Tonight the Streets Are Ours

“About the stars—” Arden began, but Ellzey had already headed back indoors.

Arden’s heart sank. That wasn’t what she had wanted from an interaction with Ellzey, not at all. That wasn’t what she’d thought he would be like, or what she’d thought she would be like around him. It all seemed wrong.

But then what exactly had she wanted, anyway, from Ellzey?

Arden checked her phone again. One text message had come in from Chris while she had been letting down her end of a drug deal. I’M NOT GONNA MAKE IT THERE TONITE. HAVE FUN! LOVE U.

She shouldn’t have felt so disappointed. She’d known he probably wasn’t going to come anyway. But, there you have it.

Chris had understood, sort of, about Arden keeping pot in her locker because she was “acting out.” He understood, he said, that it was really hard for your mom to leave you, and that this might lead someone to rash decisions. Still, Arden sensed that he was judging her. Maybe just because she knew that Chris Jump would never be so foolish as to disrupt his future plans like this, no matter how many parents or other loved ones left him behind.

Her phone buzzed again, and her heart skipped, thinking maybe Chris had changed his mind, but it was Lindsey. LET’S GET OUT OF HERE. I’M WAITING FOR YOU BY YOUR CAR.

Arden didn’t argue. After that conversation with Ellzey and that text message with Chris, she was through with this night.

She walked back through Matt’s house and smiled at a few people, but didn’t bother to say good-bye to any of them, figuring they were either too drunk to notice her leaving or they hadn’t realized she’d been there in the first place. So, now she knew how the other half of high school lived.

As promised, Lindsey was down the road, a lone figure leaning against Arden’s car, a decrepit old sedan that the girls had dubbed the Heart of Gold. Lindsey didn’t say anything as Arden unlocked the doors, or after they got in and Arden drove away, and that silence was how Arden knew that, despite Lindsey’s earlier reassurances, something had indeed gone wrong.

Once Matt Washington’s house had disappeared in the rearview mirror, Lindsey started talking. “So I asked Denise if she wanted to hang out sometime.”

“Wow.” Arden was impressed. In her life, she’d tried lots of tactics to get people to go out with her. Simply walking up to them and asking them, however, was one she’d never attempted.

“Denise said no. She said thanks, but she doesn’t like me like that.”

“Well.” Arden patted Lindsey’s leg. “That’s disappointing, obviously, but at least you said how you really felt. Good for you.”

“And then Beth and Jennie came up to me and said I should leave the party because I was creeping them out.”

“Excuse me?” Arden stepped on the gas too hard, and both girls jerked back against their seats.

“They said it made them uncomfortable that I was hitting on Denise, because for all they knew, I might turn to either of them next. They said it’s one thing to be gay and hook up with other gay people, but once a lesbian sets her sights on a straight woman, anything is possible.”

“Are you kidding me? I am going to turn right back around and kick their asses.”

“Oh my God, Arden, don’t you dare. I tried to explain to them that I thought Denise was interested in girls, and that’s why I asked her out. And also I told them that I’m not remotely attracted to either one of them, or frankly anyone else at Matt’s house tonight, but I actually think that made it worse? Because Jennie was like, ‘Are you saying I’m not pretty?’ And then Beth was like, ‘You’re not such a prize yourself, Lindsey Flatson.’”

“Is this girl nine years old? Flatson? Where does she get her insults from, Sesame Street?”

“I know I don’t have, like, ginormous bazooms, or whatever the cultural standard for feminine attractiveness is,” Lindsey went on. “But she didn’t have to say it like that, not to my face.”