Back at Lane’s, Ava and Oliver carried in the shopping bags. The house was silent.
“She’s probably taking a nap,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”
“Where are you going?” Ava asked.
“I do have a home, you know,” he said.
They exchanged phone numbers and he bounded down the steps as though he couldn’t wait to be free of her.
Ava crept through the house. Light flooded in the front windows, illuminating dust on the windowsills and tables. Ava found cleaning supplies in the butler’s pantry and wiped down the surfaces. Her mother had insisted on keeping their apartment clean. Ava’s actions were a reflex, but she also wanted to be on her best behavior so her grandmother would like her. They did not appear to be off to a great start.
Ava considered vacuuming, but was afraid it would wake Lane. She took her new phone to the costume room and sat on the bed. She’d been one of the only girls at her school without a phone. “Read,” Louise said when Ava complained. “Make something. Let’s do a project.” They tried out complicated recipes. They drew portraits of each other. They played the radio and practiced headstands.
Since Louise had died, Ava had done none of these things. She had watched hours of television each day, she had wandered on her own through Iowa City, picking purple flowers off the hostas along Court Street and eating their pollen. She hung around the library but was unable to read. She couldn’t focus on anything. She walked to City High at night. Her friends’ older siblings talked about high school play practice, their Spanish teachers, the pranks the seniors played, sneaking onto the grounds at night and loading the fountain with grapes. Once a group of kids brought a cow inside the school. The stories struck Ava as grown-up, exciting. She couldn’t wait to start ninth grade. She supposed she would never go there now.
She called Kaitlyn’s cell and left a voicemail saying she was safe at Lane’s. Then she dialed the number of her best friend from eighth grade, Lucille. Ava had barely seen her since the funeral.
Lucille answered on the second ring, a breathless hello.
“Hey, it’s Ava. I got a new phone.”
“Ava, what’s up, where are you?”
“I’m in New Orleans, at my grandmother’s house. It’s huge. It’s like a mansion.”
“Really? Does it have any secret passageways?”
Lucille got excited about stuff like that. The two girls had watched Clue on repeat the summer before, until they had the scenes memorized. They both loved the house in it, even if the movie was kind of old.
“I haven’t found any, but I just got here. How’s your summer going?”
“Good, I’m going to camp next week. Margaret and I hiked the creek today. We saw like five used condoms.”
“Gross.”
“Totally. We’re about to go to the movies, but Margaret’s mad cause she wants to go ice-skating at the mall. She has a new skirt that she thinks will go awesome with her skates.”
“She’s so obsessed with clothes.”
“Maybe we’ll do both. If she keeps whining about it.”
Ava could hear Margaret singing some Beyoncé song in the background.
“We have to go,” Lucille said. “When are you coming back?”
“I don’t know, maybe not for a while. Have fun at camp.”
“Yeah, have fun in New Orleans.”
“Save my number, okay?
“Yeah, I will. Bye.”
Ava ended the call, feeling more alone than before. Lucille used to not even like Margaret, but they hung out all the time now, ever since Ava’s mom died. Ava didn’t really know how to talk to her friends anymore. Her sadness freaked everyone out.
Ava called her own number in Iowa, though she knew no one would answer. She heard the familiar robot voice on the machine and was tempted to leave a message for her mother. But, of course, Kaitlyn would hear it and think she was crazy, so Ava hung up.