Friends Forever (7 page)

Judy took Gabby to Planned Parenthood the day before Thanksgiving and she got the Pill, and the others suddenly felt very immature and as though they had been left out. None of the others had a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Andy spent all his time studying, Sean was quiet, not as massive in size as Billy, and he always complained that girls never even looked at him. And Izzie had spent the last two years surviving her parents’ divorce. She hardly ever saw her mother, although Katherine called her frequently from other cities to see how she was, and once in a while they spent a weekend together, but not very often. And in some ways, Izzie missed her. It was weird to no longer have a mother in the house, and one she hardly ever saw. It felt sad sometimes. Jeff tried to make up for her mother’s indifference and absence. But there were times when she really missed having a mom she saw
every day, no matter how busy Katherine had been before the divorce.

Jeff hadn’t met anyone he cared about deeply yet, but he’d been dating for about a year. Whenever he brought someone home, he had to live with Izzie’s editorial comments, and she was usually right. He had no desire to get married again, but he would have liked to find a woman he loved enough to live with, particularly when Izzie left for college in two years. He knew just how lonely he would be when she did, and he had no illusions that she would stay in San Francisco. Izzie wanted to see more of the world, even if she came back to the city after that. And Jeff realized that he would have no personal life without her. Everything he did revolved around his daughter.

For the past few months Jeff had been dating a woman at work whom he seemed to like, and he brought her home to have dinner with Izzie. And Izzie hated her. He was fifty-three by then, and the young lawyer he was dating was in her early thirties, and Izzie pointed out to him the next day that she was too young for him, and he looked embarrassed. It had occurred to him too, but it was awkward having it pointed out by his fifteen-year-old daughter, who was closer to her age than he was, though not by much. But women his own age didn’t appeal to him.

“I’m not marrying her. She’s just a date,” he said to Izzie.

“Just keep it that way,” Izzie said sternly. “Besides, she’s not as smart as you are.”

“What makes you think that?” He looked startled.

“She kept asking what things mean, things that she ought to
know, as a lawyer. Either she’s playing stupid, or she really is. Either way, you deserve better,” Izzie said as she rinsed their breakfast dishes and put them in the dishwasher. She was very much the woman of the house now, and had a comfortable adult relationship with her father.

“No one is ever going to be as smart as your mother,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m not sure I was either. Probably not.”
Or as cold
, he thought to himself, but didn’t say it. “I’m not sure I need to be with a genius, or even want to. Just a nice, friendly woman,” he said, and Izzie looked at him from across the kitchen.

“You need a smart one, Dad. A dumb one would get boring.” Her mother was dating someone too, the CEO of the company she worked for. He was recently divorced. Izzie hadn’t met him yet, but her mother had told her. In the two years since her parents’ divorce, she had grown wise beyond her years.

They had no particular plans for Thanksgiving, so he accepted an invitation for both of them from one of his co-workers at the ACLU, a nice divorced woman with two children roughly the same age as Izzie, and she had invited about a dozen other people. It sounded like an easy invitation and a nice way to spend the day. Katherine was in New York on business, and spending the holiday with friends there.

The O’Haras were planning to entertain relatives and friends and had much to be thankful for this year. Kevin had done well in rehab, and returned as the boy they always hoped he would be. At twenty-two, he was going to City College, getting good grades, and hoping to graduate that year. It was an enormous relief to them, and the two boys were getting on well. Kevin had apologized
to Sean in a family therapy session in Arizona for being such a bad brother to him until then. He had been a different person when he got home.

Andy and his parents were visiting relatives of his mother’s in South Carolina. Judy and Adam were going to the Fairmont Hotel with Michelle, and Gabby was spending Thanksgiving with the Nortons. Marilyn had planned a family dinner with Larry, her two boys, and Gabby. It was a meal Marilyn always prepared, and she did it well, and Gabby had promised to help her.

Gabby got to Billy’s house early enough to help Marilyn get things ready. She had taken out her best linen tablecloth, and Billy and Gabby set the table together. They set it with Marilyn’s best china and crystal, and the turkey smelled delicious as she basted it. They were planning to have six o’clock dinner, and Larry had gone to watch football at a friend’s, and said he’d be home in time for dinner. But at six o’clock he still wasn’t back and didn’t answer his cell phone when Marilyn called him. They waited for him until seven. The turkey was getting dry by then, and Marilyn was fiercely upset.

