When You Were Mine (12 page)

“Things not good this a.m.?” I ask.

“No,” she says, “he just doesn’t care.” She nods and her sunglasses flip back down onto her face.

“What happened?” Olivia asks. She leans her elbows on the center console and gives me a wide smile. There’s a piece of blueberry in her third tooth, and I point to it.

“I don’t know,” Charlie says as Olivia pulls out a compact and starts attacking her mouth with her pinkie finger. “He’s so hot and cold sometimes.”

“Trust me, I know,” Olivia says. I turn around and give her a pointed look. The last thing Charlie wants to hear is some boyfriend-bashing on her brother.

“Sorry,” she mouths, her finger still in her mouth.

“I have an idea,” Charlie says, glancing out the window and making a right.

“Hmm?” I mumble.

“Why don’t we go to Fall Back together, just the three of us?”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asks. There is a tiny bit of drool down her face, and she flicks the back of her hand across her mouth.

“I mean, why don’t we go without the guys?” Charlie swings into upper and lays on the horn. Some freshmen scatter. It’s completely illegal to honk on school premises. Not that this has ever stopped her.

“I kind of wanted to go with Ben,” Olivia says. She sticks out her lower lip, but Charlie doesn’t turn around. “Rose, don’t you want to go with Rob?”

“Yeah, sure, but it’s not like he won’t be there. Plus, we’re gonna have to go early to set up.”

“What?” Olivia asks. She sounds totally appalled.

“SAC? Hello?” Charlie says. She pulls into a spot and kills the engine, but not one of us moves. Charlie unclips her seat belt and turns way around. “All I’m saying is, we have to stick together.
Because it’s a total free-for-all out there, and men are completely crazy.”

“Did you read this in the book?” Olivia asks. She looks doubtful.

Charlie bought us all
Why Men Love Bitches
for Christmas last year. She says it’s how she got Jake, although (1) I’m not sure that’s such an achievement, and (2) frankly, if she’s following the advice, it isn’t really working.

“No,” Charlie snaps, “I’m serious. We’re friends, right?”

Olivia shrugs.

“I think it’s a great plan,” I say. I’m trying to end the conversation because I’ve just spotted Rob. He’s standing in upper with Ben. Olivia’s car is parked next to them with surfboards stacked on top, and Ben is pulling a T-shirt over his head. It looks like he joined Rob and Jake surfing. There’s something about the familiar way they’re standing that makes me feel inexplicably safe. Like we all really belong together.

I am about to suggest we talk about this later, when Olivia bolts from the car and goes and attacks Ben. He scoops her up into a gigantic hug, lifting her off the pavement. They look like that poster of the couple kissing in Paris. I used to have it on my wall, but Charlie said it was going to scare boys away and I had to take it down. Not that any boy besides Rob is ever in my room. And he saw it, like, a million times and never seemed to mind.

“Appalling,” Charlie says as we walk toward them. She puts her arm around my shoulder. “Go say hi. Rob won’t bite. Unless you’re lucky.” She wiggles her hips like she has a Hula-hoop around them, and I roll my eyes.

“Are you serious with that?”

“Dead.” She blows me a kiss. “See you in Spanish.”

“Hey, Kessler,” Rob says. He gives Charlie a lopsided smile as he slides one arm around my waist.

I can’t believe he’s touching me like this. In public.

“‘Hey’ yourself. I’m getting out of here before my brother sucks her face off.” Charlie looks at Rob’s hand on my waist and then at me. I’m silently saying a thank-you that she’s wearing her sunglasses, because Charlie’s facial expressions tend to give away everything she’s thinking.

“Smart woman.” Rob pulls me a little closer as Charlie disappears down toward Cooper House.

“Hey,” he says. His face is inches from mine, and images from last night come back to me like firecrackers. His warm sweatshirt and my head on his chest. His hands on my face. His lips on mine.

