Cece shrugs. “I’m a fast reader. And I have the day off tomorrow. I don’t have any plans till the Penningtons’ party. Are you going? I could give it back to you there.”
“I’ll be there,” Vi says, surprising herself. She’s never gone to one of Spencer’s parties. She doesn’t even like parties. They’re loud and crowded, and she has to make small talk, which is not one of her personal strengths. But if Cece’s going, she wants to go too. If it sucks, at least she’ll have a book to read.
“Awesome.” Cece looks over her shoulder as a couple approaches the hostess stand. She leans down and pets Juno one more time. “I should get back, but…thank you so much for the book. See you tomorrow!”
Vi waves awkwardly. “See you tomorrow.” She watches as Cece slides the book beneath a stack of menus.
Her plan worked. She not only got to talk to Cece, she got Cece’s phone number, and now they have plans to see each other tomorrow at the farm party and to walk Juno and Athena. But Vi feels more concerned than victorious. She doesn’t want to assume anything or pressure Cece to label herself if she’s not ready for that. But it seems like maybe Cece is interested in girls and afraid that her family wouldn’t support her.
If that’s true, Vi wants Cece to know that she’s a safe person to talk to. It seems like Cece could use a friend. And maybe—even if it doesn’t go any further—Vi could be that person.
Vi would really like to be that person.
Chapter Nine
DES
“You can’t wear that to the party! You look like a librarian,” Kat complains, eyeing Des’s ripped jeans, blue Le Petit Prince T-shirt, and navy Chucks.
Des shrugs and runs her hand through her messy red curls. “So? Librarians are cool.”
“No. Not like a cool, sexy librarian.” Kat looks at Des earnestly. “Don’t you want to dress up a little? Maybe you’ll meet somebody.”
“Kat, I already know everybody who’ll be at the party,” Des says. Not that it matters. She doesn’t have any interest in dating. She never has. She thinks it’s just the way she’s wired. Till last fall, she always had Em, and that best friendship felt like enough. “I don’t have time for a relationship,” she adds, because that seems more likely to placate Kat than I don’t want a relationship.
Kat smirks. “Who said anything about a relationship?”
“Kat!” Des flushes. She doesn’t have any interest in a random hookup either.
“Des!” Kat mimics. “You haven’t dated anyone since you and Jake Mitchell held hands. You peaked romantically in the fifth grade.”
“Harsh,” Bea says, drifting into the bedroom she and Des share.
“But true.” Kat fishes a tube of lipstick from her pocket and reapplies a perfect orange-red pout.
“Des doesn’t need a relationship. She has work, and…everything she does around here.” Bea flutters a freckled hand to encompass all of Des’s responsibilities.
Des scowls. Is that how her sisters see her? As some sort of Cinderella? Maybe she wouldn’t have to do so much if they helped out a little more. “And she has hobbies,” Bea adds, gesturing to Des’s half of the room, which looks like a craft store explosion.
Des twirls the turquoise ring on her index finger. Why is her art a hobby? No one dismisses Bea’s writing or Kat’s acting that way. Anger is hot in her chest as she remembers Em’s comment about “practicing her handwriting.” Maybe she isn’t going to art school; maybe she isn’t pursuing art professionally; maybe she hasn’t been making much time for it lately. It’s still important to her.
But can she blame her sisters for failing to realize that when she doesn’t take it more seriously herself?
“Whatever.” Kat flops down on Bea’s twin bed. Bea’s half of the room is immaculate: her bookshelf organized alphabetically, her notebooks stacked neatly on her desk, her sunny yellow duvet pulled up to her pillow. Even the photos on her wall are arranged at perfect right angles. “Tell Des she can’t wear that to the party, Bea.”
“It’s on a farm,” Des says irritably. “I’m dressed to go to a farm. At least I don’t look like a giant toddler.”
Kat shrinks into herself, and Des wishes she could stuff the word giant back down her throat. “I don’t understand the romper trend,” she adds hastily.
Kat pops up to look at herself in the mirror, tugging at the halter neck of her royal-blue romper. Des examines her sister while Kat’s back is turned. Has she lost weight? Has she been eating enough? She’s been sad, trying to hide it with a higher than usual amount of bitchiness, but it’s hard to hide anything in a three-bedroom house filled with five people.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Kat snaps, catching her gaze in the mirror. “Do you want to know everything I ate today? You can text Pen. She’ll tell you I had a strawberry ice cream cone yesterday to celebrate getting the part.”
“No, I trust you. If you say you’re okay…” Des trails off.
“I am,” Kat insists.
Des turns her attention to Bea, who’s taken off her glasses and is now carefully applying eyeliner in the mirror. There are dark circles under her brown eyes. “Hey, wait a minute! Bea’s wearing jeans.”
Kat tilts her head, evaluating Bea’s dark skinny jeans and Self-Rescuing Princess tank top. “She and Erik have been dating forever. She doesn’t have to try anymore.”
Bea gives her a ferocious frown. “I don’t dress for Erik. I dress for myself.”
“I can tell,” Kat says.
Des’s phone beeps with a notification that Em has posted pictures. She’s already at the party.
“I am a whole person all by myself,” Bea continues. “I don’t need a boyfriend to be complete. Neither does Des, and neither do you.”
“Fine. Wear whatever you want.” Kat stomps from the room. “But don’t complain to me if people think you’re lame.”
“Don’t say ‘lame’! It’s ableist!” Bea shouts after her.
Des frowns as she scrolls through Em’s photos. Em’s standing near a bonfire, a red Solo cup in one hand, posing and laughing with girls from their high school class. Girls she’s gotten coffee with over the past few weeks. Des has seen those pictures on Instagram too and felt stung that she wasn’t invited.
Maybe Em assumed she had to work?
Or maybe, she thinks bitterly, Em’s embarrassed by her now. Tonight, Em’s wearing a strapless pink sundress and dramatic pink, purple, and teal eye shadow. How did she learn to do eye shadow like that? Des feels left behind and somehow betrayed.