Friends Forever (4 page)

“It’s Kevin,” Sean said when he traded Izzie her apple for a pink cupcake he didn’t want. Izzie always had healthy food he liked better. She gobbled up the pink cupcake and had pink icing all over her lips and nose, which made him laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” she asked him, looking insulted.

He teased her a lot, but she liked him anyway, he was her friend, kind of like a brother, only better since he never hit her. He had pushed a fourth-grader once who had called her a name.

“I’m laughing at you. You’ve got pink icing on your nose.” She wiped it on her sleeve, and he went on. “Kev got in trouble at the school dance. My dad says he might get expelled. He had to stay home this week. He’s suspended or something.”

“What did he do? Get in a fight?” Izzie knew he had done that before. It wasn’t unusual for him, and his mother said it was his hot Irish blood. But their father never seemed to get into fights and he was Irish too, just Kevin.

“He took a bottle of my dad’s liquor to the dance and put it in the punch. I think it was gin. Anyway, they all got really drunk, and so did Kevin. He threw up all over the boys’ bathroom at the dance.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t share a room with him anymore, if he threw up all over the place,” Izzie said wisely. They had given Sean his own room when he turned six and Kevin was thirteen. “It must have smelled awful,” she said practically and Sean nodded, remembering how Kevin looked when they brought him home.

“Yeah, and my dad was really mad. The school called him that night, and my dad had to go to pick him up. He had alcohol poisoning, and they had to take him to the emergency room and get him some medicine or something. My mom’s been crying all week, she’s really scared they’re going to kick him out, and I guess his grades aren’t so good either.” It sounded serious to both of them.

“Wow. When will you know if they’re kicking him out of school?”

“Sometime this week, I think.” Sean wasn’t sure. His parents had had endless conversations about it with Kevin, but only one with him. And they were sending Kevin to an outdoor adventure camp for the summer, for kids who’d gotten in trouble in school. Their description of it sounded very unpleasant to Sean. You had to do a lot of really hard things like rock climbing, and hiking up a mountain, and spending a night alone in a forest, which sounded really scary to Sean. He was worried about his brother. He had overheard their father telling him that at the rate he was going, he was going to wind up in jail. Sean hoped that wasn’t true, but getting expelled from Atwood would surely be terrible, and their mother had said that if that happened, Kevin would have to go to public school. And if he got drunk again, they were going to send him to rehab. Kevin said he didn’t care, and hadn’t shown much remorse for the entire event. He said they’d had a lot of fun at the dance till they got caught. And he was on a major restriction for the moment, until the school made its decision, and would be for a long time after. He was in his sophomore year. To Izzie and Sean, it seemed like a lot of trouble to be in at fifteen, but that was Kevin. He was always in trouble for something, at school or at home.

“Your parents must be pretty scared,” Izzie said as they talked about it. Kevin was the only older boy she knew well, and he never paid much attention to her or Sean’s other friends, except to call her “Squirt” when he ran into her in the kitchen when she visited Sean. Kevin never talked to her at school. He was a tall, good-looking boy with jet-black hair like Sean’s. He used to be on the baseball team, but he had dropped off the team earlier that year.
He said sports weren’t his thing, and Sean said their dad had been upset about it. He thought playing sports was good for him.

In the end, the school had agreed to suspend Kevin for two weeks, and put him on probation until the end of the year, but they didn’t kick him out. Mike and Connie had gone to bat for him and convinced the school to give him another chance, but Mike had warned him, and so had the headmaster, that if he did something like it again, he would be out. Kevin said he understood, and behaved until the end of the year, and then left for survival camp in the Sierras. He looked stronger and more muscular and healthy when he came back, and was better behaved and seemed more responsible. He had turned sixteen by then, and Mike commented to Connie, when he got back, that he didn’t look like a boy anymore, he looked like a man. The survival camp had given him confidence in himself, and they hoped it would turn him around.

