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“So, did you have a good time?” Mom asked when I arrived home at around one in the morning. My parents had been waiting up for me in the living room watching a documentary about people who want to marry national monuments.
“I had a weird time,” I said. “But I guess weird is good.”
She sniffed my breath. “Tequila? Stella!”
“I tell you, that Kate’s a bad influence,” warned Dad. “Port, yes. Brandy. Rum. But Tequila? Yeeccchh.”
“Stella, if you had been caught...” my mother said.
“Yeah, well, it tasted awful,” I said, grabbing a glass of water from the kitchen. “And I don’t think I’m drunk. It was only a couple of gulps. Some of the kids there were obviously smashed, so I was the least of the teachers’ problems. Consider it a learning experience. I will not be trying Tequila again.” I turned to sit at the kitchen table and stopped cold when I saw a rose sitting in a vase. “Uh, where did that come from?”
My parents looked at each other. “Well...” said Dad, “Howie came by.”
I struggled to take a breath. “He... what?”
“He said he just wanted to be sure you were going to grad. He was afraid you might be sulking at home, which, in all fairness, does sound like something you’d do.”
“So what did you tell him?”
“That you’d gone with the girls.”
I sat down and tried not to hyperventilate.
“He... uh...” Dad said slowly, glancing at my mother. “He... also left this.” Dad pulled the ruby ring from his pocket and put it on the table in front of me. I stared at it.
“He just wanted to be sure that you were happy,” said Dad.
“Happy? HAPPY? Of course I’m not happy,” I said. “And what the hell is he doing, checking on my happiness? I broke up with him. Who does he think he is, coming by and being the bigger person? That just makes it worse...”
“We shouldn’t have told you,” said Dad.
“Of course you should have,” I snapped. “You not telling me wouldn’t change the fact that he came, which means that now I can do this.” I grabbed my cell phone.
“Oh, don’t call him, Stella,” said Mom.
“Stay out of this!”