Best Behavior

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Best Behavior Page 20

by Wendy Francis

“Anyway, I know it’s no trip to Bora-Bora—”

  “It’s perfect, Mom. Really.” Cody drapes an arm around her. “I love it.”

  Meredith manages a smile. “I’m so glad,” she says. After the roller coaster of emotions of the last twenty-four hours, she is completely and totally bereft. She has nothing left to give her children today.

  Nothing, that is, but her own unwavering, unconditional love.

  FOURTEEN

  After they drop Roger’s parents and Georgie at the hotel, Roger and Lily pull into the driveway, the house lit up like a jack-o’-lantern with two lights glowing upstairs and a row of windows illuminating the first floor. Timed lights flicker on at exactly seven o’clock and shut off at eleven. When Roger started traveling for weeks at a time for work, Lily wanted to make sure that the house always looked as if someone were home. There probably aren’t many criminals in well-to-do Manchester-by-the-Sea, but the lights (plus a recently installed alarm system) help her to sleep soundly at night.

  Lily has dozed off on the short ride back from Boston, whether because of her second vodka tonic or sheer exhaustion, she’s not sure. One thing she is certain about: the tremendous amount of relief she feels now that they’re home. It leaves only tomorrow to endure. She shifts in her seat and unbuckles her seat belt. “Mmm...home, finally,” she murmurs.

  Roger reaches across the car and squeezes her knee. “You made it. You were a rock star tonight, by the way. Thank you.”

  “Ha! Hardly.” She stretches her arms out in front of her. The dashboard clock insists that it’s ten thirty, even though it feels more like two in the morning. “I think Meredith officially hates me.”

  “Meredith? No, she can be icy but it’s a tough weekend for her. Her babies are graduating. Don’t take it personally.”

  Lily cranes her neck from side to side. “No, I’m pretty sure it’s personal. She doesn’t like me.”

  “Baby, how can anyone not like you? You’re the sweetest, prettiest thing out there.”

  Typically such words would reassure her, but tonight, with the fresh memory of Meredith’s underhanded insults about her work as an enhancer, they sound condescending. She’s confident that Meredith would never allow Roger to call her a “pretty thing.” Lily releases her hair from the bun that’s been holding it hostage all day. Despite the fact that she slipped a pill back in the ladies’ room at the restaurant, probably around six, her head is pounding and her arms itch like crazy. It’s time for another.

  “It’s funny you say that,” she says now. Roger has come around to open the car door for her. “I kind of felt like the odd woman out tonight, like no one really wanted me there.”

  He reaches for her hand and pulls her to standing. “Oh, honey. You’re overanalyzing. No one thought that. And I, for one, was thrilled to have you there. I don’t enjoy sitting anywhere near Meredith’s mom. Talk about hate. Now, there’s someone who really knows how to lay it on thick.”

  Lily manages a small laugh. Carol clearly doesn’t like Roger, which strikes Lily as so strange after all this time has passed. It’s possible she may dislike Roger even more than Roger’s mom, Edith, dislikes Lily. Although dislike might not be the right word. Edith acts as if Lily is a pungent cheese that she’s pulled out of the fridge by mistake.

  “You’re right. She despises you. Anyone can see that. But how weird is that? Wouldn’t you think she’d have moved on after all this time? It’s not like you divorced Carol.”

  “Bingo,” he says.

  They enter the house through the adjoining door to the garage, and he tosses his car keys into the ceramic dish sitting on the hall table. There’s a note from Alison, tucked underneath the dish. “Thanks for letting me hang out! Hope graduation was great! Xo, Ali.” Moses pads over, and Lily leans down to accept his kisses. Let him lick her face clean, she thinks. She no longer needs to impress anyone tonight.

  Roger strolls over to the kitchen cabinet and pulls out two glasses. “Oh, honey.” She shakes her head. “I don’t think I can have any more. I really want to get some rest before the party tomorrow.”

  “Come on. Come sit with me on the deck. One tiny drink,” he calls out as he ducks into the wine cellar for a fresh bottle. Lily sighs. Does the man ever get tired? He was out till late last night for the kids’ banquet—something they’ve yet to discuss—although in light of this evening’s dinner, Lily feels more magnanimous toward her husband. She sees how he struggles to be included in his own children’s lives, how Carol abhors him and Meredith abides him because he is Dawn and Cody’s dad. Even the kids seem to gravitate toward their mom.

