6. Liz #2
She says the last word quietly, and a look passes between her and Sadie.
Jayne clearly doesn’t mean “be careful” like a general warning.
She’s talking about something specific, and I hate that I don’t know what it is.
I make a mental note to ask Sadie about it later, although I’m guessing it has something to do with Ben.
He can get way too rowdy when he drinks, something I’m only too aware of, and if he catches Sadie flirting with any other guys at the party—for Ben, Sadie flirting basically just means her talking to another human male—he might lose his shit.
An angry Ben is not a Ben you want to see.
“Hey, girls.” Carly’s voice suddenly rings through the entry from the garage.
“In here, Mom!” Sadie and Jayne call out in unison. It still weirds me out that they do that sometimes.
Carly enters the kitchen, her arms laden with Whole Foods bags.
From her outfit, it looks like she’s coming straight from some kind of workout class, although it’s impossible to keep up with which one.
If there’s a fitness trend, Carly is the first one to jump on the bandwagon.
In the past few years alone, she’s been into CrossFit, Pilates, hot yoga, barre, and now something that seems almost like a resurgence of the kind of Jazzercise aerobic videos that Sadie and I made fun of in middle school when they started popping up on YouTube.
She’s borderline obsessive about “staying fit.” I used to think it was just the product of boredom or a weirdly intense form of competition to keep up with the other Instagram moms. But now I wonder if she’s just trying to keep Steven’s eye from wandering too far off.
The thought makes me feel a little sick.
“Good class?” Sadie wisely avoids trying to guess what kind of class it was.
“The best, thanks for asking,” Carly replies. “I think I burned, like, five hundred calories! Now, I’ve got everything you girls will need for a weekend without us. If you can turn on the oven and set a timer, you can eat like queens.”
“I think we can manage,” Jayne says, rolling her eyes.
Carly looks briefly hurt before turning her attention to putting the groceries away. It’s not lost on me that Jayne is standing the closest to her and doesn’t bother offering to help.
Ever since I started noticing the differences in Sadie’s and Jayne’s relationships with their parents, I became more aware of the general…
disdain, I guess, that Jayne has for Carly.
I’m not really sure why, but maybe it’s natural that if you have two kids, each one will just end up being closer to one parent or the other.
In my current role of unwanted stepchild, that’s not something I can relate to, although I can imagine how it would be.
“Can I help with that?” I ask finally.
“Oh, sure. Thanks, honey. I’m sure you know where everything goes by now.”
I help her unpack the paper bags. She’s right; I do know where everything goes.
Honestly, I know the Coopers’ kitchen better than my own at this point, and I prefer it that way.
More than once, I’ve wondered if I should just ask them if I can formally move in.
Say a more permanent goodbye to Levi and just live in the spare bedroom here while I ride out the last year of high school.
If things hadn’t gotten so strange after I overheard Steven and Carly arguing during spring break last year, I probably would have asked already.
But now… now it feels like a risk. Like if I’m around this family for too much longer, I’ll end up finding out about even worse skeletons in the closet.
“Look at that. All my favorite girls in one room.” Steven Cooper strolls into the kitchen and sets his bag down on the bar. “You included, of course, Liz.”
Jayne shoots me a glare that could freeze ice, and I feel a little thrill.
I’m glad she’s jealous.
“Y’all flatter me!” I reply, exaggerating my accent.
“You’re the reason I got enough food for three instead of two, sweetie,” Carly says, wrapping an arm around me. “Gotta take care of the bonus daughter!”
“Aw, thanks for thinking of me, Carly.”
I sneak a look at Jayne, but she’s got her phone out and is texting furiously. With Evan, no doubt.
“Okay,” Steven says, clearly having grown bored of us and checking his Rolex. “We’ve gotta be out of here in… half an hour? Jesus, where did the afternoon go? I’ll just run up and throw some things in an overnight bag.”
“Already done.” Carly smiles. “Because your loving wife knows that you can’t pack worth shit.”
Steven laughs. “Fair enough. That gives me time to get back to Donovan on a few things.”
I watch them banter, and it seems impossible that this is the same couple who had that horrible conversation about sidepieces.
“What are you girls up to tonight?” Carly asks after Steven has left the room.
“Oh—” Sadie starts, but Jayne cuts her off.
“Just a whole lot of Netflix and pizza,” she says smoothly. “Honestly, with how crazy everything has been over the past few weeks with homecoming and senior volunteer days, we’re all beat.”
