“Can I ask you a few things about what it’s like outside of Manere? Like there was this black rectangle thing that a guy from school had and everyone was interested but I wasn’t sure what it did. I know it came from outside of Manere but I just…”
“You know what? Angela, I can’t talk to you about that”
“Huh?”
“I made an agreement with the town council that I would not be bringing any of my own things from the outside other than clothing, keepsakes, and my car but I was told and told many times that I wasn’t to bring items from where I come from to Manere unless Manere already had them. I did not bring in the black thing you mentioned but I am not at liberty to discuss it further. If you don’t mind” she put her bag on her shoulder and began walking out of the classroom.
“But, I just”
“Angela, it was lovely talking to you. You’re doing well in the class” she smiled and walked out hurriedly before I could say anything more.
Ms. Salvatore being brainwashed by the town council was crushing. I had some hope that she would not have been affected just yet but now I knew that part of the reason the town allowed for an outsider to be a resident was that she basically gave up on who she used to be. Derek caught my eyes before I could look away and walked briskly toward me.
“Angela! How’s it going? Just get out of class?”
“Yep. Saying hello to your mom?”
Derek rolled his eyes “yes, yes, she wanted me to bring her lunch. It’s cool though”
Derek was the type of person who was convinced that being a decent human being was below him. When he did something out of the ordinary and kind, he seemed to apologize for it. He did have a soft spot for his mother though, and that was something that I always thought he should be proud of rather than ashamed.
“Do you like your class. Poetry, right?”
“It was fine. Maybe a little disappointing”
“Totally, I could see that. So, did you find out anything about that Rachel girl? I was thinking about her and I bet she got smoking hot. She was kind of hot before but now she probably has a choice rack”
I furrowed my brows trying to figure out who he thought he was talking to. “Sorry. That was rude.” He said. “It’s fine but no, I didn’t find anything out about her. I’m not even sure how I would go about that,”
“What are your plans for the rest of the summer?” Derek asked. “Not sure, actually. I’m just working right now. Or I was. I guess I need to find something new now. What about you?”
Derek never answered questions directly. He would skirt around what was asked of him whether it be a simple question or a request to help someone out. There always seemed to be some underlying motivation to everything he said. Since his dad was the sheriff, he was convinced he needed to carry on an air of mystery. He also used his father to get out of trouble and maintain a semblance of power. “Are you planning on going to Palms Resort this year?” He asked. Palms Resort was the only excuse for a vacation for the law-abiding residents. Besides the roach and spider-infested Hang Your Hat Motel, Palms was the only place to stay in Manere if you needed a place for a secret rendezvous or needed a break from your significant other, parents, or in my case, your daughter.
“No. My mom is staying there with Peter this year. I’m not sure if they went already. She’s been staying with him most of the summer so far,”
“You are so lucky that you basically live on your own. I wish I could get my parents to divorce and get two houses, so I could get alone time,”
“Wouldn’t there be a parent in each house though? You would just have divorced parents. Still not a house for yourself,” I said. Derek looked perplexed but suddenly seemed to understand what I was saying, “Oh, duh. Right. That would suck”
“I’m glad I ran into you though because I was wondering if you wanted to hang out. Just the two of us,” I searched Derek’s face for more. “Oh, you mean like a date?”
“Well, we don’t have to call it that. I don’t have to pay or anything. Not that I wouldn’t. Just saying we could hang out just the two us. Maybe go shooting or something. Hang out at your house?”
“I suppose we could do that. Don’t you hang out with Lucy alone a lot though? What’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing. She’s a cool girl. Don’t get me wrong but sometimes she can be a downer,” I laughed thinking that he thought I was less of a downer than Lucy or that anyone thought I was less of a downer than anyone.
“I don’t know Derek. I’ll let you know. I’m going to be a little busy but maybe,” I began to walk away when Derek called out.
“Okay but let’s not wait too long. You’re going off to stupid New York City and you’ll never get to see me again and that would be terrible,”
“Pittsburgh, it’s in Pennsylvania. Don’t worry, we’ll hang out,” I yelled without looking back at him. I wasn’t going to make a point to spend time with Derek, especially alone but I also had no interest in telling him that.
As I was hurrying out to the parking lot, I caught the attention of Shannen. For some reason, summer school seemed to be the hotspot for every teen in town even if they weren’t taking a class. With Derek, I wanted to run away from any potential interaction, but I liked Shannen and knew I should appreciate her while I could. She had decided to go to college in Texas instead of her original choice of Drexel in Philadelphia, which squashed chances of us seeing each other much after High School. “Hi Shannen, what are you doing here?”
“Nothing really. I came to pick up Maggie, but she’s taking forever so I figured I would check out the campus and see if there was anyone, I knew taking classes. I totally forgot you were taking a class. Weirdo, we already graduated!”
“Yes, yes, I know. Me being crazy has been the consensus,”
“Nah, it’s cool though. Where is Maggie, ugh?” she stood on her tippy toes to look around even though there was nothing in her way.
