Aubrey answers the door in the oversized Tweety Bird shirt that she wears to bed, but she doesn’t look like she’s been sleeping.
“Hey, sorry about this.”
Aubrey watches Frank drive away, catching only a glimpse of his face. “No worries,” she says. But her voice is frosty, her gaze cool. “Guess he didn’t want to meet me?”
“Oh, I—” Maybe she should have introduced them after all. “Just didn’t seem like a good time.”
Aubrey leads her inside. The lights are off, the living room dark aside from the blue glow of the Law & Order rerun on TV. They walk quietly past Aubrey’s stepdad, asleep in his recliner, a beer in the cup holder. Maya is surprised he’s asleep; that Aubrey’s ten-year-old brother, Eric, isn’t sprawled on the floor playing his Game Boy; that Aubrey’s mom can’t be heard talking on the phone or doing an exercise video in the basement. This house is usually much louder than Maya’s. She feels terrible for being late.
Nothing from Aubrey as they enter her room. A Tender Wallpaper song wafts from the headphones on the bed; Maya recognizes the slow drums. A can of orange soda on the nightstand. A freshly smoked cigarette hangs in the air, but the whole house smells like cigarettes, so no one will know. Christmas lights frame the open window. Maya’s mouth hangs open when she sees the time on the alarm clock. 11:42 p.m. She’s three hours late. “Wow, I’m really sorry,” she says. “I was about to bike over here when Frank showed up at my house. He was just going to stay a few minutes, but then we started talking, and . . .”
Aubrey peers at her. “What are you on?”
“What? Nothing.”
Aubrey narrows her eyes. She sits on her bed, stops the CD on her Discman. “So what happened?”
Maya sits beside her, cross-legged. A soft wind blows in the window, cool with night. Her uneasiness recedes as she tells Aubrey about their kiss and the talk that led up to it. Maya’s wanted this for what feels like so long—but Aubrey seems unimpressed. Uninterested even. “So that’s why you’re late?” she asks. “Because you were making out with Frank?”
“No, we talked too. He told me more about his cabin.”
A smirk flicks across Aubrey’s face. “The one he’s building in his dad’s backyard?”
“Not in the backyard,” Maya says with a sliver of resentment. “His dad has property out by the state forest. The cabin’s in the woods, and Frank finished it. He’s taking me to see it tomorrow at one.”
“He’s taking you to a cabin in the woods. What is this, a horror movie?”
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew him.”
“Really?”
“Look, I said I was sorry. And I am. I should’ve been here at nine.”
Aubrey softens, but questions swim in her eyes. Maya wonders if Aubrey is jealous. She’s never thought this before, but her suspicion grows when Aubrey seems to lose interest in the topic of Frank and suggests they watch a movie, an ’80s slasher film where a man in a mask hunts teenagers.
They watch it on an old TV-VCR combo that Aubrey bought at a garage sale. The movie is from a garage sale too, bought with the money she made as a bagger at Big Y. The movie is gory and terrible. Usually they’d be making jokes through the whole thing, but tonight, after a few quips from Maya, they just watch, and with every murder, Aubrey’s choice feels more passive-aggressive. She’s so quiet when it’s over that Maya thinks she’s asleep, so she turns off the TV and lies beside Aubrey in bed. The day was hot, but the night air is cold, so she gets beneath the blanket. Closes her eyes.
“What happens when you go away to college?” Aubrey asks.
“Huh?”
“With you and Frank. What happens when you leave?”
“I don’t know,” Maya says. “Maybe I’ll defer.” Only as the words leave her mouth does she realize she’s considering it, but now that she’s said it, she knows it’s true.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Plenty of people take a gap year,” Maya says, surprised she hadn’t thought of it before. What does it matter if she starts at BU next year instead of next week?
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Aubrey asks.
Maya doesn’t know how to answer. Nothing is wrong with her. And who is Aubrey to criticize her for staying? Aubrey will be here too, still working at Big Y while attending Berkshire Community College. She had said it wasn’t worth taking out loans to go anywhere else, that community college was fine, more than anyone else in her family had done.
