Felix, ever mature, stuck his tongue out at her before saying, “Hi!” and jumping into her arms and squeezing her tight.
“Omigod, dying,” Sofia groaned, and Felix let her go.
“You didn’t tell me you were coming,” he accused. “And where’s Coco?”
“I left you a voicemail, and she’s saying hi to mom.”
“You just left your girlfriend with our mother, brother, and a pot of spaghetti sauce?” Felix asked, eyebrows raised. “Gutsy.”
“She can handle herself,” Sofia said, and winked. “Shall we?” She gallantly gestured us ahead of her down the stairs.
Lucas was already shoveling spaghetti and meatballs into his mouth at an alarming pace when we got downstairs, and he stood with his mouth still full and put his bowl in the sink.
Coco was standing next to the oven, taking in the scene.
“Okay, gotta get to the theater. Do not embarrass me.” He pointed accusingly at us all. Felix snorted and Sofia laughed maniacally.
“I mean, not you of course, Coco. You could never embarrass anyone.”
He gave her an awkward smile and she gave him a polite one back.
Maya stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek, saying, “If you want to avoid embarrassing yourself, you might want to wipe the sauce off your face, my darling.”
Lucas turned as red as the smear of sauce on his chin and wiped frantically at his face on his way out of the kitchen.
Felix and Sofia’s laughter followed him out the door just as someone else entered.
Ramona was nineteen and shy. She hugged Felix and Sofia, but just stood staring wide-eyed at Coco until Coco stepped forward and gave her a quick hug. Felix introduced me and she hardly even made eye contact. She shook my hand for a microsecond and then pulled away.
“Hey,” Felix said, when she went to change her shirt. “She’s like that with new people. It’s not you.”
I shrugged. I was used to it. But Felix’s warm hand on my thigh as we sat down to eat was welcome. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been to a family dinner. After my mom died, when I’d still lived at home, my dad and I never ate together. I made sandwiches to take to my room or went out with the guys after practice. He ate microwavable meals in his recliner in front of the TV.
“I really think it’d be best if we just hang out here during the play,” Coco said to Sofia.
“No way! It’ll be fine. This is New Brunswick, not Manhattan.”
“Sof, I promise you. This is a bad idea.”
This was clearly the last gasp of a disagreement they’d already had. Sofia grabbed Coco’s hand and pouted at her.
“Please? I want to show you my high school, and I’m sure Lucas will be hilariously bad in—what’s this play called again? Please?”
Coco sighed and her eyes flickered to mine, probably because I was the only other non-Rainey, and therefore she thought maybe I didn’t have the ability to look so adorable that the world would give in to anything I asked. I raised an eyebrow to tell her I felt her pain.
With another sigh, she relented.
“Okay. Your family, your call. But I reserve the rights to the biggest ‘I told you so.’?”
Sofia grinned and kissed her.
“Oh, you industry types and your obsession with contracts,” she teased.
Just as we were finishing dinner, Adrian came home, shouting hello and leaving a trail of chaos in his wake.
“You have five minutes if you wanna eat!” Maya yelled up the stairs.
“I can eat in the car!” he yelled back.
“If you promise not to choke!” she called.
“He should have to promise not to puke,” Sofia said. “Remember the roast beef sandwich?”
There was laughter and the shuffling of plates, and before anyone could tell the story of the roast beef sandwich, I found myself in Ramona’s car with her, Felix, Adrian, and Adrian’s bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Maya took Sofia and Coco in her car.
“Wow,” Felix said from behind me. “I’ve never seen anyone put such big balls in their mouth, bro.”
“Not my fault your boyfriend’s balls aren’t this big,” Adrian said through a mouthful of meatball. The conversation continued in this vein with Ramona and me silent in the front until we got to the high school, a blocky brick building with a windowed entrance.
“This was your school too?” I asked Felix.
“Yeah. I’ve only been back for Lucas’s plays. It’s weird. This place seemed so damn big once upon a time. Now it’s just…nothing.”
“I haven’t been back to my high school.”
“Never?”
I shook my head. I hadn’t set foot anywhere in Virginia since I left at eighteen except the one time I’d foolishly returned to visit my father the summer after freshman year, thinking perhaps he’d want to see me. I had no ties there anymore.
Maya, Sofia, and Coco parked a few cars down and we all followed a stream of people inside to the theater.