They sat down to dinner at seven-thirty, an hour and a half later than planned. The biscuits were slightly burned, and the turkey and stuffing were undeniably dry. No one mentioned Larry’s absence during dinner, and Marilyn served pumpkin and apple pies for dessert, with homemade vanilla ice cream. And after they got up from the table, the boys and Gabby helped her clean up. By ten-thirty, everything was put away, and Gabby pretended not to notice Marilyn crying as she walked upstairs, just as Larry walked in, trying to act as though nothing had happened. The kids disappeared
like mice, and went down to the playroom in the basement to watch a movie.

Marilyn turned and looked at him from the stairs. Her voice was flat, but her eyes were blazing. He looked as though he’d been drinking all day.

“Where were you?” She had been worried about it all night.

“I had dinner with a friend,” he said, as though it were any other day and not Thanksgiving. But he wasn’t fooling anyone but himself.

“You missed Thanksgiving dinner,” Marilyn said, as their eyes met.

“Sorry, I had something else to do,” he said brusquely, pushing past her on the stairs, and as he did, she could smell liquor on his breath and see lipstick on his collar, a great smear of it that felt like a slap in her face.

“You’re disgusting,” she said under her breath, and as soon as she did, he grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him.

“I don’t give a damn what you think,” he said, and then pushed her away. She nearly lost her balance and fell down the stairs, but caught herself with the banister before she did.

“Did you have to do that tonight?” she said, as she followed him to their bedroom. He looked disoriented for a minute, and she realized just how drunk he was. He walked across the room unsteadily and sat down on the bed. He had been with another woman all day.

“I’ll do it whenever I damn well want to. I don’t give a damn about Thanksgiving anyway. Or about you,” he added for good measure, and she was grateful that the boys couldn’t hear him. As
she looked at him, she wondered why she had stayed for so long, why she had put up with the insults and the degradation, the drinking and the disappointment, and the pain of knowing or suspecting he was cheating on her all the time. She had told herself she did it for the boys, but now she wasn’t sure. Maybe she was just afraid to be alone, or to lose a husband she hadn’t loved in years. There was nothing in Larry to love, and she knew he didn’t love her.

“Go back to wherever you were today. I don’t want you here with the kids, in the condition you’re in,” she said calmly.

“What are you talking about?” He looked unconcerned and lay down on the bed. She could tell as she looked at him that the room was spinning for him, and she didn’t care.

“I’m telling you to leave,” she said, standing over him and looking down. He took a swing at her and she moved out of range. “If you don’t get up right now, I’m calling the police.”

“My ass, you will. Just shut up. I’m going to sleep.” She picked up the phone and started to dial 911. She wouldn’t have done it, but she wanted him to think she would. He was off the bed in seconds, and ripped the phone from her hands and threw it at the wall, and then he backhanded her across the face before she could get away from him. He hit her hard, and she looked at him with a hatred she never knew she had in her. There was a thin trickle of blood running down her cheek.

“Get out, Larry. Now!” Something in her eyes told him she meant it. He grabbed his jacket off the bed, walked out of the bedroom, hurried down the stairs, and slammed the front door a moment later. She was shaking from head to foot, and she quietly
closed her bedroom door so the kids wouldn’t see her when they came upstairs. And she burst into tears as she sat on the bed. It was over, and should have been years before.

She called Larry the next morning, before he could come home again, and told him not to come back.

“You can pick up your things next week. I’m changing the locks today. I want a divorce.” Her voice was unemotional and cold.

“You pissed me off last night. You shouldn’t have done that.” He had blamed her dozens of times before, when he slapped her, humiliated her, flirted with other women, or came home too drunk to stand up. And she had put up with it. The boys had seen her treated in ways she never should have allowed, and she suspected that he had been cheating on her for years.

“I’m done, Larry. I’m filing for divorce.”

“Don’t be insane.” He tried to brush it off. “I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll call the police if you come near this house. And I mean it.” He could hear that she did, and with that she hung up.

When she heard the boys stirring, she went downstairs to make breakfast for them. She had called the locksmith by then, and he changed the locks in less than half an hour. She asked for extra keys for the boys. She handed them their new keys after she had served them breakfast, and then she sat down at the kitchen table with them.

