“Come on!” Constance wheedled. “It’ll be fun! You can be the
deciding vote!”
THE PEARSONS
“I said no,” I snapped.
Instantly, I regretted it. Constance looked at me as if I’d just slapped her across the face. I may as well have. All she had done since we had arrived here was be bubbly and kind and solicitous.
And all I’d done was ignore her.
At seven a.m. on Saturday I arrived at the end of the walk that led to
“Constance—”
Ketlar House, coiffed like I had never been coiffed before. I wasn’t
“No. It’s fine,” she said, grabbing a sweater off her bed. “You sure if Kiran would still be okay with my wearing her clothes, but I call your friends.”
had decided to risk it. In order to get through this day, I needed to She turned around and, for the first time since I’d known her,
be someone other than myself. And in this outfit I felt like a different slammed the door.
person. Of course, my heart was still pounding nervously. I was And there I stood, alone in my room, clinging to my silent
about to meet Thomas’s parents, the infamous Lawrence and Trina.
phone, listening to the laughter and conversation on the other side How could a girl not be afraid?
of the wall.
It was a gorgeous, crisp, clear autumn morning. All around me
guys greeted their parents with handshakes and hugs before leading them off to morning services. I scanned the area for Thomas,
but didn’t see him. I did, however, spot his parents. They couldn’t have been more obvious if their foreheads had been stamped “Pearson.”
His father stood at the far side of the walk, the cuff of his pristine gray suit riding up each time he checked his Movado. He was the spitting image of Thomas with just a bit more weight and height, and a few wrinkles around the eyes. Thomas’s mother sat perched
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on a stone bench behind him, her face pinched and her dyed
“Thomas’s . . . friend,” I said finally. I want out of here. Now. “He red hair pulled back in a chignon. She wore a pinstriped suit and didn’t . . . I thought he told you I would be having brunch with you.”
perfect leather heels that matched her perfect leather bag. She His father sighed. “No, he didn’t. But then, that’s Thomas. I’m looked, in a word, bored.
not at all surprised.”
Thomas was clearly late. I could have killed him for putting me I couldn’t believe this. Thomas had told them all about me. I was in this awkward situation. I had never been good at introducing the first girlfriend he wanted them to meet. They were excited to myself to people, especially adults. For a few moments, I waited for meet me. More lies. I stared at the door of Ketlar, willing Thomas to them to spot me. After all, they knew that I was coming. Thomas emerge. If he was in there, playing sick, leaving me alone to deal must have described me to them. Wasn’t it the adult’s responsibility with these people who didn’t even know I existed, then he was the to approach the kid?
biggest coward ever to roam the earth.