With little effort, Elise could’ve had her pick of friends. She was beautiful and electric, fearless and uncompromising. She didn’t follow, she didn’t act like anyone else I knew.
Elise was everything I ever wanted to be.
She dropped by our lunch table a couple times after that but seemed to like floating better, changing tables often, sitting in the senior section one day and with the gamers the next. But soon she had her own table, and was gathering people up like strays. Lance Krasinski, who had bright red hair and wore ironic T-shirts that said things like CECI N’EST PAS UNE PIPE; Julie Adichie, who was the captain of Science Olympiad and wore her hair cropped; Mark Ransom, who modeled for department store catalogs on the weekend and rode a Vespa to school; Jae Park, who once performed magic tricks on Good Morning America when he was in middle school.
And for a little while I thought maybe that was it for Elise and me. One bright, explosive night of abandon, a comet lighting up my sky for a brief moment.
• • •
I couldn’t keep the news about Cameron from Melody forever. When I told her later that week, we went to her house and marathoned Law and Order: SVU, her favorite show, and got sick eating an entire carton of ice cream. Everything Mel knew about love she learned from the movies, including the parts about how to handle breakups—bingeing on ice cream and TV. It made talking to her about it difficult. I never knew how she’d react.
She never liked Cameron, but then again, she never liked any of the guys I liked. Whenever I tried to talk to her about them, she’d end up lecturing me about how immature high school boys were and how they weren’t worth the distraction.
So I learned to keep most of it to myself rather than risk more I-told-you-so’s from her. And of course I never told her the rest of the story, the fireworks and the surge of satisfaction I experienced when I saw that look of genuine fear on Cameron’s face. It felt like a secret, and Melody would never understand. I could just hear the panic in her voice: But that’s illegal.
• • •
The call came late Friday night. I was surprised when I saw her name lighting up the screen of my phone. “Hey,” I said, my heart skipping a beat.
“So here’s the plan,” Elise said without preamble. “Can you get some peanut butter and go to the address I just texted you?”
“What?” I looked at my phone and saw her message. “Why?”
“You’ll see.”
I didn’t hesitate, grabbing the peanut butter out of the cupboard and jogging to my car, easing it out of the driveway with the headlights off to avoid waking anyone up. I had no idea what I was doing or why. I wasn’t really sure if she’d even be there when I arrived, but I had to find out. Whatever it was, I knew it’d be fun and thrilling, a hammer to break the monotony of school, sleep, repeat.
I pulled in behind a white Camry parked up the street from the address Elise sent. She and a few others stood by the car in dark clothes, huddling over something.
“Hey,” I said as I walked up to them, my heart racing.
“Remy!” Elise gasped, and enveloped me in a tight hug like we were the best of friends. We hadn’t talked much lately, so I was surprised, but I was also secretly thrilled to see her so excited by my arrival. Even though we weren’t best friends, it felt like we could be someday. “Did you bring the PB?” she asked once we separated.
Nodding, I held up the jar. “I wasn’t sure how much you needed. If you want, I can go get some more,” I said, ready to do anything for her.
“No, this is perfect,” she said with a big smile that lit up her eyes before turning to introduce me to Julie, Mark, and Jae. I knew of them, but I’d never exchanged more than two words with Julie or Mark, and Jae was a junior, so we’d never even had a class together. “Lance’s home with the flu. Thanks for helping us out—I knew you’d come,” she said like I’d saved the day.
“Of course,” I said, a little dizzy with anticipation. “What are we doing?” Then I noticed the thing they’d all been hovering over, a small box Julie held gingerly. When everyone quieted down, I could hear light scratching and tiny squeaks. “Is that—”
“Mice?” Elise finished for me. “Yes, and that’s what we need the peanut butter for.”
I looked at her in confusion.
“I told them what we’d done to Cameron,” she said, and I felt surprisingly hurt. I thought it was our secret, I thought that night belonged only to us. “Jae just found out his girlfriend, Dana, was sleeping with his best friend.”
“Oh shit,” I said before glancing up to see his jaws clench. Anger was coming off his body in waves. He was clearly hurting, just like I was homecoming night, and Elise was here to fix it—to right a wrong.