“Yeah,” Sadie agrees quickly. “Something tells me you and Dad will be having a crazier weekend than the three of us.”
“Up at Lake Chautauqua? That’ll be the day.”
Carly heads upstairs, and Sadie lets out a sigh of relief and gives Jayne a smile. “Thanks for that one.”
“What are sisters for? I swear to God, though, you’d better not do anything too crazy tonight. I don’t mind covering for you, but it’s a lot easier if things stay chill at Trevor’s.”
I let out a short laugh.
“Something funny?” Jayne asks.
“No, it just… Come on, when has anything about Trevor’s ever been chill?”
I realize too late that I’m playing directly into Jayne’s opinion of me as a party girl, even if I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since the night we were at that other party together—the one where I made the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.
She levels one of her flat stares at me. God, does anyone else get creeped out by that look? It’s the one and only time she looks nothing like Sadie.
“Relax,” I say quickly. “Like I said, I don’t drink anymore. I’ll keep an eye on Sadie. We’ll be home by one.”
“Make it midnight. I will drag myself out of bed for you if I have to, but it’s a lot easier if you get home before I turn on the security system.”
Sadie rolls her eyes. “Yes, Mom.”
Jayne nods, satisfied.
Sadie flashes a smile like everything is right in the world, and I am, once again, totally confused by these two.
A few minutes ago, Jayne was offering to come pick us up at any hour, just to make sure we got home safely.
Or at least to make sure Sadie got home safely.
And now she’s threatening us with a midnight curfew and turning on the alarm?
But Sadie doesn’t call her out on it. She also doesn’t seem to notice that Jayne has resumed openly glaring at me.
Not that it isn’t fun sitting in the Coopers’ movie-set-level kitchen and getting judged within an inch of my life by the bitchy twin, but I suddenly find myself very ready to disappear.
“Hey,” I say to Sadie. “You mentioned a necklace that would look cute with this top?”
Sadie looks at Jayne, then at me, and gets the hint.
“Yes! Oh, it’ll look so good. C’mon, we’ll head up to my room.”
She grabs us two coconut waters from the fridge on the way upstairs, leaving Jayne alone. I glance back, wondering if Jayne is going to make a final snide remark before we disappear. But she already has her phone back out, texting away.
As soon as we get up to Sadie’s room, she disappears into her closet to look for outfit options for tonight.
I know the drill, so I sit on the bed and wait for her to present me with different variations to vote on.
The thing is, she looks good in literally everything.
She could wear a ratty old sweatshirt and still look flawless.
Ultimately, we agree on a pair of baggy jeans and a tight black top.
It’s a party on a farm, after all, and neither of us feels like waking up tomorrow morning with legs covered in bug bites.
I hear my phone ping from my bag. I don’t even need to look at it to know that it’s Ben. I’ll respond later, when Sadie is taking a shower or something.
Sadie emerges from the closet. “Was that my phone or yours?”
“Mine. Probably Levi calling to tell me I did something on the infinite chore list the wrong way.” I roll my eyes. “So,” I say, desperate to change the subject and forget about my phone, “the necklace?”
“Oh, yes! Let me grab it.”
As she rummages through her jewelry drawer, Sadie knocks over her bottle of coconut water.
“Shit,” she mutters. “Ugh, my mom just had new carpet put in.”
I decide now is not the time to mention that this carpet looks exactly the same to me as the old stuff or the stuff before that. Carly Cooper might love to redecorate, but no one would ever accuse her of doing something “outside the box.”
“It’s just water,” I say quickly. “It’s probably fine.”
“Would you mind running downstairs to grab me another one? I’ll find that necklace for you.”
“No problem.”
I make my way down the old, curved staircase slowly and hear voices.
If Steven and Carly are fighting again, I definitely do not want to walk in on it.
But the voices in the kitchen sound muffled and relatively chill, so I consider the coast clear.
It isn’t until I’m about to open the door through the butler’s pantry from the hall (seriously, who has a butler’s pantry?) that I realize Jayne is talking to Steven and Carly about something.
My stomach drops to the floor when I realize that the topic of discussion is Trevor McClain’s party.
“I was trying to convince them to just stay home with me and chill out, but I don’t think I succeeded.”
“Well, they’re just going to have a good time. Maybe you should go with them, Jaynie. Getting out more with the kids from school might be good for you.”
“Dad, gross. No. You know why I don’t hang out with those kids. They’re trashy.”