211 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
211 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0\fnil Helvetica;}}
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\f0\fs24 The moment the car backed out of the driveway, Emma was moving.\par
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\par
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She didn't run\u8212?running was undignified\u8212?but she walked with a purpose that was very close to it, up the stairs and straight to her parents' bedroom, where the phone sat on her mother's nightstand like a reward for exactly this kind of patience. She settled herself against the headboard, pulled her mother's decorative pillow behind her back, and positioned the notepad on her knees with the pen uncapped. The morning light came through the curtains in long warm stripes. Outside, she could hear the sailboat knocking gently against the dock.\par
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\par
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She wrote BOYS at the top of the page and underlined it twice.\par
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\par
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Susanna first. Susanna Greer was a cheerleader and functionally omniscient about the male population of their school. If Susanna didn't like a boy, the boy ceased to exist as a viable option. This was simply how it worked.\par
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\par
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The phone rang twice.\par
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\par
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"Hello?"\par
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\par
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"It's me. I need the definitive list."\par
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\par
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"Of what?"\par
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\par
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"Boys, Susanna."\par
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\par
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A pause. "For the party?"\par
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\par
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"No, for my knitting circle. Yes, for the party. My mom said boys are allowed, which I did not see coming, so now I need to move fast before she changes her mind or adds some condition I haven't thought of yet."\par
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\par
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"Okay, okay." She could hear Susanna settling in on her end, which meant she was sitting down somewhere comfortable with the phone cord stretched to its limit, the way she always did when she was about to deliver information she considered important. "Okay. Jake Ferreira, obviously."\par
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\par
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Emma wrote the name. "Obviously."\par
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\par
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"Chris DeLuca."\par
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\par
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"He chews with his mouth open."\par
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\par
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"At lunch. In a pool he'll be fine."\par
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\par
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Emma wrote Chris DeLuca and put a small question mark after it. "Who else."\par
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\par
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"Matt Brouwer."\par
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\par
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"He asked Danielle out and then didn't show up."\par
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\par
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"That was like six months ago."\par
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\par
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"I have a long memory. Next."\par
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\par
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"Emma."\par
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\par
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"Next, Susanna."\par
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\par
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Susanna sighed. "Fine. Brandon Hicks."\par
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\par
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"Brandon is good." She wrote his name. "Who else."\par
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\par
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They went on like this for twenty minutes, Emma with her pen moving over the notepad, crossing out and adding and putting small notations next to certain names\u8212?things like *asks too many questions* or *fine if Danielle isn't there* or simply *no*. By the time she hung up, she had seven names that had survived the cross-examination. Seven boys. From one phone call. She looked at the list with genuine satisfaction. This was going to be the best birthday party she'd ever had, provided her mother didn't ruin it, which remained a live concern.\par
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\par
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She dialed Mai Lin without consulting the notepad. She knew that number by heart.\par
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\par
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Mai Lin picked up on the first ring, which meant she'd been waiting by the phone, which was very Mai Lin.\par
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\par
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"Tell me everything," Mai Lin said, before Emma could speak.\par
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\par
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"Mom said yes to the party."\par
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\par
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"She said yes to boys?"\par
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\par
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"She said yes to boys."\par
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\par
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The shriek on the other end of the phone was satisfying. Emma held the receiver a few inches from her ear and waited it out.\par
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\par
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"Okay," Emma said, when it was over. "I need your input on the list. I already talked to Susanna."\par
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\par
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"What did Susanna say about Tyler Kim?"\par
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\par
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"She didn't bring up Tyler Kim."\par
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\par
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"That's a no from me on Tyler Kim, then. He was staring at me all through third period last week and not in a good way. In a weird way."\par
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\par
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"Agreed." Emma hadn't written Tyler Kim down anyway. "I have seven so far. I'm going to read them to you."\par
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\par
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"Ready."\par
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\par
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Emma read the names.\par
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\par
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There was a silence after each one that communicated Mai Lin's processing. Then: "Cross off Chris DeLuca."\par
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\par
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"I had a question mark next to him anyway."\par
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\par
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"Cross him off. He told Hannah he thought the two of us were basically the same person."\par
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\par
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Emma stopped. "I'm sorry\u8212?what?"\par
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\par
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"He literally said we were interchangeable."\par
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\par
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"That is\u8212?" Emma searched for the appropriate word. "That is genuinely insulting to both of us."\par
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\par
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"Right?"\par
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\par
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"We don't even look alike."\par
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\par
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"I know that."\par
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\par
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"We're not even the same height."\par
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\par
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"Emma, I know."\par
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\par
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"I'm just saying that is an extraordinarily stupid thing to say." She crossed off Chris DeLuca with enough pressure to leave an impression on the next page. "He's gone. Who do you want to add?"\par
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\par
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"Nate Oliveira," Mai Lin said. "He's very cute, and he was nice to me at the track meet."\par
