I shook my head, and he went on.
“Anyway, the whole night was a mess. I didn’t even want to go with her, but neither of us had dates, and some of my friends were going with some of her friends, so it seemed like the right thing to do. A bunch of us went to this nice Italian place for dinner. I spent an entire paycheck on that meal, and she got pissed at me because I ordered pizza. Said you didn’t order pizza at a place like that. It was on the menu though. Why put it on the menu if you aren’t supposed to actually eat it? She spent the entire night bitching. I ended up ditching her at the dance and hanging out with a different group of people. And she bitched about that too. That’s what high school dances were like for me.”
“Not for everyone though,” I protested. “There are people who have normal high school experiences. I bet Rush had a good time at that dance. I’m sure Lizzie did.”
“There’s no such thing as a normal high school experience, Thorny. You assume everyone else is happy all the time and living an ideal life. You don’t get that other people are pretending too.”
I finished my pizza and leaned back on the hood of the car to look at the stars. “Maybe. But it’s still easier for some people than it is for others.”
“Only for a while,” he said. “Look at Lizzie. She might have been a star in high school, but what then? Living in some shitty apartment, working as a waitress, and then one day disappearing. Her life peaked when everyone else’s was just getting started.”
“Unless she meant to disappear,” I said.
“What if she didn’t? What if she was killed? I know you don’t think she was, but she’s been missing for a long time without a trace.” Connor’s tone had turned serious. “You know how these things usually work out, Thorny.”
“I guess so.”
Connor lay down next to me. I thought he would keep trying to lecture me about Lizzie and then we’d argue, and then the night would be an even worse disaster. Instead, he looked up at the sky and said, “Do you know much about astronomy?”
“Not really.”
“Me either.”
“For a minute there, I thought we were going to have some cliché moment where you told me all about the stars,” I said, but I was happy he’d changed the conversation.
Connor laughed. “Not quite.”
“You could make up some stories about constellations, and I’ll pretend to believe them.”
“I’m an engineer, not a novelist.”
“Tell me something as an engineer then.”
He thought for a moment. “Want to hear a joke?”
I nodded.
“A woman asks her husband, an engineer, ‘Could you please go buy me a gallon of milk at the supermarket, and while you’re there, get some eggs?’ He never came home.”
There was a long moment of silence.
“I don’t get it.”
“Ah, well, while you’re there is an infinite loop. There’s no exit statement. So he’s forever at the supermarket getting… You know what? Never mind.”
I looked over at Connor. “You’re kind of a nerd, aren’t you?”
“Me? Look at what you’re wearing.”
I tried to keep a straight face, but that only lasted for about two seconds. I started laughing, and Connor did too.
And for a little while, that was enough to make me forget getting stood up.
? ? ?
It was late when Connor took me home. He insisted on walking me to the door, and I grabbed on to his arm as I stumbled up the driveway, my fancy shoes hurting my feet. I wondered how we would look to someone who didn’t know us. Like a couple coming back from a party, I guess. Like normal people.
We were a few feet from the porch steps when I saw Enzo sitting there in the dark, hunched over in his thrift-store suit.
I stopped abruptly and dropped my hand from Connor’s arm. “Enzo.”
“Hey.” He stood up and looked at Connor, then back to me. “Your brother said he didn’t know how long you’d be gone, but I waited anyway.”
Was I supposed to give him an award or something? Wow, Enzo, so great of you to wait around for a bit after totally ditching me.
“Did he tell you how long I waited?” I asked coolly.
“Yeah. He did.”
There was a long silence, and Connor stared at Enzo, and Enzo looked at me apologetically, and I just wanted to take off my shoes and change into comfortable clothes.
“Are you going to give me some sort of excuse?” I asked.
Enzo glanced at Connor. “You think you can give us a minute alone?”
“Ask Hawthorn, not me,” he said, and I was surprised by how annoyed he sounded.
Two sets of eyes stared at me. I felt like I was onstage, in the spotlight, and they were waiting for me to say my lines, only I couldn’t remember them.
“Uh, yeah, I guess that’s OK,” I finally said to Connor. “You don’t need to stick around.”
Connor hesitated. He looked like he had something to say but then thought better of it. He stuck his hands in his pockets and started to back away.