“Is that what hobo’s where these days?” Zack asked, in amusement. “Do you want to go back up and change?”
“No,” I said immediately. “Let’s go.”
It took us about half an hour to get to my parents’ neighborhood, and that was only because Zack drove like a maniac. I didn’t bother to tell him to slow down, at least his recklessness was distracting me from the impending visit. It had been a few years since I’d been to the house. As we drove up to the gate, Zack parked and undid his seatbelt, but I stayed where I was looking up the house.
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We had moved to this particular house when I was thirteen years old, but it had never made me feel comfortable. It was too large and austere. And since dad had been the one to handle the interior it had ended up looking dark and austere on the inside too. He had chosen large chunky pieces of mahogany furniture that were old fashioned. Sometimes I felt like I was living in a different era when I walked through that house. From the looks of things, nothing much had changed.
“You ok?”
“Yeah,” I nodded distractedly. “Let’s go.”
As we walked up to the low gate, I had a sudden desire for Zoey to be here instead of Zack. Of course I didn’t want her meeting my parents at all, and that was probably the only reason I had asked Zack to be here instead of Zoey. I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. The maid answered on the intercom, and I had to suffer the indignity of telling her who I was. She didn’t seem to understand at first, so I had to explain it to her. She had a faint accent; my parents liked importing their maids.
“New maid?” Zack asked.
“Apparently.”
The remote-controlled gate finally slid open, and Zack and I walked to the door. Of course the maid opened it for us. Mom and dad liked to make their guests wait awhile before they made their entrance… I wasn’t sure I qualified as a guest though.
“Man, nothing’s changed,” Zack observed, looking around.
“One thing has changed,” I said. “There aren’t any pictures of me anymore.”
I tried not to let that bother me as we sat down together and waited. I knew he was feeling uncomfortable and I couldn’t really blame him. Maybe it had been a bad idea to ask him to come.
“There’s going to be a meteor shower tonight,” he said abruptly.
“What?” I asked.
“I heard on the news this morning,” Zack said. “There’s going to be a meteor shower tonight… you might have a good view from your apartment.”
“Ok,” I said, knowing that Zack was just trying to make up for the nervous energy I had brought into the room with me.
“We can still high tail it out of here,” he said, and I knew he was only semi-joking.
I gave him a nervous laugh, and a moment later my mother walked into the room. She was wearing a white oversized linen shirt and beige pants. She looked like she was going someplace artsy, but I knew that this was what she wore around the house. You knew someone had their life together when they dressed for the house.
“Hi,” I said, standing up instinctively.
“Hello,” she said, giving me a ghost of a smile. Then she caught sight of Zack and her smile became real. “Zack, how are you? I didn’t know you were coming.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I tagged along.”
“Of course not,” she said, very politely. “I’m sure that Devlin dragged you here. Anything to avoid being alone with his father and me.”
I gritted my teeth despite the fact that she was not totally off the mark there. “Where is dad?” I asked. “Hasn’t finished powdering his nose yet?”
Mom turned to me with a snap of her neck. “Don’t be rude, please, Devlin.”
“I… it was a joke.”
“In poor taste.”
“I apologize,” I said quickly, knowing that it was pointless to argue.
“Already apologizing, Devlin,” dad said, walking into the room at that precise moment. “I can’t tell if that’s a good sign or a bad one.”