“Just that pageants are anything but honest. I mean even the interview portion is contrived. At least it was in my case.” I let out a hollow, brittle laugh. “My mom would coach me on my answers for hours, until I was just parroting what she wanted me to say.”
“But your singing isn’t fake.” Candice smiles at me encouragingly.
“No, it’s not. I love to sing.”
“Sing? Mama, sing?” Lila says and pounds her little fist on the table.
“Maybe, sugar beet. Let’s see what Winnie says.”
“I can’t exactly say no to her, can I?”
“You can try,” Jenny says. “But it doesn’t work very well.”
“Just for you, Lila,” I tell her. And then I start singing “Over the Rainbow,” because it’s been in my head all day. Something about getting my hands on the money that is mine has me feeling like a bluebird myself for once.
Lila joins in and tries to sing some of the parts along with me, and Jenny and Candice do as well, until we’re a motley chorus of my mezzo-soprano, Candice’s tuneless alto, Jenny’s throaty warble, and Lila’s little screeches and laughs. It makes my heart happy, and my whole body feel warm. I can’t remember the last time I felt this good—or this safe.
Maybe I’m already over the rainbow. Maybe Star Mountain is that place.
16
WINNIE
The next night,I’m two cocktails deep and being spun around while blindfolded. In my hand is a sticker of a cartoon penis. Candice stops spinning me and I stumble, blindly reaching for the wall where I know the poster of a naked man is hanging.
My hand makes contact with it and I feel around.
“Ahhh!” Jenny screams. And then Candice starts to giggle.
I slam the sticker down and then rip the blindfold off. “What?” I ask.
They both dissolve into more laughs, and when I see where I’ve pinned the junk on the hunk, I do as well. I stuck a massive, smiling penis right on his forehead.
“Poor guy,” I say.
“He’s basically a unicorn now,” Jenny manages to say between laughs.
This gets Candice laughing so hard she wheezes, and I feel my own cheeks start to hurt.
“Oh my God, it’s too good.”
“Even better than Candice pinning it on her own damn wall,” Jenny snorts.
“I’ll peel it off later!” Candice screams, fist raised.
“Yes, you most definitely will,” a voice says from the other side of the room.
It’s Beau, standing there with a bemused look on his face and his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans.
“Beau,” Jenny calls. “Come here! Join the fun.” She waves the blindfold in front of him, and I see his cheeks turn bright pink.
“Uh, no thanks, Jenny.”
“What? Afraid of a little cock?”
Beau looks like he wants the floor to swallow him where he stands, and he just shakes his head. “No, but I am afraid of the three of you. It’s time for us to get going. I’m driving you all and Nathan over to the Horseshoe.”
“No boys allowed! No boys allowed!” Candice chants, raising her fist once more. For some reason, when my best friend gets drunk she starts fist pumping like she’s on Jersey Shore.
