Splendor (3 page)

“Wow. I can’t believe they’re even letting me talk to you.”

“I think they’re hoping you’ll be a good influence on me.”

We sat together in the Jacuzzi, even though the water had grown too warm for comfort. I reached out and found Lily’s hand. “I’m sorry, Lil.”

She shrugged and lowered her sunglasses back over her eyes. “At least now I know what it’s like.” After a moment she said, “So I’m on like permanent restriction. And they don’t even know about the tattoo.”

“Yeah,” I joked. “That would really piss them off.”

But Lily didn’t laugh.

“You didn’t.”

She looked at me over the rim of her glasses, then looked both ways to see if anyone was watching. When she seemed confident that we were alone, she stood, turned around, and pulled her bikini bottom halfway down. There, on her left cheek, was a blue-and-green sparrow.

“Tell me that’s temporary.”

She laughed. “Come on, Scar. You know that wouldn’t be my style.”

I shook my head. “You are a mystery, Lily.”

“
You’re
the mystery. A whole summer on the island with Will and you still haven’t done it?”

I felt myself bristling. This wasn’t something I wanted to discuss in any more detail.

“Yeah, well, we’re not all as adventuresome as you.” I pulled myself out of the water and grabbed Lily’s towel. “I’ve got to borrow some of your stuff, okay? I can’t walk home like this.”

“Go for it.” Lily leaned her head back again and closed her eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I found a pair of Lily’s cutoffs and a tank top. Her room looked just as it had before she left on the trip: a lovely bed, layered in luxurious sheets and duvets; gossamer-fine curtains billowing in the late-afternoon breeze; a thick, soft rug across the gleaming wood floor.

But the girl who slept in this room…she was different. She looked about the same, save for the tattoo…but it was no wonder Jack and Laura were concerned. Lily was a worry.

Across the room, in my backpack, I heard my phone vibrate and then begin to ring.

It was Will.

“Miss me already?”

I did, even though I had seen him just the night before. He’d borrowed his dad’s Jeep and come across to Avalon to make dinner with me. That was something we’d been doing a lot this summer. With my mother gone and my father distracted by one project or another, my house was a good place to find privacy, even though the first floor was usually filled with tourists.

“Desperately,” he answered. His tone was light, but I got the feeling he wasn’t entirely kidding. “You have any plans tonight?”

“I’m over at Lily’s right now. We’re going to eat in a few minutes.”

“And later?”

“I don’t know. Just the usual, I guess.” For me the usual involved some reading, moving around a few loads of laundry for the B&B, maybe playing a game of gin rummy with my dad.

“Wanna go to a party?”

This was different. Will—like me—was more of the stay-at-home-and-read type than the go-get-hammered-with-a-bunch-of-semi-friends type.

“Um…okay?”

“Great. I’ll pick you up at eight.”

Downstairs, Jack and Laura were serving up the pasta. When I walked into the kitchen they stopped their conversation mid-sentence. Laura’s last words hung in the air: “…being a jackass.”

From Jack’s expression, it was pretty clear she was talking about him.

I pretended I hadn’t heard. Henry and Jasper were taking turns killing each other on some video game in the living room. They looked taller. Lily waltzed in, wet from the Jacuzzi, and sat down at the table. She dripped a quiet puddle onto the floor.

“Lily, hon, go get dressed for dinner,” Laura said, a cheer in her voice.

“I don’t see the point,” Lily said. “I mean, you’re never letting me leave the house. Why bother changing clothes? At least if I stay in my bathing suit I’m ready for the one pleasurable activity available to me in this jail cell.”

I looked around. The casual chandelier, made of antique cutlery bent into ridges and curves, glowed prettily. The flat-screen TV on the far wall, muted now, showed CNN. In the family room, endless rows of games and puzzles waited to be played. Some prison.

“Honey, we didn’t say you couldn’t go out
at all,
” Laura began.

I don’t think she saw the look Jack shot at her, but she must have been able to
feel
it. Positively withering.

“So can I go out tonight?” Lily’s eyes widened in characteristic charm, and she leaned forward in her chair. Her bikini top strained under the pressure. “Please? Brandon texted me that he’s having a party, and I haven’t seen
anyone
all summer!”

