Meadow Perkins, Trusty Sidekick (14 page)

Twist fidgeted by the door. It was rare to see her confidence shaken. 

“Come on, toots,” she said and we headed to the gallery.

Mom handed me the steam mop as soon as we walked in the door. She was focused and serious, the complete opposite of yesterday. Everyone had their game face on. 

“As soon as you’re done, we can set up flowers. The florist has already come and gone,” she said. 

“Yes, ma’am.” I saluted her and plugged in the mop. I hated mopping, but steam mopping made things a little more tolerable. I loved the way the steam made everything just smell a little like an indoor pool. I was sweaty and my arms hurt by the time I finished the entire gallery. The walls were bright white and flawless next to the exposed brick wall. Twist’s paintings really popped. The dark wood floor shone and everything looked sparse and clean. 

Twist stood in the middle of the middle room with her arms crossed and one hand over her mouth, just looking. I left her alone. She was having her moment and I had no idea what to say, so I went to find Mom. She was in her office going over the guest list with Gabe.

“Just triple-check that everyone on this list got invited,” she said. “I do not want to piss Moira off again. And I want to see the food list from the caterer. Where is that?”

Gabe shuffled through papers on the edge of her desk. 

“I’m done,” I said.

“It’s done properly?”  

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Mom.” 

“Hi there,” Gabe said while he handed Mom a folder.

“Hi, Gabe.”  

“That Jack is very cute.” He winked. 

I glared at Mom. She shrugged.

“Actually, I hired Jack,” Mom announced. “Part time!”

“Mmm-hmm.” I really didn’t want to talk about Jack with my mom and Gabe.

“So . . . are you dating Jack?” Gabe asked. 

“Um, I don’t know.” I was going on a date with him but were we dating? I didn’t know. I didn’t know how these things worked.

“Well, I think you should,” Gabe said.

I cleared my throat. “Mom, what should I do now?”

“I think you’re done,” she said. 

“K, bye.” I skipped out before anyone could ask me anymore questions then stood outside the door and shuffled through my bag looking for my ChapStick.

“Taylor Tsang will be here? From the Tribune?” Mom asked Gabe. They were going back to the guest list.

“Yes,” Gabe said. “She already confirmed. What about Thomas Saunders?”

“Yes, he’s coming,” Mom said with a giggle.

Wait. Thomas Saunders? Isla’s dad? She giggled when she mentioned his name. It hit me suddenly. My mom was dating Isla’s dad! Why else would she giggle? She was most definitely not a giggler. OMG. I had to tell Isla.

Isla was sitting on my bed while I sat in the floor trying to pick out a pair of shoes I could walk in when I broke the news. 

“So, I think my mom is dating your dad,” I blurted.

“What?” Isla looked up from picking at her nails. “What do you mean, ‘dating’?”

“Dating. Like they are dating each other.” 

“Whoa.”

“I know.”

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“What does it mean?” she asked. 

“I don’t have a clue,” I said. “I mean, I could be wrong. But she’s seeing someone and she hasn’t told me anything about it. Today, she giggled when she said his name.”

“Okay, start at the beginning.” 

Isla handed me another pair of shoes to try and I told her about our entire conversation in the office, including the Jack part.

“Are you dating Jack?” she interrupted. 

“I don’t know.” 

Isla furrowed her brow and rubbed her temple. “My dad is going to the opening?” 

“Yeah, I guess so. I just found out.” 

“This is so weird,” she said. “No offense to your mom. I just, like, can’t wrap my head around it.”

“I know. Me either.”

We didn’t talk about it anymore. I speculated about what would happen if they got married, but I didn’t say it out loud.

“How is your mom?” I always asked about Isla’s mom. 

Isla brightened. “She’s doing well. It’s good to have her close again. So far she’s taking her meds and she’s not drinking. I’m going to stay with her a few nights a week if Dad agrees. He is taking his time agreeing.” 

