New Year's Eve (16 page)

We shouldn't have come, Kevin thought. Kip's gonna kill us. After she kills us, Mom and Dad are going to kill us.

He swallowed hard, trying to figure out how they could escape now.

Pete always ate when he was nervous. He reached into his pocket for the Oreo cookies, and they had become a mass of crumbs, so he licked Oreo crumbs out of his hands.

Jamie patted his cummerbund. He was dressed just like the big boys. That made him feel good. Jamie tilted his head to he could see through his splotchy glasses. “Lee!” he cried. “Hi, Lee!”

He darted past his sister, between two long flowing evening gowns of girls he didn't know and held out his arms to Lee.

Lee scooped him up. Jamie was little enough and Lee was strong enough that he could hold Jamie high in the air and jiggle him. Jamie's glasses slid down his nose and he giggled. “We miss you,” Jamie told him.

Lights twinkled in a formal ballroom.

Long gowns rustled, and the scent of flowers filled the air.

The band played softly, romantically.

Kevin and Pete decided it was safer next to Lee than next to Kip. They ran over to Lee in time to catch Jamie's baseball cap when it slid off his head.

“Oh,” wailed a girl in yellow, “I'm going to cry. That is so sweet.”

“Sweet!” Mike Robinson repeated. “Sweet!”

Kip said, “I can't believe you guys did this to me.”

Kevin and Pete and Jamie stared at her. Their little eyes were rimmed with exhaustion.

“Akshully,” Jamie confided, leaning down from Lee's shoulder, “we didn't do it to you, Kippie. We did it to Lee.”

“And Lee,” said Lee, grinning from ear to ear, “is not mad.”

Molly walked over to Con and Anne.

They stopped dancing.

They were afraid of her, she could tell.

Afraid of what I'll say, she thought. What do they know? Words don't do permanent damage. I should know. If they had any sense they'd be afraid of what I might do. But these two don't feature sense.

She glued her eyes to Anne's.

Anne took a step back.

Molly took a step forward.

Anne flinched.

Con wrapped his arm protectively around Anna “Hey,” he said uncertainly.

The purse swung backward.

Molly leaned right into Anne's face.

Anne stepped back again and the purse swung and Molly caught it, all without looking. She laughed. Her eyes glittered.

Molly said, “Anne, you might like to know that he slept with me, too. Not what I'd call faithful. And how about Jade? He can't even be bothered to visit Jade on her deathbed. This is a person you want back?”

“D
ON'T FREAK OUT,” LEE
said quietly.

“Me?” Kip said, not quietly at all. “Freak out? Why Lee! It's only a formal dance at The Hadley. It's only eleven p.m. It's only my three little brothers looking as though they last bathed in 1985. There are only five hundred people staring at them. That's nothing to freak out about now, is it, Lee?”

“Right,” Lee said. “Let's all stay calm and—”

“Calm?” Kip shrieked.

Her brothers took refuge behind Lee. Pete finished up the Oreos and began on the apples. The sound of his crunching McIntosh blended in nicely with the snare drums.

“I feel really great,” Lee said, kneeling down to hug them all. “Three human beings knock themselves out to come see me. This is the nicest way to start a New Year I can think of.” Lee took Jamie's baseball cap off and wore it himself. “I bet you guys are thirsty. Want to have some Coke?”

“They want to be strangled,” Kip said.

“Better stay behind me,” Lee advised Pete and Kevin. “She's out for blood.”

Lee was so touched.

Nobody had ever missed Lee before.

His parents were glad when Lee left for college, having gone through enough adolescent rebellion to last them a lifetime. Kip hadn't so much as sent a postcard, and as for Anne, she had come weekends, Lee thought, only so she could tell people she was dating. Across the ballroom, Anne and Con were still dancing.

Nobody was in love with Lee.

But three grubby little boys thought he was worth a trip.

Jamie said, “Oh, food! Is that food? Can I have cookies? Can I have cake? Can I have ice cream?”

He set Jamie down. He handed out plastic goblets of soda to all three, and filled their plates with goodies. There were nutritious things on the pretty tables: celery filled with cream cheese, prosciutto wrapped around cheese. Nobody liked nutrition at a dance. The boys went for the New Year's cookies with the year in icing, the slices of chocolate log roll, and the glazed doughnut holes.

