Grace jogs down the stairs behind Mrs. Scott, and I try not to stare at how shiny and smooth her legs are. Her raven-colored hair bounces around her shoulders, and it feels like that moment when you’re seeing a movie in 3D and you put your glasses on for the first time, and the screen jumps right out at you. That’s what’s happening in this exact moment. Life is jumping right out at me.
She runs past her mom and throws her arms around my neck. “I missed you!”
“Me too,” I say, hugging her back and trying so hard to look normal. Like two girls who are friends and nothing more.
She turns back to her mom and gives her a kiss on the cheek.
“You’ve got that cash I left for you? And all the emergency numbers?”
Grace nods. “Yes, ma’am.”
As I introduce her and Freddie, I can hear words coming out of my mouth, but my whole body feels like it’s lit up in bright neon and buzzing with electricity like one of those beer signs.
We walk down to where the Cadillac is parked on the curb. “Take the front seat,” I tell her.
“No, no. All yours,” she says as she slides into the back.
“Or you guys could both sit in the back,” says Freddie. “I’ll play chauffeur.”
I can’t tell if he’s kidding, but his offer is tempting.
Grace laughs. “No, that’s ridiculous.”
As we drive past theTHANKS FOR VISITINGsign of her perfect little town, she leans forward and begins to braid random pieces of my hair. My eyes catch hers in the rearview mirror, and she kisses my shoulder blade.
This is too good to be true. This is my extraordinary and I can’t ever imagine it being ordinary.
Freddie side-eyes me, but I can’t stop smiling. I can feel the nerves vibrating off him as we drive closer and closer to Viv’s.
We cross the state line into Louisiana, and there’s no real change in scenery. Louisiana’s roads are as shitty as Mississippi’s.
Freddie’s playlist cycles through twice, and I have to turn around every few minutes to smile at Grace, because I can’t believe she’s right here behind me. I reach back in the crevice between my seat and the door and hold my hand out. It takes a minute, but she reaches forward and squeezes my fingers.
As we veer off the highway and into the suburbs, I quickly realize that Vivienne’s house is much more like what I expected Grace’s to be. It’s a two-story house that looks more like a three-story. The tall windows stretch from the ground floor all the way to the ceiling of the second floor, with a huge chandelier sending shards of glittering light out into the street. I swallow back any doubt about my clothes or my shoes or not belonging in aneighborhood this nice.
By the looks of things, Vivienne’s parents are either out of town or in a coma, because the place is dripping with teens under the influence of the substance of their choice. But since her house is tucked far into a cul-de-sac, the noise isn’t nearly as bad as you’d expect. Still, it’s a noise complaint waiting to happen.
Freddie parks the car down at the bottom of the hill and turns to me. “I look okay, right?” He wears tight jeans that are shredded along the knee and rolled at the bottom, with a fitted blue-and-white-striped T-shirt and high-tops. He looks like a boy who can dress himself, which is a lot more than most boys I know can say for themselves.
“You look great,” I say. “You remembered her present, right?”
He nods. Freddie spent what was probably three weeks’ worth of sign spinning on expensive noise-canceling headphones for Viv when she travels on the bus to swim meets.
Grace and I follow two steps behind him. As we enter the house, it’s clear that Viv and Freddie have bonded over music.
Freddie turns to us. “I’m gonna go find her,” he yells over the speakers.
“Well, we should say hi, too,” I say. “At least wish her happy birthday?”
Grace nods. “Yeah, then we’ll let you guys catch up.”
He gives us a sharp nod. A few people stop him, giving him drunken hugs. Standing in the foyer is a light-skinnedbrown girl in a flowing coral-colored maxi dress with a matching hijab loosely wrapped around her hair.
“Hey! Lydia!” Freddie calls to her.
Her face lights up with surprise. “Oh my God! I—”
He interrupts her. “You look great. And I heard about Ohio State! That’s huge. Congrats!”