I looked at Isla. Everything about her was stylish and fashionable. I guess I hadn’t realized that super beautiful people had problems. Or if they did have problems, they were problems like, ‘I’m having a really bad hair day’ or something. If Isla’s mom had been in a mental hospital, then something bad must’ve happened. Being the most beautiful person in the room didn’t really matter. It didn’t make her mom better if she was sick. It didn’t keep her dad from dating her best friend’s mom. It wouldn’t make starting a new school much easier. Although, if we are honest, it probably helped a little.

Chapter 14

I was meeting Jack at the gallery. While I got ready, I had a long heart-to-heart with my reflection in the mirror. My reflection said something like,
Look, you like Jack. You really like him. And he doesn’t have a girlfriend or any girlfriend-like complications. He’s really nice and funny and it isn’t awkward to be with him. What could you really have with Alejandro anyway? Especially if you go back to HSA. It’s going to be hard enough to see Emilia again. It’s probably best to end whatever this is now, right? Right?
 

I agreed with myself. “Plus, you can maybe have Jack. You can’t have Alejandro. We both know that.” My reflection was right again. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was totally nervous about both of them being at the opening. I had no idea how I’d deal with that situation.   

My hair and makeup were done, and I just had the dress to deal with. My courage failed a little when I took it out of the closet. It was white, strapless, and fitted, with big black polka dots. The organza overlay draped so well and everyone that had seen it said it was very flattering. But it was the shortest dress I’d ever even tried on.

“Here goes nothing.” I stepped out of my jeans and into the dress. Isla and I had agreed that wearing the glasses with the dress was a good idea, so I left them on. I zipped it as far as I could and stepped into black heels, not too high. I held my breath and turned to look in the mirror.

Wow. Not half bad.
My hair was down and wavy and it fell over my shoulders nicely.

Five minutes later, I was still looking in the mirror when there was a knock on my door. “Come in.”

“It’s me.” Isla burst inside. When she saw me, she stopped in her tracks. “Wow. Just wow.”

“Are you sure?” I tugged at the hem.

“Stop messing with the hem. Jack is going to drool.”

I hope Alejandro does too
. The thought crossed my mind before I could stop it. 

“I hope so. Can you zip me?” 

Isla looked great too, of course. She wore a cream dress with gold embroidery and a gray and gold striped jacket. She pulled it off no problem. She opened her bag and drew out a couple of mini bottles of wine. She screwed the tops off of both of them and handed me one. She held hers up.

“I feel like tonight is going to be huge. To Twist!”

We drank. It was the kind of wine that was sweet and not dry.

“To new dresses!” I said.

“To Meadow’s new look!” Isla laughed.  

“To Isla’s return!”

We clanked our bottles together after each toast.

I checked my phone. “Time to go!” I stepped out of my shoes and reached for my paint-spattered chucks.

“What are you doing?” She eyed me with suspicion.

“Just changing into sensible shoes for the walk.”

“No way dude. It’s not that far.” She made me put my heels back on and then pulled me out the door.  

The gallery looked perfect. Twist’s abstracts were sprinkled among her more realistic-looking paintings. It was definitely effective. There were already few people milling around. Twist was taking deep breaths in Mom’s office and Mom was greeting people and bragging about her daughter. The lilies were arranged in elegant bunches and everything looked perfect. Isla had apparently decided that tonight would be a good night to get drunk. She snuck sips of champagne right and left. She probably didn’t need to sneak. No one was paying much attention to us. 

To pass the time until the few people we knew showed up, we sat on a loveseat and imagined stories about the people arriving. 

“Married six times, her sixth husband recently passed mysteriously,” Isla said about a very petite woman wearing all black with a severe bob haircut.

“She has fourteen cats, all black.” I giggled and adjusted my dress again.

“And four of her husbands were named Charles.” Isla snorted with laughter.  

An older man walked by us with his arm around a young, blond woman. He even had leather patches on the elbows of his blazer. 

Isla leaned in close. “Professor. Married his student. She is younger than his daughters and they hate her,” Isla said, and I laughed too loudly. A few people looked over which only made it worse.

I cleared my throat and smiled brightly. “She is pregnant. That is really going to upset his family.” More laughter.

I looked up in time to see my dad opening the door for Claire. 

“Oh, crap! There’s my dad and his girlfriend.” I hopped up and smoothed my dress.