“Don’t give that key to your father when you see him. We’re getting a divorce.” Neither of them looked shocked when she said it. Billy looked sad, and Brian seemed relieved. His father had belittled him for years because he didn’t want to play sports.

“Because he didn’t come home last night?” Billy asked her quietly. “Maybe he was with an important client.” Billy always made excuses for his father, he was incredibly loyal.

“For all the reasons that all three of us know. His drinking, the other women, the way he treats me and Brian, and even you sometimes,” she said, looking at Billy. “I hope he deals with his drinking now, but whether he does or not, I’m done.” It had been too many years of being disrespected and abused. She had let him do it, but she just couldn’t anymore. Hitting her the night before had been the last straw. “I don’t want him back in this house. You can visit him when he gets his own place.”

“Do I have to go?” Brian asked her quietly, and she shook her head.

“You can’t just throw him out like that, Mom,” Billy said, near tears. “This is his home too. He has nowhere else to go.”

“He can afford a hotel.” And then as she turned toward him, Billy saw the thin mark on her cheek and the bruise around it, and he knew that his father had gone too far. He got up from the table and went to his room. He didn’t call Gabby, he called Izzie, and she could tell something was wrong the minute she heard his voice.

“Are you okay?” she was quick to ask him, and he started to cry as soon as she did.

“I think my dad hit my mom last night. He’s done it before. He didn’t come home for Thanksgiving dinner. They’re getting a divorce. I’m just like you now,” he said, sounding like an anguished child. But no one had struck anyone at Izzie’s house. Her parents just didn’t like each other anymore, and it had been simple and clean. But Izzie knew that no one liked Billy’s dad, he was a jerk
and a drunk, he was even mean to Billy, who was crying for him. “What’s it going to be like now?” He was scared, and he felt as though all the responsibility was on him. He was the only ally his father had left.

“It’ll be better,” Izzie reassured him. “Your mom will be happier, and she won’t be so upset. And it’ll be good for Brian too.” She had seen how cruel Mr. Norton could be to his younger son. “You’ll be okay. I promise. It’s actually better now for me too. It took me a while to get used to not having my mom here, but she was never really here anyway. And your dad isn’t either. He’s always out with clients or friends, drinking. You said so yourself.” She could hear Billy calm down as they talked.

“It’s going to be really strange to not have him here,” Billy said sadly. He didn’t like the idea of his parents getting divorced, but he didn’t like how his dad treated his mom either, and she was unhappy all the time, and had been for years. There was no pretending anymore.

“Yeah, it’ll be weird for a while,” Izzie agreed with him, there was no point lying, and she never did, “but then it will be good.” He didn’t answer for a long time, and then they talked some more for a few minutes. Izzie was supportive and comforting as she always was. They all considered her the wise woman in their midst and the person they could count on for reassurance and emotional support. It was just like when she’d made them all lunch on the first day of kindergarten, to make them feel comfortable and at home. Izzie was there for each of them when things got tough for them. Billy looked and felt better by the time they hung up. There was so much to say, and to worry about. All Billy knew for sure
now was how grateful he was to have his friends. He couldn’t have gotten through any of it without them. They were the greatest gift he had.

And when he saw his mother a little while later, she already looked better, and Brian was smiling when he came downstairs. And Billy wondered if Izzie was right. She usually was. Billy went to see Gabby then, to tell her the news. She wasn’t surprised. They talked for a long time that morning.

A
year later, during junior year of high school for the Big Five, Brian and Billy had become latchkey kids, but they were old enough to handle it. Billy was sixteen and kept an eye on Brian, who was eleven. Billy usually had football practice after school, but when he did Brian hung around to watch. He loved watching Billy play. His big brother was the star quarterback. Gabby came to watch him too. They were still the only real couple in school, but they handled it responsibly, and even the teachers were touched by how devoted they were to each other. Gabby had helped get Billy through the divorce, and so had his other friends. Izzie was his adviser in all matters relating to the divorce, since she’d been through it herself. And the only thing Izzie hadn’t prepared him for, because she hadn’t experienced it herself, was that his mother started dating right away, which upset him. And his father was going out with hordes of young girls, most of them only a few years older than Billy. Larry made no secret of the fact that he was sleeping with every hot young body he could lay his hands on. In
fact, he bragged about it to anyone who would listen, even his son, and his drinking hadn’t improved. It had gotten worse. He was out of control, and Billy worried about him.