“I don’t have any more firecrackers, but I had another idea,” she said, that familiar glint in her eye.
• • •
Dana Wolfert occupied the basement suite of her house. We quietly marched around to her backyard and tried the door. It was locked. Then the four of them fanned out, trying the windows one by one. I stayed close to Elise, unsure of what we’d do if we couldn’t get in.
“This one’s open,” Elise whispered. “Thank God, or we would’ve had to break a window.”
That surprised me, but I remained quiet because I didn’t think she would’ve actually broken into the house for something as silly as a prank. But then I saw that spark of determination in her eyes and wasn’t so sure anymore. It didn’t scare me though. I found her dedication kind of romantic, that she’d be willing to risk getting in trouble for her friends.
Inside, Elise took on the riskiest job, smearing peanut butter around Dana’s bed, her pillows, her nightstand.
“Dana sleeps like the dead,” Jae had assured us.
Mark stood by the stairs to keep watch for any movement above while Julie pulled out a small bottle of cooking oil and coated all the doorknobs. Then Jae dealt the final blow, walking in with the box of mice and tearing it open just enough for the mice to climb out. Then they closed the door behind them and ran, trying to stifle their laughter.
“Are you sure she’s going to wake up?” Elise asked Jae when they were outside.
“Fuck,” he said. “I don’t know.”
Dana answered the question with a terrifying, high-pitched scream. The mice must’ve found the peanut butter—and her.
“Oh my God,” Julie said, eyes wide, hand covering her mouth in an attempt to keep from laughing.
“Run, run, run,” Elise whispered sharply, taking me by the wrist. Once we got to the cars, she said, “You guys go ahead. It’s too crammed with all of us. Remy can drive me home.” I looked at her in surprise, so happy that we’d be alone, even if it was just for a car ride.
More screams pierced the night. Lights began to flood the street.
“Shit, guys, we have to go,” Mark said, jumping in the driver’s seat. The others scrambled in and tore out of the neighborhood.
“Are we following them?” I asked, frantically starting the car.
“Nah,” Elise said, nonchalant. “I’ll meet up with them later.”
“Oh.” I slowed down.
“But I don’t want to go home yet,” she said as we came to a stoplight. “Let’s go to your house.”
“I don’t know,” I said, worried about my parents and what they might do. Then I remembered that Mom was away at a conference. “Yeah, okay.”
At my house, Elise and I went straight to the pool. We stretched out on loungers, the weather-resistant fabric rough against my skin, and she lit up a cigarette for each of us.
“Why’d you call me? You didn’t need me,” I said. In the rush of the moment, I was only focused on what we were doing, but now that we were alone, I was curious.
“Yes, we did! You brought the peanut butter. It wouldn’t have worked without the peanut butter,” she said, shooting me a sleepy smile.
“Anyone else could’ve brought the peanut butter.” I only kept pushing because I was secretly hoping that what she wanted wasn’t the peanut butter but me.
“You were our lookout! You were crucial to the entire operation, and I won’t let you minimize your importance,” she said, sliding off of her lounger and scooting onto mine. “Also, I missed you.”
Hearing those words thrilled me. “You did? Why didn’t you just—” Text? Call? Sit with me at lunch?
She sighed. “You’re always with Melody and it’s obvious she doesn’t like me.”
“No, that’s not true!” I said, but it was.
Elise rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
“She just doesn’t know you,” I said, slinging an arm around her. It was so easy, slipping back into how we were that first night, like no time had passed. “I think you should give her another chance. You guys have a lot of things in common.” I didn’t want to lose Elise again, but I didn’t want to hurt Melody either.
Elise raised an eyebrow. “We have a lot in common? I’d rather die than spend an evening baking stuff and then setting up a table in the cafeteria to sell crappy cookies.”
“One, Melody’s cookies are amazing. Two, she isn’t like that all the time. She can be fun. And three, she thinks boys are stupid too, just like you do.”
She sighed again, dramatically, then began to fiddle with her lighter, flipping it open and closed, sparking a flame and letting the wind blow it out.
“Fine, whatever. But if she tries to get me to bake something again, I’m out.”
“Okay,” I said, relieved. “I’ll let her know.”
Elise laughed lightly, resting her head against my shoulder and closing her eyes.