Dad caught my eye and headed toward us, Claire in tow. “Hi, sweetheart.” He kissed my check and shook Isla’s hand.

“Isla, this is my dad and . . . Claire.” I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to call her.

“Hi, Meadow. It’s nice to see you,” Claire said after she shook Isla’s hand.

“You, too.” Then we all just stood there awkwardly.  

“Have you decided what you are doing about school?” Dad to the rescue! There was nothing awkward in bringing up family drama in public.

“Where is the artist?” Claire interrupted him.

I sighed with relief. I liked her for that.

“She’s hiding until Mom announces her.” I gestured toward Mom’s office. “Last I checked, she was breathing into a paper bag.”

“Where’s Julie?” Dad asked.

I glanced around but didn’t see her. “She’s mingling, I guess.”

They disappeared into Mom’s office after Claire took a long and seemingly appreciative look at a couple of Twist’s paintings. 

“Well, that was my dad’s girlfriend.”  

“Is that weird?” she asked.

I didn’t have time to answer because Jack popped up from out of nowhere.

“Hi.” He hugged me and nodded hello to Isla.

She did a terrible job of holding in a laugh while she watched Jack trying to get a discreet look at my dress. 

“Hi.” I ignored her. He was also more dressed up than usual. “Where’d you come from?”

“In back. Your mom asked me to move a few things around and bring in some more chairs,” he explained.

“She’s making you work?”

“Yes.” He smiled. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. I work here now, after all.” 

“Let’s get a better look at this amazing art,” Isla said as she swiped another champagne. 

“I’m gonna find Twist,” I said. “Be right back.”

I left Jack and Isla to look at paintings. Last time I’d seen Twist, she was incredibly nervous. When I opened the door to the office, the light was on but it was empty.

“Twist?” I asked and bent down to check if she was passed out under the desk. Nothing there but carpet.

I wandered back to where I’d left Jack and Isla, but they were gone. In their place, a group of teachers from HSA discussed the movement and color of Twist’s work.

“Meadow?” I recognized the voice of my living arts teacher. I didn’t turn around and ducked through the crowd instead.

Alone and maybe a little tipsy, I got suddenly self-conscious of my dress and overwhelmed by the crowd. I couldn’t ask Isla or Twist if it was still actually on my person since neither of them were anywhere I didn’t see either one of them anywhere.

I kept close to the wall as I looked around for my friends and/or sister.

“I love the contrasts here. Brilliant,” a voice boomed as I passed by.

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. 

The bathroom was down a long hall next to the storage room. Alone finally, I inspected myself in the mirror and tried to get my hair to cover me up more so I didn’t feel so naked. Isla had already told me that I was absolutely not allowed to pair a cardigan with this ensemble. I was happy to see that my dress was on and in the right place. Nothing was actively hanging out even though I felt like it was.

I got back to the edge of the main room of the gallery at the same time my mom introduced the artist, Beatrice Hobart-Perkins. Twist said to the crowd, “Thank you for coming.” Some artists talked a lot, some talked very little. Twist was the latter, obviously. Everyone clapped and went back to eating, drinking, and pointing at paintings. There was a buzz in the air, the good kind of buzz. 

Immediately, Twist was surrounded. It seemed that everyone in the building wanted to shake her hand. I surveyed the scene filling up to bursting with pride.

“Hey there,” my mom said, bustling over to me. Her eyes shone with excitement. She hugged me and bounced up and down. “She’s a hit already!” I’d never heard my mother squeal until that moment. She was no more the squealing type than the giggling type.

“I know!” I bounced with her and she hugged me again.

“The Tribune loves her and she’s already sold several paintings!”

Warmth spread all over me. “That is amazing. I’m so happy for her.”

Mom’s smile disappeared. She put her hands on my shoulders and looked right into my eyes. “I’m proud of you Meadow. I’m so, so proud of you. I love you and I will support you, no matter what.”

Tears filled my eyes threatening my many layers of mascara. “Thanks, Mom,” I croaked.

She pulled me close and buried her face in my hair like she did when I was little. The tears came then.

I pulled away and sniffed. “Stop making me cry.”

