What She Found in the Woods

‘Yeah,’ I say, and then frown. Because then when would I see Bo? ‘Um, how much more time were you thinking about?’

‘I need someone to help me with stocktaking.’ She’s lowered her voice, and she’s looking around to make sure none of the resident volunteers hear. ‘Someone I can trust with the keys, you know? The girl I used to trust took off.’

I nod, thinking that she definitely did not find out about me, or she wouldn’t be trusting me with anything, really. ‘When would you need me? It’s just I have someplace to be most afternoons.’

‘You could come in the morning. Early is better. We get some shipments as early as 5 a.m.’ She hesitates. ‘Is that a problem?’

‘Not at all,’ I say. ‘Mornings work better for me, actually.’

‘Good,’ Maria says. I feel like that’s the end of the conversation, so I start to move away, but Maria stops me. ‘Maybe don’t mention this to your friends,’ she says, glancing to the front of the house where Mila and Aura-Blue are chatting while they load dispensers with napkins. ‘They might not understand why I asked you and not them.’

I nod, although I don’t really understand why she’s asked me, either. Maria and I take a few more minutes to sort out when the shipments come and which mornings I’ll need to be here to give Maria a break. I finish up with the pots and meet the girls out by Mila’s Mini. That reminds me. I still have to figure out how I’m going to get to the shelter without a ride.

After volunteering, the three of us girls have got into the habit of going out for ice cream together. The best ice cream is on the beach at the Snack Shack Rob took me to that first date.

As we wait in line for a scoop, I have the decency to feel guilty about kissing Bo, but not for very long. I’ll take care of it when Rob gets back. I don’t want to do it over the phone because that’s how all my relationships have ended. Usually by text. Rob has been really good to me. In fact, he’s been one of the best boyfriends I’ve ever had, if you could even classify our time together as a relationship. I want to show him the courtesy of making my break-up with him something special, at least.

‘It’s USC for me,’ Aura-Blue is saying. ‘It’s in a terrible part of the city, but I don’t care. I’ll live in a nice area and drive like everyone else in LA. What about you?’

Aura-Blue turns to me, and I realize I’m supposed to supply m

y chosen college.

‘I’m not going this fall,’ I tell them.

‘Year off?’ Mila guesses. I don’t correct her.

‘My dad was set on me going to his alma mater. Yale. My mom always wanted me to go to Vassar, like she did.’ We reach the counter, and I shrug. ‘I’m thinking neither.’

Mila and Aura-Blue laugh and turn to order.

‘Oh, I forgot to put cash in my wallet,’ Mila says.

‘Don’t,’ Aura-Blue says warningly. From the tense look that passes between them, I can tell Mila forgets to put money in her wallet more often than she should for a rich girl.

Mila glares at Aura-Blue before she faces me. ‘Can you spot me? I’ll pay you back.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ I reply as I hand her some bills. ‘I owe you more than this for gas anyway.’

All talk of my college choice is buried for now. Technically, I haven’t lied to them. Lying is too hard. Lying takes too much energy, and eventually you get caught. It’s so much easier not to lie, but instead to have a different truth. The Five of us realized this.

Jinka threw her school bag down on Scarlet’s shag rug and flopped down on to the beanbag chair beside it.

‘If I have to go to one more stupid decoration committee meeting and listen to PMS-ing prom queens argue about how large fairy lights should be, I am going to lose my mind,’ Jinka said. ‘Can’t we make up something Ali needs us to do every Thursday after school?’

Everyone looked over at me. At that moment, we were ostensibly at Ali’s house because all our parents knew that Scarlet’s parents were in the Seychelles. The lie we told our parents was that we always went to Ali’s after school, rather than her coming to one of our houses, because she had to babysit her younger brothers. Both her parents worked insane hours because they were poor, but we said we didn’t mind babysitting with Ali. We liked her brothers because they were cute and sweet.

Our parents loved the idea of us babysitting these pretend children from India for free, and this fake job opened up our schedules, so we could do what we wanted with that time – all while seeming to be the most generous of young ladies, of course.

The contact number that we gave our parents for Ali’s house was an Indian restaurant that always answered the phone in Hindi. If our parents tried to call ‘Ali’s house’, they wouldn’t understand a word of it. Not that any of our parents ever called that number. While they loved the idea that the Five of us were open-minded, that was as far as their involvement with other cultures went. The truth is, none of us would have gotten away with this if all of our parents didn’t have their heads firmly up their asses.

Parental heads being as deeply implanted as they were, the Ali Bhatti alibi had been working for us for over a month now. We went where there were no parents, and one of us almost always had parents who were taking a week in Paris or going on safari in South Africa, so we would always have a place to ourselves. Sometimes we invited boyfriends and other acquaintances over, and sometimes we didn’t. We partied a lot that month. It was, without a doubt, the best time I’d ever had in high school.

But this was different. Up until now, Ali was just for our parents. Using Ali to get out of stuff in school could be tricky. Everyone looked at me to figure it out.

‘I don’t know how we’re going to pull that off,’ I said. ‘If we want to start using Ali at school, obviously she can’t go to school with us, so what school does she go to? How do we know her? Why do we have an obligation to her that would supersede our obligations at school?’

Jinka stared at me with an eyebrow raised.