“Just grabbing some stuff. Have you seen it?”
“It might be in my room.” Shannon pocketed her key ring, which had a big pink leather tassel on it. “Let me look.”
She headed up the stairs, where Lana was now gesturing us to come in as well. I waited for Ben to get out of the car first before following.
The house was small. As soon as we walked in, we were in the living room, where a ceiling fan ticked over a leather couch draped with a sari-like fabric, an overstuffed chair, and a table piled with mail and catalogs.
Lana had moved to a nearby bedroom, where she was bent over a bed, packing a small green hard-shell suitcase. “Almost finished,” she called out as Ben and I stood there awkwardly. A large canvas duffel sat at her feet. “Can you grab this other bag?”
This was a one-person job. We both went anyway. Other than the bed, unmade, the room featured a bureau cluttered with cosmetics and hair products. In a frame, leaning against a set of hot rollers, was a diploma:BLY HIGH CLASS OF ’25.Her middle name was Amelia.
“Where you staying?”
I jumped. Her mom was in the doorway, a beer dangling from one hand. Her resting face was not warm, the hard set of her jaw unmistakable. Like something coiled, ready to spring.
“With some friends.” Lana continued to stuff clothes into the suitcase. “But I’m looking for my own place.”
“You don’t have to move out,” her mom told her.
A beat. Then Lana said, “Yeah. I do.”
Shannon sighed, then looked at me and Ben. “You see that? I give her a roof over her head, free food in the fridge. When I was eighteen, nobody was volunteering to supportme. I already had a kid of my own.”
I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to respond to this. Sympathy? Empathy? I had the feeling that whatever I chose, it still wouldn’t be what she wanted to hear. And I’d only been here a few minutes. I couldn’t imagine that dynamic being all you knew.
Lana zipped the suitcase shut, then turned to me. “Can you take this? I just need to grab some stuff from the bathroom and I’ll be ready.”
I nodded, reaching to take the handle. It was heavier than I expected, making me wobble as I turned to the door. Shannon stepped aside, but just barely, to let me pass. I could feel her eyes on me, and not in a nice way. Say what you would about my mom, but she’d never been scary.
Shannon took a sip of her beer, looking at me and Ben. “You guys are cute. How long you been together?”
So much for subterfuge. Adults always made assumptions, though.
“Actually,” I said, my face flaring hot as I glanced at him. “We’re…”
“Friends,” Ben added. “I’ll just…”
“Right,” I jumped in, making my feet move to follow him. “Let’s go.”
At the car, I popped the trunk with the key fob and Ben and I loaded up the bags. A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed Shannon was watching us from the nearby window, her beer to her lips.
“That was tense,” I said quietly.
“So is the relationship.” He shut the trunk, then lowered his own voice. “As interactions go, though, that one wasn’t bad.”
“No?”
He walked over to the back passenger door, pulling it open. I got in as well. Then he said, “She’s come by the Egg before, looking for Lana. Loudly. And not sober.”
“Yikes.”
“Her boyfriends are worse, though. From what I’ve heard anyway.”
It was difficult not noting the plural. I thought of Lana sneaking onto the couch those nights, wondering where else she had gone for refuge. She was working so hard for a place of her own to build around that piano bench. I wanted it even more for her now.
The door banged. Then she was coming down the steps, a large tote over one shoulder. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s hit it.”
I glanced in my side mirror as we pulled away. Shannon was still in the window, although now just a shape, no details.At least for me. I had the feeling Lana knew every inch of what was enclosed there, whether she liked it or not. But she was facing ahead, not looking at her mom at all.