“Thought you’d be happy,” Maya says, “to know I might stay in town.”
“Wow,” Aubrey says sarcastically. Then a pause when it seems she might say more, but in the end, all she says is: “Good night.”
Maya is brushing her hair in the mirror after trying on several shirts and settling on a blue-and-white-striped tank top when the knock comes at the door. It’s not quite one, and her mom’s sleeping off last night’s shift, so Maya hurries to the door before Frank knocks again and wakes her up. He’s a few minutes early. She’s already smiling as she opens the door. But it isn’t Frank.
It’s Aubrey. She looks amazing. And she’s wearing that dress, the one she wore the night she made out with the drummer of the Screaming Mimis. Maya had watched him eyeing her all night as she danced near the stage, the dress slipping now and then from her shoulders, hugging her swinging hips. Aubrey too had known the drummer was watching her. That was the point. The dress is red, blood red.
“Hey,” Aubrey says.
How dare she?
Now all the guilt Maya had felt, all her sympathy, sizzles away like drops of water on a skillet. She steps outside, closes the door behind her so she doesn’t have to whisper. “You knew he’d be here at one.”
Aubrey smiles and shrugs like this is no big deal. “You said you wanted to introduce us, so here I am.”
“Look, we have plans, okay? You can’t just—”
“Don’t worry, I’m not staying. My mom’s having one of her Avon parties, so I had to get out of the house. Thought I’d come here. Meet Frank.”
Maya shakes her head. She’s about to ask Aubrey to leave when Frank pulls into the driveaway. Gets out of the car. He smiles as he approaches.
“Hey,” Aubrey says, extending her hand. “I’m—”
“Aubrey.” He clasps her hand warmly.
“You must be Frank.” Her voice is light, but she holds his eyes as if trying to read him. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” she says.
“Same here. All good things.” He seems comfortable, and Maya wonders if she was wrong in assuming he preferred to spend time with her alone.
She almost dies as his eyes dart down the front of Aubrey’s body. “Well,” Maya says a little too forcefully, “nice seeing you, Aubrey. But as I was saying, Frank and I have plans today . . .”
Aubrey looks to him, waits to be invited.
To Maya’s immense relief, he stays out of the conversation. He’s not quite smiling, not quite amused, but close. And she wonders how this looks to him, the obvious tension in the air. Maya’s tone. For a moment, she’s sure he’s deduced the whole situation.
“Okay, well . . . see you around, I guess,” Aubrey says to Maya, and she sounds almost sad, but Maya has no sympathy for her. They have never hurt each other in this way. Not like this, with what feels like cruelty.
“It was nice to meet you, Frank,” Aubrey says. “And congrats.”
He freezes. “Congrats?”
“On the cabin. Maya said you finished it.”
The hint of amusement vanishes from his face. He glares at Maya. “You told her about my cabin.”
“I—I told her you built it. Was I not supposed to?”
Frank glowers. He could be a stranger.
“Sorry I brought it up,” Aubrey says. “I’ll . . . go now.”
“It’s fine,” he says as she walks away. “Really. I’m glad you know about it, Aubrey.” A smile sparks in his eyes and spreads across his face, brightening him as quickly as he’d darkened. “Maybe you’d like to see it too.”
No! Maya wants to shout.
“It’ll have to be another day, though,” he says. “I actually need to get back to my dad. He had a rough morning. That’s what I came here to tell you, Maya. Today doesn’t work anymore, I’m sorry.”
She doesn’t believe him. He was going to take her to his cabin, she was going to tell him her thoughts about deferring, but Aubrey ruined everything.
“I’m sorry,” she says.
“For what?” He hugs her goodbye, but the hug is wooden, bloodless. Even as his face pretends nothing’s changed. “Good to meet you,” he says to Aubrey. His gaze drops again to her body, and Maya feels a gut punch. “Did you walk here?” Frank asks.
Aubrey nods.
“Want a ride?”
Aubrey glances at Maya, then at Frank. She thinks about it. “Sure,” she says.
Maya doesn’t breathe as she watches him open the car door for her. Aubrey gets in. She avoids eye contact with Maya through the windshield.