“I am!” Audrey chirps. “Made varsity last year.”
“And you were a junior, like Julie? Pretty impressive.”
Audrey beams. Beside Claire, Julie rolls her eyes. She leans in and whispers in Claire’s ear, “No cheerleader would look twice at him when he was in high school, so now he’s freaking out. Look at him.”
Claire presses her hand over her mouth so she won’t laugh out loud. Lawrence leans forward, nodding earnestly at Audrey’s chatter. Julie snorts.
“It’s gonna be a while before your pizza’s ready. Wanna play a game? We can do two-player on something if you want.”
“Sure.” Claire shrugs. “We can play Ms. Pac-Man, that’s fine with me.”
Julie’s eyes gleam. “It’s the best one here. The arcade in Victoria has newer stuff, Mortal Kombat and Samurai Shodown the last time I was out there, but that’s like an hour drive. My mom doesn’t like me driving out there.”
“I know Mortal Kombat!” Claire says, excited. “Me and my friend Josh play it together every day after school.”
“Isn’t it fun?” Julie grins. “So, are you into video games too? Not just Hitchcock movies?”
“Yeah.” Claire glances over at Audrey, wondering if she ought to feel guilty about ignoring her, about wanting to ignore her, but Audrey’s wrapped up in Lawrence. “I don’t think I’m very good, though.”
Julie swipes her hand dismissively. “I doubt that.”
They walk over to the game and Claire slips in the quarters. “You can go first,” Julie says with a smile. Claire smiles back, a warmth in her chest.
She hasn’t played Ms. Pac-Man in years, but she manages to make it to the second level before she dies. When Julie takes her turn, her whole demeanor changes. She rests her fingers on the controls like a fighter pilot. Her eyes look straight forward, unblinking, and she straightens her shoulders. Ms. Pac-Man starts munching through the dots and Julie’s fingers are a blur as she weaves around the maze. Claire leans up against the side of the cabinet and watches her, although she gets bored quickly and focuses on Julie herself instead. She’s got that grunge girl style, her hair like she hasn’t bothered to brush it since she woke up and her eyeliner dark and smudgy. Claire wonders how much a stick of dark eyeliner would cost at the Walmart on the edge of town.
Julie makes it to the fourth level before her turn ends. She nods in satisfaction and steps away from the game. They go back and forth, and when Claire pulls off a particularly tricky maneuver on her turn, Julie laughs and says, “Awesome,” and Claire’s cheeks burn.
It’s fun, but when they’re finished they don’t have enough quarters for the both of them to play a second round.
“We should do this again,” Julie says. “No one I know is really that into video games. It sucks too, because I got a Super Nintendo for Christmas last year.”
“You have an SNES!” Claire cries. “That’s awesome. My friend Josh has one, well, his brother does, and he hardly ever lets us get on it. But I like it when we do have a chance to play.” That would give her something to write about to Josh, wouldn’t it? A letter detailing all her video game exploits. He’d think that was funny. She’s pretty sure he would, anyway.
A dullness thumps at the back of her head. No, she was going to write him about the monsters. She’d even started the letter. Written a few lines and then abandoned it. She’s not even sure where it is now.
“You should come over,” Julie says. “I’ve got Street Fighter II and Super Mario Kart and a couple of others.”
“I’d like that,” Claire says, and she means it, not like when she says the same thing to Audrey.
“I’ve got tomorrow off. Here, I’ll give you my number. Just call me whenever and you can come over.”
Julie bounds over to the table and pulls a napkin out of the dispenser. Lawrence and Audrey don’t even seem to notice her.
“Hey, Larry,” Julie says. “You got a pen?”
Lawrence gives her a dark look. “Don’t call me that.”
“Do you?”
“No. Go ask Pete.” He turns back to Audrey and says, “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“Wow, look at him.” Julie’s back at Claire’s side. “Could he be any more obvious?”
Lawrence leans forward in his chair, nodding every few seconds. His eyes glow. Audrey gestures and swishes her hair back and forth as she talks. Claire has always wondered about girls like that, girls who can control boys—and not even a boy here, a man, a sheriff’s deputy—with just their conversation.
“Is she always like that?” Claire asks in a low voice. “Just—anyone will listen to anything she says?”
Julie doesn’t answer right away. When Claire looks over at her, she’s frowning, her brow screwed up in concentration. She stares at Audrey.
“You know?” Julie says. “I really don’t know. I can’t remember.”
Claire shivers. That ought to say something about Julie, but the truth is, it doesn’t. It says something about Audrey.
Claire just doesn’t know what.
CHAPTER
Five
CLAIRE
Julie agrees to pick Claire up the next afternoon. As Claire is changing out of her sloppy T-shirt and old shorts, the telephone rings, shattering the silence of the house. She bolts out of her room, half-dressed, since Grammy’s taking her afternoon nap and she gets irritable whenever she’s woken. “Hello?” Claire says breathlessly into the phone, before remembering to add, “Sudek residence.”
“Claire? Is that you?”
“Mom?” Claire sighs and leans up against the wall. It’s the first time her mother has called her since she dropped Claire off in Indianola a week ago.
“I can’t talk long—I have a meeting scheduled in half an hour. But I saw that you’d called a couple of times and I wanted to make sure everything’s all right.” Her mother’s voice is brisk and business-like. She might as well be returning a client’s call.
“Everything’s fine,” Claire says. She pauses, her thoughts fuzzy. Why did she call again?
“Claire? Is everything all right?”
Claire glances up at the notepad beside the phone, sees the number for the exterminator. And then she remembers. “Monsters,” she says. “I was calling about the monsters.”
There’s a long silence on the other end of the phone. The speaker buzzes in Claire’s ear.
“I’d forgotten about those,” her mother says, her voice distant and flat. Then: “Is everything all right with Grammy? Has she been taking her pills?”
Claire shivers and slumps farther down the wall. She thinks about what Audrey told her, how people forget about the monsters as soon as they pass the city limits. She wonders if that’s what this is, or if it’s her mother avoiding an awkward topic. The silence is heavy enough, though, that this time she doesn’t think it’s her mother’s fault.
“Yeah, she’s been taking her pills. Listen, Mom—”
“What is it, honey? I told you I can’t talk long, so if you want to really chat we’ll need to hold that off for some other time.”