Part 18 (1/2)

”Oh my G.o.d, I am so psyched so psyched to see you,” Joanne exclaims, enunciating dramatically and sounding at the same time absolutely genuine. ”Hey-this is Tony,” she adds, as her boyfriend catches up to them. He's about the same height she is, though factoring in her teased-up hair, he appears to be inches shorter. He's wide around the middle-side by side they're like an unbreachable human wall. Joanne nuzzles into his chest as if she's trying to shrink herself. to see you,” Joanne exclaims, enunciating dramatically and sounding at the same time absolutely genuine. ”Hey-this is Tony,” she adds, as her boyfriend catches up to them. He's about the same height she is, though factoring in her teased-up hair, he appears to be inches shorter. He's wide around the middle-side by side they're like an unbreachable human wall. Joanne nuzzles into his chest as if she's trying to shrink herself.

Ruby pulls Chris closer, and Joanne shakes his hand vigorously, saying, ”How perfect is this?”

Ruby starts to explain that Joanne rescued her from Dorian last night, and Chris says with a smirk, ”Yeah, I saw how that wound up.”

Ruby says, ”I can't believe I ran into you.”

”Dis place ain't dat big,” Tony says in an accent thick as the crust on a Jersey pizza.

Joanne says, ”I didn't win anything last night. Remember? So I gotta win something for my birthday.”

Ruby says, ”Oh, that's right! It's today.”

Tony says, ”She'll celebrate for a frickin' week. She acts like it's frickin' CHONNA-ker CHONNA-ker-”

”Like what?” Chris asks.

”Like she's a Jew at Christmas and wants a stuffed animal a day for eight frickin' days.”

”Oh, Chonnaker, Chonnaker,” Chris says. ”I always wondered how to p.r.o.nounce that.”

Ruby can tell that Chris is suppressing laughter. She squeezes his hand, wanting him to be kind.

Joanne says, ”I believe in birthweeks. A whole week to celebrate.”

Tony says, ”'Cept with you it totally is weeks. weeks. Like, as in Like, as in plurals.” plurals.”

Now Chris's laughter begins to leak out. Tony breaks into a smile.

Joanne looks at Ruby and rolls her eyes. Men Men, she seems to huff. ”Oh, Rubes, listen. Wendy? From last night.”

”Wendy, yeah. What about-”

”Totally in trouble. Her cousin was there. At XS. He saw the whole thing, and he totally told his mom, who is Wend's Aunt Marie, so she told Wendy's mom, and like, in trouble.” in trouble.”

”I'm so sorry,” Ruby says.

”Oh, come on! It's not your fault someone's mother punishes her.”

But Ruby's apology is not only for Wendy's situation but also for Chris's behavior, as he continues to snicker uncontrollably, with no sign of stopping.

Joanne rambles on about Wendy coming home drunk and disheveled and facing her mother's wrath: ”Totally grounded, totally took away the keys to the Datsun, which is like Wend's car bought and paid for with her own money, and plus on top of it had to go to ma.s.s at like 10 A.M A.M. in the morning.”

Ruby drops Chris's hand. Even Calvin, at his most vocally critical moments, was never rude to someone's face. Chris's unstoppable laughter is at at, not with with. Tony seems to have picked up on it, staring at Chris with a hardening look in his eyes.

Finally Joanne lowers her voice and says, ”Rubes, is he on on some-thin'?” some-thin'?”

”I think he's just punchy.”

”Maybe someone oughtta punch him him,” Tony says.

”We didn't get a lot of sleep,” Ruby says. Joanne squeals in obvious delight.

Joanne invites them to join her and Tony at Club XS for happy hour, but Ruby insists they need to get going. It clicks with Ruby in a way it didn't last night that Joanne is a local girl, that Club XS isn't some vacation hangout she stumbled upon but a regular part of her nightlife. It's not so different than when she herself goes below 14th Street in Manhattan looking for a good time. Joanne and Tony and Wendy are the ”townies” Alice was disparaging yesterday. The term is supposed to be laced with pathos-these poor people stuck in this hick resort town, relying on wheels of fortune for birthday thrills. But of course there's nothing sad about Joanne. She's living her life just fine. She offers Ruby another sisterly embrace with a promise to stay in touch.

