“Oh,” Mom said. “I see. What, about Seth?”
Oh, God. I shook my head quickly. “No. Not really.”
“Well,” Mom said. I could tell she was totally hesitating — do her parental duty, and open a whole can of worms she’d probably be happier not knowing about, and risk possible lateness to work? Or just sayHave a nice day, and keep moving? She seemed to remember Dr. Phil’s Step-by-Step Plan for Creating a Phenomenal Family, and said, “You know you can always talk to me, don’t you, Katie? Is it something to do with”—she lowered her voice, even though Liam was already outside with my dad, tossing around a football before Dad left for work, and couldn’t overhear—“boys?”
“You could say that,” I said miserably. “Aboy, anyway.”
“Is it Seth?” Mom asked, dropping the smile and looking worried. “Katie, is he pressuring you to—”
“Oh, God, Mom,” I cried with a groan, realizing belatedly what she was getting at. “I am not having sex with Seth. Or anyone else, for that matter. I don’t evenlike Seth enough to—”
Oh, God. I dropped my pillow over my face. I couldn’t believe I’d even said that. Of course I liked Seth. Iloved Seth. It’s just that…well, Tommy had sort of had a point: If I loved Seth so much, what the heck was I doing out there behind the emergency generator with Eric Fluteley every day?
God. Tommy’s right. I probably do have some kind of psychological inability to stick with one guy at a time.
But whyshould I, when neither of the guys I’m making out with is completely…well,right for me?
“If it’s not Seth,” Mom said curiously, “who is it? You said it had to do with a boy.”
I took the pillow off my face and stared bleakly up at the white ruffled canopy over my bed. “If I tell you,” I said, “you’ll never believe it.”
“Try me,” Mom said, leaning against my door frame.
I looked at her. “Tommy Sullivan is back in town.”
She blinked once. Then twice. Then she said, “Oh,” her lips staying pursed even after all the sound had left them.
“Yeah,” I said. And dropped the pillow back over my face.
“Well, honey,” Mom said after a while. “That was a long time ago. There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then. I’m sure no one still holds all that stuff from four years ago against him.”
“Uh,” I said from beneath my pillow. “My boyfriend does.”
“Oh,” Mom said again. “Well. Yes, but…I mean, after all, itwas wrong of Jake to cheat. Surely even the Turners—”
“Jake and his parents — along with Seth, Coach Hayes, and the rest of the Quahogs, past and present — still insist it was all a conspiracy to force them to forfeit the state championship,” I said beneath the pillow.
“Honey, take that thing off your face. I can’t hear a word you’re saying.”
I took the pillow off my face.
“You know what,” I said to her. “Never mind. Forget I brought it up.”
“Now, Katie, be fair,” Mom said, glancing at her watch. “I want to talk about this. I really do. But it’s going to have to be later. Daddy and I have a showing. But I want to hear more about this Tommy thing. I’ll be back later this afternoon—”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I’m fine.”
“Katie, honey, don’t—”
“Seriously, Mom,” I insisted. “It’s fine. Forget I brought it up.”
Mom glanced at her watch again, then chewed a little on her lower lip, even though I’ve told her again and again not to do this, as it scrapes off her lipstick.
“Well,” she said. “But we’ll talk about it over dinner tonight—”
“Can’t,” I said. “I’ve got Quahog Princess rehearsal, then my shift at the Gulp.”
“Oh, Katie. Can’t you cut back on your shifts a little? I feel as if I’ve barely seen you this summer.”
“When school starts,” I said. Providing I live that long. “I’ve already had to give up all my shifts this weekend because of Quahog Princess.”
“Oh, but, honey—”
“I need the money,” I insisted.
She rolled her eyes. “The way you go through money. What on earth do you do with it all?”
Oops. Yeah. That’s another lie I’ve been living with, along with all the others. See, I can’t really tell Mom and Dad what I’m actually buying with the money I’ve earned this summer at the Gulp.
That’s because they got me a camera at Christmas. And if they knew I’ve been putting money down on a new camera, they’d be all, “What’s wrong with the camera we got you for Christmas?”
The truth is, there’s nothing technically wrong with the camera Mom and Dad had gotten me for Christmas. It just isn’t a professional photographer’s camera. How am I going to take professional photos if I don’t have a professional camera?
But I don’t want to hurt their feelings. They can’t help being completely clueless.
“You should see the cute new velvet jackets for fall from Nanette Lepore,” I said. Which isn’t even a lie. Sidney told me Nanette Lepore does have totally cute velvet jackets for fall.
I just don’t happen to be interested in buying one.
Mom rolled her eyes again — which is ironic, coming from a woman who owns six pairs of Manolo Blahniks at five hundred bucks a pop.
“All right, well, we’ll talk tomorrow morning, then,” Mom said, giving up. “See you later. Have a good day.”
She closed my bedroom door again, after taking one last curious look at me. I guess she could tell. I mean, that I wasn’t quite myself.
Have a good day. Ha. Right. Yeah, I was going to have a good day, all right. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Let’s see: Tommy Sullivan, class outcast with whom I’d nevertheless been friendly and whom I cruelly betrayed four years earlier (though he doesn’t seem to know it), is back in town, and is not only aware that I think he’s hot now, but also caught me cheating on my boyfriend, who happens to be the little brother of the guy whose life Tommy ruined when he exposed his cheating in a middle school newspaper exposé….
Oh, yeah. No problems there. Everything’s going to befine.
I. Am. So. Screwed.
Especially since, that first part — about Tommy not seeming to know how I’d betrayed him?
I’m not totally sure it’s true.
Something tells me Tommy might actually know perfectly well what it is that I did.
And that might be why he’s back here in Eastport.
Because what if the reason Tommy’s back is that he wants revenge?
And I’ve managed to hand him the perfect way to get it, on a bright, shiny, silver platter: All he has to do is tell Seth about what he saw behind the Gull ’n Gulp emergency generator, and my life is over.
Because when Seth confronts me about it, I won’t be able to lie. I can lie to Seth about havinge. coli. And I can lie to Seth and tell him that I love him, when the truth is I’m not so sure that’s true (because if I did love him, what am I doing with Eric?).
But I can’t lie — to Seth’s face — about what Tommy saw.
The thing is, I can’t even say I blame him. Tommy, I mean. For wanting to even the score. What I did to him — even I can’t believe it, sometimes. He has every right to hate me.
And yet, last night, when I’d been in his arms, I could have sworn…
Obviously I was wrong, though. Especially when it turned out that the whole time, he’d just been laughing at me.
Tommy’s evil laugh was still ringing in my ears when I stumbled downstairs a little while after my chat with my mom. Liam, I saw, was gone. He had probably snagged a ride to the Y with my parents. He was bound and determined to bulk up a few inches more before Quahog tryouts. I’d never seen anyone more excited about anything than Liam was about that stupid tryout.