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An hour later.
Elizabeth: I’m not going to stop. Pick up.
I had five missed calls from her. Not even one from Lucas. I had to say something to her or she could show up at my door anytime.
Clem: Soon. I promise. Just not tonight.
Her text came immediately.
Elizabeth: Soon better be in the next couple of days, Clem, I mean it.
Hannah leaned in to look at our conversation.
“You two really are close. Why don’t you call her now?”
“I can’t. I need some time. And this stupid dinner thing tomorrow? I have a bad feeling about it.”
“You’ll have to tell them about London. Now that everyone in school knows. What if your parents find out the same way Lucas did? It would be insane.”
“Fuck,” I rubbed my temple. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I need more time.”
“You have none.”
???
I had a hard time letting Hannah go the next day. Lucas was right. I was a coward.
My father was the first one to arrive. He was team Sylvia now as far as I could see. He called me to tell me that he was going straight to my mother’s apartment.
Madison came to the house two hours later. She walked around the empty space making small talk about the color of the paint in the kitchen and the nuance of the new beige bathroom tiles.
When Tyler finally arrived, the first thing he announced when he set foot inside the house was the time his plane for Boston was leaving tomorrow morning. Then he hugged us and dragged me upstairs to his completely empty room. Madison stayed behind talking on the phone.
“Love it,” he said looking around. “Suits mom perfectly. It’s so clinically clean and neat. I bet she caused the fire to burn my posters.” I laughed. When he was in high school his walls were covered in posters of naked women. “I thought she would take them off the minute she saw my back after graduation but she didn’t,” he said and looked at me. “Did she tell you why?”
“We weren’t exactly talking. Why did you have them anyway? I always wondered. You had so many girlfriends, and I know you were having sex.”
“It made you, mom, and Madison uncomfortable, and you stayed out of my room.”
I burst out laughing.
“You look tired,” he smiled at me.
“Yeah, Hannah spent the night, and we didn’t sleep that much.”
I watched for his reaction when I mentioned her. I still remembered how he asked me about her on Christmas. Tyler looked at his shoes.
Interesting.
I stayed silent to give him time to continue.
“I got the impression she was mad at me at your birthday. Did I offend her?”
“Um, I think you pretty much offended everyone at the table when you called us kids.”
“Is that it?” Tyler sounded shocked. “I called her a kid and she looked at me as if I had skinned her cat.”
“Hannah’s a dog person.”
