Little Do We Know(15)

I stood and waved my phone in the air. “I got an audition from UCLA!”

Within seconds, I was surrounded. Ms. Martin even left her seat and climbed the stairs to join the cast in congratulating me. Charlotte tackle-hugged me from behind and screamed, “I told you!” right into my ear. Tyler wrapped his arm around my neck, pulled me in close, and gave me a noogie. “Badass,” he said.

“Not until I get in,” I said, wiggling out of his grasp.

“You’ll get in,” Charlotte said.

After a few minutes, everyone returned to their spots, but Tyler and Charlotte stuck around to read the whole email.

“You have two choices of audition times,” Charlotte said. “This Friday or next Wednesday.”

“This Friday,” Tyler said. “Get it over with.”

“I can’t,” I said. “My mom can’t take me. She has a big catering job in the city.”

“Can Luke go with you?” Charlotte asked.

“No, he has an away game.”

Tyler looked at Charlotte. “We’ll take you.”

“Yes!” she said. “I love a good road trip.”

I laughed. “It’s hardly a road trip. UCLA is forty-five minutes away.”

“Not with traffic,” she said. “It will take over an hour to get there and at least another hour just to get off the freeway in Westwood. Trust me. It’s a road trip. I’ll bring snacks.”

“Go on Friday,” Tyler added. “There’s plenty of time to rehearse on the way.”

“Hey, you three!” Ms. Martin called. We all looked up. Everyone was standing there, staring at us. “Do not get senioritis on me. You all still belong to me until the curtain falls on Our Town. Back to work.”

We scrambled back to our stage marks.

“Okay,” Ms. Martin yelled. “Let’s take it from the top. No scripts this time.”

I was beaming. I couldn’t wait until rehearsal ended so I could tell Luke.

Tyler shook out his hands. I rocked my head from side to side. And then we looked up at each other.

“Hi, Emily.”

“Hi, George.”



Tyler pulled up to the red light and stopped. As we sat there waiting for it to change, he slammed his hand on the steering wheel and yelled, “Question!” Charlotte and I both jumped. “If you could trade places with anyone for one month, who would you choose?”

It was Tyler’s thing: the Question Game. We’d been playing it forever, usually late at the diner over coffee and cheesecake. Tyler asked the questions, and Charlotte and I had to answer as fast as we could. We couldn’t provide any explanation or ask for details, and if we took too long to answer, duplicated each other, or said something Tyler thought was lame, we had to sing a song from a popular musical. Neither of us could even remotely carry a tune, so we tried hard not to blow it. Tyler was the only one who really understood the rules, and they were subject to change without notice.

“You actually abhor silence, don’t you?” I asked.

“I do. Can’t stand it. Trading places. Go.”

“Michelle Obama,” I said.

“Ellen DeGeneres,” Charlotte said.

“Michael Jackson,” Tyler said. “When he was alive.”

Charlotte shot him a questioning look. I knew she was dying to say something, but she didn’t want to sing.

“Next question. Money is no object. You can live anywhere in the world for one month. Where do you go?”

“India,” Charlotte said.

“More specific,” Tyler told her.

“Mumbai.”

“New York City,” I said.

“Durham, Indiana,” he said.

Charlotte looked over her shoulder at me, and I rolled my eyes.

Tyler turned onto the road that led to Charlotte and Luke’s street. Their neighborhood looked nothing like mine. Lots of mature trees and huge houses with long driveways and little lights evenly spaced in the landscaping. Mine was a lot flatter, with less greenery, more sidewalks, and busier intersections.

Two blocks later, he turned right and gunned it up Luke’s steep, narrow driveway. He came to a stop behind Mrs. Calletti’s silver BMW and put the car in park. “Hey, can we come to Calletti Spaghetti tonight?”

On Tuesday nights, I went to Luke’s house for their weekly family dinner. Attendance was never optional for Luke and Addison, so at the beginning of the school year, when his mom asked if I wanted to join them, I made it a priority, too. It made me feel like part of the family.

“No.”

“Why not? I’m a great conversationalist. I’m especially good with parents.”

“Goodnight. Thanks for the ride.” I got out, closed the door behind me, and waved them off.

Luke’s house looked as welcoming on the outside as it did on the inside, with lots of windows and white painted shutters framing each one. I stepped onto the walkway, tiny pebbles crunching under my feet as I followed the path that led to the front door.

“Hello!” I yelled as I stepped inside. I didn’t have to knock anymore. The Callettis’ house was practically my second home. Kind of like Hannah’s house used to be.

I dropped my backpack in the entryway and followed the smell of tomato sauce. I walked through the living room, past the walls lined with Calletti family photos taken over the years. Luke and Addison as babies in matching outfits. Luke and Addison as little kids, standing in front of a waterfall during some family camping trip. Mr. and Mrs. Calletti on their wedding day. The whole family on the beach in jeans, starched white shirts, and bare feet.