Such a Fun Age(32)

It wasn’t like Alex would have pressed charges; she just wanted them to leave. Her parents would have been furious with her if they found out she’d had a party; they’d probably ground her for the weekend of prom. And the driveway was definitely long enough for the group to see the warning lights and flee. But when the police arrived, not everyone made it out of the backyard in time. After screams of, “Oh shit!” and “Five oh, five oh!” Robbie’s friends hopped a fence and ran across the hills to safety. Robbie, however, had been in the middle of climbing a ladder that leaned against the Murphy house when the police were approaching. His plan had been to jump from the balcony into the pool. The police arrived and pointed their flashlights at him, and Alex heard one of them say, “Come down from there, son.” On top of trespassing, Robbie Cormier was taken in drunk off PBRs and with a tiny bag of cocaine in a zipped cargo pants pocket. The combination of a popular black student athlete arrested on property that had plantation columns standing out front did not pan out well for Alex Murphy.

“It was like, ‘Oh, the Murphy girl has this huge house and she doesn’t even want to share it? What a bitch,’” Alix explained. “And any time my sister and I would dare venture outside, we’d be tormented. ‘There’s Princess Murphy.’ ‘Watch out, rich girl Murphy will have you arrested.’ ‘Robbie got his scholarship taken away ’cause you got him arrested, so good job.’” This wasn’t the worst of it. That summer, Alex and her sister were referred to in public and private as new money trash. When she picked up her sister from an IHOP parking lot, a classmate asked if she was going swimming in the plantation pool. And once, Robbie Cormier bumped into her at a Jamba Juice. He greeted her with, “Good mornin’, Massa Murphy.”

“People would bow down and open doors for me like I was royalty,” Alix said. “Everyone knew. And that is what capped off my senior year.”

Somehow, even worse, that night at the Murphy house accomplished everything Kelley had evidently hoped it would. Alex learned that Kelley had left her house only to run into Robbie’s fleeing friends on the street. He drove them to the precinct, where they waited all night until Robbie was released. Kelley was the one to drive Robbie home.

Kelley broke up with Alex on the following Monday, just after first period and five days before prom. It happened in between his homeroom door and the frequently used water fountain, which was used by three different students during his speech. He began the conversation by saying, “Hey, don’t be mad . . . but I think I’m gonna go to prom with Robbie’s cousin Sasha.” Alex hadn’t been sure how they’d make up—he hadn’t returned her phone calls all weekend—but she hadn’t seen this coming. Yes, things got extremely messed up that night, and maybe she’d made a mistake, but hadn’t they just had sex? It seemed as if Kelley was saying another girl’s name to make it appear as if he were choosing another girl, when he was clearly leaving Alex for Robbie. Alex had no idea what her classmates had in store for her (spitting on her car, calling her a Nazi), but Kelley’s way of ending their relationship, by informing her of his updated prom plans, stung in the way only a first heartbreak can. Alex felt similarly to when she’d learned that her grandfather died, confusing sadness and the instinct to clarify, Wait . . . you mean, we’re not gonna hang out anymore?

“I never meant for Robbie to get in trouble,” she said to Kelley. She tried to say more before her voice began to crack. She managed to get out, “I just . . . wanted them to leave.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Can we talk about this after school?” she asked. She knew she couldn’t erase Robbie’s record, but maybe she could think of something to say by then.

“I just . . .” Kelley sighed. “I think it would be best . . . if we went our separate ways? And that those paths never again . . . connected.”

Tamra leaned into the table. “He said what?”

“That was the line he used, I swear to God,” Alix said.

Jodi was sincere when she asked, “Was he a little bit off?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Sounds like you’re better off.”

Alix took a long pull of her wine and threw another slice of pizza on her plate. Tamra said, “Ooh, Alix, I’d have to kill that boy.”

“I didn’t think you could beat me,” Jodi told her, “but you absolutely did.”

Alix sat in front of Jodi, Rachel, and Tamra, trying not to be at 100 Bordeaux Lane, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 18102. She could still hear Robbie and his friends outside her back window, hooting and running away from police. Alex’s sister had cried on the floor (“At least you get to graduate. I have to stay here and live with everyone knowing!”) while Alex watched Robbie get handcuffed in her backyard. Claudette stared out the window next to her, whispering, “Devils,” to herself and to them.

The last time she’d seen Kelley Copeland was at a Sunoco gas station the day before graduation. When he got out of his car, Alex theatrically removed the nozzle and sealed up the gas door, even though her tank wasn’t even half full. “Alex, come on,” he said. Alex saw that he was wearing Fila flip-flops and white tube socks, exactly like Robbie wore after his games. “I broke up with you,” he said. “But that’s it. And I’m sorry, but . . . you know? That’s all I did.”