Jamie ate six doughnut holes and wiped his hands on Lee's trousers.

“Uh, Jamie,” Lee said.

Jamie smiled up at him. The thick glasses were crooked on his little nose. His bright blue sweatpants billowed out below the enormous cummerbund, and the red-and-black checked hunting jacket was buttoned wrong. “What?” Jamie said.

Lee sighed, and handed him a napkin.

“Thank you,” Jamie said, and passed it on to Kevin, who occasionally used that sort of thing.

Next to him, Kip said, “I—uh—I'll get a paper towel from the girls' room and clean off the sugar, Lee. I'm sorry.”

He turned. Whatever anger and embarrassment Kip had felt a few minutes ago had drained off. She was pale and tired. For him it was the ultimate compliment to have this group crash the party: for Kip it was the ultimate embarrassment.

“It's okay, Kip. I'll get it later. Listen, I—uh—I kind of lost Anne. So since I'm free, I'll just drive the boys on home. You want to give me a housekey so we can get in?”

Kip touched the purse hanging by her side. The moment she got the key out, Lee would go. She wanted this awkward minute to last forever instead.

She couldn't take her eyes off him. Her little brothers coming all the way to The Hadley just to see Lee. Not—as all the teenagers were speculating—to get Lee and Kip back together. Just because they really missed Lee.

They're smarter than I am, Kip thought. They know a good man when they see one. She blinked back tears.

“You want the rest of my doughnut hole?” Jamie offered. “I'm full now, Kippie.” He tucked the sticky half-hole in her hand.

Lee handed her a napkin.

Kip had never known how to be subtle. She couldn't be subtle now. She said, “Lee, I've missed you.”

He tried to be casual. “Runs in the family, huh?”

She nodded.

Pete said, “I've got my key, Lee, we don't need Kip's. Can you stay and play a game with us when we get home? We got two new video games since you were at our house.”

“You did? What are they? Will I be able to beat you?”

“No,” Kevin and Pete chorused. “Because we're terrific.”

“I'm pretty terrific myself,” Lee said. “I bet once you guys teach me the game we'll be up all night fighting it out.”

Three little boys did not think there could be a better way to spend New Year's Eve. They hugged Lee en masse.

“Can I come, too?” Kip said.

“Aw, Kippie,” her brothers said. “You stay here and dance. We wanna see Lee.”

But Lee was looking at Kip. A long look. Where's Mike? he wondered. He looked around. He said, “Uh—what's happening?”

Her face muscles jerked the way they had the other time Lee ever saw her cry. “Sort of like Anne. Mike had other things to do.”

“What other things?” Kevin demanded.

“He didn't tell me,” Kip said.

“Why not? He's your boyfriend,” Pete said. “How come you're not in control, Kippie?”

Kip closed her eyes. She had never been less in control.

Lee studied the selection of pastries left on the table after Kevin, Pete, and Jamie had gone through like a hungry hurricane. “You glad about that?” he said softly to Kip.

“Yes.” Her brown hair clouded around her. Taking the plunge, she said, “Are you?”

It was a short answer. Kip and Lee had always managed to be brief. “Yes,” Lee said.

The answer didn't need to be any longer than that.

Joy came back into Kip's life.

“What are you talking about?” Jamie demanded.

They didn't hear him. They didn't even see him. They inched closer to each other. Jamie was between them and they didn't notice that either. “Oh, Lee, I'm so sorry, I was such a dumb bunny, I don't know why I did all that last summer,” Kip said, the words pouring out. “I didn't mean to, and I really missed you, and it's New Year's Eve, and I want a different New Year and—”

And they kissed.

Jamie, squashed between them, dropped to his knees, lifted the hem of his sister's long peach-blush skirt and crawled out. Jamie thought kissing was pretty boring. “Is it midnight yet?” he said to Lee.

Jamie tugged on Lee's pants and Kip's dress.

“I said, is it midnight yet?” he hollered.

It was neither Kip nor Lee who knelt down beside him this time, but a very strange looking lady with more hair than he had ever seen in his life. “You have a dead flower in your hair he told her.

“I know, but it's red,” Gwynnie said, “and if it's red, it's okay.”