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\par
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Emma wrote the name. "Anyone else?"\par
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\par
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"That's it from me. I want it to be an exclusive list. Not every boy in the junior class."\par
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\par
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"Obviously not every boy in the junior class. I'm not running a charity event."\par
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\par
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"Some people invite everyone."\par
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\par
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"I'm not some people."\par
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\par
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"That's why I like you," Mai Lin said, and Emma could hear her smiling. "Am I sleeping over after?"\par
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\par
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"Of course you're sleeping over after."\par
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\par
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"Good. I'll need to decompress."\par
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\par
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Emma laughed, which was real, because Mai Lin genuinely made her laugh. She said goodbye and moved down her mental list of people to call.\par
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\par
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Hannah Prescott was next, and this was the call Emma approached the way one approaches a necessary dental appointment\u8212?something to get through, efficiently, and not dwell on. Hannah came from money and was popular with the boys in a way that Emma found slightly suspicious, which was to say that Hannah was obviously aware of this popularity and deployed it deliberately. Emma didn't dislike her, exactly. She simply had no illusions about her.\par
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\par
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"Hannah."\par
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\par
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"Emma, hi! I heard about the party, this is going to be so fun\u8212?"\par
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\par
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"Who should I invite? Boys."\par
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\par
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A brief pause as Hannah recalibrated from enthusiasm to usefulness. "Okay. Marcus Webb."\par
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\par
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Emma wrote it. "Who else."\par
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\par
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"Definitely Corey\u8212?"\par
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\par
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"Last name."\par
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\par
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"Corey Janssen."\par
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\par
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Emma wrote it. "Good. Anyone else you're thinking about?"\par
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\par
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"What about Ryan?"\par
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\par
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"Which Ryan?"\par
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\par
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"Ryan from the swim team."\par
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\par
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"Ryan from the swim team has a girlfriend."\par
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\par
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"They broke up."\par
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\par
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Emma paused. "When?"\par
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\par
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"Like two weeks ago."\par
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\par
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Emma wrote *Ryan\u8212?swim team\u8212?confirm* with a small circle around it. "I'll look into it. Thanks, Hannah."\par
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\par
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"Oh my gosh, of course, I'm so excited\u8212?"\par
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\par
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"I'll call you later." Emma hung up.\par
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\par
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She worked through the rest of her list of girls, methodically, a conversation here and a conversation there, the names accumulating on the notepad in her lap. Some boys she added. Some she declined before they were fully nominated. One she wrote down and then stared at for a long moment before drawing a slow, deliberate line through his name, for reasons she didn't articulate out loud because she was alone.\par
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\par
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Finally, she sat back against the headboard and counted.\par
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\par
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Fifteen.\par
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\par
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Fifteen boys, all thoroughly vetted, all approved by at least two people she trusted to have opinions worth consulting. It was a good list. It was an excellent list. She looked at it with the satisfaction of a general surveying a well-positioned army.\par
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\par
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And then she thought about Devin.\par
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\par
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And Tyler.\par
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\par
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And the others.\par
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\par
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Her mother's voice came back to her with pristine clarity: *Every last one of them.*\par
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\par
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Emma looked at her list.\par
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\par
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Fifteen boys.\par
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\par
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Twenty-five guests total. Which meant ten girls, herself included\u8212?and she'd already been composing that list in her head separately, so she knew exactly who those ten were. It was tight. It was exactly right. Twenty-five people was a party. Twenty-six was a crowd. Twenty-seven was chaos.\par
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\par
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She counted her cousins.\par
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\par
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There were three boy cousins who would plausibly be invited by her mother's standard of *every last one of them*. Devin, who was fine, she supposed, in the way that a piece of furniture is fine. Tyler, who Lizzie apparently thought she knew, which was hilarious and also somehow annoying. And Marcus, who was fourteen and had gone through a phase last summer of doing cannonballs directly next to whoever was floating quietly in the pool, which was not something Emma was prepared to tolerate at her own birthday party.\par
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\par
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Three cousins.\par
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\par
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Three boys who would have to come off this list.\par
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\par
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She looked at her fifteen names.\par
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\par
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She looked at them for a long moment.\par
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\par
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Then she said something under her breath that she would not have said in front of her mother, picked up the phone again, and started to think very carefully about which argument would work.\par
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\par
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Not the fairness argument. Her mother was impervious to fairness arguments.\par
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\par
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Not the numbers argument. Her mother would simply raise the cap, or suggest she invite fewer girls.\par
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\par
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No. She needed something her mother couldn't easily dismiss. Something that reframed the question. She didn't have it yet.\par
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\par
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She wrote *cousins don't count\u8212?separate category* on the corner of the notepad and starred it three times.\par
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\par
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She'd figure it out. She had time.
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} |