I wished I didn’t. Not that I planned to stay out all night with my sister and him, but it bothered me that Manning might think I was childish. “Ten,” I said.
“Your parents know I’m taking you guys?”
“No.”
With a grunt, he tilted his head toward the sky, but quickly looked back at the house. Sawdust and cigarette smoke lingered in the air, but standing close to him, I mostly smelled men’s deodorant and soap.
“How about the bumper cars?” he asked.
“What?”
“Are you afraid of a little turbulence?”
I smiled. “No.”
Tiffany came outside. In the porch light, her blonde hair yellowed. Her denim shorts were a few inches shorter than mine, her ponytail and hoop earrings swinging. For all the time and effort it took her to get ready, she looked breezy. Confident.
Manning kept his eyes on the pavement as she approached.
“Why’re you guys standing in the dark?” She was chewing gum. “Hi, Manning.”
“Hey.” He pushed off the side of the car, rounding the hood to open the passenger’s side door. “Should we get going?”
Tiffany and I followed. There was no backseat in the truck, just one long bench. I didn’t even have a limb inside when Tiffany cut in to climb between Manning and me. Considering his size, I wasn’t even sure all three of us would fit, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem. Tiffany slid as close to Manning as she could get without sitting in his lap. “Oh, I want to make one stop,” Tiffany said when he started the car.
He sat back and looked over at her. “Where?”
“There’s this party—”
“We’re not going to a party,” he said.
“But Lake’s never been to one.” She looked over her shoulder at me. “It’s huge. I bet even your loser friends will be there.”
Mona and Vicki actually looked up to Tiffany. There was no reason to call them losers except that they were my friends, not hers. “Dad specifically told us not to,” I reminded her.
“Five minutes. I just want you to see what it’s like.”
Manning pulled away from the curb. “She doesn’t want to.”
“But she will. Soon. And it’s better if she goes with me her first time rather than her friends.” She pointed to an upcoming stop sign. “Take a right here. It’s on the way.”
Manning stuck his elbow on the window ledge and steered with one hand. Tiffany’s knee knocked against Manning’s every time the truck bounced. She murmured directions to him. With each turn, envy grew in me, unwelcome and unfamiliar. I couldn’t stop watching their legs. What would it feel like, to have Manning’s jeans scrape against my bare outer thigh? The hair on my legs prickled to life. I should’ve shaved all the way up my leg. I didn’t always, since the hair on my thighs was fine and blonde. But Tiffany’s smooth, tan skin made me realize mine was white and furry. I angled my offensive legs toward the car door, away from the cozy couple.
“I can’t shift,” Manning said.
“Oops.” Tiffany peeled her shoulder from his, but her knee stayed put.
Manning kept a strong grip on the steering wheel. His forearms were all dark, thick hair and corded veins, his skin brown from working in the sun.
“Turn here, on Marigold,” Tiffany said. “See?”
Parked cars lined the curb all the way up and down both sides of the block. People loitered on a lawn in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. Tiffany said my friends might be here, but what if they weren’t? What if Tiffany ditched me as we walked in the door? I’d never been to a party for reasons that had nothing to do with my strict dad—I had no desire to get drunk and stupid. It was dumb how Tiffany and her friends wore hangovers like gold medals. But that didn’t mean I wanted to stand alone in a corner drinking water.
Manning pulled in front of the driveway and put the car in park, looking past both of us into the party. A group of seniors stood by the mailbox with red cups in their hands.
I looked back at my sister. I didn’t want to go in. Even though everyone there would know Tiffany, they wouldn’t know me. They’d try to get me to drink. I’d be embarrassed in front of my classmates, in front of Manning.
A varsity water polo player leaned over and puked in the street, ten feet from the truck. His teammate picked up a cheerleader by her waist. She squealed and squirmed as he threatened to drop her in it.
Manning watched it all and finally said, “We’re not going in there.”
“Why not?” Tiffany asked, sounding genuinely confused.
He shifted out of park.
Tiffany grabbed his arm. “Lake needs this. She can’t study in her bedroom her whole life.”
“Let go of my arm.”
Tiffany pulled back. “But—”
“If you want to go inside so bad, I won’t stop you. Your sister and I will go to the fair. How’s that sound, Lake?”
“I don’t care about some lame high school party,” Tiffany said defensively. “I’m doing this for her.”
He drove away. “You don’t know what your sister wants.”