“I wish he acted like a man,” Connie said with a sigh and a worried look. For the first few weeks, he was perfect and even helped his mother around the house. But Sean knew it was just an act. He saw Kevin sneak a beer a week after he got home, and he had a pack of cigarettes in his backpack. Sean never squealed on him to their parents, but he saw a lot, more than Kevin knew. Sean knew his brother well. He wasn’t fooled.

Sean and Izzie walked into the first day of fourth grade together when the carpool dropped them off, and the others—Billy, Andy, and Gabby—were right behind them. The five friends were always together, inseparable pals, wherever they went. It had been that way for four years, and they assumed it always would be. All five of them carved the words “Friends 4Ever” into their school desks
every year. It was a sacred pact they had made in second grade. And Connie always referred to them as the Big Five. They had been devoted to each other since kindergarten, and she hoped they always would be. They were a family they had formed on their own. Izzie and Gabby pretended to be sisters sometimes, with new teachers or strangers. And Billy, Andy, and Sean had once told someone at the bowling alley that they were triplets, and the person had believed them. The five of them were like quintuplets, with different parents and one heart and one soul. “Friends 4Ever” above all.

N
othing much changed for any of them until they reached eighth grade, and then a number of things began to happen to alter their familiar landscape. First, they all turned thirteen and became teenagers. They would be going to high school at Atwood in a year, which seemed like a major step into adulthood for them. Connie teased them that they were no different than they had been in kindergarten, they were just bigger. Sean was still obsessed with any kind of law enforcement, watched every possible crime and police show on TV, and had taken to reading books about the FBI. Billy was equally obsessed with sports, especially football, and had a huge collection of signed baseball and football cards. Gabby had gotten several more local modeling jobs and was in
The Nutcracker
and two school plays, in the leading roles. Andy was at the top of their class with flawless grades, and Izzie was developing a strong social conscience and had done volunteer work at a homeless shelter for families, and collected toys for the children
at Christmas. She even used her allowance to buy more toys than the donations covered.

Billy and Gabby were the first to announce a major change. They spent a lot of time together over Christmas vacation, and when they came back to school, they said they were boyfriend and girlfriend.

“You are?” Izzie stared at her best friend with wide eyes when Gabby told her. “What does that mean?” She lowered her voice conspiratorially and glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was listening. “Did you
do it
?” she whispered with a look of amazement, and Gabby laughed, that clear bell-like sound that Izzie was convinced would one day make her a movie star.

“Of course not, we’re not stupid,” Gabby said confidently. “We’re not old enough to ‘do it.’ We’re going to wait till high school or college. We just know we love each other.” She seemed absolutely certain, which impressed Izzie immensely.

“How do you know?” Izzie was fascinated. They all loved each other in their tight little group of friends, but she wouldn’t have thought of becoming boyfriend and girlfriend with Sean, Andy, or Billy. As far as Izzie was concerned, they were best friends. So how did Billy and Gabby know they were different? What had happened to them over Christmas?

“He kissed me,” Gabby confessed to her, “but don’t tell my mother. We just decided to be boyfriend and girlfriend.” Gabby seemed extremely pleased about it, although she looked no different to Izzie. And they were the only two in the group who had kissed. There wasn’t even a boy Izzie liked in eighth grade, and certainly not enough to kiss. “You and Sean should hook up like
we did,” Gabby said, sounding very grown-up and older than her years, but Izzie looked appalled.

“Yerghhhkkk! That’s disgusting. He’s my best friend!”

“I thought I was,” Gabby teased her, amused at her reaction to the suggestion about Sean. He was getting better and better looking as he got older, although he was still a lot shorter than Billy. But some of the other eighth-grade girls thought he was hot. Sean didn’t care. He had no interest in girls yet, just crime shows and sports. And he treated Izzie like a sister.

“You know you are my best friend,” Izzie said uncomfortably. “You all are. It just seems weird to have a boyfriend at our age.” Izzie looked confused and mildly disapproving. But Gabby always seemed more sophisticated than the others, and Billy was physically more mature. Gabby shrugged her shoulders, unconcerned.

“Yeah, maybe. He’s nice to kiss, though,” Gabby said, and Izzie looked a little shocked at that, and after talking about it for a while, they walked into class together.

