“I guess so,” Max says, without conviction. C’mon, help me out here.
“It was nothing,” I say again, wanting to emphasize my point.
“From what I saw last night, it sure didn’t look like nothing,” Will adds, not helping the situation at all.
“Well, it was,” I tell Will, shooting him yet another look, hoping he’ll actually get the point this time and shut the hell up.
“You can’t just get married without a license or anything,” I say. “Right?” I’m actually asking because I’m not quite sure, and I could use a bit of reassurance.
“Right,” Max says. “You need a license.”
“I cannot believe this. Just when I think it can’t get any worse. What the fuck were you thinking?” Lily comes at him like a bull out of a pen.
“Lily, calm down,” I say. “You heard Max. We’re not really married. You need a license. It was a goof. No big deal. A joke.” I don’t know why I’m trying to appease her. I guess because I don’t want this thing blowing up any more than it already has. What good can it do? I want to get to school without further damage.
“Max, why are you doing this to me?” Lily’s voice has risen ten octaves. It’s hurting my ears.
“Lily, we talked about this. Nothing happened. Chill.”
“Don’t tell me to chill,” Lily spits out. “I think I deserve some details about last night.” Her anger is in full bloom.
I know I’ve been pushing Max away, not interested in ever speaking to him again, but something about the way he says “nothing” infuriates me. And the truth is, I still don’t know what happened last night, after we got back to Manuel’s. I’ve been giving him the benefit of the doubt, hoping he was a gentleman. But now I want details too. I spin around in my seat and look at Max.
“You know what, Max,” I say. “I would actually like to know what happened, too. What does that mean, ‘nothing’?”
I should not be going down this road, but I’m exhausted, hurt, hungry, and angry. Not a great combination. So much for minimal damage.
“Let’s get it all out in the open,” I say.
“I’m all for that,” Lily chimes in.
Max looks panicked, furious. He’s being pressed on all sides.
“Maybe you guys should talk about this later? When we’re all not around and things have calmed down,” Charlie says.
“You know what? Charlie makes a good point,” Juan says. Too late, Juan. We’re in it. Bummer you had to be here.
“Fine.” Max looks from me to Lily. “Kylie, you want to know what happened last night? Lily, you want to know?”
“Yes,” we both say in unison.
“Nothing.” Max spits this out. “Okay? Nothing. What that means is that Kylie and I did not have sex. We slept together. As in fell asleep. That’s all. We were too drunk to do anything else.” As he says this particular piece, he looks me directly in the eye. “And we got married, but as Kylie pointed out, it doesn’t mean a thing. It wasn’t real. Nothing about the night was real. It was a stupid, drunken game. We barely know each other.”
Max’s voice has an edge to it, like he’s angry at me. Which is absurd. If anyone should be angry, it should be me.
“Excellent,” I say. “Thanks for clarifying that.” I turn around and stare at the road.
“You know what I don’t get?” Lily is not giving up the fight. “If you’re gonna sleep around behind my back, why would you do it with Kylie Flores? She’s not even hot. She’s just weird. And skanky.”
Before I have a chance to bite back, Will goes ballistic.
“Listen, you vile little rodent. Kylie has more intelligence, class, and God-given beauty in her pinkie finger than you’ll ever dream of having.”
“As if I care what you think,” Lily tells Will.
“Don’t go after Kylie, Lily. This is not about her,” Max threatens.
“What’s it about, then?” Lily demands.
“Us. You. Me.”
“I don’t get it.” Lily has now started crying. “Why are you defending her? If nothing happened, then why aren’t you taking my side?”
“There are no sides in this, Lily. Stop turning it into a war.” Max is talking to Lily but looking at me now.
I can’t stay silent any longer. “Lily, you have nothing to worry about. Okay? Max is all yours. News flash: I don’t want him.”
How could I have thought she was anything other than completely psycho? How can she just stare at me like nothing at all happened last night? Sure, Lily’s arrival has thrown a wrench into things, but Kylie doesn’t even seem to understand what a tough spot I’m in.
Whatever we had is done. Finished. It obviously didn’t mean a thing to her.
Lily is crying harder now. I feel bad she had to walk into the middle of my nightmare. If only she’d stayed back in La Jolla like I wanted her to. Charlie and I could have gotten through this by ourselves. But with Lily and Will along, things are spiraling out of control. I’m not sure how to make things better, but I know I need to try. It’s the best course of action at this point.
I put an arm around Lily. “C’mon, Lil, it’s not that bad. It’s one sucky car ride, but there’s graduation, parties, and the whole summer to get psyched about.”
This seems to make Lily cry even harder.
Funny how Will and Kylie aren’t saying anything now. Like they’re waiting for me to take care of this. If only I’d never agreed to do Murphy’s stupid assignment, none of us would be here.
“Lil, I’m sorry about all this. Try to calm down. It’s seriously going to be okay,” I say, knowing it’s pretty pathetic comfort at the moment. I wish I could go back to loving Lily and barely knowing Kylie existed. But it’s too late for that.
“No. It’s not going to be okay! Nothing is going to be okay ever again,” Lily shouts. “My life is over. Completely fucked!”
Whoa! This seems like an overreaction even for Lily. What’s going on? She looks so desperate, like something inside her has broken. That can’t be all about me, can it?
“This is going to be something we all laugh about in a few weeks,” I say, not entirely convinced that’s true. “You’re just being melodramatic—”
“I am not being melodramatic. I am being honest. For once. Things are bad. Worse even than they seem right now. My entire life is shit.”
“Lily, what are you talking about? Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see, after graduation—”
“My dad is going to jail.” Lily says this between sobs.
“Your dad’s going to jail?” I say.
“Jail?” Kylie says.
“Seriously?” Will asks.
I pray Will doesn’t say anything else. I swear I will beat the shit out of him if he makes this worse.
“What do you mean? Why is he going to jail?” I put my arm around Lily. I need to get her to calm down, to talk to me. She’s really freaking me out.
“I just found out. Two days ago. But since you weren’t around all day yesterday, I haven’t been able to tell you. He’s been arrested for fraud, or money laundering, or, I don’t even know what.” Lily is sobbing. Hard. “I didn’t want anyone to know, but what does it matter? Everyone’s going to find out when he goes to trial.”
“Jesus Christ.” This is from Juan, in the way back. I’m sure he wished he never got on this crazy train to begin with.
“Lily, I’m so sorry I haven’t been there for you.…” I say, at a loss for more words. There’s no way to make this right. It’s all so wrong. “How did you find out?”
“Mom unloaded everything last night. But things have been weird for a while. You never want to talk, so I didn’t say anything. Maybe that’s why you haven’t told me how sick your dad is. In fact, if I remember correctly, you said he was going to be fine. I guess that’s your fallback response. Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t worry. Be happy.” Lily is now half crying, half yelling at me. This has become a very private fight in the middle of a very public car full of people.