Gorgeous. Part 13

"I just have so much going on," I said.

"Oh." She sighed, looking genuinely disappointed. "I know it. Well, good for you-I wish I could quit something!"

"Really?" I looked at her. She practically glowed with health, confidence, and accomplishment. "Maybe you should."

She laughed and squinched her eyes a little at me in a really cute way. "Yeah, maybe. It would be fun to just hang out sometime."

"Everybody needs to hang out sometimes," Roxie said, dumping her bag of c.r.a.p all over the floor in front of her locker, and then squatting down to sort through. "It's a medical fact."

"Maybe I'll have some people over this weekend," I suggested, much to my own surprise.

"Pool party!" Roxie yelled.

Susannah brightened even further. I dropped my new red sungla.s.ses down to shield my eyes even though we were in the dim hallway.

"I'll give you my number," Susannah suggested tentatively. "If...I mean...whatever. We have that tournament in Scarsdale Sat.u.r.day-oh, stress, we're gonna get whooped-but maybe after that? I was thinking of inviting some people over Sat.u.r.day night, unless you-"

"No, yeah," I told her. "That sounds great." I handed my cell phone to the most popular girl in my grade and had her program in her phone number for me. It was surreal.

She left, calling over her shoulder, "See you later, Allison!"

It was the best day of school I'd had since the day in second grade when I lost my tooth and and it was my birthday it was my birthday and and my mom came to school with cupcakes and a book to read to my cla.s.s my mom came to school with cupcakes and a book to read to my cla.s.s and and I got to say the morning announcements over the loudspeaker, all in one day. Back then I was actually friends with everybody, too-even Susannah Millstein. I was more fun in elementary school. I got to say the morning announcements over the loudspeaker, all in one day. Back then I was actually friends with everybody, too-even Susannah Millstein. I was more fun in elementary school.

It hit me then that the girl I was kind of pretending to be all day, as I hid behind my sungla.s.ses, was like an older version of my elementary school self.

Okay, that is kind of a weird thing to be pretending pretending to be, I realized. An older version of my younger self? What did I think I to be, I realized. An older version of my younger self? What did I think I actually actually was, if not that? was, if not that?

That twisty thinking made me feel light-headed. I might even have been almost laughing to myself as I pa.s.sed Jade, leaving school. She gave me one of her most killer looks. So apparently she still wasn't talking to me.

Oh, so what, I decided. Everybody else was, and Tyler Moss definitely kept finding ways to cross paths with me and say hey. I felt pretty confident that now he would call me, that I could have people over, that I was entering a new phase in my life, coming into my own, as my grandmother predicted I eventually would. I walked home swinging my arms, convinced for the first time in forever that it didn't matter one bit if Jade was p.i.s.sed off. I decided. Everybody else was, and Tyler Moss definitely kept finding ways to cross paths with me and say hey. I felt pretty confident that now he would call me, that I could have people over, that I was entering a new phase in my life, coming into my own, as my grandmother predicted I eventually would. I walked home swinging my arms, convinced for the first time in forever that it didn't matter one bit if Jade was p.i.s.sed off.

I didn't find out how wrong I was about everything until I walked into my house.

16.

MOM AND D DAD WERE both sitting in the kitchen waiting when I got there. both sitting in the kitchen waiting when I got there.

"What?" I asked them.

Their arms were crossed over their chests and their faces were serious. I looked back and forth to try to figure out if they were sad or angry-if somebody had died, or if I had done something wrong. It was hard to tell.

"Did I do something?" I asked.

"Sit down," Mom said quietly. Angry. Yup. No question. I was toast.

"What did I do?"

"Sit. Down," Mom repeated.

I sat. The only words in my head were all curses. I waited. Nothing I said was going to hurry them or help me. I picked at my cuticles.

"Where did you go when you cut school Monday?" my father asked.

"Who said I cut school?" I asked, not denying it but still thinking I should know who told on me. That's a const.i.tutional right, I reasoned.

"Did you?" Dad asked. Golly, they were both pale, even their lips.

"Let me a.s.sure you, Allison," Mom growled, "if you lie again now, you will be in even deeper trouble than you already are."

"How deep am I in?" I asked, wondering what she meant by again again.

"Don't you be cute, miss," Mom barked, flattening me against my seat.

"I'm not." She was totally p.i.s.sed. I was used to getting in trouble, but this was beyond. Her ears were pegged back on her head like an angry dog's. I had never seen her this mad, even at me.

"Where did you go?" Dad asked again, as patiently as if he were asking one of his balky kindergartners where she'd hidden the cla.s.s gerbil.

"Into the city," I said, unsure how much to say, wondering how much they knew already. If Quinn had told on me, it would be probably about cutting school, though it could be about getting my picture taken too. But she wouldn't tell, not unless she was really worried. So that left Jade, who tells her mom way too much. If Jade's mom's nosiness won the internal battle with her appropriateness, she'd call my parents. In that case it would be about breaking my grounding over the weekend, and then Mom or Dad would have said, No, Allison wasn't grounded No, Allison wasn't grounded.... That could explain the again again comment about lying, maybe. So Jade was my number one suspect, I decided, possibly altering my career choice to detective, a.s.suming I survived the afternoon. comment about lying, maybe. So Jade was my number one suspect, I decided, possibly altering my career choice to detective, a.s.suming I survived the afternoon.

"Where did you say you went?" Mom asked, meanwhile. She was no longer pale. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

"The city," I whispered again.