  Well, now that Dawn and Cody are officially grown-ups, Lily suspects these kinds of family gatherings will become even less frequent. At least they have Bora-Bora to look forward to. Or, she hopes they do, assuming Meredith doesn’t put a last-minute veto on it. Assuming the kids won’t object to Lily’s tagging along. She heads upstairs to change, pulling her dress off along the way.

  If memory serves, one pill should remain in the tiny makeup bag that she packed this morning for graduation. In the bathroom, she pulls out the zippered tote, fishes out the pill from her compact, and swallows, wishing she could hurry along the serene feeling that will eventually envelop her. Thank goodness for these, she thinks. The only thing that will get me through tomorrow. She slips into her pajamas and brushes out her hair.

  Back downstairs, Roger already sits on the deck, staring out at the ocean. Wide swaths of light from an almost-full moon brighten the backyard. “Come join me.” He beckons to her through the screen door and holds out a glass of wine. He has shucked his jacket and tie, unbuttoned his shirt and rolled up the sleeves. Her husband is undeniably handsome with his dark hair and bright blue eyes. Tall and lanky, he radiates a self-assurance that would probably come across as cocky in most men. But it’s not just because he’s a local celebrity that gets people’s attention, she thinks. Even if her husband were a garbage collector, he would still turn heads. Lily goes over, settles into his lap, and takes the wine.

  She knows that Meredith thinks her ex-husband is a jerk, that he can’t be trusted. And as much as Lily is convinced that Meredith despises her, she has also noticed Meredith staring at her occasionally, as if she longs to entrust Lily with a deep, dark secret. Perhaps warn her about Roger? Tell her how he cheated on Meredith and the kids? List the alarming number of girlfriends he has courted over the years? Maybe even convince Lily to pack her bags and leave before Roger beats her to it?

  But Lily has heard it all. Roger already confided in her about his playboy days, and it’s not as if she was a nun before they met. She has her own share of skeletons in the closet, one-night stands best forgotten. She pushes up her husband’s glasses and begins to plant soft kisses along his cheekbone before he takes her wineglass and gently sets it down on the table. Within minutes, he has managed to shimmy her pajama top and bottoms off and next, her panties, down around her ankles. They slide onto the deck floor, and, not for the first time, she finds herself grateful that the closest neighbor lives a mile away.

  “You’re crazy beautiful,” he whispers. “Do you know that?”

  “Hmm...you’re not so bad yourself,” she gets out between kisses.

  She’d wanted Roger to look through the slides for tomorrow. She’d meant to review her trusty checklist to ensure that everything is set for the party. But right now, while they make love, it hardly seems to matter. The party will be better than fine, she reassures herself. The effects of the pill are beginning to wind their way through her body with a sweet, tingly feeling, and she pushes away any uneasiness the night has stirred in her. Frankly, at the moment, she’d be content to drift off to sleep right here in her husband’s arms until the morning sun warms their naked bodies.

  Honestly, what else could she possibly need?

  Nothing, she tells herself. And then, from somewhere deep inside her: everything.r />
  * * *

  As soon as they get dropped off at their dorm, Matt’s text pops up on Dawn’s phone. Hi. You back yet? Wanna meet up? Head to the Square?

  Cody reads it over her shoulder. “Sounds like fun. Party time. Can I come?”

  Amazingly, Matt and Cody are friends. Not best friends, but cool enough to hang out together. So, the fact that her brother is inviting himself along doesn’t strike Dawn as all that unusual. What does surprise her is how Cody can possibly consider going out after the day they’ve just had.

  “Are you kidding me? I’m completely wiped out. I’m going to bed.”

  “Aw, Donny, you’re no fun,” he says, invoking her nickname from when they were kids.

  Sorry, but I’m beat, she texts Matt. Wanna come over here?

  Sorry, but I already promised the boys I’d meet them. See you tomorrow?

