Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Sabrina
They were halfway through the film, and Dave didn’t seem to notice their knees touching. Sabrina wanted to move. Her leg had started to tingle, and her back ached, but if she moved, they would no longer be touching. Even worse, he might notice that she hadn’t moved, that she had stayed there.
“So…Kit gets back this week?” Dave asked, throwing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
Heat flushed through her chest and face. He hadn’t asked about Kit for weeks.
“Yeah, I think she gets back like tomorrow or the day after.”
“Did you hear from her while she was away?” He glanced at her for a moment, then went back to watching the movie, a car chase through a shipping dock screeched on the screen.
“A few messages, yeah. You?”
Dave passed her the bowl of popcorn, and Sabrina took a handful.
“Nah, we didn’t keep in touch.”
“Did you want to?”
“I’m good,” he said. She could tell he was lying. Sabrina could always tell when people lied. Kit had obvious tells. Dave, less so. She noticed he scratched the back of his head when he was uncomfortable with the topic. She watched him rub the crown of his head.
When the film ended and the credits rolled, Dave jumped off the sofa fast enough that he may have not noticed that their knees had been touching at all.
“So, do you want to go out this weekend? I think some of my friends are having a party over in Ambler. One of the big houses. You know the ones I mean? The McMansions? My mom hates them. Says they’re new money.”
“Whose party is it? I mean, am I invited?”
“Sure you’re invited. We can just go together,” Dave said as he threw the small basketball through the hoop and missed.
Sabrina knew it didn’t occur to Dave that an official invitation felt necessary to her.
Sabrina also knew that Dave would know what to wear, when to arrive, and what to bring to a party like this.
She didn’t. Kit had sometimes gone out, especially when her other Chestnut Hill friends would invite her, but Sabrina’s mother had always been strict about curfews.
She had accepted, without question, that this was a part of high school she simply wouldn’t experience.
“Okay.”
“So how about I pick you up at your place?”
Sabrina stared at Dave for a moment. Her thoughts rushed through her head, pushing one after the next out. No, that won’t work. No, he won’t believe me. But then I can’t turn up alone.
“Manayunk, right?”
“Yeah.”
Sabrina walked slowly up the stairs behind Dave and heard him greet Jona at the top of the stairs. “Oh, hey, Jona. Don’t worry, I can turn everything off. See you in the morning.”
“Hey, if Kit is back by this weekend, you want me to ask her to come to the party?” Sabrina asked, squeezing her foot into her Vans.
“I don’t know. I feel like it’s our thing. Maybe the next one,” he said as he opened the door for her. “So I’ll see ya on Saturday. Call you before.” He stood at the entrance to watch her walk down the street. He always did, and she wondered whether it was something he did for Kit too.
Sabrina’s first high school party was also her last. Stuart McKluskie’s house in Ambler was the biggest home she had ever stepped foot in.
The driveway was vast, and the lawn out front that hugged it seemingly had no purpose at all, but it was bigger than the entire square footage of her house.
She looked at familiar faces from high school, most of whom glanced at her and showed no recognition in return.
There were Jeeps parked in the driveway, music blasting from the house, with the doors wide open.
In the distance she saw other houses that looked either abandoned or closed up for the summer.
“Stuart doesn’t have neighbors?” Sabrina asked, skipping to keep up with Dave.
“Think they’re away for the summer.”
Sabrina questioned herself. Was he walking fast because he didn’t want to be seen with her?
“Is that what rich people do? Close up their whole house for the summer? Just switch from one to another? Kit and her parents were always down the shore for the whole summer.”
Dave didn’t answer.
They walked into the kitchen, and she saw his group of friends standing at the marble kitchen island setting up a triangle of red cups.
There were bottles everywhere around the sink, several of which were on their sides, the sticky liquid already staining the white tops.
Pizza boxes lay stacked on the floor in the corner where she imagined the trash was hidden inside the kitchen unit.
Who was going to clean up in the morning?
Sabrina imagined Stuart McKluskie’s mom had a team of girls to help in the house.
Beyond the kitchen and into the open-plan living room area was a huge double-height window that looked out at the yard.
In the middle of the enormous lawn was a swimming pool where people were jumping into the water.
A seating area with a mounted TV was blasting a ball game.
There was a fully stocked bar in the corner and a barbecue with a huge dining table outside as well.
Sabrina tried to imagine what a family dinner looked like.
How Stuart must have felt, walking into a home like this every day.
It was the same displaced feeling she had at Dave’s house, and to an extent Kit’s too.
She fiddled with the waistline of her shorts and pulled at the T-shirt she had tucked into them. She wished she had worn something else.
Stuart greeted Dave with a high five and looked beyond him at Sabrina. She saw his eyes take her in and look back at Dave, tilt his head and raise his brows in question.
“This is unexpected,” he said.
Sabrina didn’t know Stuart well enough to read the exact undertone of what he said.
“Hey, thanks for letting me come along,” she said, forcing a smile that did not hide her deep fear that she would be asked to leave.
“Sure, open house! Let me get you guys a drink.” Stuart knocked his shoulder into Dave’s and Sabrina saw something had sparked between the two boys. She looked away and watched the silhouettes in the house writhing and jumping to the deep bass that blasted out of the built-in speakers.
