“Let’s talk some more,” Laurie suggested.
“I’ve talked a lot already, and ask Beth, I can talk all day. I never know when to stop!” I laughed. I felt much calmer when I was back in my house and away from the fancy party at the Kings’. It didn’t surprise me that Meg got caught up in it. I suspected she wouldn’t be home before midnight.
“Beth is the one who never comes outside, right? The one with the rosy cheeks who always carries a laundry basket?” Laurie asked with interest, then he shoveled a spoonful of little sausages into his mouth.
A thin line of dark barbecue sauce dripped down his shirt, and he rubbed it in. If I had done that, Meg would have scolded me and told me to change my clothes. Boys seemed to get away with everything, and it ground on my nerves.
“Yes, that’s her. She’s my girl. She’s the most decent of us all,” I said with loyalty. It was true. Beth was better than all of us, even Meredith.
“I always hear you guys calling for each other when I’m sitting in the main room over there.” His chin motioned to the house next door. “And when I look through the window, I always see you guys crowded around each other at the table or on the couch. It’s nice.”
I didn’t know what to say. We had eavesdropped on him a few times, so it’s not like I could be upset about it, and I wasn’t anyway. I knew so many nosy people.
“How do we seem from the window, Laurie?” I asked out of curiosity.
“You seem like the great American dream I grew up hearing about.”
My head turned a little to the side, and I dipped a cracker into the cheese ball Beth had made for me.
“I can assure you that’s so far from reality. We’re far from the American dream, but I will be close soon. I’m moving the moment I graduate high school and never looking back. I have it all planned.”
“Where do you want to move away to? Won’t you miss your sisters?”
The oven started beeping as he finished asking that, and Beth came shuffling into the room. Her cheeks reddened all the way down to her neck when she saw Laurie.
“Beth, this is Laurie. He’s spending New Year’s with us.”
Beth was dressed in light blue jeans with two big holes in the knees and an oversized T-shirt from our trip to Disney World last year. She was wearing Meredith’s apron with wild-indigo strands printed all over it. Her hair was pulled back and barely held with a tie.
“Hi,” she said, then busied herself with the oven.
She didn’t talk much.
Amy came bouncing into the kitchen, and I noticed her newly shiny lips. She hadn’t been wearing lip gloss or that dress a few minutes ago. I could only assume it was for Laurie’s benefit.
“Hi, Laurie. Thank you for coming to our party,” Amy said in a voice that I had never before heard from her.
He was the height of two of her. Her little cheeks were so red.
Beth laughed from her place by the oven, and I checked my phone again. I wasn’t worried about Meg, but I was annoyed that she would just drop off the earth like that just because she was around a bunch of rich people.
14
I pulled my beanie over my hair.
It was nine in the morning on New Year’s Day, and I couldn’t sit in the house any longer and listen to Amy complain or Meg talk about Shia and Bell for another minute. I grabbed a broom and put on my strongest boots. I could sweep the driveway or something.
“What in the world are you going to do now, Jo?” Meg asked.
“Going to exercise.” I smiled and batted my lashes.
“You already took a walk this morning, and it’s cold outside. You are crazy for wanting to go out when we have a lit fireplace and Netflix.” Meg looked to Beth for support.
Beth didn’t seem interested in taking anyone’s side.
I lifted my broom into the air. “I’m not like you, Meg. I can’t just lay around all the time. I need more adventure than that.”
Meg huffed and pressed buttons on the remote. I left her alone and made my way outside. The driveway was actually pretty clean, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the broom I’d brought outside with me. I looked over to the Laurence house and counted the windows on its front. Six. The house was made from stately stone, and the yard in the front was better maintained than ours. Fort Cyprus would send someone out to cut your grass and maintain your landscaping while your head of household was deployed.
The Laurence house didn’t look like an officer’s house; it looked like a general’s house. It was nice, all matching patio furniture and a black town car parked in the front. It looked lonely, sort of lifeless. No kids were playing outside or teenage girls yelling inside, no shoes on the porch. There were always shoes on the porch at our house.
As I stared at the details of the Laurence house, my imagination started to run wild. I imagined the house as an enchanted palace, full of useless splendid delights that no one actually enjoyed. I wondered about Old Mr. Laurence’s family and why only his grandson was ever at his house. I knew it could be the simple military-family answer, that no one lives in the same state as their family because of PCSing. Laurie had already told me that his dad was in Korea.
