“I did it for you.” James’s words sounded harsh.
“You did it for yourself.”
I heard Amelia’s footsteps approach the door, so I scampered down the stairs. But with my usual elephantine grace, I bumped into someone.
“June.”
“Hey, William.”
I was so lost in his eyes that I didn’t realize the mess I’d just made. As soon as I bumped into him, the snack tray that Will was carrying to the pool went flying. Poppy appeared behind him and began shouting. “She’s going through menopause! How many times do I have to tell you? My mom’s going through menopause and has a short fuse! First the Coke. Now ketchup on the carpet. Why are you doing this to me?”
“Chill, Poppy. I’ll help you,” William reassured her. But she was too agitated to listen to him. “Take her for a few minutes to calm her down,” he whispered at me, bending down to pick up the mess on the floor.
Begrudgingly, I walked away, bringing Poppy to the kitchen.
“Poppy, don’t worry. You sure you’re okay?” I asked her. She started rummaging through the glasses, bottles, and dishes.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Really,” she snapped neurotically, rubbing a cloth on the counter.
I scowled when I saw her hand tremble. “Poppy, let’s go outside. Everything’s fine in here.”
She stopped with her head bowed and her fingers gripping the kitchen sink. “Sorry, June, it’s just that my mom . . . you don’t know her. If she finds anything out of place when she gets home, she’ll throw me out.”
“Don’t worry, the house is organized. What do you say we get some air? If we all stay outside nothing bad can happen inside.”
She nodded, fiddling with a hangnail near her thumbnail. I’d never seen her this anxious. I managed to take her out to the yard and got her to put her feet in the water.
Poppy’s pool was a big rectangular mirror surrounded by white tiles and flanked by a line of pool chairs. I looked at the water and wondered what the girls would say if they ever came to my house. I didn’t have a garden. I didn’t have a pool.
“June?”
I turned to her, sitting next to me.
“You and Will, in theater . . .” We both sighed. “You were cute.”
I smiled, unable to hide the embarrassment I felt every time anyone talked about William. “What do you mean?”
“You should talk to him. I almost lost my mind when you kissed.”
“Really?”
We giggled like schoolgirls.
James came over to the pool edge, followed by Sammy. Her cheeks were flushed with alcohol, and I saw him fiddle with the end of her pigtail as she looked at him adoringly. My stomach turned.
She wasn’t the problem, nor were any of the other girls he went out with. In fact, I felt sorry for them. I could see from a mile away that he didn’t care about any of them. But they kept hanging around him. What did that say? How did he deceive them?
Sammy stuck her nose in James’s white T-shirt. What did she want from him besides a physical relationship? Maybe he had a heart? Would anyone ever be able to see it?
I had to stop poking my nose into that piece of work’s business, but I couldn’t help myself. He somehow intrigued me.
“Poppy, can I ask you something? Where’d you disappear to at Will’s party?”
I’d only known her for a few weeks, but I immediately recognized her facial expression. Guilt.
“Um, I was with . . . uh . . .” She looked around and then stared at him. James wasn’t lying.
“You really can’t lie, can you?” I asked her.
