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Amanda could be very hard to know. Truth be told, the rest of them were all vying for her attention, whenever they were together. Well, everyone but Delta, who, even before Amanda kissed Tanner, or vice versa, had been on her own path, a little distant from the rest of them. Zora had secretly admired and wondered about Delta, whose family had far less money than all the other Firsts, even Bailey or Carmen, or at least that’s what Amanda had said.
It’s not about money, Zora reminded herself. Sometimes she was a little bit embarrassed by her own thoughts. She looked around quickly, worried someone could see through her, but Bailey and Carmen were animatedly telling Amanda about the arrangements for the Five Firsts’ tents, while Amanda listened as if she were just indulging them, which she probably was.
It was Bailey who finally got around to asking Amanda about kissing Tanner with a kind of bumbling, ass-backward question about whether Delta and Tanner were still a couple.
“Why wouldn’t they be?” Amanda asked provocatively.
“Because you were making out on Zora’s pool table,” Bailey blurted out after a charged moment.
Zora held her breath, and Carmen looked worried. It wasn’t smart to piss Amanda off.
Amanda didn’t immediately meet Bailey’s gaze. She still seemed locked in her own reverie. But then her gaze dropped to the floor for a moment before she looked at the shorter, wiry girl. “Jesus, Bailey, people make such a big deal over things. Tanner is with Delta. We just got caught up, messing around, you know.”
“Yeah.” Carmen looked relieved, clearly wanting the conversation to end.
“Does Delta know that?” asked Zora.
“I haven’t talked to Delta. Obviously.” Amanda sighed with exasperation. “She’s really pissed off. I get it. I would be, too. But it was nothing. Tanner knows it was nothing. And now you all know it was nothing. Right?”
“Right,” the three of them chorused with much relief.
Zora wanted to believe her. Really, really wanted to believe her. Amanda was their leader . . . and Delta too, sort of. And she didn’t want all kinds of confessions and soul-baring to get in the way. She had her own needs for privacy.
“Amanda!”
The call came from outside the bedroom door, and they all turned to heed Amanda’s mother’s call. “What?” Amanda yelled back snappishly.
“We have that appointment. We gotta go before your brother gets home from practice. Chop-chop.”
“Oh, shit,” Amanda muttered. “I forgot. I have an audition for a commercial.”
“On Friday?” Bailey asked.
“I know.” Amanda made a disgruntled sound.
“What’s it for?” Zora asked. She knew Amanda tried out for acting jobs here and there, and she hoped to somehow work her way into it, too.
“I won’t get it. It’s a local commercial for a real estate company, and they always want young kids and parents. I’m sick of doing things that don’t pan out.”
“On Friday?” Bailey repeated.
Amanda didn’t bother to answer as she stomped out of the room. After a moment, Zora, Carmen, and Bailey followed her down the winding staircase. They hovered by the front door a moment, listening to Amanda argue with her mother about the audition, but in the end, Mrs. Forsythe shooed the girls out and took Amanda in her car. Without Amanda, Zora sort of lost interest in hanging out, and since the debacle of her father finding out that their liquor supply had been diminished, he wasn’t keen on having Zora host her friends at their house any longer. It was the boys, of course, who’d really done damage to the fifths of bourbon, rum, and vodka, but since Dad didn’t really know the guys in her class, he took out this displeasure on the Five Firsts.
“I’d better take you guys back,” Zora said to them.
“Take me to Carmen’s,” Bailey said, not bothering to hide her disappointment. “My mom’s probably there.”
Joyce Quintar and Elena Proffitt had met in Lamaze class and become good friends. Their daughters had followed suit, and their friendship had lasted even through Bailey’s parents’ ongoing trials, though the Reverend wasn’t all that keen on his wife hanging out with a divorcée . . . He truly was old school.
After Zora dropped off Carmen and Bailey at Carmen’s house, she returned to her own home, a Tudor with leaded-glass windows and a grand entry hall. She was disappointed, too. It was really Amanda’s fault their Friday night had gotten blown up. If she hadn’t been fooling around with Tanner . . .
Momentarily, Zora allowed herself to think about Tanner Stahd in the way she only did in her most private moments. The guy had a lean, easy, open way of being. Zora had caught his eye lingering on her once or twice, and each time her heart had beaten a little faster. He was a cool guy, and it felt good to be noticed. Though she thought it was pretty rotten the way Amanda had ignored the fact that Tanner was Delta’s boyfriend, and kissed him and climbed up on the pool table, laughing and joking around and generally being more frenemy than friend, there was no denying Tanner was hot. The hottest guy in high school. And really . . . who was to say that Delta had dibs on him? Sure, Delta and Tanner were assumed to be a couple; they’d been one for years. But it wasn’t like they were married or anything. Sure, it wasn’t right to treat your friends like Amanda had treated Delta, but maybe it was time for some kind of shake-up. If Tanner were suddenly free of Delta he’d be . . . well . . . free.
Zora parked her car in the third bay of the garage, then pushed through the back door into the mudroom off the kitchen. Immediately she heard her parents screaming at each other, calling each other names that blistered her ears. Her blood ran cold. This was the new reality. Mom and Dad couldn’t get along. Was divorce the next step?
Zora sneaked up the back stairway to her bedroom over the entryway. She grabbed her iPod and plugged the earbuds into her ears, anything to stop
the noise. But above the music she could still hear her parents going at it . . . and in the back of her mind she heard Bailey’s voice: “My parents yelled and screamed at each other for years before they decided to get a divorce. Broke my dad’s heart, but Mom didn’t want to be a cop’s wife anymore. She’s found someone new, and it’s like Mom’s the one in high school now. My sister’s with her, but I stayed with Dad.”