  Dawn experiences a prick of irritation that her boyfriend has already made plans without her, but the sheer exhaustion she feels trumps any desire to get together.

  Kay, she types back. See you tomorrow then. Have fun. Xo

  To which Matt responds with a heart-eyed emoji.

  “You should text Matt yourself, if you want to go,” she tells Cody, hesitating before heading into her dorm. “Hey, do you think Mom’s going to be okay? She seemed kind of upset tonight.”

  Her brother grins as if it’s a stupid question. “You know Mom. She doesn’t do well with change.”

  Dawn considers this. “I suppose you’re right. But it’s not like we’re never going to see her again after this summer. She really didn’t like the fact that Dad is taking us to Bora-Bora.”

  “Yeah, well, she’ll get over it.” Sometimes her brother can be a real jerk, but Dawn chooses to ignore it for now. She’s too tired to pick a fight. “So, are you going to tell me what really happened with the dean today?” She’s been dying to get the details. The only thing Cody said on the ride over to Artu was that it was “no biggie,” just “a little misunderstanding” and then he’d shoved his diploma into her hands, as if to prove the point.

  Dawn was relieved. Of course, she was relieved! She didn’t want Cody to get kicked out of school. But a little voice inside her head had protested. How come that was so easy for you? How come you and Dad can make every problem disappear with a wave of your hand? And, oh, by the way, where were Mom and Dad when I needed them? Because neither one of her parents had even bothered to show up on the day of her meeting with the Admin Board. “Just tell the truth,” they’d advised, as if they were reluctant to get involved. Her very fate had been left in the hands of a few gray-haired professors. While Cody, only Cody, waited for her outside the conference room door, Dawn had worked diligently to defend herself.

  Her brother shrugs now in typical fashion. “Well, you were right about the photo. That’s what they were hung up on, not the frogs. I even told the dean that I was behind the frog prank and he didn’t seem to care.”

  “Really?” She can’t mask her surprise. She’d been hoping it was the frogs, which somehow strikes her as a more forgivable infraction, and not the photo that had put her brother in the hot seat.

  “So, what did they say?”

  “They wanted to know if I was trading a paper for drugs, just like the email said.”

  “Cody! Were you?” Maybe now that they’re alone her brother will finally confide in her.

  “What does it matter? They couldn’t prove anything. I told you that photo meant nothing.” He weaves his fingers together and cracks his knuckles, making her wince. “It also helps to have your dad around when he happens to be Roger Landau.”

  “Yeah, I’ll bet,” she says a tad sarcastically. Not that she would know. “Did Dad pay him off or something to make your little problem go away?”

  “Nope, didn’t even need to stoop that low. Like I told you, they had nothing on me. It was Eddie they were trying to nail. At least that’s what Dad told me later. Everyone knows Eddie’s selling drugs on campus. They just haven’t been able to prove it.”

  “Huh. And what about the paper. Did you really edit it for him?”

  “Gotta plead the Fifth on that one, sis. It’s for the best.”

  “I’ll take that as a no then,” she says, which is fine. If her brother wrote Eddie’s paper, she doesn’t really care. It’s not like she’s the morality warden or anything. It’s more the drugs that she’s worried about. “But, Cody, you’re not messing around with drugs for real, are you? I mean, you’d tell me, right? You’d tell me if you needed to get help, right?”

  He reaches out and tousles her hair. “Aw, little sis,” he says. “I love how you worry about me. But don’t. You’re wasting your time. Seriously.”

  And what is she supposed to say to that? She hugs her photo book to her chest. “I’m going to pretend you just said, ‘No, Dawn, I’m not using drugs. That would be so stupid of me, especially considering I have my whole life ahead of me!’”

  He cocks his head to one side. “Hey, that was well put. Thanks.” And with that, he turns to leave, but not before softly saying, “Hey, Donny, ever hear of Adderall for late nights?”

  And that’s when Dawn realizes what was in the backpack. The last piece of the puzzle clicks into place.

