Friends Forever

by Danielle Steel

  “I guess I’ll get used to it in a while. It’s just different,” she said generously. “I like the new chair, and the flowers look pretty around the house.” Her little touches were everywhere.

  “Are you seeing your mom over Christmas?” Jennifer knew from the past year that Izzie didn’t see her often. Katherine’s home base had shifted to New York, and she traveled more than ever. Katherine’s maternal instincts had never developed, and she treated Izzie like someone else’s child.

  “No, she’s in London. She’s coming to L.A. in a few weeks, on business. She’s taking me to dinner then.” Jennifer nodded and refrained from comment. She didn’t want to criticize her mother, but she felt sorry for Izzie that there had never been an important female figure in her life, only her father. It made Jennifer that much more of a threat now.

  “Well, I’m going to get some of that cheese and pâté on a plate,” she said, and headed for the kitchen, and a few minutes later, Izzie wandered in.

  Jennifer had done a nice cheese platter adorned with grapes. The pâté was on a plate, and there was French bread in a basket with a red-and-white-checked napkin around it, and before Izzie knew it, she had eaten half the pâté, sampled two of her favorite cheeses, and was sitting at the kitchen table, talking to Jennifer about her roommate, and the problems she had with her. She was trying to decide if she wanted to ask for a new one, or wait and get her own apartment for sophomore year. She had thought of sharing a place with Gabby, but Billy was there so often and she didn’t want to live with him. They were major decisions in Izzie’s life, and Jennifer suggested she ask for a room change when she went back. Why be miserable until June with a roommate she didn’t like?

  They were talking about it when Jeff walked in half an hour later, and was pleased to see them chatting in the kitchen. Izzie jumped up the minute she saw him, and threw her arms around her father, who hugged her tight, and smiled at Jennifer over her shoulder. Jennifer nodded at him. She thought things were going well, better than expected. And she was willing to be patient while Izzie got used to her living there.

  They had dinner together in the kitchen. Jennifer had bought two roasted chickens, and Jeff tossed a salad and made some of his special pasta that Izzie loved. And they finished the meal off with ice cream, and then went to sit in the living room and admire the tree. With the rest of the lights turned off, and only the tree lights lit, it suddenly felt like Christmas, and her father put on a CD of Christmas carols. They sat there for a long time together, with Jennifer on the comfortable recliner and Jeff and Izzie side by side on the couch. Jennifer was wise enough not to come too close, and allow them the time they needed to be together. It was obvious how much they loved each other, and how Izzie idolized her father.

  Izzie finally went to her room, and left Jennifer and her father talking to each other. And as soon as Izzie got into her nightgown, she got a text from Sean that said “I’m home.” She smiled to herself as she read it, and responded immediately, “Me too.” And she knew she was, as she turned off the light, and climbed into her familiar bed. Nothing much had changed after all, except maybe a little bit for the better.

  Chapter 12

  All of the families were excited to have their kids home for the holidays. Their houses came alive.

  The O’Haras soaked up Sean’s visit home like sponges, they were so happy to see him and be with him, and have his friends in and out of the house. Mike and Billy talked football. He’d watched all of the USC games, and was planning to go to L.A. with Sean and Connie to see Billy play at the Rose Bowl.

  They talked about the various games during the season, and how lucky he was that they were letting him play so early in his college football career, and he’d done well so far as the rookie quarterback on the team. Mike had no doubt that Billy was going to have an important career in football. Everyone who knew him was proud of him. At the Thomases’, Michelle and Gabby talked animatedly about the things they wanted to do together, and the Norton house was bursting with life and excitement with Billy home, Brian thrilled to see him, and the twins keeping them all busy. And most of all the Big Five were ecstatic to be together for a week. They had missed each other fiercely.