Mom dabbed at the edges of her eyes with her fingertips and laughed. “Okay, okay. I’m done. I’ve got to get back to it. Have fun!” Mom dashed toward another art critic armed with champagne.

She’d just said to me the one thing I really needed to hear in the worst possible setting. I blinked the tears away and eyed the door to the storage room on the other side of the gallery.
Maybe I can go in there and cry for a minute before anyone notices I’m gone.

I hung back and looked around. The crowd wasn’t as artsy-fartsy as I’d imagined. But there were several HSA people there, including Mr. Egan. My palms began to sweat when I saw him. Of course, he spotted me and started making his way through the crowd in my direction. I turned on my heel and practically flew down the hallway. I squeezed past the bathroom line and opened the door to the storage room.

Instead of an empty room full of boxes and cleaning supplies, I was greeted with kissing. Isla and Alejandro specifically. My heart crumbled. His arms were wrapped around her tiny waist while she ran her fingers through his hair. My stomach dropped all the way to my feet.

They both turned to see who the interloper was. Alejandro’s face turned sheepish and guilty.

“Hey, Mea—” Isla began, but I didn’t wait to hear what she had to say.

I stared at the closed door as anger and sadness washed over me along with a tiny niggling bit of guilt over my own hypocrisy.

Oh my God. I really need to get out of here for a minute.

I squeezed back down the hall fighting yet more tears, angry tears this time. Of course, Mr. Egan was right where I’d left him.

“Meadow, it’s so good to see you,” he said. “I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you tonight.”

“Where else would I be?” I wiped my eyes with what I hoped was nonchalance and grace.

“Are you okay?” His eyes crinkled with concern.

“I’m fine.” I tried to think of a way to make a quick exit.

“Listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry,” he said.

Startled, I looked up at him. He meant it. “I want you at HSA this fall. I just want to see a little more fire in your work.” 

“Uh . . .” I was speechless. 

“Look, I talked to your mom,” he said. “And she showed me this.” He took out his cell phone and held it out to show me. There it was. The painting I’d been working on in the barn.

“Oh.” Heat crept up my neck and face.
She had no right to show him that. It’s not even finished.

Mr. Egan took his phone backed and stared at the tiny picture. “It’s fantastic.”

“I-It is?” I stammered.

“Yes. I want to see more like it. I think you are finding your voice, so to speak.” He nodded slowly. “Will you come by my office and talk soon?”

“I guess I can.” 

“Great. I’ll be at school working starting the week after next. I’ll see you then, I hope.”

Mr. Egan patted my back awkwardly and rejoined his wife and the other HSA teachers.

I desperately needed some air. I was still blinking back tears and I kept my head down as I made my way out the front door. Before I stepped outside, I left my heels behind the front desk. Enough with that. I stepped out onto the sidewalk and hurried around to the side of the building.  

I shivered and rubbed my arms as I leaned against the brick wall. I peeked around the corner. Fourth Avenue was busy, as per usual. There were people looking in shop windows and people spilling out of the gallery. It was more crowded than usual. I took that as a good sign for Twist. I wanted to be happy for her, but the night had turned ridiculous.

Alejandro and Isla? Kissing? God. What is even happening? I can’t believe my mom betrayed me like that. How dare she? What right did she have to show that to anyone?!
Overwhelmed and miserable, I let the tears come. Angry tears. I was mad at my mom. And my dad, for that matter. They were interfering in my life.

How to process the last ten minutes? Isla and Alejandro? Mr. Egan and the painting? Jack? Well, I’d forgotten about Jack in the mayhem. He was the bright spot.

The day had definitely not gone as planned. I was angry with Isla, but I was angrier with myself. I should have known.
How long has this been going on with them?
I guess it was foolish of me to think that I was the only girl in Alejandro’s life, especially considering that he presumably was still with Emilia. That thought hit me hard. I was the other girl. I had never considered that before and it was not really a place I ever imagined I’d be. Somehow, I’d never thought of it in those terms and I felt terrible. Did Isla know that she was the other ‘other girl’? Should I tell her? My heart sank. I didn’t have a right to even be angry. I wanted to disappear into the ground.