She wanted to tell Dave that this house was like a castle, but she knew better. Stuart passed her a drink and she held it in both hands. A girl she vaguely recognized from her drama class jumped into the swimming pool fully clothed, and Sabrina decided in that moment she wouldn’t drink that night.
···
Sabrina had gone to the bathroom in the pool house, which took much longer than she had expected because of a long line.
By the time she came back, Dave had started a fight with Stuart.
She couldn’t hear what they said to each other over the music, but she saw spittle fly from Dave’s mouth as his face colored red.
She tried to get to the front of the crowd gathering around them.
In that moment, everything started to slow down, and she watched with horror as Stuart pulled his freckled arm and fist back and lunged toward Dave’s beautiful face.
She didn’t know what they fought over, nor what could even make Dave so angry. He was always so placid and kind.
A bright stream of blood trickled down Dave’s nose.
He wiped it away with his arm, and now the red streak was spread over his pale blue shirt.
He took a swing, hitting Stuart in the face.
Sabrina watched his head swerve back and pink spit fly out of his mouth.
She tried to shout for him to stop, but her voice was padded down by noise from the crowd gathered around them.
Some cheered, some shouted loud oooohs .
She called his name again, but he didn’t look back at her.
Finally, two boys broke them up after what felt like a never-ending fight.
Dave had taken three more punches, including one in the ribs, and Stuart had blood pouring from both nostrils.
Dave shook himself free and rushed out of the room.
Sabrina tried to follow him, angling herself sideways to squeeze past the sweaty bodies, but a crowd blocked her way. She watched Dave walk out the front door and tried to keep her eye on him as his figure moved further away from her into the dark night.
She finally made it outside and ran down the driveway to find Dave opening his car door.
Was he about to leave without her?
He turned back, looked at Sabrina, and gestured with his head for her to get in. Relief swept over her. He was waiting for her.
“Let’s go.”
Her happiness was mixed with a tinge of shame. That she was there, alone with him again. He had chosen her. They drove through the dark back roads of Lower Gwynedd.
“Hey, have I still got that liquor bottle behind your seat? I took it from my dad’s bar.”
“Your dad has a bar?” Sabrina asked and regretted it immediately.
“You can pour some coke into the bottle, it won’t be so gross if we drink it mixed.”
Sabrina put the bottle between her knees and patiently tapped the top of the Coke can.
“What are you doing? Just open it,” he snapped.
Sabrina paused.
“We’re not drinking this now. You’re not drinking this now. You’re driving.”
“I know that, Sabrina, I just want a drink when we stop, all right?” His breathing was heavy.
“Are we not going to talk about what happened back there?” Sabrina asked while carefully examining the bottle to determine how much was left.
“Why do we need to?”
“Because you’re upset. You just got into a fight.”
He didn’t say anything. He drove with his jaw set tight and stared ahead at the road. When they stopped at a light, he was silent, and she waited until he was ready to speak.
“Well, we’re not going to drink tonight on top of everything else,” she finally said. She regretted it the instant it came out of her mouth, knowing he would be angry with her.
“God, Sabrina, come on. I just want to get back to the city and blow off some steam. I got into a stupid fight over you and I want a drink. Are you with me or not?”
Over her? She hadn’t seen the argument. Only the punching. Was it that Dave had shown up to the party with the janitor’s kid? The Chinese dork? Sabrina said nothing. She didn’t want to know.
“You got into a fight over me?” she finally asked. She had always hated Stuart, but Dave Harrison had punched him in her defense. The insult didn’t sting as much knowing this part.
“He’s a dumbass and said something about you.
I couldn’t stand it. I lost my temper. He deserved it.
Are you happy now? We discussed it. Now are you going to hang with me or you want me to drop you home?
” he asked, but he already knew the answer, because Sabrina had already screwed the top back on securely.
“I’m not going to drink with you, if that’s what you mean.”
“Rina,” he pleaded and glanced at her but turned quickly back to the road.
“No, Dave. It’s not happening. But I will hang with you. I don’t think you need to drink either to be totally honest. You’re high on life already.” She smiled. He sighed heavily.
“This has been a real crappy night.”
“Yeah, and it will get crappier if you wake up with a huge hangover after drinking some, what is this anyway?” Crappier . The word felt strange in her mouth. She raised the bottle to examine it. “Vermouth? You were going to get crazy drunk on vermouth?”
“I don’t know.”
Dave shook his head and started to laugh. She looked at his knuckles, which were red and swollen from the fight.
“You want some ice from the store? We can stop?”
“No, let’s just keep driving.”
The radio started to play a song she liked. She mouthed the words and repeated the song over and over.
“I love this song,” she said and turned the volume up. It was an old Hootie & the Blowfish song. She knew, like Eva Kim knew, that sometimes people didn’t want to talk about the biggest thing when the smallest thing would do. The biggest thing and smallest thing could exist side by side.
Dave listened, and as the song faded, he laughed again.
“What?”
“Nothing, it’s just such an old song.”
“I love old songs.” She leaned back and closed her eyes.
“You’re something,” he said. “I’ve never met anyone like you before, Rina.” Then he opened up Spotify on his iPhone, and they listened to the song again.
Rina , she whispered in her head to herself, and her heart soared up to the sky, wings flapping hard, pushing to heights it had never known until now. Rina.