Lakewood(41)

“Are you high?”

“Lena, stop ruining my birthday.”

A hand touched Charlie’s shoulder and he turned around.

“Don’t look so nervous,” Dr. Lisa said to Lena.

Charlie laughed—he seemed genuinely happy to see the doctor there. Lena looked around the crowd, noticed it wasn’t just Pancake Butt. Einstein Eyebrows was handing Mariah a beer. Haircut was eating cheese and seemed to be flirting with the redheaded woman. Crooked Nose was texting someone. And the man from the woods, the man who had taken Bethany away, was sipping from a party cup and treating the dessert table with the utmost seriousness. Dr. Lisa was complimenting Charlie’s home, asking if these were the original wood floors, liked the wallpaper a lot in this room.

“Finally, someone I know,” Judy said. She talked at Lena about how she should dress her age. “You’re only young once.” Lena didn’t understand how a tank top and jeans weren’t age-appropriate. “Don’t make that face.” Judy pointed at Lena’s chest. “I’m just trying to make you live your life to the fullest. Soon you’ll look in the mirror.” Judy made a face that looked as if she had been electrocuted, put her hands on her throat as if she were being choked. “That’s how you’ll feel every time you see the sags and lines. Embrace your youth!”

Lena walked away and grabbed another beer, then went out to the backyard. The party was so loud she had to go farther down the sidewalk before calling her mom to do their nightly check-in. Deziree was excited because Miss Shaunté was dating a new man. He seemed nice enough, but Miss Shaunté was unsure of him because he did not open doors for her. Lena said the times were changing; some women thought it was creepy and patronizing when men did that. A new song came on in the party and someone yelled, “Oh, hell yeah.”

“People get mad about the dumbest shit now because they’re too lazy to engage with the stuff that matters,” Deziree said.

“I guess,” Lena said in her best I-don’t-feel-like-arguing tone.

“So, I’m going to go on a double date with Miss Shaunté and her new man.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“How do you feel?”

“Do you want me to talk to you like I’m your mom or your friend?”

Lena paused. If Deziree had dated anyone since Lena’s childhood, she hadn’t heard about it. “Whatever you need.”

“I’m scared shitless,” Deziree said. “But I’m also—I don’t know—part of me thought I might never have room for something like this in my life. I guess I’m excited. It’ll probably be awful, but still.”

“I miss you.”

“Is everything okay with you?”

“I wish I lived closer.” Lena tipped her face up to the stars. Although the party was technically in the city, the stars were so clear.

“This morning, I realized I didn’t think about her at all yesterday,” Deziree said.

“Is that good or bad?”

“Both.”

When her mother hung up, Lena sighed. Homesickness encouraged her to get into the car and drive home. She finished her drink. Pulled her phone out and used its camera to attempt to fix her hair and makeup. What if her mother fell in love? What if she got married? Lena wished her grandma was around for this; she was the only person who could be trusted to know whether a man was good in the right way.

Back in the party, Charlie was smoking a cigar.

“Since when do you smoke?”

“It’s a present.”

“Did you open the one from me?” Lena fished her box off the pile. Charlie clenched the cigar between his teeth as he pulled the wrapping paper off, trying to be careful not to rip it. It was a mug that read WORLD’S GREATEST BOSS. “Now will you get me a new headset?”

Charlie laughed and held the mug up in the air. One of his friends grabbed it from him, almost dropped it. He steadied it, then poured cheap tequila in it. “Birthday toast for the birthday boss.”

“I would like to thank you all for being the best employees in the world,” Charlie said. He puffed on the cigar. It smelled like an expensive recliner. Across the party, one of his friends smiled at Lena and mouthed, “Do you want to dance?” Charlie turned and said something to Lena, but she didn’t hear it because she was too busy mouthing “Yes.”

Sweaty and stinking of cheap beer, Lena stumbled out into the backyard. Music and laughter and conversation at just the right distance to make her feel good and not overwhelmed. She liked being able to go back and forth between the loud and the near loud, to watch the sky and touch the cooling-off grass.

“Hey,” a man said.

Lena smiled automatically, then turned and saw who it was, which snapped her into sobriety.

The man from the woods pointed at her wrist. “I just wanted to say I was—I mean I am—sorry. If I said the wrong thing or if I scared you too much.”

Lena dropped her beer, picked it up quickly, but it left a stain at the bottom of her jeans.

“I’m sorry again.”

“It’s okay. This was a buzzed spill, not a scared spill.”

He shuffled his feet, looked back toward the party. Took a long drink.

“What’s your name?”