by J. Minter
“Oh, you must not have been here that day.” She sighed. “But anyway, my point is, if people couldn’t make mistakes and change their minds, we’d be sitting on floor pillows right now, surrounded by bronze elephants, and quite frankly that’s one of the last things I need in my life. Now listen.” She seized my hands in hers. “All I want in the world is for you to relax and enjoy yourself. Please, please, please don’t let this party become the party where my best friend has a nervous breakdown! I’ve had too many parties like that already.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry, Sara-Beth.”
“There’s no reason to apologize to me! I just want to see you smile.”
I smiled weakly, and Sara-Beth clapped her hands. She’s such a funny girl: she’ll fill her house with spiderwebs, taxidermied kittens, and rotting Victorian furniture, but she’s got pretty good sense when it comes to cheering me up.
“Okay,” I told her, drying my eyes. “I’m going to go talk to Meredith and Judith. I think I’ll feel a lot better if they don’t hate me, at least.”
“Hooray! And I know just where they are, too.”
For the party, Sara-Beth’s decorator had hung heavy black curtains over her guest bedroom’s windows; the only light in the room came from pinpricks in the fabric that were patterned to look like spooky constellations—an octopus, a UFO, a skull. A bunch of kids were sitting on the floor by the bed, sticking their hands into bowls filled with food designed to feel disgusting and scary. When Sara-Beth and I went in, everyone groaned and covered their eyes at the light from the hallway.
“Ew! Peeled grapes,” Sara-Beth shrieked, plunging her hand into the nearest container. “They’re so gross and sticky! Don’t they feel like eyeballs or something?”
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I noticed Meredith and Judith, leaning against the taxidermied carcass of a grinning wolf. They were glaring at me. Between them sat the bowl of spaghetti I’d abandoned on the snake cage earlier in the evening.
“Hey,” I said, feeling weird and shy. “Mind if I sit here?”
They kept scowling at me, but they didn’t say no, so I sank down near them on the blue furry-monster carpet.
“I really need to talk to you guys,” I said in an undertone.
“Dried apricots!” Sara-Beth was shrieking. “They’re all shriveled!”
“Somewhere quieter,” I added.
“Who says we want to talk to you?” Judith still sounded snippy, but not nearly as mad as she had earlier. I decided to take this as a good sign.
“I don’t know if you guys want to talk to me or not, but I really want to talk to you. Come on, please?” I gave them my best beseeching look, which wasn’t too hard—I really didn’t know what I’d do if they wouldn’t hear me out. “Please? You can hate me again as soon as I’m finished, I promise.”
Meredith and Judith looked at each other. Meredith shrugged. Judith sighed.
“Okay, okay,” she muttered. The three of us got up and left the room.
Out in the hallway, Judith folded her arms. “So what’s your explanation?”
I bit my lip. It suddenly occurred to me that even though I’d dragged them out here, I still had no idea what to say.
“You totally, totally have the right to be mad at me. Furious even.” I took a deep breath. “I’m furious with myself. But I just can’t stand the thought of losing your friendship over this. You both mean more to me than any guy ever could.” Meredith and Judith glanced at each other doubtfully.
“If that’s true, then why did you kiss him?” Meredith asked accusingly. “Didn’t you make us promise not to go after him just so you could have him for yourself?”
I shook my head. “I know you have no reason to believe me, but I swear I didn’t. I didn’t even think I liked him then. At first he just seemed like this random jock, and I thought you were crazy to let him come between you. Then I got to know him a little better—in bio class and stuff—and I started to see what you both liked about him. I didn’t tell you because I thought I could just keep the feelings stuffed down inside—I honestly never dreamed anything would happen between us.” My voice started to crack. “And I really regret that it did. I’m so stupid sometimes.”
“I just can’t believe you’d act like this, Flan.” Judith was still scowling.
“I seriously screwed up. But you guys mean the world to me. I can’t imagine Stuy without you. And that’s the truth.” I took a deep breath. “I think we all let the Adam situation mess with our judgment.”
Judith puffed herself up. “No, we didn’t! At least not the way you did.”
But Meredith just looked down at her shoes.
“Judith, I have something I have to tell you,” she admitted. “Earlier, when we all split up … well, I wasn’t really exploring the house. I was looking for Adam. And when I got outside, I finally found him.”