  * * *

  Cody can admit now that he was a little worried—actually, more like petrified—while he sweated it out in the dean’s office. He didn’t want to lose his diploma. Not when he’d worked his ass off! He didn’t know if his dad was hoping to hatch some kind of deal with the dean when they stepped outside, but frankly, by that point, he didn’t care. He would have cut a deal with the devil. If he’d left there without a diploma, his life would have been totally ruined, as in over. He could kiss his future goodbye. The high school would retract his job offer, and he’d never be able to get into graduate school, let alone land another job.

  When his mom looked at him with those searching, concerned eyes, he’d almost cracked. Maybe it would be better to tell the truth if the dean was going to stumble onto it anyway? He could cop to the Adderall but not the paper, maybe. But then he’d performed a quick calculation in his head: he’d covered his tracks as best he could; his dad was talking to the dean; and Cody didn’t think the school had anything to pin on him. The odds seemed to lean in his favor. So, he’d shut down, told his mom there was nothing to worry about, and took maybe the biggest risk of his college career.

  Cody had only been trying to help in the first place. Eddie was a nice enough guy, and though Cody knew he had a reputation for dealing drugs, it never came up between them. Then one day, Eddie mentioned he was freaking out about a paper due for Introductory Psychology, and Cody told him that the class had been a breeze when he took it freshman year. Which was when things got interesting.

  “Yeah, if it’s so easy, how about you write my paper?” Eddie joked. Or so Cody had thought.

  “Yeah, right.” He continued to pull out miles on the rowing machine while Eddie rowed next to him.

  “No, man, I’m serious,” Eddie continued.

  “Dude, I hardly have time to study for my own finals let alone write a paper for you.”

  “It’s only four pages. Easy for you to do. I’ll make it worth your while.”

  Cody had been vaguely intrigued. He’d assumed Eddie was referring to a little weed, maybe something stronger. Maybe straight-up cash. “Yeah, like how?”

  “Let’s just say you’ll be nicely compensated for your efforts.”

  Cody had never written anyone’s paper before, but he was confident he could dash off a four-pager in about an hour. No sweat.

  “Surely, there’s something you could use to help you through finals week?” Eddie had hinted.

  Cody hesitated for maybe a millisecond. He should have hesitated longer. “Come to think of it, I hear Adderall can be helpful for late-night cramming.”

 
Eddie had nodded, looking straight ahead while the whir of the rowing machines drowned out their voices. “Funny, I’ve heard that, too.” They’d set up a date to meet the next day at the gym, and that had been that. When Cody opened the backpack in his room, he’d discovered a bottle of Adderall, ten tiny pills to be taken every six hours or so. He’d popped the first one immediately and soon after felt as if he’d downed five Red Bulls in quick succession. The stuff was amazing! He was up all night studying for his economics final, a class that he was practically failing. He needed to pull off an A on the final, 75 percent of his grade, to pass. But he’d done it—gotten the A and lifted his grade up to a B+. To be honest, he hadn’t given another thought to Eddie or the paper or the pills until Dawn had flashed that photo at him yesterday.

  Oh, shit, he’d thought, even though he’d done his best to play it cool in front of his sister. Right before the awards ceremony under the tent, he’d run up to his room to flush the last few pills down the toilet and stuffed the bottle in some random Dumpster behind the dorm. Later that night, he’d tracked down Eddie so they could get their story straight. Taking Adderall wasn’t technically illegal—he knew kids who took it all the time and some who had actual legit prescriptions for their diagnoses of ADHD. But writing someone else’s paper was grounds for expulsion.

  What had he been thinking?

  He knows he’s lucky to have gotten a hall pass this time. He’d nearly texted Eddie to give him an update tonight, tell him that everything was copacetic and not to worry. But then he’d remembered they’d agreed not to be in touch for the next week, so as not to raise suspicion or create a text trail. If he doesn’t bump into Eddie randomly tonight, Cody will catch up with him in a few days.

  He trots down the hill from campus, across the rotary, and lands on the sidewalk headed into Davis Square. It feels good to be free, away from the tension between his mom and dad and Lily that’s so thick it’s almost claustrophobic. On his trip in to meet his buddies, he checks his phone for the hundredth time for a text from Melissa. Nothing. It feels weird that she has no idea about what’s happened to him over the last twelve hours. Usually their phones are blowing up with texts to each other all day long. He really needs to talk to her, get things straight between them.

 

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