She's So Dead To Us

by Kieran Scott

  “No, really. Tell me. Is there something you want to do other than talk?”

  Ally shoved a huge piece of bread in her mouth. I’d been right about one thing. Sunday dinners were way more fun with her there. I took another bite of my risotto and looked across the table for the first time. Shannen was glaring right at me as if I’d just stomped on her foot.

  Crap. I glanced quickly away.

  “So, Gray, how are things at the hospital?” Mrs. Kirkpatrick asked.

  “They’re fantastic, actually,” Dr. Nathanson replied. “We’ve just been given the go-ahead on the new cancer wing.”

  “That’s fabulous news!” Mrs. Appleby remarked. “I’m so glad my little fund-raiser this fall was a success.”

  “It certainly was,” Dr. Nathanson replied, tipping his glass toward her. “Thank you again for sponsoring it. And thank you for inviting us tonight. It’s an honor.”

  “It’s our honor to have you,” Mrs. Appleby replied. “And I’m so glad you brought along our old friend.” She smiled at Ally’s mother. “I would have invited you myself, Melanie, but I wasn’t sure you’d be interested.”

  I felt Ally tense up next to me, but her mother beamed. “Oh, please, Clarice. Of course I’m interested. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you girls.”

  She grinned at Mrs. Moore, who gave her what I thought was an encouraging look, and at Faith and Hammond’s moms, too. My mother looked kind of pale as she touched her napkin to her mouth and cleared her throat.

  “Yes, Melanie, they’ve missed you, too,” she said. “I can’t tell you how often they talk about you. It’s always Melanie this and Melanie that.”

  Ally’s mom seriously looked as if she was going to shit with happiness.

  “It’s true,” Mrs. Kirkpatrick said. “We’ve especially missed your seven-layer chocolate cake.”

  Ally smiled as her mom beamed. “That was always a crowdpleaser,” Mrs. Ryan said.

  “Very much so,” Mrs. Appleby said. “You should think about making this a weekly thing again.”

  My skin tingled. Ally at every Sunday dinner? That would be the greatest thing ever. And if she were here every week, my friends would have to get used to her again. And then, who knew?

  “Clarice, I would love that,” Mrs. Ryan said happily.

  “Good.” Then Mrs. Appleby sat back in her chair, and something in her eyes shifted. “In fact, perhaps you should host next month.”

  Ally’s smile faded.

  “Oh, what a fabulous idea!” my mother trilled, catching on to the joke. “But don’t you live in the Orchard View? Would you even be able to squeeze us all into that tiny place?”

  Ally’s mother went ashen. I wanted to launch myself over the table and wring my mom’s neck. How could she say that? What the hell did she have against Ally’s mother? They didn’t even know each other. Suddenly she seemed no better to me than Faith and Shannen when they were shredding Ally for no reason. Just for fun. Just to win each other’s approving laughs. I hated her in that moment. Her and all her fakeness.

  “Ladies,” Shannen’s mother scolded. Across the way, Shannen’s dad let out a loud burp.

  “Excuse me,” he said loudly.

  “Nonsense, Brendan,” Mrs. Appleby said, barely stifling a laugh. “It’s the highest form of flattery.”

  A few people laughed under their breath. There was a long silence as Mrs. Moore blushed purple. Ally’s mother leaned behind Todd’s back to whisper something to Dr. Nathanson. He nodded and pushed his chair away from the table.

  “Thank you for having us, Clarice, but I think we should be going,” he said, standing.

  “Oh, Gray, please,” Mrs. Appleby said, standing as well. “Is that really necessary?”

  “Yes, I believe it is,” he replied.

  Good for him.

  He took Ally’s mother’s hand as she got up as well. She turned away from the table, her head down.

  “Ally? Quinn?” Dr. Nathanson said.

  Quinn’s face was on fire. She looked like she was about to cry, probably out of embarrassment, but she got up. Ally didn’t move. I looked at her. The mortification was written all over her face. So blatant I felt it in my gut. Suddenly I didn’t care about Shannen’s glare or the fact that Chloe and Hammond and Faith were watching. Or my parents. I leaned toward her ear.