Maggie was the daughter of Hank, Shannen’s mom’s boyfriend. When Shannen was fourteen, she scored a job as a babysitter with practically no responsibility. She would babysit Maggie each night while her dad worked the night shift as a gravedigger. Hank’s job always seemed to be the most fascinating part of her story, but she never asked him any of the questions I begged her to ask him. Hank paid Shannen fifteen dollars each night which Shannen didn’t think was much but when considering Maggie slept eight out of the ten hours, they were together, it was a good gig. After a year of watching Maggie, Shannen was relieved to find that Hank had gotten a job doing the day shift and since Maggie was getting old enough to take care of herself in the daylight hours after school, Shannen was out of a job. When Shannen came home to see that Hank’s car was in her driveway one day after school later that year, Shannen was annoyed but was downright furious when what she thought was Hank asking for more babysitting was Hank asking Shannen’s mom on a date. The two were still dating three years later and as much as Shannen complained about spending time with the fifteen-year-old Maggie, she seemed to enjoy her company and was even starting to appreciate how happy Hank made her mother.
“Do you want to hang out before we leave for school?” I asked.
“Duh, call me. Leave a message if I’m not home. Don’t be weird about it. You are always weird on the machine,” Shannen said.
“Sure,”
“That reminds me. I saw you talking to Derek. What’s going on with you guys?”
“Nothing. We were just talking. Why?”
“He didn’t ask you out?”
“He did. How d'you know?”
“Because he’s been asking everyone out since graduation. I don’t know if he’s lonely or just trying to sleep with every girl he can before he becomes some fat slob working at the gas station. Ha!”
“Oh,”
“Don’t be mad though. Like, he probably does like you but that is what he’s up to. Just so you know,” Shannen said with a whip of her hair.
“Well, that’s kind of messe
d up. We’re his friends. I get the other girls from school, but I thought we meant more to him than that,” I said even though it sounded immature and ridiculous when I heard it out loud.
“Who knows? He was probably just friends with us this whole time to see what he’d get from us. There she is, finally!” Shannen said looking over my shoulder Maggie rushed over thrilled to see Shannen.
“Talk to you later. Call me” Shannen said as she rushed off still annoyed with Maggie, the way she pointed at her car to ask Maggie to get in. Once they got in the car and drove away, I had the feeling that it was one of the last times I would see Shannen and that if I did call her, she would forget to call me back.
Chapter 14
The fourth of July marked one of the few celebratory days in Manere in which residents and the Chamber of Commerce went all out. Main Street was decked out in American flags, streamers, and flickering lights of red, white and blue. Verbal invitations to barbecues were distributed to friends and family but would often lead to multiple families coming together for one giant party.
The parties weren’t to detract from the concert in the park. Each summer, the community center park held concerts most Saturdays. Anyone who considered themselves a musician would take the stage and perform for the attendees. As terrible as some performers were, we all appreciated their bravery to entertain us. Even music played poorly was music we could dance to. There were a surprising number of people who held musical talent in Manere. It seemed a shame that some truly talented ones would never show off their skills in a big city but that was part of their charm, they weren’t doing it for money or fame. Although, musicians for the concert in the park were minor celebrities in the town. With less than five hundred people, being known wasn’t tricky.
With the mounting tension with Lucy, I wasn’t sure whether I was invited to her family’s barbecue. Every year my mom and I would go to Lucy’s house and while Lucy and I would wander in and out of the house and take the occasional dip in her family’s above-ground pool, my mom was stuck soberly sitting between Lucy’s dad and uncles recalling the old days. They would flirt with her in the way old drunk men flirted with middle-aged women who were still pretty. It was a source of amusement for me, but mom was a trooper for being there each year. It made sense that once I became a teenager, she would only make a quick appearance or skip it altogether. Since I was old enough to keep an eye on myself around the debauchery and since Lucy’s mom wasn’t there to be my mom’s only pal to chat with, I would be the one to pop in on the event. Lucy and I would leave to find something, anything, more exciting to do in town. I was going to have to ignore the weirdness between Lucy and me and go to her house because if I didn’t, there would be much more weirdness to follow.
I put on my lime green tank top along with gray shorts I had found at the back of my closet. They were snug probably because I hadn’t seen them in at least two years. Both the top and bottoms clung to me more than I would have liked. It was one thing to wear something that showed a lot of skin to combat the heat but tight clothing always resulted in a sweaty rash. I looked in the full-length mirror and admired my look. It was cute, and I wasn’t always going to be a teenager with a body who could pull it off, so I figured I should go for it.
“Is that new” my mom asked while standing in the doorway to my room
“No. Old. The shirt is from like sixth grade and the shorts. The shorts I just found from who even knows when?”
“Maybe that’s why the size is so small,”
“That’s mean, mom,”
“I wasn’t trying to mean. I was only kidding. You look beautiful. It’s summer. Everyone else is walking around in bikinis, you’re practically in a Habit,” I rolled my eyes within her eyeline for emphasis.
“Are you going to Lucy’s?” She asked.
“For a bit. I wanted to see if she wanted to do anything or if she wanted to hang at her own house,”
“That sounds nice. Peter and I are planning on going to the concert and watching the fireworks. You should stop by and say hello,”
“Sure mom. I’ll do that” I said as I put on my shoes, this time in a hurry.