He looks so cute today in his khaki shorts and blue T-shirt. His hair is still a little wet from surfing, and there are a few water droplets on the back of his shirt. “How did you sleep?” he asks.

I move a little closer to him and mutter, “Good. You?”

“Yeah, same.” He takes his hand and cups my elbow, bringing our torsos together. His face is right above mine and he’s moving it down, lower, so that our lips are just a whisper away. I close my eyes, ready for him to kiss me, but just then Olivia sashays over.

Rob immediately drops his hand from my waist, and I must look disappointed, because Olivia gets sheepish. “Sorry to interrupt,” she says, “but Ben needs you.”

“Your boyfriend’s impossible,” Rob says, but he’s smiling. That’s one of the things I love about him. Nothing really annoys him for too long.

“He is not!” Olivia squeals, but I can tell she’s pleased. She’s never called someone her boyfriend before, and she doesn’t correct Rob now.

“You guys are adorable,” she says when he’s gone. “Seriously, perfect.”

I don’t say anything, but secretly I’m pleased too. Things feel right. Like we’re all finally where we should be. Being with Rob is the one thing that’s been missing, the thing that makes my life just, I don’t know,
make sense
.

“Who’s that?” Olivia asks.

“Who?”

“
That
.” She’s pointing to a white Mercedes SUV that has just pulled in next to Charlie’s car. Too close. Everyone knows Charlie totally freaks if someone comes within four feet of Big Red. And
that Mercedes definitely doesn’t belong to any senior at this school. Olivia has the nicest car on campus.

“Probably a parent.” I shrug, but Olivia shakes her head. There is a girl climbing out.

The first thing I notice is that she has blond hair. The kind of blond Charlie calls “prescription strength,” meaning you need serious chemical help to achieve it. The second is that both her bag and her sunglasses seem way larger than she is.

Olivia and I look at each other. Olivia steps closer to me. “LA transplant,” she says. “Definitely.” She crosses her arms, and her strap slides down to her elbow so that her
MIAMI
book bag is dangling dangerously close to the ground. She doesn’t seem happy. This new girl, whoever she is, is definitely competition.

“Were we getting new students?” I ask. But before I even have time to consider my own question, I know who she is. The girl from the newspaper. My cousin. Juliet.

“What are you doing?” Olivia spits, but she follows me over to the car where Juliet is busying herself with unloading books.

“Hey.” I’m not usually the welcoming committee—usually that’s Charlie’s role. Well, maybe more like making new people feel afraid—Charlie isn’t exactly the “come join our circle” kind of girl. But Juliet
is
my cousin. Just because we haven’t been friends in a decade doesn’t mean we couldn’t start now. She’s the only family I have, besides my parents.

“Hey,” she says back. Even with her sunglasses on I can tell she’s looking me up and down. It’s slow, too, like she’s not trying to hide it.

I go ahead and blurt it out: “Do you know who I am?” I shake my head. “Not like that. I just mean, we’re cousins? Rosaline Caplet?” I tap myself on the chest like I have a name tag.

She flips her hair off her shoulders. “Yeah, I know.”

I’m relieved, until I realize she’s not following that up with anything. “This is Olivia,” I say, to say something.

“Hey,” Olivia says. She has one eye on me and the other on Juliet. I try to see what she sees. Juliet’s pretty. Not Charlie-gorgeous but definitely attractive. She always was.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you since we were, like, seven.” I run my foot back and forth across the pavement. I suddenly don’t want to look at her. I wonder if she remembers the doll incident.

“Does Rob still live here?”

“What?” Olivia answers for me.

Juliet looks at me. “Rob Monteg? I’m sure you remember. You guys were best friends.”

“Right, yeah. He still lives here.” I can feel Olivia’s eyes on me, but I don’t offer anything more. I’m not sure what to say, anyway. That Rob’s my boyfriend now? Is that even true?

“It’s been a long time,” she says, but it’s unclear whether she’s talking to me or remembering to herself.

“So you guys just moved?” I ask, steering the conversation away from Rob.

