Surfside Sisters(20)



Isabelle and Janine and the other girls hugged each other and with much emotion and crying promised they’d never forget them, as if they wouldn’t see each other tomorrow and every day of their lives that they remained on this fifty-square-mile island.

    Gradually the drama relaxed. Kids left to find their parents. Keely met her mother and father in the school parking lot, where they’d agreed to meet.

“Congratulations,” Keely’s father said.

“We’re so proud of you,” Keely’s mother added, starting to weep again.

“We got a little present for you,” her father said. Stepping to one side, he gestured to a used but very clean Honda Civic.

“Oh, Dad, Mom, thank you!” Keely hugged them both.

“Why don’t you drive it,” her father said, handing her the keys. “Follow us to the Seagrille. We’re taking you out to lunch.”

“Thanks, Dad, I will!”

Keely opened the door and sank into the shining interior of the old car. The engine kicked over at once. Keely put her hands on the wheel. “And this, my friends,” Keely said aloud, “this is the sensation of freedom.”

On the way out of the parking lot, Keely passed the Maxwells and Isabelle. Isabelle waved, then gestured like a game show babe at her new cherry-red convertible Jeep. Behind her, Sebastian stood, very close to a gorgeous blond woman. He waved at Keely. She pretended she didn’t see him.



* * *





The first day of summer vacation, Keely began the schedule she’d made for herself. She rose at six, two hours before she started cleaning houses. She sat at the kitchen table and drank coffee and wrote. Was what she wrote any good? Was she wasting her time? Cleaning houses was hard work, but having no one to share her writing with was harder.

The Maxwells were in Scandinavia. Sometimes Keely hung out with girlfriends, going to the beach on Sunday, a movie on Saturday night. She loved them all, but she couldn’t share her fiction with them. It was intimate, private.

    Occasionally over the summer, Keely saw Tommy in the distance. He worked for his father’s accounting office and went out on the family’s boat when he found time. Keely knew this, as if by osmosis, just as everyone who lived on the island or at least went to school there knew what everyone else was doing.

She never heard from Sebastian. It was as if he’d never sent her that first romantic email. But she couldn’t bring herself to delete it.





Keely sat looking out the café window, tapping her fingers against her coffee cup. She’d taken off work at the UMass shop to meet Isabelle. She wasn’t amused that Isabelle wasn’t here yet. Keely had been afraid of this, that college life would cause a breach between them.

Then Isabelle raced in, out of breath. “Sorry I’m late!”

“It’s fine,” Keely replied. “I got you an iced mocha cappuccino.”

“Great. Thanks.” Isabelle slid onto the bench across from Keely. “So. Tell me. How do you like it so far?”

Keely leaned back in her chair, squinting at Isabelle. “You look much too happy. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute. First, tell me how you like UMass.”

“It’s great. Why are you glowing? You can’t like Smith that much.”

“I love Smith! I adore it here. I love being a college girl, excuse me, woman. I love being away from my parents. I love being off the island, driving anywhere I want whenever I want. I love my teachers, my courses, I even love my homework!”

Keely studied Isabelle. Izzy had chopped off her beautiful blond hair in a kind of ersatz crew cut. It had been only two months since they’d started their college classes, but Isabelle looked so different. She was absolutely radiant.

    Only one thing could make Isabelle look so happy.

“You’re seeing Tommy,” Keely said.

Isabelle flushed scarlet. “How did you know?”

“Oh. My. God. You’re sleeping with Tommy!”

“I wouldn’t say ‘sleeping’ exactly,” Isabelle joked and looked very pleased with herself.

“Tell me everything.”

“Okay. You know he’s at UMass, too.”

“Yeah, but I never see him. There are, what, twenty thousand students.”

“I friended him on Facebook, and he IM’d me, wanting to see me. That was three weeks ago. We’ve been with each other every minute except when we’re in class.”

“At last! I’m so happy for you, Isabelle.”

“Thanks! Keely, he says the sweetest things. And his kisses—”

I’m going to be a spinster, Keely thought as she listened to Isabelle recount every moment of her time with Tommy. I’m going to get a cat and live alone in someone’s attic and spend my life reading and writing novels.

Actually, she thought, that didn’t sound like a bad life at all.

“…he told his parents about us and they’ve invited me and my entire family to Thanksgiving dinner at their house, and Sebastian is invited with his girlfriend, but Sebastian’s going to Sweden for Christmas…”

Great, Keely thought. Sebastian would spend Christmas with his gorgeous artistic Swedish girlfriend, eating lutefisk and drinking aquavit.

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