Jamie nodded, soaking in this wisdom. “And is it midnight yet?”

“'Nother hour,” she said. “Are you somebody's date? Or would you dance with me? I see you have a cummerbund on. I know you came to dance.”

Jamie patted his cummerbund proudly. “My brother George loaned it to me,” he confided.

“Brothers named George do that kind of thing,” Gwynnie agreed.

“You'll have to teach me how,” Jamie warned.

“I'm a very good teacher,” Gwynnie said, standing up. Her white feathers brushed their cheeks. Her scarlet heels stabbed the floor next to their old mud sneakers. She twirled her black boa.

Three little boys forgot Lee completely.

“Will you teach me, too?” Kevin said.

“And me?” Pete said.

So Lee and Kip kissed …

… and Kevin, Pete, and Jamie danced on top of the couch, while Gwynnie, her wig back on and her dead flower bouncing, stood barefoot on the floor and taught them the Charleston.

George said, “Don't look now, but my entire family is here.”

Beth Rose said, “Your parents didn't come.”

“That's true. I wonder what's keeping them.”

“Fear of Kip,” Beth Rose said, giggling. “That would sure keep me away.

George grinned. “Kip can be rather tough.”

“Not now she isn't. Look at her and Lee.”

They looked.

George said, “I didn't know my sister was X-rated.” He watched with great interest. All sorts of sentences ran through Beth's mind, but she discarded them. She could not actually say to George, “You, too, have X-rated potential.” Or, “So, how about a little X-rated activity ourselves?” or even “People on their first dates have been known to do the very same thing, George.”

She studied George while George studied his sister and Lee.

George said, “Look at that. Gwynnie just rescued old Kippie. I bet Kippie has been the rescuer her whole life. This is an historic moment. My sister Kip has been rescued by somebody else. Got to send Gwynnie a Hallmark card for that.”

Beth swallowed.

She said, “You could—uh—well—”

She couldn't quite say any of her sentences.

George said, “What did you say? I didn't hear you over the band. They're playing too loud, you know.”

He bent lower so he could hear her repeat what he had missed. Beth remembered how Kip claimed George's only asset was being tall. Being tall was nice. It meant when he bent forward, his lips came closer. Beth stared at his lips.

She kissed him.

It was dark. There was a certain privacy in the very crowdedness of the ballroom.

So George kissed back.

Then he grinned.

And did it again.

Gary's handsome dark face went back and forth between Gwynnie—an exotic babysitter—and Beth Rose—somebody else's date.

When Gary had dated Beth Rose, he had truly been with her: she felt a date meant constant company. But when Gary dated Gwynnie, he was just her escort. Gwynnie felt free to do whatever she wanted.

Now Gary could see advantages to each girl. Wish I could have both, he thought. Wish I didn't have to choose.

He eyed Anne, melting into Con. Con still had Jade, too. Not a bad plan of action: put one in the hospital on hold … go temporarily back to the first.

Gary reached into his pocket. As Gwynnie began waltzing with the Elliott boys (the band was playing hard rock, but Gwynnie didn't mind a minor rhythmic problem) Gary took a nickel out. Heads I stay with Gwynnie, he decided. Tails I go back to Beth Rose.

Their progress from the elevators to the ballroom was blocked by two porters getting off the service elevator. The men were hauling the largest plastic bags Emily had ever seen. Each towed four bags, and each bag was as tall as a basket player and as round as a tub.

“What's this?” she said to them.

“Confetti,” they said sadly. Their New Year's Day would be spent gathering it all back up again.

“There's enough for everybody to have a bushel basket,” Emily said to Matt. They ducked under the last few balloons. Helium leaked out, the balloons drooped at the ends of long strings, moving limply only because of rising heat. Matt sympathized.

“You can have my confetti,” he said.

Christopher walked around the corner, Molly at his heels.

Thick chest-high cushions of confetti separated the couples.

“Happy New Year,” Emily said politely, to the people she least wanted to see out of the entire high school.

Christopher beamed at her. “And Happy New Year to you, too!” he said. “And to you, Matt!” He looked positively wholesome. Molly, on the other hand, looked positively depraved, in what had to be the sickest, most perverted “dress” Emily had ever laid eyes on.