Cautiously hopeful, I edged onto the porch and eyed him. He relaxed in his customary chair with a full view of our dock, beaming. He would not be beaming if he’d noticed Sean and me making out right in front of his nose. Damn it, we must have won the lottery!
“I know what you did,” Dad said.
“You do?” I asked carefully, just in case I had a much poorer understanding of parental psychology than I’d thought.
“Yes. And I think it’s commendable.”
“You do?” Was he talking about Sean and me? I hadn’t volunteered at the Humane Society since the beginning of the summer.
“Yes. I’m not wrong about your curfew, Lori. I’m not wrong about keeping you safe.” He reached forward to pat my arm. “But I may have flown off the handle about restricting your movements. Frances keeps telling me that it only backfires. I think that’s what we’ve seen in the past few weeks. You may date Adam again, and I’ve put in a good word with his parents. I doubt they’ll send him away to school.”
‘ank you!” I screamed, throwing myself on top of my dad. “ank you so much,” I gushed. “I’m so glad. Adam is great. You just have to see past… a lot. ank you, Dad.” I eased off him because he seemed to be having trouble breathing, like I was crushing him or perhaps kneeing him in the ribs. “Thank you.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “Have fun at the party tonight.”
“I will. Thank you so much!”
I banged into the house and ran upstairs to get ready for the party, which would start in less than an hour. In my bathroom I laid out some things I needed for the party and was liable to forget if I got too excited: mascara, eyelash comb, earrings, and my mother’s diamond-and-pearl ring, which I’d only been wearing since my birthday. It still felt funny on my finger.
It wasn’t until I stepped into the shower that I thought through what my dad had said, and started to have doubts. My dad thought it was commendable that I’d made out with Sean in order to save Adam from military school? at would only happen if the world were run by reality-show producers. I wanted to have another conversation with my dad about this. However, I wasn’t sure how I could phrase the question. Hey, Dad, what exactly were you commending me for just now when I acted like I knew what the hell you were talking about? And I was afraid whatever I’d done for Adam would be reversed just because I asked.
Oh well. I was sure the mystery would be solved soon enough. Right now I would slip on the miniskirt Adam seemed so fond of and run to his house to celebrate with him.
At school my friends were always telling me how lucky I was to live next door to the Vader boys and go to their famous parties in the summer. I’d told my friends the parties were no big deal to me. I didn’t elaborate on why: I felt awkward going to them. I knew I was wearing the wrong thing but I had no idea how to fix it. I wanted Sean to like me and he was in a dark corner, manhandling some other girl.
Since I’d been with Adam, of course my opinion of the parties had changed. A party had gotten Sean and Rachel together, which had opened the door for Adam and me.
A party had hosted my first make-out session with Adam. e last party had been awful—Adam and I got in a huge fight, he punched Sean, and their dad discovered the tiny beer stash and took away party privileges for two weeks.
is party would be perfect. As I walked through the trees toward Adam’s house, big and rambling in the orange light of sunset, I could feel the electricity in the air, even though no other guests had arrived yet. Except for the Vaders’ cars and trucks, there were no vehicles in the driveway. Even Adam’s pink truck was gone.
Maybe Mrs. Vader had sent Adam to town to get more food for the party. But on the off chance that someone had borrowed his truck, I entered their house without knocking. I was Adam’s Girlfriend and that was my right.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Vader placed appetizers carefully on plates on the bar, and Sean quickly ate them. Without letting Mrs. Vader put down what she had in her hand, and therefore risking a grease spot on my Slinky Cleavage-Revealing Top, I grabbed her and hugged her. “ank you so much! Is Adam upstairs? Can I see him? Is he gone?
Should I wait here for him? Everything is on the up-and-up. I can sit here and wait for him and not even hide it from you! Such luxury!” Mrs. Vader chuckled as she extracted herself from me. “Adam just left.”
“Where’d he go?”
“He didn’t say, but…” She pointed a chicken wing at me. “Adam thinks that you two are in an argument.” My body zinged into alert mode. My mind didn’t know what Mrs. Vader meant, but my body already did. Even Sean glanced over at her with a cautious look.
“He does?” I asked faintly.
“A bad one,” she confirmed.
“How could we be in a bad argument without me even knowing about it?”
Sean laughed nervously.
“All I know is, your dad called me to say I should reconsider sending Adam away to school,” Mrs. Vader said. “en Adam came back from talking to your dad. I told him that we weren’t sending him away, and I thought he should have been happy, but he was very angry with you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t sending him away to school?” Sean asked.
“Well, Sean, I wasn’t sure you’d care.” Mrs. Vader’s gaze switched from Sean to me and back to Sean again. She must have heard what I’d tried to tell her about Adam and Sean over all that tapping on her keyboard.
Sean gaped at her. I didn’t care. ey could work out their important family issues later. I had teen intrigue to manage. What I wanted to know was, “Why did Adam talk to my dad?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly what was said, but they had a man-to-man talk about Adam’s behavior, which is what changed your dad’s mind about him.” Now what my dad had said to me made sense. He hadn’t commended me for making out with Sean in order to get Adam out of trouble. He assumed I’d sent Adam over for this man-to-man talk. He thought I’d dealt with my problems and Adam’s in a responsible, adult manner, when nothing could have been further from the truth.
Something else made sense too. I knew why Adam was mad at me. I put my hand over my mouth. “Sean,” I said through my fingers. “Sean, Adam saw us.” Mrs. Vader threw the chicken wing down on a pan and put her hands on her hips, glaring at me. “He saw you doing what?”
“Does it really matter, as long as it’s before her curfew?” Sean said this in a snide tone, but I could hear the vibration underneath.
Mrs. Vader shook her head as she picked up a sponge and wiped the counter. “Lori, you need to watch out around these boys.” I was still miffed at her for implying I didn’t have a mind of my own. “Maybe they need to watch out around me.” I had thought this for a while, but I never said it out loud.
When I saw the look on Mrs. Vader’s face, I wished I could take it back. “Maybe they do!” Her voice was shrill.
e doorbell rang, saving me from the possibility of the Vader matriarch throwing fried food at me. Sean clapped his hands together and said in the tone of a 1950s housewife, “There are our guests! Am-scray, om-May.” He left to get the door.