"Are you kidding me kidding me?"

Not sure if it was a real question or rhetorical, and not wanting to be cute, of all things, for the first time in my life, I started to shake my head, but then almost nodded, and then settled on a microshrug.

"With whom?" Dad asked.

"Roxie Green."

Mom shook her head. I could see she was making an effort to stay in her chair. I appreciated that. I was starting to get weirdly giddy. It was, horrifyingly, an effort to keep from giggling, which would have been nonsensical as well as suicidal.

"And what did you do there?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, keeping my jaw clenched.

"Nothing?" Mom repeated. "Nothing? Just wandered around the city? Like a couple of socialites with nothing to do?"

"No," I said.

"That's right, you didn't," Mom said. "I want to hear from your own little lipsticked mouth what you did there."

That's when it hit me-somebody must have called from zip zip. Mom and Dad must know I went, and got my picture taken without their permission, maybe even that I forged Dad's signature.

"I-I can explain," I stuttered.

Mom and Dad sat there, their eyes intense and their bodies still. I took a breath, trying to find the beginning of my explanation.

That's when my phone went all-out in its unending attempt to screw up my life.

It buzzed with such intense vibrations I jumped off the chair, and then it was playing what sounded like traffic-horns beeping, tires screeching, metal crashing-all at top volume.

"Allison!" Dad said.

"I didn't..." I flipped open the phone. It was a 212 number, and the caller ID said ZIP. I closed the phone. The traffic noises resumed, so I pressed the Power b.u.t.ton.

"Shut it off," Dad said sternly.

"I'm trying." I held it up to show that I was pressing the Power b.u.t.ton as hard as I could, but the traffic jam in my palm continued.

"Allison, I will throw that phone in the garbage disposal, so help me," Mom yelled.

"I'm trying..." Nothing was working. Finally I opened the phone, said, "h.e.l.lo, I can't speak right now," and then hung up.

Silence. I pressed the Power b.u.t.ton and the phone, like the most obedient of appliances, shut down instantly, and without a peep.

"Give me the phone," Mom demanded.

"I turned it off," I said.

"I don't care." Mom held out her hand, exactly the way the devil had. "Give me that phone."

I held it up to show her it was off and started saying, "It's off. I will tell you exactly what happened and I'm sorry, okay, I know..."

And then my phone started playing birdcalls.

Loudly.

Just as I was turning it to see who was calling me now, Mom grabbed it out of my hand, opened it up, and said, "h.e.l.lo?"

She waited, fuming, then said, "Well, it's not going very well right now, Tyler Moss."

My mouth dropped open.

"No, I'm not Allison. I am her mother."

"Mom!"

"Yes, Tyler Moss, I will tell her that."

She closed my phone and put it down on the counter.

"Tyler Moss will see you in school tomorrow," she told me.

I let my head fall into my hands.

"You were about to tell us where you and your friend went instead of school on Monday, and why," my father prompted.

The buzzing inside my head was louder than anything my phone had yet invented. It was hard even to think.

"Allison," my dad said. "We're waiting."

"I know!" I said. They were both glaring at me. I took a few more breaths and tried to figure out how to explain. "Um, we went...It's just...we, well...See Roxie...Roxie's mom saw this...We just...The reason we went to-"

"Where?" Mom yelled, slamming her hand down on the counter. The slamming and yelling startled me so much I started to cry. The giggles I'd been squelching had flipped somewhere inside my chest and turned wet.

"Claire," Daddy said to Mom. "Let's stay calm...."

"Stay calm? Are you kidding me, Jed? Stay calm? What should we do, just say, 'Oh, okay, Allison. That's fine. Did you have fun? What a great idea-just take the train into the city when we think you are at school and wander around without telling anybody and throw your life in the toilet. Great, honey.' Why? So we don't damage her fragile self-esteem?"

"Claire," Dad tried again.

"I want a detailed accounting," Mom growled at me. "You are already grounded for a month, little miss. And if you think we're letting you go to Tennis Europe, you're sadly-"

"You're not letting me go to Tennis Europe," I yelled back. "And it has nothing to do with whether I cut school or not. I'm not going to Tennis Europe because you screwed up at work and got yourself fired, big miss."

She picked up her hand like she was going to slap me, but I was too fast for her. I grabbed my phone and turned away.

Mom was fast, too. She grabbed my wrist and squeezed, hard.

"Drop that phone," she said, low and slow.

I dropped it.

"Talk," Mom said.

"We went into the city to go to a modeling tryout, for Roxie. I got my picture taken, too, because, well, otherwise I would have had to wait out on the street and I was scared to do that. Then we went to Starbucks, I got a doppio macchiato, she got a fribbiflabbichino something, and then we came home."

"Is that the truth?" Dad asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Go to your room," Mom said. "Daddy and I need to think about how to handle this. Right now we are too angry to discuss it further with you."

I swallowed hard and, relieved to be dismissed even temporarily, reached for my phone to make a quick getaway.

Mom grabbed my wrist again. "Leave the phone, take the cannolis."

I looked up in her face. There was a slight possibility she was smiling, just with her eyes. Why was she paraphrasing The G.o.dfather The G.o.dfather while still maintaining a death grip on my wrist? while still maintaining a death grip on my wrist?

When she let go, I grabbed my backpack and headed for the stairs. On the second step, I turned and asked, "When can I have my phone back?"