“Well, my costume had a mask element, but it wasn’t that good—she would have known it was me. But the next day and ever since then, she’s been acting like she had no idea it was me. Just the other night she said she didn’t know who the guy was. It’s a whole long story, but basically, I tried to tell her that guy was me, and she wouldn’t let me say the words. If she does know it’s me, she’s too embarrassed to talk about it.”
“That makes sense. I’d be embarrassed if I’d made out with you,” Noah says.
I flick him off. He throws his head back and laughs, and my mother slaps my hand playfully.
“If she’s acting like she didn’t know it was you, then she probably didn’t know it was you,” Charlotte says.
“That’s kind of what I thought too, because my mask wasn’t that good, and I was wearing a wig, but that doesn’t change my eyes or my voice. Well, I did put on an accent…”
Charlotte just raises her eyebrows as if to say, “My point exactly.”
“But! But…we’ve been competing for years with school stuff, and it’s like our vibe to sort of snub each other and make a game out of everything. I was just talking to Brody about it and he said—”
“Brody doesn’t know shit, Mac,” Noah says.
Since Brody lived down the street from us, Noah knows exactly who he is and what he’s like. Thinking about Brody’s words now from my brother’s perspective makes them a lot less certain in my mind.
“Even so, there’s just this, like, playful dynamic between us, and it feels like maybe she’s just doing that… I don’t know.”
I was pretty convinced by the whole “we’re just doing a bit” thing until I started saying it out loud to levelheaded people. Now I’m feeling a little dumb.
“What do you mean by ‘playful dynamic’?” Amelia asks.
I explain our relationship, the banter, the competition. How things are always kind of spicy between us but good-natured. If anyone can understand that, it has to be my brothers. This is our relationship. Sarcasm, banter, insults—it’s a whole language of love we speak with each other.
Noah nods, understanding, and the knot forming in my chest loosens. “I could see it,” he says. “She’s probably not dumb, your costume was probably not that good, and I think I agree with you. She knew it was you and is just doing a bit like you guys always do, probably because she’s too embarrassed to actually talk about it.”
I feel justified. I’m about to thank him when Lori pipes up.
“Noah, that’s ridiculous,” she says. “Sorry, I was eavesdropping.” She practically leans across my mom to interject. “She’s not playing a game. Even if you guys have a bit going on for school things, when it comes to this kind of stuff, girls are way more serious.”
“Are we?” Amelia says. “Lori, you’re telling me you didn’t play any games in college with boys? With Rob?” Amelia asks like she knows the answer. And she probably does. They were sorority sisters at MPC, so they’ve known each other for a long time.
“Withdrawn,” Lori says. She, like my brother, thinks it’s clever to use lawyer jargon casually. It was funny the first year they did it.
“Girls are stupid when they’re twenty-one. We’re still playing high-school games ’cause we don’t know any other way,” Amelia says.
“Is that what you did with me?” Michael asks.
“No, of course not,” Amelia says with a sly smile.
Michael shifts in his chair, straightening his back, and his mouth falls open a little. “Wait, what did you do?”
Amelia clears her throat. “You know that guy I took to the sorority formal sophomore year? And how you ended up going with my friend Sophie?”
“Ugh, yes. What was his name? Mike? I couldn’t stand seeing you there with him.”
“Mike, yes. Exactly. You asked me out the next day, didn’t you?”
“Yes. I didn’t want Mike to snap you up. I would have asked you at formal, but I didn’t want to be a total dick to Sophie.”
“Yeah, Mike was gay. We had no intention of being together, I just needed you to get your ass in gear.”
Nearly everyone at the table laughs at this. Lori looks especially tickled, and even my dad half-smiles between bites of pasta.
“Oh, damn. I’ve been bamboozled,” Michael says, glancing around with sort of vacant eyes.
Amelia placates him with a kiss, and they stare longingly at each other again.