“Gotta go. Love you, mom” I said and kissed her on her cheek.
I didn’t wait to hear her response. I knew what she would say, and I also knew that leaving her with a kiss and an ‘I love you’ would only make her feel just guilty enough about abandoning me all the time that I would feel better.
I cut through the field across the street from my house. Even though Lucy lived far enough away that I could drive my car, walking was always more fun on holidays. With a parade that took up Main Street all day, residents were mostly stuck if they tried to drive from one side of town to the other. It was a way for people to see each other and enjoy the festivities.
Lucy’s house needed a paint job, but the peeling stucco wasn’t out of the ordinary in the desert. Even my house wasn’t perfect, but my mother made sure never to let it get too severe. She also hated when the paint wasn’t perfect in front of the house. My mother, the perfectionist living in a town where everyone gave fifty percent most of the time.
No one answered the door. The music was blaring, so I followed voices into the backyard. I opened the gate to see Lucy’s dad and uncles in their usual position of lounging on a chair with a beer in each of their hands.
“Look, it’s little Angie” Lucy’s dad, Bruce Mulford hollered.
“Hi, Mr. Mulford. Is Lucy in the house?”
“Nah, I don’t know where she went off to. She didn’t want to hang around her old man this year. Figured she would have told you,”
“Oh. She didn’t” I said burying my disappointment.
“She probably just ran off to that concert thing. You girls used to check it out. Maybe she thought she was meeting ya there,” he said. I nodded. “Thanks, Mr. Mulford. I’ll go see if she’s over there,”
The park where the concert took place was less than a block from Lucy’s house, but I wasn’t ready to see her if she had no interest in seeing me. As I walked down the sidewalks of Main Street, I snaked through the crowds watching the parade. Shriners sporting their fezzes while circling each other in their tiny cars, young girls twirling their batons, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts waving, police in their cruisers, firefighters in their firetruck, and the high school band marching their way down the street. The Manere parade was never flashy, but it was entertaining enough to pull in most of the town to watch.
Before I noticed who was standing a few feet in front of me, Lucy turned to face me. “Hey, Angie. You actually came to watch the parade?” Lucy said.
“Sure. I just wanted to see what I was missing the last few years we avoided it,” I said.
“It’s cute. Not as bad as I remember it. I wanted to see it and I just thought you wouldn’t want to. It’s why I didn’t mention it to you,”
“That’s fine. I thought we were just doing the barbecue thing at your house,”
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to do that anymore either or the concert,”
“Why wouldn’t I want to do any of that,”
“You make fun of it every year,” she said.
“Lucy. We made fun of it all every year. That’s the fun part. It’s not fun if it’s just me sitting by myself. I don’t really hate all of this. It’s charming” I said. I thought using the word charming went a little too far. She would think I was being sarcastic. I was being genuine, but I also didn’t find any of it all that charming.
“Well, I was planning to go to Donna Taylor’s house. She’s having a party. I would invite you, but I know you two don’t really get along,” Lucy said.
It wasn’t that Donna Taylor, and I didn’t get along; it was more like Donna trashed everyone behind their back and I was the only one who confronted her about it. “It’s cool. I’m not feeling great today, anyway. Maybe the heat or something,”
“I’ll just see you later,” she said. Apparently, there was nothing more to say. I bit my lip just h
ard enough to make sure I didn’t say anything more and walked away with a smile.
Later that night I went to my back porch stunned to see that my mom was sitting with a cup of lemonade. “What are you doing here? You’re not out causing trouble with Lucy?” my mom said.
“Lucy doesn’t seem to like me all that much anymore,” I said as I slumped in the seat next to my mom.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that. She’s probably just coping with you moving on. It’s not easy for her either,”
“Easy? She’s the one that’s making it not easy. We could hang out with each other while we still have the time, but she doesn’t want to do that. Plus, she was the one who decided not to go to college. That’s her fault, but she’s acting like I’m the one who did something wrong,”
“Angela, are you implying that she did something wrong?”
“Well yeah!”
“That’s exactly why she’s not talking to you. Angela, you need to realize that not everyone is the same, and that’s fine. You want to move out of this town. Your first words were ‘leave’ but that isn’t the only option and it’s not the only right option.”
“Easy for you to say, mom. You came here and never want to leave. You don’t know better,”
“Sweetheart. There are two people out here and one of them has lived outside Manere and the other is a girl who has heard many stories and who has read even more books. Don’t tell me I don’t know better. Maybe if you dropped the attitude people would respond to you differently.”
“Sorry, mom,”
“Come here,” mom said as she pulled me in for a hug.
“Let’s not worry about what others think of us but let’s worry about how we treat those around us. It’s the only thing we can control,”
“Sounds good, mom,”
In the distance, the first flickers of a firework reached the sky. A few more followed, each more significant and more complex than the one before it. Finally, a simmer. Eight minutes, just two minutes shy of the previous year’s display. More proof that Manere was low on cash and continuing to lose even the smallest amount of sparkle it once had.
All That Remains (Manere Book 1) Page 9