“What on eaaaaarth is Teddy doing?” Delilah asked from the bed, her stoned voice back in full effect.
Jacinta looked over in the direction of the food tent. Teddy was talking to Misti, who was leaning toward him over the warming dishes as if she wanted to dive down his throat and build a home there.
“You won’t like it,” Jacinta said.
Delilah got up, tripping and giggling a little as she did, and sauntered over to the window. She put her arm around Jacinta and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. Then she looked outside.
“Maybe if he likes her so much, he should buy her a new nose,” Delilah said, and this time her giggle had a nasty hard edge to it. Jacinta joined in the laughter, something that surprised me. Jacinta was quirky but never mean. I guess love, or whatever they were in, changes a person. Or maybe it just brings out their true nature.
I looked down and suddenly they were holding hands again, but definitely not like friends do. Delilah was smoothing her thumb back and forth across Jacinta’s wrist. Jacinta was visibly trying to hold back a response. I got exactly the awkward feeling I experienced when I went to the movies with Skags and her then-girlfriend, some other high school’s lacrosse team captain, a couple years ago. In that moment, I knew I was a real third wheel. I also knew the other two wheels were about to make out regardless of whether or not I was there. I decided it would be better if I weren’t there.
“I’ll, um—see you two later,” I said, waving lamely as I walked away.
“Lovely to see you, Naooooooomi,” Delilah said. “I’ve missed seeing you these past few days.”
“Me too,” Jacinta said eagerly. She broke her grasp with Delilah and enfolded me in a hug so tight I found it difficult to breathe.
I went downstairs and out onto the back deck and was immediately waylaid by Olivia Bentley, who wanted to take a photograph of me for Young Hamptons. She made a snarky comment about how she was sure this meant I’d be on The Wanted, too, probably within five minutes. I posed for her, but I was kind of frowning in the shot, so when she showed it to me, I said, “Man, I look like a real snob.”
“We’re all snobs, honey,” she said. “I just say it’s how I was raised.”
“It’s not how I was raised,” I said.
“Sure,” Olivia said. “You’re here, at this fabulous party, with these fabulous people, all of us looking fabulous in white, drinking the same wine and eating the same food, listening to the same hired band in the same backyard of the same mansion—and you’re different?” She laughed a nasty little laugh. “Sure you are.”
“Excuse me,” I said coldly, and went off to find Jeff.
He was drunker than when I’d last seen him, and knocking back another drink in the kitchen.
“There she is!” Jeff said loudly, leaning over and giving me a boozy kiss.
He looked out the window, and I followed his gaze to see Delilah and Jacinta now curled up together on the chaise lounge on Jacinta’s back deck. Then I hesitated for a moment, looked back at the girls, and decided to plunge forward.
“Now, that is an interesting situation,” I said. Jeff rolled his eyes.
“I don’t know if interesting is the word for it,” he said. “More like pathetic.” There was something in his tone I didn’t like.
“Pathetic?” I repeated. He held up his glass.
“To the freak who throws the best parties in town,” he said with a laugh.
I put down my drink.
“She’s not a freak,” I said defensively. “I know you think she’s weird, but she’s a good person. She’s never been anything but sweet to you.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that she’s a good person,” Jeff said. “And yes, she’s been very nice to me. But the girl is obviously out of her mind.”
“Why?”
“Well, to start, look at what she wears. She always looks like she’s dressed up for some costume ball happening inside her own head.” I could tell he was drunk, and figured I’d give him a pass on that one.
“She’s just—I don’t know, she’s fashionable,” I said lamely, hoping he’d get off this track.
“Fashionable. Right. Or she dresses like she just escaped from the mental ward. Also, she’s so into Delilah that it’s fucking creepy.” Okay, that pissed me off.
“It’s not creepy,” I protested. “They really care about each other. I’ve spent way more time with them than you have.”
“Teddy told me Delilah spends all day, every day, at Jacinta’s house and won’t talk about her day when she sees him at night.”
“Well, that’s Delilah’s choice, not Jacinta’s.”
“Jacinta is obsessed with her. It’s fucked up. You see how they are together. I bet they’re even weirder when they’re by themselves. I mean, look at that.” He pointed out the window. “That’s not normal.”
“What about Delilah? She seems just as into it as Jacinta,” I said.
Jeff gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Delilah’s playing the same game she always plays when she’s pissed at Teddy,” he said. “Usually she starts hanging out with some poor guy who totally worships her. Finally, after Teddy flips out and beats the shit out of the kid, she comes back around and starts acting like a girlfriend again. I guess this summer she decided to get creative, get a female barnacle. Interesting move on her part, I have to say, but this whole thing has gotten old.” As if to illustrate his point, he stifled a boozy yawn.
“Maybe they actually love each other,” I blurted out, my face heating up. “Ever thought of that? Sometimes real human beings have actual genuine feelings for one another.” I hadn’t meant to say it, but he was pissing me off with his condescending attitude.
He looked at me and gave a surprised laugh. “Love each other?”
I nodded. He laughed again.
“You think Delilah Fairweather would love somebody like her? She’s Delilah’s pet for the summer, someone for her to play with. She’ll be gone as soon as the summer ends.”
“I just don’t understand how you can talk about Jacinta like this when you’ve been so nice to her face,” I said. At this, Jeff cracked up again.
“Oh my God,” he said, cackling. “That is adorable. Sometimes I forget you’re from Chicago.” He tried to wrap me in his arms, but I resisted. I was no longer in the mood to excuse his behavior by remembering that he’d had one too many.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded.
He was clearly irritated that I had pushed him off. “Look, maybe you live in some cutesy, perfect little world where everyone is one hundred percent honest all the time, but in the real world, sometimes people act one way when they feel another way. What am I gonna do, tell the girl to her face I think she’s crazy?”
“Maybe don’t talk shit about her,” I said testily.
“Maybe don’t act like Jacinta Trimalchio is your best friend forever,” Jeff said. “You just met her, too. What do you even really know about her?”
“What do I even really know about you?” I shot back. “I just met you, too.”
“You’re acting nuts,” Jeff said. “Is this like some kind of PMS situation?”
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Of course I’m kidding!” He smiled at me and poked me in the arm. “I’m trying to make you laugh.”
“Well, talking about my period is not the way to do it. And no, it’s not a PMS situation. I just think you’re being an asshole.”