“This is a nightmare,” Rob’s father says. He looks angry, which is new for him. He’s got four boys, and he rarely ever even raises his voice.
My mom takes a sip of her drink. “Why come back now?” she says.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Rob’s mom says. They all look at her intently, their backs erect. “They want revenge.”
The floorboards choose that moment to creak under my feet, and all four heads swivel to look at me standing in the doorway.
“Rosie,” my mom says. She turns around and must send my dad some kind of look, because in the next instant he sets his glass down and comes over to me.
“Sorry for all the ruckus,” he says.
“Hi.” I wave to Rob’s folks.
Rob’s mom smiles weakly, and his dad chirps up, “Hey, kiddo. How was dinner?”
My cheeks flush pink. “Good,” I say. “We had Italian.” Everyone nods.
“Sounds delicious,” Rob’s dad says.
“Everything okay?” I ask. Asking your parents if everything is okay is a little like asking your math teacher is she’s really going to give that pop quiz. You already know the answer.
“Oh, yeah,” my mom says. “Just politics.”
My dad smiles to second what she said.
“Well, I’m gonna hit the hay,” I say. “AP Bio in the a.m.” I give them a look like,You know, although no one seems to.
“Good night, cookie,” my dad says. The living room erupts into a chorus of good nights, and I turn from them, perplexed, and climb the stairs. But I don’t want to think about Juliet’s family or guess how Rob’s parents are involved in whatever went wrong. Tonight is about me and Rob. I just want to fall asleep remembering his kisses.
Scene Four
“I’mcoming,” I yell. Charlieis laying on the horn outside, and I’m frantically running around the kitchen, grabbing toast and saying good-bye to my parents. They both look a little worn this morning, and they’re hunched over their mugs, sipping slowly.
“Have a good day.” My mother yawns. I consider asking them about Juliet, but I don’t have time. Later.
I run outside, toast in my teeth.
“Hey, hot stuff,” Charlie says. “Have fun last night?”
I roll my eyes and climb inside. Olivia is in the back, which is different. The three of us haven’t carpooled since Olivia gotOLIVE16.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“I wanted to hear about your date,” Olivia says. “Also, Ben has my car.” Charlie makes a huffing sound, but Olivia doesn’t seem to notice. She hooks her elbows around both of our seats and leans so far forward, I can smell the strawberry on her. Olivia has been wearing the same perfume since I’ve known her. One time we were all shopping and she went to buy more. It turns out, it’s a house spray. Like the kind of stuff you spritz on your couch to cover up the smell of wet dog. We pointed this out to her and found it hilarious, but Olivia refused to change.
“That’s like using Clorox as hand soap,” Charlie said.
“I don’t care,” Olivia said. “I like it, and I’m sticking to it.” That’s one of the things I really love about Olivia. If she’s happy, she doesn’t really care what other people think. She still wears these pajamas she had in the fifth grade. They are way too short and way too big in the waist and have horses on them, but she says they’re soft and help her sleep. I bet if Ben slept over, she’d even wear them around him.
“So what happened?” Olivia says. “Details.”
“We went to dinner.” I glance back at Rob’s house as we screech out of the driveway, but we’re moving too fast for me to catch a good view.
“Bo-ring.” Charlie taps her hand on the steering wheel like she’s counting. “Get to the good stuff.”
“I mean, we kissed.”
Olivia starts wailing, and Charlie starts honking. She makes like she’s just lost control of the car and swerves right. I cover my ears and sink lower in my seat.