“You did?” Judith turned bright red with anger. “You kissed Adam too?”
“Well … not exactly. See, there was this guy in a Kermit suit, and something about him—the way he was standing by himself, all contemplative, you know—I thought it was Adam. So I started flirting with him. I quoted some poetry and stuff, and told him about how I’ve liked him for a long, long time. He seemed really thrilled—almost like no one had ever said that stuff to him before. I kissed him, but when he took off his Kermit head …” She hesitated. “Well, it turns out it was Jules. I was so embarrassed, I didn’t know how to tell him I’d mixed him up with someone else. So …” She smiled timidly. “We’re going to the movies on Friday.”
Judith looked flustered. “I can’t believe you’d do something like that, Meredith.”
Meredith shrugged sheepishly.
At that point, a whole series of weird expressions crossed over Judith’s face. One of them was this sort of nasty, smug expression, like she was about to launch into some long, dramatic thing about how she was oh so morally superior to her backstabbing friends. But the other expression was something I’d never seen on her face before, a kind of terrible, contorted frown. Finally, the second face won.
“Okay, I have to tell you guys something,” she exploded, “but you have to promise not to laugh. Okay?”
Meredith and I nodded.
“When I went off to go to the bathroom, I was looking for Adam too. And I thought I finally found him in the upstairs hallway, because this frog looked kind of tall and football-playerish. So I was being all flirty and touching his arm, and I even made some horrible pun about ‘pirate’s booty’ … I almost couldn’t believe it, but he seemed totally into it and said, ‘I guess you like me,’ and I was like, ‘I can’t know if I like a guy until he kisses me,’ and then I kissed him. But when he took off his Kermit head—” She covered her face with her hands. “Oh, I just can’t tell you, it’s way too embarrassing.”
“Tell us!” Meredith and I both shrieked.
Judith slowly lowered her hands from her face. “It was Kelvin!” she whispered.
Meredith and I immediately broke our promise and started laughing hysterically, and after a long moment, Judith did too.
“But in art class he was building a Jar Jar Binks mask! You know, from Star Wars!” Meredith exclaimed. “What happened?”
Judith threw up her hands. “Yeah, apparently some mariachi band bumped into him when he was getting on the A train and the giant head got crushed in the subway doors.”
Meredith started laughing again, but I just frowned. As funny as it was to picture Kelvin with his alien head stuck in the doors of a subway car, it reminded me a little too much of what Bennett had gone through earlier.
“At least you know you can hit on guys you like now,” said Meredith. “It just sucks that it was Kelvin this time. Of all the guys at the party to randomly flirt with …”
“Tell me about it. It was sooo embarrassing,” Judith said. “I don’t know if I can stand to face him in bio next week.”
“Maybe Mr. Phelps’ll let you switch lab partners,” Meredith sugge
sted. “Or you could tell him you’d rather just work alone.”
I thought of Adam and wondered if I could switch, too. But I knew I wouldn’t even ask. It would hurt Adam’s feelings way too much if I skipped out on him before we finished the amphibian life unit. Of course, now that Bennett and his brother had taken off with all the frogs, maybe the unit would be over. Everything was such a mess. But at least I was here now, hanging out with my friends at an awesome party. I just needed to concentrate on that for a while.
“Listen,” I said, “I’m just glad we’re not all tearing each others’ eyes out. I don’t think I could take it if you both stayed mad at me for much longer. I know I messed up badly, but being friends with you really means a lot to me.”
Meredith and Judith nodded. They looked like they knew what I meant.
“I have an idea,” said Meredith. “How about we make a new pinky promise?”
“Oh no, here we go again,” Judith groaned.
“No, let’s not make any more rules about guys. That obviously doesn’t work. I don’t think you can stop yourself from liking someone anyway.” Meredith stuck her pinky finger out at us—it was painted with black and red ladybug polka dots. “Let’s promise instead we’ll all work on being better friends. Nicer, more honest, the works. And let’s promise to always remember that, even when cute guys are around.”
I nodded. “That sounds good to me.”
“All right,” Judith agreed.
So we linked pinkies and swore on it. And even if it was kind of a silly, little-kid thing to do, I had a feeling we would all keep our promise this time.
