“Now, Toby, I was brought up never to kiss and tell,” I said, with a wry smile that I saw lit each of them up with surprise, unleashing their own imaginations and fantasies. Haylee liked to tease our friends this way, too. She enjoyed toying with them, dangling the promise of some juicy sexual adventure.
“So you admit you kissed?” Estelle said.
“No one has gone on a date with him,” Toby said. “He’s good-looking, and he drives a cool car, but we all thought he might be . . .”
“Gay?”
“Whatever,” Jessie said.
“You can put that theory in the garbage,” I said. Then I gave them a Haylee Blossom Fitzgerald licentious smile. Surprise turned to fascination, just the way it would for Haylee.
“Did he take you to his house? I’ve seen the mansion from the road,” Kim Bailey said.
“How come he brought you back so early?” Terri asked suspiciously.
“She was gone long enough to have a good time,” Jessie told her.
“My mother told me the quiet ones are the ones to watch closely,” Kim offered.
“How does he compare?” Toby asked, now growing more excited. “On a scale of one to ten?”
I sat back, thinking. Some of them were actually holding their breath. My instincts told me none of them was as experienced as they made themselves out to be. One thing was for sure, I thought: none of them would have lasted two days in Anthony Cabot’s basement, not that it was an accomplishment I wanted to advertise. I widened my smile. I could see Haylee across from me, her eyes full of impish delight and sisterly pride, too.
“You don’t judge someone on the first date,” I declared, in the tone of someone who had vast romantic experience. “And besides, my mother told me,” I said, leaning toward Kim, “that those who talk about it are usually full of what makes the grass grow greener.”
Their faces collectively looked like a balloon losing air quickly.
Then Terri, who was a little smarter than the others
, brightened with a thought. “Are you going to see him again?” she asked.
“Tonight,” I said casually. “Which reminds me. I should get on that paper for Mr. Edgewater. See you in the library, maybe.” I rose with my tray.
“On Saturday?” Jessie asked.
I shrugged. “As you all surely know, you never know how you’ll be the day after,” I said.
They all looked at a loss for words. I smiled, turned, and walked away. I knew it was crazy, but I imagined Haylee walking beside me and saying, “Very nice, sister dear.”
Yes, she’d be proud of me, but flowing beneath that would be the rich green stream of jealousy. You can learn from me, she’d think, but don’t imagine you can get better at it than I am.
Back at the dorm, Marcy and Claudia were sipping what would be their only breakfast, some coffee they got from the machine in our lounge. They had just risen and were both in bathrobes. Marcy had come into our room and was sitting on my bed, looking pale, her eyes still bloodshot.
“?’Morning,” Claudia said.
“Is it really morning?” Marcy asked.
“I can’t imagine either of you having the energy to go to a fun park or anything,” I said.
“A shower is all we need,” Marcy insisted, and then closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. “So what are you going to do today?”
“Work on the paper for Edgewater, and then Troy is taking me to have pizza and see a movie.” I looked at Claudia. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Oh. Your cell phone went off, but I didn’t answer it.”
“Thanks.”
I looked at it and saw there was a call from my father. I put the phone in my bag.