for the ride and went into the house. Mom and Dad were in the den. I could hear the TV on.
“Home so soon?” Mom asked. She pushed her reading glasses up on her head and closed her book. Dad was watching some sports coverage.
“Where’s Sarah?” I asked quickly.
“She came down and had a little dinner, then back up to bed. She seems okay though,” Mom said. “Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, it was good.” I leaned in the doorway, not willing to sit down and let them get a good look at me, even though I was feeling pretty normal already—the effects of the beer had almost worn off. “You were right, people were really cool about . . . everything.” I remembered Daniel’s face, so close to mine.
Mom smiled.
“I’m going to bed,” I said as Dad’s eyes went back to the screen. On my way upstairs, I thought about the car ride home. Tessa and her mom never mentioned Sarah again; they had already moved on to other things: Liam, the party. And Mom and Dad, would they have mentioned her if I hadn’t? I stood outside her silent door in the dark hallway, thinking about her inside. The room wasn’t empty. Sarah was in there. My sister.
I had gone out, to a senior party, just like a regular fifteen-year-old. I had been in Liam’s huge house, seen how he lived with his father and that “girlfriend.” That was normal for them. This was normal for us. Maybe we were slipping into being just another family again—maybe a regular life wasn’t that far off for us.
CHAPTER 16
THE NEXT DAY, I sat at the breakfast table and tried to pretend that everything was routine, that we were just like any other family of four, and things were going so well in our house, it was easy to do. Mom was at the stove frying up a second batch of bacon and Dad was leafing through the paper. The new coffee machine that Mom bought, just for Sarah, was bubbling away on the counter. It could have been any Sunday morning in any home. Sarah, in her new pink pajamas, knees pulled up to her chest, barely looked up from the comics section. “Nico, you want to hear your horoscope?” she asked.
“Um, okay.”
She scanned the paper in front of her, then looked up at me, a worried expression on her face. “I can’t remember your birthday, your sign.”
At that moment a memory came to me—Sarah, pushing my tiny clay sculptures off my dressing table onto the floor, breaking the cat—the tiny whiskers, so hard to get right, scattered into the rug, impossible to find. It’s not my fault. Your room is a mess. Aren’t Virgos supposed to be neat freaks? God, Nico. Clean up this crap.