I laughed. “Hello?” I said. “Don’t I count?”

Lily waved her hand dismissively in my direction. “Except you,” she said.
“Please?”

Laura looked about ready to capitulate, but Jack was a shade of red normally reserved for tomatoes. “Absolutely under no circumstances are you to leave this house, young lady.”

I
wouldn’t have argued with that voice. Most people probably wouldn’t have. But most people aren’t Lily Adams.

The next twenty minutes were some level of hell. If Dante had been present at that table, he would have found a way to work it into his
Inferno.
Lily begged and cried and cursed; Jack fumed and boiled and cursed louder.

The twins giggled and kicked each other under the table every time someone spat an expletive. They must have had seriously bruised shins by the time dessert was served.

Finally, Lily retreated into stormy silence. Jack reverted into “perfect host” mode, seeming to notice at last that I was still there.

“So, Scarlett, tell us about your summer. How’s that mare of yours?”

I swallowed a bite of the fudge brownie Laura had served me. “She’s good. Hopefully she’s pregnant. We’ll know in a couple of weeks when the vet comes to the island.”

The twins seemed to find this as funny as the fight.

“Your mare had sex?” asked Jasper.

“Well, sort of.” I figured it might be better not to go into the details.

“Lily had sex,” said Henry. “Is she gonna be pregnant like your horse?”

That was when I decided it was time to go. I pushed back from the table, dropping my napkin on the plate. “Laura, Jack, dinner was great,” I said lamely. “Sorry I can’t help with the dishes. I’ve got a…date.”

“Are
you
gonna have sex?”

I couldn’t tell if Henry or Jasper asked this question. I was already heading for the door.

“Good night! Call me tomorrow, Lily,” I threw over my shoulder. The yelling started again before the door latched behind me.

Outside, I took a deep, cleansing breath. I felt like a coward for ducking out of the conversation, but nothing I could have said would have improved the situation.

At home I found Dad in the great room, deep in conversation with a couple that was honeymooning on the island. They were debating the relative benefits and drawbacks of snorkeling versus scuba diving. It sounded like Dad had them pretty close to convinced that scuba diving was worth the extra money.

“Hey! There’s my girl!” Dad threw his arm across my shoulder and planted a kiss on the top of my head. “How’s Lily?”

“Trouble.”

“So, the same.”

“I guess.”

Before I headed upstairs, I told him about my plans with Will.

Our little space on the third floor of the B&B used to feel crowded, back when Ronny and Mom were still with us. Fights about who got to use the bathroom first were a daily occurrence. But now, with Ronny dead and Mom on the mainland, even our little flat felt way too large. Sometimes it bothered me how quiet it got at home, but after witnessing the row at Lily’s house, I welcomed the peace.

It wouldn’t be long before Will came to pick me up. I swapped Lily’s shorts for a pair of jeans and buttoned a flannel over the tank top before sitting down at my desk to try to pull some of the tangles out of my hair. I’d trimmed a few inches the other night, but it still reached past my bra line. It also smelled like chlorine from the hot tub. I wouldn’t have time to wash it, so I wound it into a braid, watching as my mirror fingers plaited the hair in reverse.

Not that long ago, I couldn’t have done this—looked at my reflection, or enjoyed what I saw. Tonight, though, I felt the strands of my hair and imagined how it would look later, when Will took it down—wavy and soft, a private curtain for the two of us.

Dad must have let Will in, because I didn’t hear him coming. His steps were quiet on the runner in the hallway; it wasn’t until his reflection appeared behind me, framed by the doorway, that I knew he had arrived.

He smiled at me, that dear smile I loved. It made my heart ache in my chest. How many more times would I see it before he left?

I pushed this thought away and smiled back. “Hey.”

He crossed the room and ran his hand across my cheek. “Hey,” he answered. His voice was husky, complicated. He knelt next to me and fit his lips against mine. His kiss was hot and long, and I found myself drifting deeply into it, pressing myself forward toward his warmth.

I didn’t know who stopped the kiss. It seemed impossible that it could have been me.

“You ready to go?”

“Go where?” I leaned forward, trying to recapture his lips.