  Marilyn and Jack had a Christmas party and invited everyone, kids and adults alike. The O’Haras came but didn’t stay long, and weren’t feeling very festive. Judy and Adam were there with Gabby and Michelle, and Billy stayed close to Gabby at the party. Andy came with his mother, since his father was working on a new book and was in seclusion. And Jeff brought Jennifer and Izzie. Marilyn commented later to Connie what a pretty girl Jennifer was, and she was happy to see that she was nice to Izzie, although Izzie admitted that she still wasn’t all that happy that they were living together, and she was afraid they might get married and have babies. But she was willing to concede that Jennifer was nice.

  The O’Haras lent them their Tahoe house between Christmas and New Year, to go skiing at Squaw Valley. Billy was going back to L.A. for practice before the Rose Bowl, and would come up for only one day. The others were going to spend the week in Tahoe, and Sean had invited a few other friends, mostly girls. Mike and Connie trusted them with the house, and there had never been any bad incidents while they stayed there.

  All the kids were happy when they left for Tahoe in two vans, full of people, skis, and luggage. It was a big house with room for all of them, and a dormitory room where they could fit the overflow of bodies. They were a lively group, and everyone pitched in to make dinner at night. The O’Haras’ only condition was no drinking, and everyone agreed to abide by the rules, although Billy had flashed the flask in his pocket. Sean told him to put it away, and he did. Sean hadn’t had a drink since his DUI.

  They sat around the fireplace at night, talking about their schools and roommates, and Izzie and Andy got into a long conversation about Harvard one night. Andy loved it and thought she should transfer, but she said she was happy where she was, and wanted to stay in California. And she liked knowing that Gabby and Billy were nearby in L.A.—it was like having family in the same city. And Andy talked a lot about the rigors of pre-med, but it had never occurred to him for an instant to do something different, just as Billy had always known he’d play football. It was what their parents expected of them. Izzie’s mother still wanted her to go to law school, but for Izzie it was never an option. She liked the psych class she was taking, and had been thinking about that as a career. She was signed up for abnormal psych the following semester, which sounded interesting but a little creepy to her. Her adviser had told her she’d enjoy it. She still hadn’t decided on a major. What she really wanted to do was work with the indigent in a developing country for a summer, or do an internship after college. Like her father, she loved helping people. She just hadn’t figured out yet how to do it or for whom.

  She and Andy were still talking on the second night, after the others went to bed. They found a bottle of wine in a kitchen cupboard and, despite the rules, decided to share some. Sean had already gone to bed—he had brought a girl up to Tahoe with him, whom he wanted to start dating. He had met her at school. She was a champion skier, and everyone agreed she had a hot body. She was sleeping in the dormitory room with some of the other girls, but Sean was hoping to start something with her by the end of the week, and things were looking hopeful. Izzie had seen Sean kissing her that night, in the hallway after dinner, but he hadn’t scored yet.

  “So, are you still a virgin?” Izzie asked Andy, with a look of mischief, as they finished a forbidden glass of wine, which made it just a little more exciting. “Any hot babes at Harvard?” She was half teasing, but not completely. Although he was one of her best friends, Izzie had always found him attractive. She had just never wanted to screw up their friendship, and still didn’t.

  “Funny that you ask,” he said with a portentous look, and then he laughed. “Yeah, dammit, I am. They give too much homework. I have no time for sex or romance if I want to keep my grades up.”

  “Th
at’s too bad. I haven’t done too well in that department either. There isn’t a lot of campus life at an urban school. I haven’t even had a date since last summer, although my roommate has turned out to be the slut of the village. She screws everything that moves.” Izzie hadn’t had a serious romance yet, and her virginity was beginning to feel like a permanent condition. “You know, maybe we ought to take care of this situation together. I want to get rid of my virginity. So do you. Maybe it would give us a certain aura of sophistication,” she suggested, after their second glass of wine. They were halfway through the bottle, and in the altitude, it had hit them harder than they knew. Izzie was looking just a little cross-eyed as she tried to focus on Andy, who stared at her in amazement. And she looked sexy and pretty to him with her hair down. She always had seemed great to him, but he had just thought of her like a sister.

  “Are you serious?” He thought she had to be kidding, but he could see she wasn’t. The idea of what she was suggesting excited him more than he’d expected.

