52
After an affectionate reunion with my mother and sister, a few painful questions from my father, who wants to know what I plan to do with my summer, and a few gifts from France to unwrap, I ask how my grandmother is doing and give a few vague answers about myself, just to get through the family reunion as quickly as possible.
I tell them I’m going to spend the day with Clem and won’t be home until late tonight, as it’s the end-of-year party.
For once, none of it is a lie, although there’s always the chance my parents will be suspicious anyway.
Not today, though. Marie Lancaster is in a wonderful mood—a trip to Paris always has that effect on her—and she cheerfully declares that I deserve to unwind after such a grueling year.
If only she knew.
I find Clémentine sitting at a table with Felix at the back of the Sunset Café.
They had both replied immediately to my panicked texts, and now they begin bombarding me with questions before I even have time to sit down.
Shakily, I tell them about the arrest and the drugs hidden at Vadim’s place.
Neither of them doubts his innocence. Alonso gets agitated and starts hurling insults in Spanish, spitting out the name “Keith” every three words.
“Keep it down!” Clem snaps irritably. “Everyone studied Spanish in school, you know!”
The café is packed with overexcited students, some celebrating the end of exams, others looking forward to their upcoming vacations, and all of them excited about the much-anticipated party that is scheduled to take place on campus for the freshmen.
Nobody is listening to us. No one seems to notice that our three faces are the only ones not lit up with wide smiles.
“Let’s go talk to the police, Alma!” Clem says. “We have so much dirt on Keith. Someone has to listen to us.”
“Yeah, good luck with that D’Aragon,” Felix replies.
“It’s just so awful! How can a social worker get away with leading a double life like that?”
“Look, even you fell for it,” Alonso continues. “He fed you a couple of nice lines, flashed his muscles, and bam! You were in bed with him.”
“Alright, alright, no need to remind me. And I still have to break up with that bastard! Will you come with me, Alma?”
“Hey! Have you both forgotten that Vadim just got arrested?” I chide, glaring at them. “How do we get him out of there?”
“I can’t do anything,” Felix says. “If I go talk to the cops, they’ll lock me up too.”
“So you’re just going to let him take the fall alone? Your best buddy, your brother from another mother, or whatever? After everything he’s done for you?” I hiss.
“Do you really think I’ll be able to help him when we’re rotting in two separate cells? Think, Lancaster, instead of attacking me!”
“You think, Alonso! Try to come up with a plan!”
“That’s all I’m doing right now!”
“We could find him a lawyer,” Clémentine suggests, trying to ease the tension.
“Huh. My dad knows some…” I reply.
But I immediately think of the consequences of asking him.
“Your dad?” Felix responds scornfully. “All he’ll do is make things worse for Vadim!”
I burst into tears. A few students turn around and watch me cry for a couple of seconds.
Then, just as quickly, they go back to their conversations, which are filled with laughter, excited cries, and carefree chatter.
It’s unbearable. Their happiness. The noise.
The party being prepared for us. And Vadim, who is alone when I picture him, in a police station cell or an interrogation room, probably losing his mind, with no believing him. The thought twists my guts.
The day wears on, but none of us gives up.
Good ideas emerge, and bad ones too. We snap at each other, complain, and lose hope, but Vadim remains at the center of every thought.
A few sodas later, we make a solemn vow to prove his innocence, no matter what.
We just don’t know how yet. Our hands shake as we stack them one on top of the other in a pact, but Felix promises us that we’ll figure it out.
Neither Clem nor I believe him, but it’s the only thing I have left to hold on to.
The three of us.
Against the rest of the world.
For him.
***
Right now though, we have to go to this party. We can’t have rumors start spreading. We’ve already learned the hard way how quickly gossip travels on campus. If we’re going to fight for Vadim Arcadi, it starts today.
On campus, the students gather around the kegs set up for the occasion.
A sound system blasts out the biggest hits of the year.
Red paper cups pass from hand to hand. Some students are stealthily adding alcohol to the soft drinks provided by the college.
A few professors have shown up too; I don’t know if they’re here to celebrate the end of the school year or to play chaperone. I already want to get out of here.
“Congratulations, Frenchies! You survived!” Timothy Wallace calls out to us as he arrives, accompanied by his whole crew.
“What the hell are you doing here? You’re not even freshmen,” Clémentine says.
“Don’t worry, we’re not sticking around. We have a party to go to somewhere else, where we’ll get something other than Coke in our cups,” one of the basketball players replies.