CHAPTER 30
TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY
Meredith and Judith were both supposed to be home by midnight, but I was in no big hurry to go back to my house to face Feb, who had probably worked herself into some kind of homicidal rage by this point in the evening. So after they took off, I stuck around at Sara-Beth Benny’s.
The last party guests trailed out around two-thirty in the morning, wigs on backward, masks in hand, and by then I was totally exhausted. Sara-Beth announced that she was calling a cleaner in the morning, but I still felt like I should help her get the place in some kind of order before I just took off. The place was an absolute mess: half-empty cups of punch sat on all the shelves, tables, and faux-coffin lids; and cookie crumbs, spilled spaghetti, and peeled grapes splattered the already-musty carpets. Plus, a lot of people had taken off parts of their costumes, so random accessories were all over the place: a feather boa on the mantelpiece, fake nails by the bathroom sink, stage blood, and a rubber arm stump under the couch.
“I’m sorry everybody trashed your house, Sara-Beth,” I said, dragging a black garbage bag around the living room and dropping cups, apple cores, and crumpled napkins into it. “It was a great party, though.”
“Wasn’t it?” Sara-Beth flung herself into a decaying armchair with carved claw feet. Dust rose up out of the ancient cushions. “The only thing I’m sorry about is that it’s over. The house looked absolutely gorgeous, don’t you think?”
I carefully extracted a paper plate from behind a taxidermied raven. As odd and musty as the haunted décor was, of all the styles she’d tried, it really was the one that most suited the house—and her. “Maybe you should just keep it this way,” I joked.
Sara-Beth’s eyes widened, and she leapt out of her dusty chair. “Flan, that’s an amazing idea,” she gasped. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself! Oh, this is so exciting! I’ll have a haunted house forever. I can just see it now,” she went on excitedly. “I can buy old angels from cemeteries and put them in the backyard. And I’ll put a creaky old iron gate out front, with spikes and gargoyles on it, and hang Day of the Dead marionette skeletons in the upstairs windows. Maybe I can even get some of those paintings where the eyes follow you back and forth! And I’ll need to get a hologram machine, of course. Trick mirrors … Think of all the places I’ll have to hide from the paparazzi! This is so fantastic, Flan! You’re such a good friend. You know me better than I know myself!”
I pulled a maroon wig with bangs out from behind some yellowing lace pillows on the Victorian settee and smiled to myself. Sara-Beth was wrong—even after all the time we’d spent together, she always managed to surprise me. But she was right about the haunted house—it was kooky, cute, and a little bit overwhelming (in a good way), just like she was.
Sara-Beth sank back into the chair with a satisfied sigh, and curled her legs underneath her like she was a very thin, very tall black cat. “So tell me what happened with Meredith and Judith. Did Bennett ever come back and make up for the horrible, horrible way he treated you?”
“I’m the one who needs to apologize, but he won’t even talk to me.” I rubbed my eyes tiredly. Thinking of Bennett turned my insides into one big guilty tangle. “Meredith and Judith don’t hate me anymore, but he totally does. And he probably should, after what I did.”
“Don’t be silly!” Sara-Beth waved her arms, releasing more dust from the chair cushions. “Bennett’s a nice guy, but you deserve so much better. Any boy too lame to wear a costume on Halloween is way too lame for my Flan.”
Thinking of Bennett saving Bogie and then getting trampled in the parade after all the time he’d taken to get his costume ready made me want to cry. I threw the lint-covered paper towel I’d been dusting with into the trash bag and flopped down on top of the cold, hard marble coffin in the center of the room. “I’ve made such a mess of everything, Sara-Beth. What do you think I should do? Call him? Beg for forgiveness? Just give him some space? I just know he’s going to hate me forever.”
Sara-Beth came over and perched next to me on the coffin. “Shh,” she soothed, putting her arm around me. I noticed she was wearing fake black nails that pointed at the tip. “It’s all going to be fine. And if he hates you forever, well, that’s his loss. You’re a wonderful person. So you made one mistake, but you didn’t set out to hurt him.” She looked darkly at the wall. “Unlike certain people I’ve known, who think it’s so much fun to tell Conan O’Brien that we were never going out, when everyone knows we had a deep spiritual connection!” Sara-Beth took a deep breath. “Anyway, my point is, you did the best you could, under the circumstances. It’s not your fault that you like Adam better! That’s why we have dating instead of some crazy system of arranged marriages that’s based on, like, how many goats a guy has. The whole point is to find the person you like the most before you get stuck with some lunatic who tries to control your spending!”
