She didn’t let herself consider the lives being ruined by the drugs, the kids who might be taking them, the desperate people who were selling them. She didn’t think about any of that.
And then came Madison Miller, and all she could do was think.
19.
Alexa
Alexa parked on Pleasant Street, in front of an old-fashioned Buick that Peter would have liked. He would have known the make and the model and announced it to them all, and they all would have ignored him because that was just Peter being Peter. And now he was gone, and they would have done anything to be able to indulge his interest in old-fashioned cars.
She made her way to the Coffee Factory, which was attached to the Book Rack. Newburyport had settled into its summer self. Sidewalk tables were out in full force. There were dogs on leashes and people who looked familiar to Alexa and also people she’d never seen before, which meant they were likely day-trippers from Boston on their way up 95, with stops planned in Portsmouth and at the Kittery outlets and for lobster rolls and ice cream cones. She saw her tenth-grade geometry teacher heading out of the bank, and Hunter Hayden, who’d been in her psych class senior year, coming out of Richdale.
At the coffee shop she waited in line to place her order. While she was waiting, she checked her e-mail on her phone. The only thing in her in-box was an e-mail from Amazon, which wanted her to rate her recent experience with the Chantecaille mascara she’d purchased. Alexa’s mother would freak out if she knew Alexa had spent seventy-two dollars on mascara she’d used once before giving it to Morgan, who was not allowed to wear makeup, but Alexa’s mother didn’t know just how much her videos had earned her.
Alexa Thornhill, will you rate the seller? begged the e-mail.
Alexa took her cortado to one of the outside tables and sat, considering her short-term future. The next day Tyler would be leaving with his family to spend three and a half weeks at his grandmother’s house on the shores of Silver Lake in Michigan, as he did every summer. Last summer, when they had just begun dating, Alexa missed Tyler desperately. Now she was sort of looking forward to his absence. Honestly, she would be mostly okay if Tyler met some wonderful Michigan girl this summer and fell in love with her. That would take so much pressure off Alexa. She’d have to pretend to be upset, etc., but she could pull that off.
She was supposed to see him that night. She knew what Tyler was hoping for, as a “good-bye” present, as he had referred to it. She’d been avoiding the topic; she felt like she should be ready to have sex with Tyler, and yet something was stopping her.
Alexa rated the mascara a four. Really it deserved closer to a three from a value to price ratio but she was feeling generous. Maybe Amazon and Chantecaille were onto something. Maybe the world would move along more smoothly if only people asked each other for feedback more often.
Immediately another e-mail came in from Amazon. Alexa Thornhill, how likely would you be to purchase this product again? With one being unlikely and five being extremely likely.
Seriously? She filled in the first star only, to make a point. It was truly desperate to ask for extra praise after you’d already gotten praise. It was something Destiny would do.
Then her phone pinged with a text. It was Caitlin, who wanted to know if Alexa could meet her for lunch in Portsmouth. She was still really pissed at both Caitlin and Destiny for what had happened in March, but it might be fun to take a drive up to Portsmouth, maybe see if there was anything new at Lizology.
March, a biting wind going at the walls of Destiny’s house.
Destiny lived out on Plum Island, far out, close to the lighthouse at the very northern tip. Destiny’s parents had gone to Boston for the night for a cousin’s wedding, so Alexa had driven Caitlin and herself out to Destiny’s in her Jeep. Destiny was supposed to stay home with her thirteen-year-old brother, Ethan. There was talk of a party at Jason Harrington’s house, but that was all the way out by Maudslay, miles and miles and miles away.
“We could go for a while,” suggested Caitlin. “Just to see who’s there.”
“I can’t go to a party,” said Destiny. “I promised I’d stay here with Ethan and his buddy.”
“They won’t even notice if we leave,” said Caitlin. “I just walked by Ethan’s bedroom and they’re absolutely one hundred percent glued to Minecraft.”
“Well, I’m not leaving,” said Destiny. “You guys go if you want.” The wind gave an extra-loud howl, as if it wanted to remind them that winter wasn’t over yet, and that it could send the water crashing over the Plum Island dunes anytime it wanted to.
Alexa glanced at her phone. She had three texts from Tyler practically begging her to go to the party.Can’t, she texted in reply.Hanging with the girls.
Caitlin looked uncertain and then she said, “Never mind. We’ll have our own party here. We can stay over, right? We’re staying over?” She looked to Destiny for confirmation and Destiny nodded. Caitlin opened the liquor cabinet and poked through it.“Jeez, Dest, did your parents start marking the bottles?” She was examining a fifth of Tito’s. “I think they did it wrong though. This line doesn’t even match up.”
Destiny yawned. “Yeah,” she said. “They did. But I heard Savannah’s mom telling my mom the trick about turning them upside down to mark them so we can’t just fill them up with water like we used to.”
Caitlin frowned at the bottle. “It’s kind of a good trick,” she said. “I can’t figure out how we’d fill it to the right place.” She turned the bottle upside down, then righted it, then, shrugging, returned it to the cabinet. “Leave it to Savannah’s mom,” she said.
Alexa knew she should be joining the conversation but she didn’t really feel invested in it, or even interested. She wondered if she should just go home, where her mom and Morgan were finding their way around their reordered family. Her mom and Morgan were probably cuddled up together on the couch, watching one of those interminable Disney Channel shows that Morgan loved, or else a movie featuring strong female central characters:Brave,or maybeThe Hunger Games,although the latter was likely too violent for Morgan, who disliked blood and spears.
Caitlin rummaged in the very back of the cabinet and found a bottle of triple sec that was so old and irrelevant that nobody had bothered to mark it. “Here we go,” she said. “Party time!” She took out three juice glasses and lined them up, sloshing the triple sec more or less equally into them. More than a shot, less than a juice serving. She pushed one toward Alexa and one toward Destiny. Alexa took a sip of hers and coughed a little. It tasted like a clementine and a bottle of cold medicine had decided to have a child together and had put that child into Alexa’s juice glass. “I don’t think I can drink this,” she said.
“Of course you can,” said Caitlin. “Pretend it’s Tito’s.”
“We need a game,” said Destiny. “A drinking game! Quarters?Thumper? Buzz?” Destiny had gone on a college visit to UMass the month before.
“You need more people for all of those,” said Caitlin authoritatively. She sipped pensively at her triple sec. “I’ve got it!” she said suddenly. “How about Two Truths and a Lie?”
“I don’t think that’s a drinking game,” said Alexa.