His buddies burst into laughter, and Clem and I exchange an uneasy glance.
“We just wanted to confirm something we heard about Arcadi…”
“What?” I bark.
“Well, you probably know better than we do, Alma,” Tim answers, pretending to be uncomfortable. “That he’s gone back to prison.”
“And this time, he’s not getting out!” one of Tim’s buddies chimes in.
“He’s never even been in prison before. You don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Still, how do they know?
“Hey, guys, you’re becoming quite the gossip queens, aren’t you?” Clem cuts in with a sly smile. “You sure you’re all okay? Is your masculinity handling it alright? You know, you sink a little lower every day.”
“You know, you’re a lot more bitter than you used to be, D’Aragon! I guess that’s what happens when you never get laid,” Cassius Banks, one of her exes from the beginning of the year, fires back.
“Leave them alone! Come on, get out of here!” My brother shows up behind us and tries to take control of the situation.
“Well, look who it is—Lancaster’s brother! Are you the one banging Arcadi now, or are you having threesomes with your sister?”
They nudge each other and laugh coarsely. Ignoring them, Basile takes me by the shoulders and steers me away from the circle that has formed around us. Clémentine spits a few more insults at the jocks before she joins us.
“Alma, you’d better go home.”
“Why? I have nothing to feel guilty about. Neither does Vadim.”
“Is what they’re saying true?” my brother asks me in a low voice. “Is he in prison?”
“No, he got arrested, that’s all!” Clem practically yells.
She immediately realizes her blunder and brings her hand to her mouth, which is hanging wide open.
“Fuck, I told you that you couldn’t trust him! He isn’t right for you, Alma. You need to put an end to this right now. Before it gets even more serious.”
Basile strokes my arm, but I jerk it away. For once, I’m not crying. Fury zips through my veins and starts to rumble in my throat.
“And to think that Vadim stood up for you! He stopped those guys from walking all over you and Isaac! He pushed you to accept yourself. But it turns out, you’re just as much of a coward as they are, Basile!
You make me sick! And you know what? I’m never going to leave him.
NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!” I roar those words loud enough for the whole campus to hear.
Then, I start running toward the exit.
***
I don’t recognize the number showing on my cell phone, but I answer it anyway as I continue down the street.
Hearing Vadim’s voice takes my breath away.
“Alma, it’s me.”
I stop dead in my tracks and quickly lean against a wall to keep from falling. I let myself slide down it slowly until I hit the sidewalk. Sitting on the ground, legs pulled up to my chest, my heart in pieces and my mind racing, I listen to him tell me that he’s okay.
“Where are you? What’s going on? What are they doing to you?”
“I was transferred to a county jail to await my trial. I’m being charged with possession of illegal drugs. With my previous convictions, I’m probably facing a long prison sentence. I have a court-appointed lawyer, and he’s a good guy, but I don’t think he’ll be able to do anything for me.”
“Oh, Vadim…”
“Please, don’t cry.”
I sniffle.
“And don’t try to save me, Alma.”
I try to protest, but he interrupts.
“Listen… The person who would have gotten me out of here in the past is Keith. But today, it’s Keith who put me in here.”
I can picture the bitter smile on his face when he says those words.
I get the feeling he’s giving up. And that thought drives me crazy.
“When will I be able to come see you?”
“It’s better if you don’t.”
“Don’t be an idiot, Arcadi.” I insist, threatening him with all kinds of impossible, ridiculous things and calling him by his last name, just like I always do when I give him a hard time.
As if, even in this extreme situation, that little game of ours could be enough to fix it all.
Vadim laughs and promises to put me on his approved visitor list. He explains that it takes time and that I’ll have to drive down with Felix, because the jail is nearly an hour from Los Angeles.
“Alma…” Vadim lowers his voice, and I shiver. “I miss you. If you only knew how much.”
I imagine him surrounded by other inmates, trying to utter those words without anyone hearing, because they could be seen to represent an admission of vulnerability.
A lump forms in my throat. A knot tightens in my stomach.
I feel empty. I feel like I’m losing my grip.
As though Vadim is slipping away from me a little more with every passing minute.
“You know that…” I speak softly, too, not entirely sure if it’s because I’m afraid the line is wiretapped or if I simply know my words are in vain. “Fe, Clem, and I will never let you down. You know that, right?”
“Stop.”
“I love you, Vadim. You know that too, right?”
“I have to go. My ten minutes are up.”