  “Don’t listen to them,” I said. “They’re just a bunch of sad old bitches with nothing better to do.”

  Ally looked at me, her eyes shining. I wanted to kill every person in the room who’d ever made her feel bad. But then she pressed her lips together and shoved herself up from the table. As she followed her mom toward the door, the room was dead silent.

  “Thanks for coming,” Faith said sarcastically under her breath. Some of the kids giggled. Chloe shot her a scornful look, but Faith just rolled her eyes.

  Ally paused, turned around, and faced the table. Dozens of unsympathetic faces stared back at her.

  “No, thank you . . . all of you, really, for a lovely evening,” she said pointedly.

  And then she was gone.

  ally

  After spending the night listening to my mother crying into her pillow, the last thing I was up for on Monday morning was a full day of school. But if she was going to rally and go, I was going to rally and go. I just hoped none of those Crestie bitches said a word to me in the hall. Otherwise, there was going to be blood.

  “I can’t believe it,” I ranted to David and Annie as we walked down the main hallway. “I can’t believe I ever cared about being their friend again. Clearly everyone on the crest is pure evil.”

  “I don’t know. Gray’s pretty cool,” David said, shedding his jacket. “And Quinn seemed nice at dinner that night—”

  Annie and I turned, and we both gave him a look that could have stopped a charging bull in its tracks. He lifted his hands in surrender.

  “Sorry. You’re right. Pure evil.”

  “Thank you.”

  Not that I didn’t think Gray was cool. Especially after he’d been so chivalrous at the Applebys’ party, going against the Crestie pack and getting my mom out of there after she was attacked. I just didn’t feel like being contradicted in all my fury.

  We kept walking. “All I know is, after the obnoxious presentation their moms put on last night, I never want to be friends with them again.”

  At that moment, we came around the corner and stopped, bumping into each other one by one like an overdone comedy routine. Shannen, Chloe, and Faith were all standing right next to my locker.

  “Uh-oh. This is not going to be pretty,” Annie said under her breath. She whipped out her camera phone and hit record.

  “Unbelievable,” I said through my teeth.

  I shouldered Shannen out of the way and spun the lock on my locker door. Annie and David hung back on the other side of the hallway, Annie moving back and forth as she tried to get the best angle on Shannen’s face.

  “Well, good morning to you, too,” Shannen said.

  I ignored her. My shoulder muscles were so coiled that if they sprang apart they’d take out the entire hallway full of students like a whip.

  “Ally, we wanted to say we’re sorry about last night,” Chloe said.

  From the corner of my eye I saw Jake, Hammond, and the Idiot Twins enter the hallway. Jake paused at his locker a few doors down, but I could tell he was listening in. The other guys gathered around the girls.

  “Yeah. That’s not even going to come close to cutting it,” I said, jamming up on the locker handle and letting the door slam open against the wall.

  “Oh, that’s fair,” Faith said sarcastically, shifting her weight from one tiny hip to the other.

  I laughed and whirled on her. “I’m not being fair? Were you even there? All my mom wanted to do was please you people, and she got torn to shreds.”

  “Well, if you don’t want us to hold what your dad did against you, then you can’t hold what happened last night against us,” Faith said,
arching her eyebrows. “We didn’t do anything.”

  My spirits fell slightly. Okay. She had a point there. Except—

  “Right. So, what was that little parting comment you made on my way out?”

  Faith blushed and looked away.

  “She’s sorry for that. Right, Faith?” Chloe said, staring her down.

  “Yeah. Sorry. It was a knee-jerk thing,” she replied, not looking me in the eye.

  “Look, after last night we all got together and talked about it, and we realized you’re right,” Chloe said, tossing her perfectly coiffed hair over her shoulder. “Your dad was the one who messed up. Not you.”

  I automatically glanced at Hammond. He cleared his throat and looked away. Little did Chloe know that I had messed up too. Big time.

  “So listen, we’re having our annual going away party next Sunday night,” Shannen said. “We’re all going to meet at the new pool annex at nine o’clock. You in?”

