The High Season(82)
“Shari, this is Ruth Beamish. My boss. I mean, my ex-boss.”
Ruthie had never seen Doe anything less than perfectly composed. Even around two dozen clamoring, squirming kids, she’d pass out the art materials efficiently and answer questions politely. She rarely smiled, and never looked flustered, and now she was doing both.
“Ooh, the good boss, right? I came up from Florida to live with Dora,” Shari said to Ruthie. “I mean, Doe. I’m trying to get a foothold. A foothold in Southold, ha. Doe loves it here so much, I thought, you know. I’m a masseuse—I mean bodywork, not just massage? I realign your body and your chakras. I have a card, but it has my Florida number on it…”
“Mom, don’t pass out your business card—”
“Anyways, I’m kinda stuck on Doe’s couch.” She nudged Doe, who recoiled.
Ruthie saw Lucas push through the door. He tilted down his sunglasses when he saw them.
“Well, good morning, beauties. Ruthie, I haven’t seen you in weeks.” With one glance he ignored Shari, instantly assessing her as someone he didn’t need to consider. He bent to kiss Doe on the cheek, but she stepped back. Lucas covered by stroking her arm.
“I’m Doe’s mom,” Shari said.
Ruthie watched as Lucas took Shari in, from toenails to breasts to lip gloss. “I should have known. Beautiful girls always come from beautiful mothers.”
“Well, aren’t you adorable and handsome,” Shari said. “Let’s sit together and have coffee! I’m so glad I got to meet Dora’s friends. She hasn’t invited me anywhere. Like she’s hiding me. So this is so fun!”
“Yeah,” Lucas said, with a glance at Doe. “It’s delicious.”
49
JEM’S PHONE
Draft Folder
From: Jemma Dutton
To: Olivia Freeman
Subject: snakebite
If you get a snakebite, keep wound above the heart. Raise arm or leg, etc. Cut into wound with knife and suck out blood and venom. Then spit it out and rinse with Gatorade.
We totally made that one up because we really, really wanted to suck out venom.
Here’s what happened last week:
He asked for a “real date.” He said when he has the house to himself. He kissed me.
Ollie, I know something now. You can actually fall for somebody you’re really not sure you even like. You wait for his lame texts. You wonder if you like his smell. Something about him kind of turns you off, but you still like him touching you. It’s sick.
Meret knows he goes for a coffee at eleven at Aldos, so she waits there or happens to be walking by. Yeah. How do I know this, because I was with him yesterday and that is why. She is flirting w him, she knows about my crush. She’s a witch, she just knows things. Annie tells me that on groupchat she’s calling me a slut and they’re betting on my losing it to him. Yeah. I’m a ho. Ha. Ho Ha. So yesterday Meret says to me, with Lucas right there—*puts on concerned face* “Aren’t you dreading the first day of school, Jem? I mean, especially you.” When I ask her why she just laughs and says Lucas doesn’t want to hear about high school stuff.
Annie fills me in. Meret made up T-shirts with #MAYFLOWER on them and everybody is going to wear them first day of school. Even the stupid boys.
Lucas told me he might be hanging out into September. Hale invited him, he has a house on Shelter Island. Lucas quit his job, so he says he needs “recovery time.” And he said why should he leave, when there’s a girl like me to hang with?
So I have a stupid plan. It only requires losing my virginity, ha ha.
Okay not ha ha, I’m totally serious. Kind of.
The thing is, I have to pull a Crazy Ivan. Remember when Wash does it in Firefly? I’ve got to spin really hard and fast and go straight at it. It’s the only way to beat the bad guys.
If Lucas and I hook up, I could ask him to drive me to school the first day in his white Jeep. Because you can ask something that little and they have to do it, right? I could kiss him with the top down. I could just sit there in the parking lot, kissing Lucas.
Even if they do the mayflower thing, it won’t matter. I’ll just seem all older and above it. Meret will completely cave and find another victim.
Do you think it’s creepy that my dad might marry Lucas’s stepmom? Because it’s not like we grew up together. And it’s not like Adeline is his mother. His mother died when he was I think sixteen? Which explains maybe why deep down he’s sad.
He hates his stepmother, you can tell. I don’t know why. Adeline found a house she wants to buy in Orient and she’s going to renovate it for next summer. There’s a wing for me, she said. A wing.
That just makes me feel all confused, honestly. And I can’t talk about it with Mom because Mom gets crazy eyes when Adeline comes up.
It’s like Mom is mad all the time, or sometimes she’s just sitting there at the kitchen table, staring. This summer we broke this huge rule and I’m allowed to wear earbuds and watch something on my phone while we eat dinner. She started painting again, I guess that’s good even if the paintings aren’t? Dad is super preoccupied with Adeline. I get how Dad is happy, because love, obv, but being with Adeline is like a vacation from real life all the time. Nothing is hard. You just pay for things and get them. You can read the paper about some new play and just go, “We should see this in previews.” We used to go to the theater in New York like maybe once a year, and that was a huge deal.