“Yeah, but I’m still not sure.” I dabbed at my eyes with the stained skirt of my princess dress. “I think Adam may just be a crush. He’s more of a guy’s guy, while Bennett’s sweet and smart and understands me. But then again Adam …” I trailed off. “I just wish I knew what would make me happy.”
“Well, there’s no reason to get all worked up about it now,” Sara-Beth pointed out. “Before my mom and I split up, she always used to say this great thing: ‘If it’s meant to be, there’s always tomorrow.’”
“Tomorrow?” I repeated.
“Yes! In the morning, this’ll all seem a lot less complicated, I promise. And there’s nothing so urgent that can’t wait till then.” Sara-Beth yawned. “Everything makes sooo much more sense after a full night of sleep.”
I nodded. “Speaking of which, I’d better be getting home.”
“You’re sure you don’t want to stay over? There’s a bed in the guest room shaped like a Venus flytrap, and it’s super comfy.” Her forehead wrinkled. “Almost too comfy.”
“I think Feb will freak if I don’t come home.” I hopped down off the coffin onto the floor, landing near the bloody chalk outline of the murdered SBB. “But maybe we can get breakfast in the morning or something.”
Then I groaned and smacked my forehead. I’d completely forgotten it was a school night, and the thought of dragging myself out of bed in less than four hours only to face Bennett and Adam seemed even less appealing than spending the night in
a Venus flytrap. “Ugg. School. I think I might have to take a sick day. That is, if Feb’ll let me.”
Sara-Beth walked me to the door and I crept down the sidewalk toward my house. I had a big decision ahead of me, boyfriend-wise, but SBB was right—right now I just needed to get home and make it to bed.
Already I was dreading the prospect of a fight with Feb. I was way too exhausted for any more drama tonight, and the last thing I needed was another person screaming at me for all the stuff I’d done wrong. When I walked up the steps to our door, though, I noticed something weird. Not only were all the lights on—that could’ve just meant that Feb was waiting up for me, wearing an apron and holding a rolling pin like she was planning on hitting me with it—but music was playing loud enough that I could hear the beat through the closed windows. It was blasting, actually. And pieces of smashed pumpkin pulp were splattered all over the sidewalk out front. What was the deal? Nervously, I started to put my key in the lock. Then I realized the door was already open. As it swung inside on its hinges, I was so surprised by what I saw that I almost fell backward down the steps.
CHAPTER 31
I FACE THE MUSIC
My house looked like a bomb had exploded right in the middle of it. A disco ball dangled crookedly from the light fixture in the living room; half-empty boxes of pizza lay on the floor; Pabst Blue Ribbon cans sat on the bookcase, the top of the TV, and the back of the sofa. One crunched under my Lucite-clad foot as I stepped inside.
The noise almost knocked me over—a guy dressed as Marilyn Manson was standing at the top of the stairs accompanying the already deafening music bursting from our stereo speakers on his trombone. I figured Noodles was upstairs somewhere, probably hiding out under my bed in terror, barking frantically like he’d completely lost his mind.
And I couldn’t believe the sheer number of people packed into our downstairs. Philippa was chasing a now-shirtless Mickey around a corner into the hallway; David, one of my brother’s oldest friends, was pouring a pumpkin-colored drink from a cocktail shaker into a juice glass, and Liesel and her ex-boyfriend, Arno, were snuggling together in our brown leather chair like nothing had ever kept them apart. And there was Patch, looking more like himself he had all week, sipping a beer and nodding at a tan surfer-type guy, who was talking emphatically and making wavelike motions with his hands. Plus, there were about a million people all over the place I’d never seen before in my life: a girl with raccoon eyes and a tight Prada dress waving around a Chinatown kite shaped like a fish; a guy with asymmetrical hair and an eyebrow ring doing the funky chicken by himself; a six-foot-tall woman dressed up as a glittery cowgirl in five-inch heels, fake eyelashes, and a cowboy hat made entirely of sequins.
