WHY SHOULD I DO THIS? FOR HIM? FOR HER?
If I do this, I’m really sticking it to Eliza, which has definite appeal.
But also, in my heart, despite how I feel about the person in question, I know it’s the right thing to do. Plus, I’m going to go ahead and count this in the dare. Eliza and I are more than strangers, we’re enemies. Shouldn’t the last kindness be for someone like that anyway? Let’s finish this thing with a bang.
I take out my phone.
Max fills me in on the details of what he knows, so I can share them with Eliza’s parents.
“Make sure they’re both on the line,” says Max. “Or at least Eliza’s dad. If it’s just her mom, we’ll try again later.”
Max shows me the number, and I dial it and it’s ringing now, and my heart’s pounding.
“Hello?” answers a voice. Eliza’s mom, I assume. She sounds bored. I picture an older version of Eliza, lounging on a fainting couch.
“Hi. Is this Eliza’s mom?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“My name’s Kendall. I’m a friend of hers.” Already with the lies.
“Well, hello, Kendall,” she says. Overly friendly, because she thinks she’s supposed to know me but she can’t remember, so she’s going to fake it.
“Is Eliza’s dad home, too?” I ask.
There’s a pause. “Why?”
“I have something to tell you, but I want to tell you both.”
Another pause. “You can just tell me.”
“Can he please come to the phone, too? If he’s there?”
She exhales slowly, then I hear her call for her husband to pick up. That it’s Eliza’s friend and it’s apparently important. Apparently.
A click, then a deep male voice. “Hello?”
I introduce myself. And then I do it. I tell them that Eliza has a new boyfriend and he’s thirty and his name is . . .
“Silas,” Max whispers.
And we, Eliza’s friends, are concerned.
All this time, they’re silent.
Then I hear a click. Silence again.
“Hello?” I ask into the void.
“I’m still here,” says Eliza’s dad. “My wife hung up. I believe she’s upset.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. You did something good, by calling us.”
“I hope so,” I say. He doesn’t know the half of it.
“Eliza’s lucky to have a friend like you,” he adds.
Yeah, he knows less than half. More like an eighth . . . or maybe a twelfth.
But I simply say, “Thank you.”
Then we’re saying good-bye. When I hang up, I’m overcome with the sensation that I’ve performed a role in a short play that went off without a hitch.
Max is looking at me with a very strange expression.
“Oh my God,” I say. “Are you going to cry?”
“No. I’m just . . . grateful. You didn’t have to do that, but you did.”
We’re silent for a moment. The radiator in the corner clangs, and I find it strangely comforting that an apartment this trendy would still have a radiator that clangs. I take a deep breath, possibly the deepest one I’ve taken in days.
“I think maybe someday we’ll be okay,” I say. “About Luna.”
Max closes his eyes and nods. Takes his own deep breath. “Yeah. Maybe we will.”
Then he opens those eyes and sees right into me. I can feel it. I want to wrap my arms around his neck and hug him for a long time, but on the other side of the door is the rest of the world and the rest of the world is waiting.
Instead, I open the door.
The rest of the world is not waiting, but Eliza and Jamie are.
Um, yeah, that’s not good.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Eliza says, so slowly it’s frightening.
I don’t know what to do so I look at Max, but clearly, he doesn’t know what to do, either. I think about closing the door, locking it, and barricading ourselves behind the mattress. Instead, I do nothing.
“You called my parents about Silas?” says Eliza, her voice suddenly raspy.
“It wasn’t her,” says Max.
“I just heard her talking to them!”
“I asked her to do it.”
He steps in front of me.
“You?” asks Eliza.
“Yeah.”
She spins and runs away, across the loft toward the front door.
Max starts to go after her, but there’s Jamie, grabbing his arm. He shakes his head at us, his grip still firm on Max. “I’m totally confused. What’s going on between you two?”
“Nothing!” I say, cringing at how defensive and weak it sounds.
“You wouldn’t help me, so she did,” says Max, not defensive and weak at all.
“It had to be tonight?” asks Jamie. His gaze settles on me, full of betrayal. “It had to be her?”
“Yes,” says Max. It’s the most badass, sure-of-itself, don’t-fuck-with-me yes I’ve ever heard.
Jamie shakes his head. “Shit, Max. Haven’t you messed up Eliza enough already?”
“What are you talking about? All I’ve ever done is cleaned up her messes.”
“You’re still around instead of at college. You invited her into the city to spend New Year’s with you. Dude, don’t you understand how confusing that is for her?”
Max opens his mouth to say something, but can’t think of anything fast enough, I guess.
Jamie sighs, really pissed off now. “I’ll go find her. Why don’t you hurry up and get on with your life already?”
He stomps over to the front door, finds his coat and also Eliza’s, then turns to me. Baffled and hurt.
“Are you coming back?” I ask him.
“I don’t know,” he says.
I nod.
Then he’s gone.