I looked up to the second-story window, and by the time I realized Laurie was standing there, staring right at me, it was too late for me to move. I waved my broom in the air, and the window resisted as he yanked it up.
“How are you?” he asked.
I shrugged. His nose was red, and from down on the ground his eyes looked puffy. “How are you?”
“A little sick. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you going to stay locked in there all day?” I didn’t know the level of comfort you’re supposed to be at with a boy before you initiate hanging out, but I wasn’t sure if I cared so much about what I was supposed to do.
“Are you offering your company, Jo?” He grinned at me from the window. When he smiled, he no longer looked sick.
“No.” I grinned back at him.
“You should offer me your company,” he said, sure of himself.
I think I liked how confident he was. I wasn’t sure then if it was genuine, but I wanted him to stay around long enough to find out.
“Come on, Jo Spring!” he called from the window above me.
“I’m not sure I would be much fun if you’re sick!” I yelled up. “I’m not that nice or that quiet!”
I heard Amy talking inside the kitchen, watching my exchange with Laurie.
“I wouldn’t want you to be!”
I shook my head. I did want to get to know him better, and it was my turn to ask all the questions. But I did need to ask Meredith and make sure she was okay with it. I couldn’t imagine that she wouldn’t be, but I had never asked to go inside a boy’s house before.
“I have to ask my mom if I can come in. Now, shut your window before you get even worse!” I turned from him and carried my broom inside. I went through the back door and found Amy, Beth, and Meredith all standing in the kitchen.
After ten seconds of silence I finally asked the three of them, “What?”
“Nothing,” Meredith said, her lips turning up into a smile. She looked like she was up to something. Her heart-shaped face was staring out the window, up at Laurie’s. I walked over to check what she was looking at, and I saw Laurie standing in front of the mirror, taking a hairbrush to his hair.
“It’s not a big deal,” I told them. “You guys shouldn’t be so nosy!”
Amy started making kissing sounds with her little pink lips. Her blond curls bounced around her face. “He’s so hot, though. You’re so lucky,” she whined, kissing the air one more time.
“Amy!” Meredith and I said at the same time.
“What?” Amy’s hip jut out and she looked sixteen for a second. “He is.”
Amy grabbed her phone from the counter and asked Beth to make her breakfast. Beth immediately began to move around the kitchen, opening a cabinet and pulling out a loaf of bread.
“So, Meredith, do you
mind if I go next door to hang out with Laurie?”
She was mid-drink of her coffee, so she swallowed and shook her head. “No, I don’t mind, Jo. Do you feel comfortable going?”
Amy looked up, raising her golden brows.
“Yes, I do.”
“Then I trust you to go there. Text me in an hour to check in.”
Beth shook a jug of orange juice, and if I wasn’t in a hurry to get next door, I would have been useless like Amy and gotten her to pour me a glass.
When I walked down the hallway, I passed a mirror . . .
I looked like hell. I hadn’t even thought about the way I looked when I saw Laurie, or that I was wearing black leggings, a Pac-Man sweatshirt, and dirty Vans. I thought I would be sweeping the driveway, not hanging out with Laurie inside his house.
I didn’t feel like changing, though, and he’d already seen me in this outfit anyway. It felt like a lot of work to consider my clothes and get primped just for a boy. I never understood that concept, because what happens when you move in with someone? Do you have to set your alarm for an hour before they wake up just to get ready? No, thanks.
I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, raked Amy’s hairbrush through my hair, and tucked my hair behind my ears. My hair always got so oily, so fast, and I didn’t feel like breathing in the powdery fumes of Meg’s dry shampoo, so I shoved my beanie back on my head.
Then I leaned into the mirror and studied my face. My lips were their usual puffy selves, and my thick eyebrows were unruly again. Meredith always told me to leave them be until she took me to get them waxed. She even pulled out pictures from ten years ago when the tiny-eyebrow trend was in. I was glad I came after that period in beauty history.
I still had sleep in my eyes, so I wet a warm rag and wiped them, plus my mouth. Before I could find something else to do with my appearance, I shut the light off and walked back to the kitchen.