Название: Here We Lie
Автор: Paula DeBoard Treick
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
isbn: 9781474083607
isbn:
I chewed the pepperoni slowly, deliberately.
Dad’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. “Well? Your mother asked you a question.”
I shrugged. “It’s for a class called Introduction to the Arts. We study visual art, music—”
“You’re taking that in addition to your other classes?”
“No, I dropped the biology class.” I’d also switched out of math, but this didn’t seem like the best moment to mention it.
In the front seat, Mom’s mouth was set in a tight line. “You need to be taking your general education requirements, Lauren. You’re not just here to try a little of this and a little of that. There’s an educational plan—”
“It’s one class,” I repeated. “And I’m thinking of studying fine arts, so it’ll be part of the requirements for my major.” This much was true, although I had been planning to wait as long as possible—at least another semester or two—before announcing it to my parents. Before their visit, I’d carefully packed away my Leica and slid my burgeoning portfolio underneath my bed.
Dad sighed, adjusting the visor so the setting sun didn’t blind him. “At least your friend seems excited about your work. She said you were very talented.”
Mom couldn’t let it go. “Everything’s always a lie with you. It’s always about sneaking around behind our backs.”
I leaned forward, my head between their bucket seats. “It’s my education, Mom. You can’t control the classes I take, like you did at Reardon.”
“If I hadn’t intervened there, you never would have graduated,” Mom snapped.
I rolled my eyes. I’d earned mostly B’s at Reardon, with the odd A and a few C’s, yet the arrival of my report card in the mail had always felt like doomsday, as if I’d brought shame upon the family for not being as brilliant as my siblings.
A car slowed in front of us, and Dad braked suddenly, the motion shooting us all forward against our seat belts. The pizza box slid from the back seat onto the floor, but thankfully the pizza in all its greasy gooeyness remained inside the box, folded over on itself. I lifted the lid to inspect the damage and said, “Still edible.”
Dad smiled, meeting my eyes quickly in the rearview mirror before returning to the road. I felt sorrier for him than I did for myself. He didn’t seem to understand all the intricacies of being a Mabrey, although all of our lives revolved around him. He was the one who would have to drive back to Simsbury with Mom, after all, listening to her complaints about my thoughtlessness.
In the parking lot outside Stanton Hall, I unclipped my seat belt and Dad did the same. Mom sat stony, staring ahead.
I gestured to the pizza. “Aren’t you coming inside?”
“Now that I think about it, we probably have to get on the road,” Mom said.
“Liz, we have food to eat. We might as well—”
“I don’t think I’m particularly hungry.”
Dad sighed, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
I scooped up the pizza box. No point in letting perfectly good food go to waste. “It’s a class,” I repeated. “A stupid fucking class. That’s all.”
Mom said, “You will not talk to us that way—” And I knew there was more, but I wasn’t going to stick around to hear it. I’d already slammed the door behind me and was walking fast across the parking lot, pizza box in hand. I waited for them to do something—for Mom to come after me or for Dad to pull even with me in the Mercedes, but none of that happened.
In my room, I moved some papers out of the way and set the box on my desk. Erin was still out with her parents, probably having the sort of happy family meal that regular people had, laughing and reminiscing and making plans for the next time they would see each other. But maybe there was no such thing as a normal family, a happy family meal. Maybe everyone was secretly, deep down miserable and they only put on brave faces for the rest of us.
More out of spite than hunger, I ate half the pizza and lay down on the bed, still dressed in my jeans and sweater in case Erin and her parents came back. I must have fallen asleep with the overhead fluorescent light still beaming down because the next thing I knew there were people running past my door, their footsteps echoing down the hallway.
“What’s going on?” I called to a girl who stood near the elevators, a hand over her mouth.
“Someone on the second floor took a bunch of pills,” she said. “It’s horrible.”
“Is she...” I faltered. “Is she going to be...”
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