  “We’re breaking into the pool?” Trevor said excitedly.

  “Skinny-dipping! Sweet!” Todd added.

  They slapped hands over their heads.

  I couldn’t contain the rush of excitement, even as I hated myself for having it. They were actually inviting me to something. One of our old traditions. Every year we all went away for a few days over Christmas, and every year we said good-bye to each other by throwing a private party in some forbidden location. Of course, I wasn’t hopping a flight out of Newark this year, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t go to the going away party.

  Annie trained her camera phone on me. Right. Hadn’t I just sworn to her and David that I never wanted to be friends with these people again? But that was before this. Before they’d blindsided me with a white flag. Jake quietly closed the door of his locker and wandered over, standing behind Shannen’s left shoulder. I didn’t dare look at him, but I could feel the warmth of his gaze all over my skin.

  “It’ll be just like old times,” Chloe said with a smile.

  My heart fluttered. Just like old times. They were offering a truce. A real one. Wouldn’t it be kind of jerky to throw it back in their faces?

  “So? What do you say, Ally?” Shannen asked.

  I glanced at the camera apologetically. “Okay. I’m in.”

  “Cool,” Shannen said with a smile. “We’ll see you there.”

  After the Cresties had walked away and Annie, David, and I were left alone, none of us said anything for a solid minute. With Jake gone, I finally started to cool down—to think clearly again.

  “Come on, you guys, it’s just one party,” I said.

  David pushed himself away from the wall. “Yeah. A party with evil.”

  “But you heard what they said, right?” I asked, tugging a few books out of my locker.

  “Got it all on film,” Annie said, pocketing her phone.

  “And it sounded real, right? They really felt bad.”

  David and Annie looked at each other. “Sure. If you trust the face of evil,” Annie said.

  “You can’t play both sides, Ally,” David said. “You can’t be both a Crestie and a Norm.”

  A tingle of apprehension went through my chest. “Why not?”

  “Because . . . it’s just wrong,” David said, lifting both shoulders. “Like, on a primordial level.”

  “He’s right. Your head might actually, literally explode from the pressure,” Annie said. She looked at David. “We are so going to lose her.”

  I sighed and slammed my locker door. “Okay, Melodrama Girl. You’re not going to lose me. It’s just one party.”

  David took my hand and looked into my eyes, his expression all mock-serious. “Just promise me you’ll come back.”

  He was kidding around, but a hard stone of guilt formed in my gut. Because one of the reasons I had said yes, one of the reasons I was already looking forward to this, was that Jake was going to be there.

  “I promise,” I said. “I’ll come back.”

  jake

  I paused my Xbox and glanced at my watch. It was nine fifteen. The going away party started at nine. Was Ally there yet? Were they actually being nice to her? My whole body itched, and I leaned back against my bed, my legs splayed out on the floor. I wanted to get the hell out of here, but I couldn’t leave. Not yet. Because I was grounded. I hadn’t talked to my mother since Sunday night dinner. By Tuesday my parents had decided that I couldn’t go out with my friends until I started acting like a grown-up. As if that was how they were acting.

  “Jake, aren’t you supposed to be taking a practice test?” my mother asked, appearing in my doorway. She was all dressed up in a fancy black dress, diamonds dangling from her ears.

  I felt hot all over. Just like I did every time I was forced to ignore her.

  My father joined her. “Jake. Your mother is talking to you.”

  “Have a good time, Dad,” I said.

  My mother heaved a sigh and walked away. My father straightened his tie as he entered my room. “Jake, I’ve had just about enough of this behavior.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve had just about enough of hers.”

  “That’s it!” my father shouted. My heart stopped. He never shouted. Ever. “I want you to go downstairs and apologize to your mother right now.”

  I stood up from the floor and faced him. I felt shaky inside but wasn’t about to cave. “Is she going to apologize for what she did?”

  “And what offense, exactly, do you imagine your mother has committed?” my dad asked.

  “You were there. You saw what she did to Ally Ryan’s mom.”

  “And why do we care so much about Ally Ryan or her mother?” he asked.

