Two Truths and a Lie(103)
Maybe now that they were all moving on, she and Destiny and Caitlin didn’t have to be former friends any longer, or frenemies. Maybe they could just be friends.
Then Destiny’s eyes flicked over to Caitlin and she said, “I think we’re gonna bounce now.” Okay, Alexa did roll her eyes at that point, because nobody was saying “bounce” anymore, if anybody ever really was. But the eye roll was brief, and she kept it to herself, and she knew her own soul well enough to know that therein lay some redemption. “But we’ll text you later, okay? We should do something, before we go. Like the old days.”
“I’d like that,” said Alexa. “I’d actually like that a lot.” She didn’t meet her mother’s eyes because she knew they would be full of hope.
“Bye, girls!” said Rebecca, all hopped up on her Summer Sessions iced coffee. She stood up to hug both Destiny and Caitlin and Alexa thought, Okay, let’s not take it too far, Mom.
After Destiny and Caitlin had gone she thought about what Confucius told her, via Cam, Wherever you go, there you are. It wasn’t the worst saying in the world, if you really thought about it.
“It was nice to see those girls again,” said Rebecca, sighing happily. “I’ve really missed them.”
Alexa let out a soft grunt in reply, because she’d missed them too.
The next night Rebecca and Morgan were going out to an early dinner with Mr. Bennett; Rebecca had told Morgan about him, and Morgan was uncertain but definitely curious. They’d go early, because school started the day after that, and Morgan had to do the important packing of the middle school backpack. Alexa was on the schedule at the Cottage, but she might try to meet up with them for dessert. Then again, she might not. She might give Morgan her own chance to get to know Mr. Bennett—Daniel, although thinking of him as Daniel seemed really weird—on her own terms, at her own speed.
Alexa heard her name and looked toward the sound. Morgan had beached her surfboard and was waving at Alexa, motioning her toward the water. Alexa rose from her chair. She knew she looked good in her bikini, and she could feel eyes on her, but that didn’t matter now as much as it had in the beginning of the summer.
Although, please. Of course it still mattered.
88.
Sherri
In the late afternoon the day before the day before the first day of school, Sherri got home from work early and called up the stairs to Katie, “We’re going to dinner!” Katie didn’t come down immediately and of course Sherri’s heart started up the old ticking of alarm, so she called again, trying to keep her voice steady.
And here came Katie, holding a book, her finger tucked between two pages, acting as a bookmark. “Sorry,” she said. “I fell asleep reading.” She held up the cover of the book, which featured a pair of legs in blue jeans and the title The Second Summer of the Sisterhood.
“That looks like a nice book,” said Sherri. “Where’d you get that?”
“Morgan,” said Katie. “It’s a series. This is the second one. But we’re not allowed to read past book three yet because then there starts to be sex and stuff.” She yawned as though the whole idea of that was terrifically boring. “That’s what Morgan’s mom said.”
“Grab your shoes,” said Sherri. “I’m taking you out to dinner to celebrate.”
“To celebrate what?”
Sherri wasn’t exactly sure. To celebrate the fact that they were still alive? That Katie would have someone to eat lunch with? That over the course of the summer Katie’s nightmares had abated, so Miss Josephine stopped complaining about the noise?
“To celebrate the first successful summer of our new lives,” Sherri said finally.
“Okay.” Katie shrugged, maybe unimpressed, and got her flip-flops.
Brown’s Lobster Pound in Seabrook was one of the many places Sherri had driven by this summer and said to herself, We have to try that! That happened to her all the time—the hazard and joy of a coastal town in the summer. Try me! called the taco truck that parked at the Plum Island Airport. And me! pleaded the gelato shop downtown. Don’t forget about me! The food stands at Yankee Homecoming. The oysters at Brine. The sandwiches from Port City Sandwich Company. The whoopie pies at Chococoa Baking Company.
They took Route 1 toward the Salisbury Bridge, stopping at the hideous intersection where Merrimac Street and the bridge traffic came together and invited all the cars into a giant game of chicken.
Rebecca’s Acura had been totaled in the accident, and, obviously, that poor boy’s family had been totaled as well. Sherri hadn’t gone to the funeral because that felt presumptuous—she hadn’t known the boy. But she felt somehow responsible that anybody had died in this beautiful town this summer. Had she unwittingly brought darkness to a place that knew mostly light?
Brown’s was a low tan building, unassuming except for the fact that the building extended into the water, so you sort of felt like you were on a moving boat. You ordered at the counter and brought your food to a table. Sherri stood for some time looking at the menu. Katie took her hand and looked very seriously into her eyes and said, “Mom. It’s time.”
“Time for what?” Sherri felt her heart jump with a familiar ter ror. Katie was going to say something that would shake Sherri to her core—something about Bobby or the other men, something she’d seen or heard that Sherri thought she had kept her safe from. Something unspeakable.