Billy had basketball practice that day and was in the gym, but he had made the same announcement as Gabby to Sean and Andy that morning. Both looked impressed and wanted to know how far he’d gone with Gabby. Billy said they’d made out but hadn’t gone all the way. But his two best guy friends were as shaken as Izzie. It was the beginning of a whole new era in the group, now that Billy and Gabby were a couple. It made the others feel like losers and a little bit left out, since Gabby and Billy had added an element to their relationship that they didn’t share. It felt very strange to the remaining singles in the group, but gave Izzie no desire to have a boyfriend among them, or outside the group. Andy and Sean were
like the brothers she didn’t have, and she liked it that way. It would have felt creepy to single out one of them as a boyfriend, and she didn’t want to.

It took a while for them to get used to thinking of Billy and Gabby as a couple, but by spring they had all adjusted and considered Billy and Gabby as a unit. The romance was still going strong, and had remained chaste. Just “going together,” hanging out, and kissing was enough. Larry had had a talk with Billy, at Marilyn’s insistence, about using condoms and being careful that Gabby didn’t get pregnant, but Billy insisted they didn’t need them. His father looked disappointed, and his mother was relieved. Marilyn had a long talk with Judy the next day and asked her if she thought their kids were telling them the truth about not having had sex yet. She hoped they were, but she wasn’t sure. One heard stories about some kids having sex even before high school.

“Gabby tells me
everything
,” Judy said confidently, and didn’t seem worried. “I want to get her on the Pill before she does anything, just in case.” She seemed surprisingly calm about it, although she hadn’t mentioned it to Adam, because she knew how protective he was of his daughters, but he had commented on seeing Billy around more lately, so he was aware.

“They’re just thirteen,” Marilyn said with a worried look. “They’re not old enough to handle a serious relationship and everything that goes with it.”

“Sometimes I’m not even sure I am,” Judy quipped, and Marilyn smiled ruefully, but she knew Judy was only kidding, she and Adam had a good marriage and seemed to still enjoy each other after fifteen years.

Marilyn and Larry had had a harder time of it for the past few years. His drinking had continued at a steady pace, and several times she had suspected he was having an affair, but he insisted that he wasn’t. He liked to hang out with his important clients and sometimes didn’t come home till three or four
A.M.
, but he always swore there was nothing to it. Marilyn wasn’t as sure, but she couldn’t prove otherwise. And she spent a lot of time at home with her boys, Billy and Brian, who were thirteen and eight, and they kept her busy. It startled her sometimes that at thirty-eight, she had become a homebody. Larry hardly ever took her out anymore. He went out with the “guys.” She complained once in a while to her women friends, but there was nothing she could do about it. And when she said something to Larry, he got nasty and told her to stop whining. He reminded her that he gave her a nice house and plenty of money to spend and if she wanted someone to be around all the time, get a dog. He said he wasn’t going to be on a leash for her. He had his freedom, whenever he wanted to get out, and she had the boys.

And he wasn’t always pleasant to them either, depending on how much he’d been drinking. He ignored Brian completely because he was indifferent to sports, and the last time Billy had lost a baseball game on the Little League team he played for, Larry had taken a swing at him when they got home and called him a loser. Billy had gone to his room in tears, and Marilyn and Larry had gotten into a fight that nearly came to blows. She had finally backed down and locked herself in her room. And he had gone out and didn’t come back till the next morning. He never apologized, to any of them, and she sometimes wondered if he even remembered
what he’d done the night before. Marilyn had apologized to Billy when his father hit him after the game, and tried to explain that his father was so obsessed with winning every game that he didn’t know what he was doing. But they both knew he did. And Billy had signed up for the football team for freshman year. He was on a path, the only one that would please his father, and he was determined never to be called a loser again.

Marilyn and Judy talked about their children’s relationship often. Marilyn was as worried about Gabby as if she’d been her own daughter, and was terrified they’d lose control and have sex. By contrast, Judy was astoundingly relaxed and confident in her daughter.