She nods. “Your parents tell you?”

I shake my head. “Actually, no. I saw it in the paper.”

She smiles slightly and clicks the lock on her car. “Makes sense.”

“This is kind of weird,” I say. “It’s been forever.”

“Yeah,” she says, but again, that’s all.

When I was little, I used to think about this moment over and over. If she ever came back, if I ever got to see her again, what I would say. How I would forgive her or apologize or throw my arms around her neck and beg her to play dolls with me. But we’re seventeen now, not seven, and I’m not sure how to act. Rob’s better at this. He can talk to anyone, about anything. One time we went to Colonial Williamsburg on a trip with our parents, and he talked to the shoemaker for an hour about their mutual love of the Lakers. I didn’t even know colonial people watched television, but Rob got it out of him. His smile just kind of melts people. They end up spilling.

“So where are you guys living?” Olivia asks.

“Some house by the beach,” she says. “It’s fine.”

“Cool.” Olivia looks at me like,
Good luck with that
, and turns to go back over toward Ben. “Nice to meet you!” she calls over her shoulder.

Juliet smiles, but it’s stiff. And she doesn’t wave. It’s a smile far better suited to the girl who beheaded my favorite Barbie than the one who was my best friend in kindergarten.

“Do you need help finding classes or anything? Thursdays we don’t have assembly, so we just go straight to first period.”

“I need to find . . .” She rummages in her gigantic bag and extracts a piece of paper. “Mr. Johnson,” she says.

“He’s probably in his office at Cooper House,” I say. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

We start walking. Rob, Ben, and Olivia are descending toward Cooper House below us, but I decide not to call down to them.

“So how come you’re starting today?”

“We were in Italy yesterday,” she says. “My dad couldn’t get back.” Italy. Right. I remember when we used to make pizzas at Rob’s together. I guess life is pretty different now.

“Sounds exciting.”

“I guess,” she says flatly.

Okay, then. “So, what brings you guys back?”

“My mom wanted a change. LA gets tiring after a while.” She readjusts her book bag. It’s Tod’s. White leather. The kind Olivia wanted to get this year.

“Mhm, I’ll bet.”

“Have you ever lived there?”

“Oh, no,” I say. “But, you know, I get it.” Of course I’ve never
lived there. I would have called her. We would have been friends, wouldn’t we?

She gives me a look that I take to mean I definitely do
not
get it. Luckily, we’re at Mr. Johnson’s office. So for now, my time with Juliet is coming to a close.

“Here’s your stop. He should be in there.” I point to the left, past the entryway.

“Thanks.”

“We usually have lunch in the courtyard, if you want to join us. And I guess our families will get together, so I’ll see you.” The silhouette of Rob’s and my parents in our living room last night comes back to me. Something tells me that they’re not quite as interested in rekindling a friendship as I am. And I am. Seeing her again makes me think about how close we were, and how I miss her, even after all these years. Maybe once she settles in, she’ll let her guard down.

“Sure,” Juliet says. She smiles, and it seems genuine, or at least as close to it as I’ve come so far. I glance down at my watch, and I’m already a minute late for Spanish. Charlie is going to kill me. I open my mouth to say good-bye, but I’m met with the back of her head. She has already moved on.

“So I’m telling Jake this is ridiculous,” Charlie is saying.
“I mean, who would possibly camp out outside an IHOP? It’s not like it’s the opening of
Star Wars
, or whatever. It’s a twenty-four-hour diner.”

“That’s why I love Ben,” Olivia says. “He’s totally unexpected.”

“
Love?
” Charlie guffaws, and some of her sandwich goes flying across the table.

“No, not
love,”
Olivia says, blushing. “You know what I mean.”

“I just don’t understand.” Charlie sighs. “I ask Jake to plan a fun weekend activity, and this is what he comes up with?”

“He wants you to camp out at an IHOP?” I ask. I’m draped over the table sipping on a Coke. I’ve forgone sparkling water today. I need the caffeine.