Scene Four #2
The first thing I notice is that she has blond hair. The kind of blond Charlie calls “prescription strength,” meaning you need serious chemical help to achieve it. The second is that both her bag and her sunglasses seem way larger than she is.
Olivia and I look at each other. Olivia steps closer to me. “LA transplant,” she says. “Definitely.” She crosses her arms, and her strap slides down to her elbow so that her MIAMI book bag is dangling dangerously close to the ground. She doesn’t seem happy.
“Were we getting new students?” I ask. But before I even have time to consider my own question, I know who she is. The girl from the newspaper. My cousin. Juliet.
“What are you doing?” Olivia spits, but she follows me over to the car where Juliet is busying herself with unloading books.
“Hey.” I’m not usually the welcoming committee—usually that’s Charlie’s role.
Well, maybe more like making new people feel afraid—Charlie isn’t exactly the “come join our circle” kind of girl.
But Juliet is my cousin. Just because we haven’t been friends in a decade doesn’t mean we couldn’t start now.
She’s the only family I have, besides my parents.
“Hey,” she says back. Even with her sunglasses on I can tell she’s looking me up and down. It’s slow, too, like she’s not trying to hide it.
I go ahead and blurt it out: “Do you know who I am?” I shake my head. “I just mean, we’re cousins? Rosaline Caplet?” I tap myself on the chest like I have a name tag.
She flips her hair off her shoulders. “Yeah, I know.”
I’m relieved, until I realize she’s not following that up with anything. “This is Olivia,” I say, to say something.
“Hey,” Olivia says. She has one eye on me and the other on Juliet. I try to see what she sees. Juliet’s pretty. Not Charlie-gorgeous but definitely attractive. She always was.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you since we were, like, seven.” I run my foot back and forth across the pavement. I suddenly don’t want to look at her. I wonder if she remembers the doll incident.
“Does Rob still live here?”
“What?” Olivia answers for me.
Juliet looks at me. “Rob Monteg? I’m sure you remember. You guys were best friends.”
“Right, yeah. He still lives here.” I can feel Olivia’s eyes on me, but I don’t offer anything more. I’m not sure what to say, anyway. That Rob’s my boyfriend now? Is that even true?
“It’s been a long time,” she says, but it’s unclear whether she’s talking to me or remembering to herself.
“So you guys just moved?” I ask, steering the conversation away from Rob.
She nods. “Your parents tell you?”
I shake my head. “Actually, no. I saw it in the paper.”
She smiles slightly and clicks the lock on her car. “Makes sense.”
“This is kind of weird,” I say. “It’s been forever.”
“Yeah,” she says, but again, that’s all.
When I was little, I used to think about this moment over and over.
If she ever came back, if I ever got to see her again, what I would say.
How I would forgive her or apologize or throw my arms around her neck and beg her to play dolls with me.
But we’re seventeen now, not seven, and I’m not sure how to act.
Rob’s better at this. He can talk to anyone, about anything.
One time we went to Colonial Williamsburg on a trip with our parents, and he talked to the shoemaker for an hour about their mutual love of the Lakers.
I didn’t even know colonial people watched television, but Rob got it out of him.
His smile just kind of melts people. They end up spilling.
“So where are you guys living?” Olivia asks.
“Some house by the beach,” she says. “It’s fine.”
“Cool.” Olivia looks at me like, Good luck with that, and turns to go back over toward Ben. “Nice to meet you!” she calls over her shoulder.
Juliet smiles, but it’s stiff. And she doesn’t wave. It’s a smile far better suited to the girl who beheaded my favorite Barbie than the one who was my best friend in kindergarten.
“Do you need help finding classes or anything? Thursdays we don’t have assembly, so we just go straight to first period.”
“I need to find…” She rummages in her gigantic bag and extracts a piece of paper. “Mr. Johnson,” she says.
“He’s probably in his office at Cooper House,” I say. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
We start walking. Rob, Ben, and Olivia are descending toward Cooper House below us, but I decide not to call down to them.
“So how come you’re starting today?”
“We were in Italy yesterday,” she says. “My dad couldn’t get back.” Italy. Right. I remember when we used to make pizzas at Rob’s together. I guess life is pretty different now.
“Sounds exciting.”
“I guess,” she says flatly.
Okay, then. “So, what brings you guys back?”
“My mom wanted a change. LA gets tiring after a while.” She readjusts her book bag. It’s Tod’s. White leather. The kind Olivia wanted to get this year.
“Mhm, I’ll bet.”
“Have you ever lived there?”
“Oh, no,” I say. “But, you know, I get it.” Of course I’ve never lived there. I would have called her. We would have been friends, wouldn’t we?
She gives me a look that I take to mean I definitely do not get it. Luckily, we’re at Mr. Johnson’s office. So for now, my time with Juliet is coming to a close.
“Here’s your stop. He should be in there.” I point to the left, past the entryway.
“Thanks.”
“We usually have lunch in the courtyard, if you want to join us. And I guess our families will get together, so I’ll see you.
” The silhouette of Rob’s and my parents in our living room last night comes back to me.
Something tells me that they’re not quite as interested in rekindling a friendship as I am.
And I am. Seeing her again makes me think about how close we were, and how I miss her, even after all these years.
Maybe once she settles in, she’ll let her guard down.
“Sure,” Juliet says. She smiles, and it seems genuine, or at least as close to it as I’ve come so far. I glance down at my watch, and I’m already a minute late for Spanish. Charlie is going to kill me. I open my mouth to say good-bye, but I’m met with the back of her head. She has already moved on.