Tony continues to eye Chris, who at last has calmed and is straightening himself back up. ”It's been real,” he says, through sputtering breath. ”Don't mind me, I'm just...” He doesn't finish.

When they're barely out of earshot, Chris says, ”Dat was a p.i.s.ser p.i.s.ser.”

Ruby turns away from him. Without waiting, she moves toward the street.

”Wait up.”

”We've wasted enough time already-” she snaps.

”They were your your friends.” friends.”

”So you could have tried to be friendly.”

”That guy was ridiculous. I couldn't help laughing a little.”

”A little?” She keeps up her pace.

Chris catches up to her. ”Don't be mad at me,” he says. She turns to meet his face. His wounded expression melts her anger. She doesn't want to fight-it ruins everything. But she hates sn.o.bbery. Her mother can be such a sn.o.b-so many expectations.

”Let's get to the house,” she says. ”Let's get this over with.”

He nods and takes her hand again.

But when they turn the corner and Alice's rental comes into view, Ruby pulls from his grasp, with the excuse of pus.h.i.+ng a flyaway strand of hair from her face, and then she creates a little physical distance between them. Chris says nothing. He probably understands that this could be awkward. She hopes he does. Calvin could be there.

They pa.s.s by the Deadheads and climb the front steps of Alice's house, pa.s.sing the keg, overturned on the porch in a dirty puddle. Pop music blares through the screen door, a yearning male voice singing, ”I can dream about you, if I can't hold you tonight.” ”I can dream about you, if I can't hold you tonight.” The house is emptier than Ruby had expected, and it's thoroughly trashed. Long-stemmed roses wilt in a browning heap atop chunks of gla.s.s. Empty liquor bottles lie scattered in every corner. On the same couch where she sat yesterday with Calvin, an unfamiliar guy snores heavily, drooling onto the shoulder of his blue football jersey. A sour smell permeates the air and seems to intensify the continuing pressure inside her skull. She should have asked Chris for more aspirin. The house is emptier than Ruby had expected, and it's thoroughly trashed. Long-stemmed roses wilt in a browning heap atop chunks of gla.s.s. Empty liquor bottles lie scattered in every corner. On the same couch where she sat yesterday with Calvin, an unfamiliar guy snores heavily, drooling onto the shoulder of his blue football jersey. A sour smell permeates the air and seems to intensify the continuing pressure inside her skull. She should have asked Chris for more aspirin.

Chris is looking through the archway to the dining room, where Benjamin drops his face close to the table and emerges a few seconds later wiping his nose. So there's still c.o.ke in the house. Did he ever come down? Cicely is there, too, and f.u.c.kin' Nick, s.h.i.+rtless now, rolling dice on the table, playing some kind of game. Alice blasts into the dining room, coming into view so quickly it's like she'd been shoved from the kitchen. Her hands are covered in yellow rubber gloves. She holds a squirt bottle in one hand and a sponge in the other and immediately leans over the table and begins spritzing and wiping. ”Hey!” Benjamin shouts. ”Back off, Mrs. Clean!”

”Alice?” Ruby calls out, to no reply. Louder, ”Alice! Um, it's me.”

All heads turn. Alice covers her nose and mouth, her eyes darting around in alarm, as if the room had just been swarmed by a SWAT team. And then clarity takes hold and she's immediately rus.h.i.+ng toward Ruby. ”I thought you were raped and left for dead in a Dumpster!” She clutches Ruby in a waft of ammonia that Ruby recoils from. ”Where were you?”

Before Ruby can reply, Alice shoots a look at Chris, and her face darkens. ”I knew it,” she says.

”Nice to see you, too,” Chris says.

Alice pulls Ruby toward the dining room table. ”Come with me!”

Benjamin's bugged-out eyes scan back and forth from Ruby to Chris. His mouth takes on a twisted grin. His hair is an unkempt mop, a hundred little antennae sticking out every which way. He says, ”What a gruesome twosome you are.”

”What's happening, Ben,” Chris mutters, nodding toward the powder s.h.i.+ning on the table.

Benjamin says, ”None of this for you unless you're nice to me.”