  “Sure. Why not? Besides, what if we really like each other? More than as just friends, I mean. Maybe we’ll turn out to be fabulous in bed, with real natural aptitude. It could happen. Besides, everyone we know is getting laid except us.” That wasn’t entirely true, and they both knew it. Sean was still a virgin too, or had been when he left for college in late August, and he hadn’t informed them of any change in status. But Billy and Gabby had been sexually involved since they were fifteen, and Izzie knew that most of her classmates were no longer virgins, and hadn’t been for a year or two. “You and I are the last people on the planet who have never tasted the pleasures of the flesh,” she said, with a lustful look at him and a sip of her third glass of wine. Andy had just finished his second. To Izzie he looked sexy and handsome, and she was attracted to him.

  “What are you suggesting?” Andy had the only single room in the house—he wasn’t sharing with anyone since it was actually a maid’s room. Izzie pointed vaguely in that direction. She was bunking in the dorm room, so it was not an option. And before either of them could reconsider, Andy pulled her to her feet, they took the wine and their glasses, and walked softly to the room where he was staying. Andy suddenly felt as though his whole body were throbbing, and Izzie was weaving a little unsteadily as she followed him to his room with a giggle. She wasn’t sure what to expect the first time and hoped it wouldn’t be too painful. She had heard horror stories from friends, and also good ones.

  “I don’t have a condom,” he said with a tone of desperation in the dark, after he closed the door to the tiny room. He could see her face in the moonlight, and she looked beautiful. And he wasn’t about to miss this opportunity and wake one of the others to ask for a condom. He had always thought Izzie was lovely looking with her big brown eyes, perfect features, and long wavy brown hair, and now she was offering herself to him. It opened a thousand doors in his imagination as she unzipped his jeans.

  “I trust you,” she said simply, and meant it about the condom, as she started to take her clothes off, and he stepped out of his jeans. He had long muscular legs, and a body that would never be better than it was at this moment. She pulled her sweater over her head and unhooked her bra, and her small, perfectly round breasts gleamed like snow in the moonlight. They were creamy white as he cupped them with his hands, and they climbed into his bed together and took the rest of their clothes off. He ran his hands all over her body, and had an overwhelming erection, as she wondered what that would feel like once it was inside her. She tried not to think of it or be scared as she closed her eyes, and he felt between her legs. He had gone pretty far with girls on dates before, but never this far, and before he could stop himself or discuss it further with her, he was in her, and had never felt anything as incredible before, and he realized a moment later that she gave a gasp of pain, but he couldn’t stop himself now. It was sharp and fast and over very quickly, and he held her for a few moments afterward, wondering if she was sorry. He wasn’t. It had been spectacular for him, and all he wanted to do now was tell her he loved her. He looked down at her face and saw that she looked startled, and there was a small drop of blood where she had bitten her lip so as not to cry out.

  “Did I hurt you?” he asked, looking worried.

  “No, it was fine. Everyone says it’s easier the second time.” She pulled him close to her then, and they held each other in the moonlight for a long time. He wanted to make love to her again, but he didn’t want to hurt her.

  “Are you sorry?” he finally managed to whisper.

  “Of course not,” she said bravely, wondering why it had seemed like such a good idea when they started drinking the wine. She had always loved him, but she wasn’t in love with him. She was certain of it now. Maybe it had been a good test, but she knew they had started something complicated that night, and he was going to be away, at college and in med school, for a long, long time. “Are you sorry?” she asked him in the dark.

  “How could I be?” He smiled down at her. “I think I’ve always been in love with you.” But she hadn’t been, and still wasn’t. She loved him, as a friend and a brother. And it felt incestuous having sex with him. This was about more than losing her virginity. It was a mistake, and she knew it.

  “I’d better go back,” she said after a while. She didn’t want the others to see her coming out of his room in the morning, and Andy didn’t want that either. He wanted to protect her, and for now, what they had done was nobody’s business. He got up to take her back to the dorm room, and he stood naked in the moonlight, looking like a young Greek god. Even Izzie wasn’t impervious to his beauty, and she wished she felt differently than she did, but she didn’t.

