You'd Be Home Now (65)

Joey and I stand in silence until I nudge him with my elbow. He weaves slightly at my touch and I hold my breath, watching my father’s face.

“Good,” Joey says finally.

“Break some hearts, did you?” My dad grins. He didn’t notice Joey wavering. I wonder if he’s already had his nightcap, or two.

“Not really,” I say, relieved. He doesn’t know about Gage yet, which is good. But I know it’s coming. I just can’t figure out how to tell him first, head it off.

“Mom will be home soon. She went over to Nana’s to get some things for her. Why don’t you go in and say hello?”

Nana is in the downstairs guest room. There’s a walker next to the bed. She looks very tiny, tucked in among all the fluffy pillows.

Her face breaks out into a smile as soon as she sees my brother. “Joseph, my goodness. How handsome.” She’s half propped on pillows, her foot up on a pillow. “You must have been the prince of the dance.”

“Hey, Nana.” Joey bends down, hesitating slightly before giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Are you okay?”

“Oof, your breath.” She waves a hand in front of her face.

She frowns at us. “Your father has been trying for years to get me into this cell and now I guess he’s finally succeeded. At least for a bit. What’s a turned ankle? I raised six children. I’m tough as nails.”

    She looks at me. “Why is your makeup smudged? I suppose it isn’t a dance without a little crying, but you need to fix your face, dear.”

I lean down to hug her. She smells like oatmeal cookies and liniment oil.

She pats the space next to her on the bed. “Sit with me. I’m lonely in here. I miss my house already. Who will get my mail? Feed that strange orange cat who comes around?”

“Mom will have someone do that, Nana,” I say. “She’ll take care of it.”

There’s a buzzing and Nana looks around, finally pulling her cell out of the pocket of her robe. “What is this? What’s happening? What does this mean? I don’t understand these things.” She holds the phone up to us.

Joey takes it from her. “It’s Maddie, Nana. She’s video calling you.”

“What? Where? Like television? This is a phone, dammit.”

“Let me show you,” Joey says.

I go into Nana’s bathroom, close the door. I look at my phone. It was buzzing nonstop in the car. There are tons of texts, all from Liza.


Uhhh

I don’t really know where to start

I started this night thinking you liked Jeremy I like Jeremy

And I was mad

And now all hell has broken loose

What happened???

Gage hurt his arm really bad

I don’t know what the injury is exactly

     But somebody told somebody told somebody else That he was mumbling when the EMTs showed Something about you and the pool house And I gotta know, E, because it’s blowing up Were you hooking up with Gage Galt

Em

Talk to me



Oh, god. Everyone knows. Me and Gage.

All I wanted was to put on a dress and go to a dance and be normal for one night and now the world has gone to hell.

My thumbs hover over my phone.

I could tell her, but what would that help? It would just cause more trouble.

Can’t deal right now, I text.

There’s a sharp knock on the bathroom door. I open it to find my mother standing there, her phone gripped tightly in her hand.

“Why,” she says, “is Beth Galt ranting at me on my voice mail about a fight you and your brother had with Gage Galt at the dance?”

“Um.” That’s the only thing I can muster.

“Emory.” My mother gives me the Look. “You’re going to have to do a lot better than that.”





26


I’M PRESSED AGAINST THE wall in the hallway, outside my parents’ room, Fuzzy at my feet, listening to the sound of my parents’ voices through their door.

After Nana went to sleep, my dad found Joey in the kitchen, guzzling water. My father said, “We need to talk,” and Joey put down his glass and followed him into the den. When he came out he went straight up to Maddie’s room. When I passed by and whispered his name, he didn’t answer. He was buried under Maddie’s quilt. I went in and put my hand on his back, just in case, to make sure he was still breathing.

I always think of my dad living downstairs and my mother living upstairs, and to have them both in their bedroom at once now, on the same floor, after so long, is an eerie sensation.

Poor boy is hurt, I understand, but I don’t know how that’s our fault.

Beth Galt says Gage said something about turning Emory down for a dance and Joe got mad.

It’s hardly Joey’s fault if he defends his sister. The boy slipped and fell, that’s what Joey told me. Isn’t that what the other kids said?

It’s no one’s fault.

That woman is insufferable. My mother’s voice is bitter.

Abigail.

Half drunk all the time.

Abigail.

    What is going on with Emory? I had no idea she liked Gage. She’s such a sweet girl! Why not just dance with her?

You know, it’s high school, unrequited love, hurt feelings everywhere, who knows.