He laughed a little, steadying me before I fell off my perch on the edge of the chair. “Remember? The party?”

This time it was definitely Will that broke away. He rolled back on the balls of his feet and stood, pulling me up with him. “If we don’t get going, we’re going to have to check into one of the rooms.” He was trying to make a joke, but it hit a little too close to home to be funny.

“We can’t,” I said. “All the rooms are booked.”

“Well, I guess it’s the party, then.” A last kiss, and then he stepped away.

“Right. The party.” I straightened my shirt and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

In the great room, Dad was still talking to the honeymooners. They were starting to look a little desperate. Out of charity, I called, “Hey, Dad!”

He excused himself from the couple, who took the opportunity to escape to their room. The Yellow Room.

“Heading out, kids?”

“We’ll be at Brandon’s house,” Will told my dad. “We’ll be back before one.”

Who told a parent where the party was? Only Will.

“Sounds good,” Dad said. “The Beckers, huh? They’re a nice family.” He looked like he was going to say something more, but then he didn’t. “Have fun, kids.”

Like almost everything else in Avalon, Brandon’s house was within walking distance. Outside, Will took my hand. Our fingers laced together easily, just right. And his thumb danced gently against my palm in that fabulously distracting way Will had.

“So why the party?”

Will shrugged. “I thought we could use some normal teenage socialization.”

I laughed.

If by “normal teenage socialization” Will meant binge drinking, cruel cajoling, and overwhelmingly loud music, we got it in spades as the evening wore on.

Still, Will seemed determined to have fun. He had half a glass of beer—“Everything in moderation,” he said, in a good imitation of his father.

Beer held no pleasure for me. I drank water.

We danced together. We’d improved over the past few months, though we wouldn’t be winning any prizes. Our bodies had learned to anticipate each other’s movements, and as we’d grown more comfortable—and as I’d reclaimed my body, learning to love it again—it felt better and better to move together.

I found myself thinking about Lily and the boy she’d slept with in Amsterdam…Adrian, was it? How had their bodies moved together? How might it feel to move in so intimate a dance with another?

Not far from us, I spotted my ex-boyfriend, Andy. He was holding Kaitlyn Meyers in his arms. Last I’d heard they had broken up, but by the way they were dancing, Andy pushed up tightly against her, it was pretty clear they were back together.

I tried not to watch as Andy dipped his head to Kaitlyn’s neck, biting her throat with mock ferocity. The sound she made was half laugh, half scream, clearly delighted and designed to attract attention.

“Let’s get some air,” Will suggested. We made our way out the front door, struggling past a clutch of people in the hallway.

Outside, the cold salty air felt wonderful. We wandered through the Beckers’ yard, sidestepping the entwined bodies of a couple of sophomores, and made our way to the back of the house.

“You going to your mom’s place next weekend?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

I didn’t need to tell him what I was waiting for. Our days together were numbered, so the thought of spending any of the precious time we had left away from each other seemed wasteful. Besides, I was in no hurry to see my mom’s new life.

“Try to take it easy on her, huh?”

I couldn’t hide my irritation. “Is this why you brought me to the party? To lecture me about how to treat my mother?”

Will’s smile was infuriating. “No,” he said. “
That’s
why I brought you to the party.”

He raised his chin in the direction of the back door.

Curious, I walked up the steps to the door. Will followed. Just before I opened the door he said, “I thought she might listen better to you.”

Of course. Lily. There she was, sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by boys: Brandon Becker, Connell Reed, and Mike Ryan. Mike had graduated with Will, but he wouldn’t be heading off to college. Most likely he’d spend the rest of his life right here on the island, his football bulk slowly converting into fat.

Tonight, though, he was pouring the drinks for some game they were all playing. Lily was just finishing a shot in the Dutch manner she’d described to me: no hands. Connell poured her another.

They didn’t look up when we entered the kitchen.

“Lily.” My voice sounded harsh, parental. It startled her; her chin hit the rim of her shot glass, toppling it.

“Damn,” she said, wiping the spilled liquid from her shirt. I could see the shape of her triangle-top bikini beneath her T-shirt; I don’t think anyone in the room wasn’t watching closely as she dried her chest. “Scarlett!” She smiled up at me. “What are you doing here?”