  And now all she could think of was that she was terrified of getting pregnant. They had used no protection. She wasn’t afraid of getting a disease from him, only a baby, which was a major fear. It was all she could think of now. “Don’t come with me,” she whispered, and he kissed her, and then she put her clothes back on, and when she left, she took the wine and glasses with her. She stopped in the kitchen to empty the last dregs into the sink, and bury the bottle in the trash. She washed the wineglasses and put them away, and then she tiptoed back to the dorm room, got undressed again, and put her nightgown on in the bathroom after washing the blood off her legs. She was thinking about Andy and wondered what would happen now. Their parents would be devastated if she got pregnant, especially his, but hers wouldn’t be happy either. She couldn’t even think of the relationship they might or might not have, and probably shouldn’t, only the baby that would ruin both their lives. Andy had just turned nineteen and had ten or eleven years of study ahead of him, and she was eighteen.

  She lay down in bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. The others hadn’t woken up when she came in, and she tried to remember what it had been like making love with him, but she didn’t really want to. She just wanted to float away and be someplace different, on a beach somewhere, all by herself. The room was spinning slightly as she closed her eyes, and she felt a little sick, and a moment later she was sound asleep.

  Izzie didn’t see Andy again until breakfast the next morning. The girl Sean had brought with him was helping him and Gabby make breakfast. No one particularly liked her, she talked a lot and was a little giddy. She was chattering loudly, and Izzie walked in looking like she’d been dragged behind a horse all night. She squinted her eyes in the morning brightness and had a fearsome headache. The wine and the altitude had hit her hard. And as soon as she’d woken up, she remembered what had happened the night before. And so did Andy. He strolled into the kitchen, looking like the king of the universe, and smiled at Izzie.

  “Hi,” she said absently, and went to sit down with a cup of coffee.

  “Are you okay?” he asked solicitously, but no one noticed. They were always nice to each other, and this was no different, except to her. She wanted to tell him she was sure she was pregnant. She had heard stories like that before, of girls who had sex for the first time,
and bingo they were pregnant. And his mother would be delivering her baby nine months from now. The thought of it made her head spin, and her hangover didn’t help.

  “I have a headache,” she said, without explaining more, and he nodded. He did too, from the wine, but he didn’t care. He was so excited about what they’d done, and his feelings about her, that he felt like he was flying. Izzie felt more like she was crawling around on all fours, and would have liked to. Flying was not in the cards for her today.

  Andy helped himself to an enormous breakfast and sat down at the kitchen table with the others. Gabby started putting sunblock on her face, to get ready for a day of skiing. She couldn’t afford to get some weird tan that would make her ineligible at a go-see, and she always took good care of her skin and got regular facials, just like her mother.

  The sun was shining, and the snow looked spectacular. Everyone was in a good mood and ready for the slopes, except Izzie. She went to put the rest of her clothes on and a little while later Gabby walked into the dorm room and looked at her, sitting on the edge of her bed, with a devastated expression.

  “Are you okay?” Gabby asked her, and she was about to say yes, and then shook her head and started crying. Gabby sat down next to her and put her arms around her. They were alone in the room, since the other girls were still at breakfast.

  “I did something really stupid last night,” Izzie said in muffled tones into her friend’s shoulder.

  “How stupid?” Gabby looked worried. There were no new guys on the scene to do anything stupid with, so she was instantly afraid it might be drugs.

  “Really stupid,” Izzie said miserably. “I had unprotected sex.” Gabby pulled away from her and looked at her in confusion.

  “You did? With who?” There was no one there to sleep with except their old familiar crowd of best friends, and Gabby couldn’t imagine her doing that with any of the boys, but apparently she had. “Sean?” It was the only possibility she could think of, although even that seemed unlikely. But Izzie had always been closer to him than to Billy or Andy. And Gabby knew Sean told her everything, and she had been very supportive after Kevin died, and she really liked his mother. But Izzie shook her head.