  “What does it even matter? She was awful to her and she doesn’t even know her,” I shot back. “I’m supposed to be okay with that?”

  My father sighed and looked at the floor. “Son, these women . . . these dinners . . . they’re very important to your mother.”

  “I know.” It had taken just over a year of ass-kissing and designer-clothes hoarding for my mother to get us our invite into the Sunday dinner crowd. When it had finally happened she’d actually cried from happiness. I’d never remotely understood why, but I knew it was important to her.

  “So, you have to understand, son, this Melanie Ryan woman . . . she’s known your mother’s new friends for years,” my father said. “They grew up together, went to school together, vacationed together. And now that she’s back—”

  The truth hit me like a lacrosse stick to the head. “She’s scared. She thinks they’re gonna dump her.”

  “Well, yes,” my father said matter-of-factly.

  Unbelievable. My mother had the exact same mentality as my friends. When in doubt, be a bitch. What little respect I had left for her started to crumble.

  “Try not to be so hard on her, Jake,” my dad said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

  “Yeah,” I said, looking at the floor. I wanted out of this conversation. “Okay.”

  He patted my cheek twice and walked out, off to dinner at Ruocco’s, where they were meeting up with all the other parents. I watched them from my window, the same one I’d been looking through when I’d first seen Ally, as they got into my mom’s Mercedes and pulled out. I waited until the lights had disappeared at the bottom of Vista View Lane before I went down to the garage to get my bike.

  Not the ideal mode of transportation, but unlike Shannen I wasn’t into stealing my parents’ cars without a license. I had just hit the automatic garage door opener when my cell phone rang. Shannen stuck her tongue out at me from the screen.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Jake! Where are you!? The Idiot Twins brought this mini Ping-Pong table, and we’re playing beer Pong! Chloe’s already losing, and guess what? She finally cracked and told us where Ally’s dad is.”

  Shit. My mouth went dry. “She did?”

  “Yeah. He’s working at one of Mr. Appleby’s delis in the city. He’s not even a waiter. He’s a counte
r dude, like, slicing bologna for a living!”

  I heard Faith crack up in the background and Chloe begging Shannen to shut up. Babbling that she shouldn’t have spilled. Couldn’t have agreed more.

  “No way,” I said flatly. Because I had to say something.

  “It’s so hilarious, you know? Ally was always showing off about how perfect her father was, and now it turns out he’s a cheat, an abandoner, and a minimum-wage earner.”

  I had to bite my tongue to keep from snapping. I guess the fact that they were talking about this meant Ally wasn’t there yet.

  “Anyway, get your butt over here,” Shannen said.

  “I’ll be there in two minutes.”

  “Oooh! Are you taking the Jag? You have to give me a ride when you get here.”

  “No. I’m taking my bike.”

  I was about to hang up when she cackled, “You can’t ride your bike all the way to the club!”

  I froze, my fingers curled around the handlebar. “I thought we were going to the pool annex.”

  The cackling got louder. “No! That’s just what we told Ally! We’re at the boathouse.”

  “What?” I said through my teeth.

  “Yeah. We already called the cops to tell them someone was breaking in at school,” Shannen said with a laugh. “They should be there in . . . well, now.”

  More laughter. WTF was wrong with them? Ally could get in serious trouble. She could get arrested. Why the hell would they do this to her?

  “Sorry. I thought you knew. Now get your ass in the Jag and get over here!” Shannen said, still laughing.

  I wanted to tell her off. Tell her what a total bitch she was being. Ask her how she could possibly be so cool one second and such a psycho the next. But I bit down on my tongue and said nothing. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. And I was losing time. I turned my phone off and tore out of the driveway as fast as I could pedal.

  ally

  I told my mother I was going to visit David at Dunkin’ Donuts, where he worked a few nights a week. After the Sunday dinner debacle, she hadn’t mentioned my old friends or prodded me about hanging out with them. Not once. Ironic that I was finally going to a party with them now that she was no longer interested. I felt bad about lying to her, but it was just a little white lie. I was going to be right across the street, and it wasn’t like I was going to do anything she wouldn’t approve of. Other than breaking into the school.