“Kit, we all know your grades,” Boyd said. He lifted a hand off the wheel to run it through his floppy hair, causing Tessa’s head to bob away from his shoulder and sending a domino effect of shuffling throughout the cabin of the car. “Pretty sure the whole school knows. It’s kind of like a thing.”
Lilly grinned, giving herself an internal high five like she did whenever Boyd took her side.
Kit leaned forward to look at him. “A thing?”
Lilly could practically hear Tessa’s eyes rolling. “Yeah,” Tessa clarified. “An everyone-knows-Katherine-Malloy-is-King-Midas-and-everything-she-touches-turns-to-gold thing.”
“That’s absurd,” Kit said as the truck turned into the parking lot and Boyd swung them into one of the few remaining spots. “And let’s hope it’s not true. Didn’t Midas die alone and unloved?”
“Whatever,” Tessa replied.
Lilly had no answer—she was barely listening by then.
Kit shrugged. “Well, lucky for you guys, I saved all of my notes and study guides.”
“Yeah, lucky us!” Lilly said, already halfway out of the truck. She didn’t care that much about grades, and knew she had a full year before testing for colleges would even matter. She hoped to focus on other types of scoring in the meantime.
And as much as she would have liked to linger and quiz Boyd about the status of his blinds this morning, it wasn’t going to happen with both of her sisters around, like always.
She spotted Melissa and Darcy sitting on the front steps and headed their way, slowing down when Mel noticed her and Dar waved.
Eager was pathetic.
She was working on being less eager.
As she got closer, she noticed Dar had gotten thinner since she’d left to spend all of August at her dad’s house; an overlarge black sweater drowned her frame. Mel looked exactly the same as always—in fact, she appeared to be wearing a favorite outfit from freshman year, consisting of tight red jeans, a striped button-down, and a silk scarf Lilly had given her last Christmas. But her smile looked more like a smirk.
Lilly bent for a three-way hug, then dropped her bag and took her spot, a step lower than the other two. Mel passed her a half-finished diet Dr Pepper. It was their tradition to share one before school every single day of the year. It had started sometime in eighth grade and just stuck.
Lilly took a big slurp, then passed the can to Dar. “So what did I miss?”
Dar blew her blond bangs out of her face. “We were just talking about the Donovan kid.”
“Kid?” Lilly knew of the Donovans—the elderly couple who lived on the little cul-de-sac right off 28, at the edge of the preserve. They were on Kit’s volunteer circuit and pretty close to Mel’s house as well. Liam Donovan was losing his mind, Kit said. And the wife—Lilly couldn’t remember her name—had apparently gone half blind. Lilly had heard nothing about a kid, though.
“Dude, get with it!” Mel said, grabbing the soda from Dar, taking a huge sip, then burping. “He’s in our grade.”
“How can the Donovans have a kid in our grade? They’re like four hundred years old.” Lilly rolled her eyes. Mel was always dramatic.
“Not their actual offspring,” Dar explained. “Nephew or grandson or whatever. His family tree’s not the point.”
“Right,” Mel added. “The point is, he’s supposed to be hot. And also a criminal of some sort.”
Lilly leaned back as Mel handed her the soda can again. Across the parking lot, Olivia Khan stepped out of her mom’s old Camry in tall espadrilles, her shiny black hair and bright red lipstick accenting her pale brown skin. According to online rumors, Olivia had lost her virginity over the summer, to Jay Kolbry, her new boyfriend, who was known to be a dealer. This was long after Olivia dated Boyd (which was back when Lilly and Olivia were both in eighth grade and Boyd and Tessa were in ninth). Still, Lilly experienced a pang of envy as Olivia walked toward the building, a sly grin on her face.
She turned back to her friends. “Where did you guys hear all this?”
Mel shrugged. “My mom.” Mel’s mother, Joanna Knox, reported for Devil’s Daily, the local paper that, as far as Lilly could tell, mostly ended up being used to cover the floors in Boyd’s house to form an impromptu shit pad when his dog couldn’t be let out for long stretches. Lilly had never read it, come to think of it. Anyway, the line between journalism and gossip was fairly nonexistent in the Knox household. “I would have texted you guys as soon as I heard, but I was grounded from my phone all day yesterday.”
Lilly smiled, shaking her head. “For what, taking the Lord’s name in vain again?”
“Anyway, his name is Patrick and Mel wants one of us to date him,” Dar filled in, exchanging a quick look with Lilly. It was the save-me look. “I already told her I’m not into lawbreakers.”
So far their group had been, while not exactly peripheral, not prime-cafeteria-table status-worthy either, and it had become clear sometime during freshman year that the pathway to high school dominance was paved with pairs. So last April, Mel had called a meeting between the three of them and determined that they were going to do things differently from then on—they were all going to get boyfriends.
Lilly had resisted at first, until Mel finally got her to confess that she was still clinging to her childhood crush on Boyd (which Mel kindly termed “borderline idolization”). But Mel had said that the what (getting a boyfriend) outweighed the who. Eventually Lilly had seen the merits of her argument: maybe experience was the important thing, and true love would follow.
And so Lilly had made out with Rohan Reddy at Allison Riley’s May Day party, and Mel hooked up with Wesley Abraham at the Abrahams’ graduation party for Wes’s older brother Connor in June. Neither had stuck, though. And as for Dar, she’d hovered in the background, easy not to notice in the end-of-year swirl of parties and drama and goodbyes.
But then, while Mel’s family went away for the Fourth of July weekend, Dar told Lilly to follow her up into the old tree house in her backyard. Lilly would never forget the moment they both sat down cross-legged, facing each other, the old tree creaking slightly as its branches swayed, and Dar cleared her throat, then blurted out that she thought she was gay. And that she didn’t want Mel to find out. “You know what her family’s like,” she’d said to Lilly, a determined look on her face, the same expression she always wore when about to call gin in a hand of rummy.
It was true. Lilly loved Mel like another sister, but the Knoxes were Jesus lovers, gun owners, and big talkers: not the most promising triumvirate of qualities if you happened to be a newly burgeoning high school lesbian.
And so Lilly had promised.
She savored having a secret in her possession—the trust Dar had bestowed on her. She wasn’t used to being the guardian of secrets, but the exposer of them, and this new responsibility had brought her a kind of sorrowful joy. Joy because in some small way she could help her friend. Sorrow because, well, things were complicated, and it had to suck to feel like hiding was your best option.
Of course, it hadn’t been all that difficult, when keeping Dar’s secret meant more guys for her. Still, she couldn’t help but hope the various covert kisses and clandestine grope sessions she’d had in the past few months were building to something real. Something meaningful.