Inside Girl (18 page)

Liesel laughed, and even from across town I could practically see her eyes sparkling.

“Darling, why didn't you tell me? If Patch is the chaperone, you'll have no trouble making the party unforgettable. Ciao for now. I'll text later to see how you're holding up.” She hung up.

I stopped walking and looked down at my cell phone in disgust. Unbelievable. For a minute I started
to get really mad at Liesel—I'd counted on her to be there, to help keep the party under control. How could she cancel on me at the last minute? I made myself take a deep breath and concentrated on getting to the grocery store in one piece. After all, it was still my party. Even if things weren't working out exactly the way I'd planned, I was still in charge. Maybe with a little luck I'd be able to turn things around.

You're not really supposed to bring pets into the grocery store, but Noodles is so cute that no one seemed to care. I picked up the hummus and pita bread and carried them up to the cash register, still thinking. Maybe in a way it was a good thing that Liesel wasn't there. She was a party expert, sure, but not a party expert for fourteen-year-olds, and she'd probably have been bored out of her mind anyway. And when she gets bored, she can kind of have a catty streak. Still, I'd rather have my friends there, even with all their flaws. This day had gone from bad to worse

When I went back outside I flipped open my cell phone again and tried calling Sara-Beth one last time. But yet again, she didn't answer. And then all of a sudden I felt as crappy as I ever have in my life.

The rest of the way home, I worried about the party. I had invited ten people: Bennett, Judith, Meredith, Liesel, Sara-Beth, Philippa, Mickey, Jules,
and Eric. Plus Patch and Feb. And me. And already I knew at least three of them weren't going to make it. Even my parents had canceled on me. I hadn't wanted it to be huge, but this was getting ridiculous.

It reminded me of this one time back in third grade, when Olivia, a friend from Miss Mallard's, threw a birthday party at her house. Olivia was kind of nerdy back then, always wearing maroon turtlenecks and stuff, and she didn't have a lot of friends, but still, when she invited every girl in our class she kind of expected at least half of them to show up. On the day of the party, though, it ended up being just her, me, and this overpriced Russian magician that her parents had hired from some sort of crazy European birthday party service. He pulled about twenty dollars' worth of quarters out of my ear, then asked for them all back. It was the lamest party of all time, and Olivia and I never talked about it ever again. No way did I want tonight to turn out like that.

When I got home, though, I started to feel a little better. The living room looked really nice the way that I'd decorated it—just the Japanese-looking lamps made a huge difference—and I told myself I was making way too big a deal about this whole thing. People would either like me, or they wouldn't. If I had to throw the best party of all time to win their
friendship, then they probably weren't worth hanging out with anyway. So after setting up the hummus and stuff, I made myself stop obsessing over the party space.

I fed Noodles, changed into this really cute green Miu Miu dress I'd bought when Liesel and I went shopping together, then curled up in a chair with a book to wait for my guests. I was kidding myself if I thought I could get through even one page, though, because I couldn't concentrate at all. Mostly I just kept reading the same paragraph over and over until I finally shut the book. I looked out the window. I could tell it was really fall now, because it was getting dark earlier. By seven-thirty, it was almost like night outside.

Patch showed up first—actually on time, if you can believe that.

“I'm so glad to see you,” I said, leading him into the living room. “All these people canceled on me—and I can't believe Mom and Dad aren't going to be here. So, does it look okay? What do you think?”

Patch laughed at me. “You're worrying way too much.”

“Maybe you're right.” I threw myself down into a chair and sighed. “Patch, how come you're so laid-back?”

My brother shrugged. “Things have a way of working themselves out, you know? Just take a breath.”

“Yeah, you're right.” I put my feet up on an ottoman and took some deep, relaxing breaths. But then the doorbell rang again, and I jumped right back up. I could relax later. Right now, the real guests were starting to arrive.

The minute I saw Meredith and Judith, I was glad I'd dressed up. Meredith was wearing this cute lacy dress that looked like it was from the sixties, and her hair was down all the way, with these awesome barrettes in it that had artificial flowers glued to them. Judith had on a halter top and heels. And, even though it wasn't my birthday, they'd brought gifts. Judith was carrying a bottle of sparkling cider, and Meredith had made me a belt out of bottle caps. It sounds like it would be ugly, I know, but it was actually cool. Even if it had been the tackiest thing ever, though, I wouldn't have cared. It was just amazing that they'd put so much effort into getting ready for my party. Obviously this was a bigger deal to them than I'd realized.

“Wow, this is so nice,” I said, taking the presents. “You guys really didn't have to do this.”

“We just felt bad we doubted you and everything,”
said Meredith shyly, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“Oh.” I felt really touched, almost like I was going to start crying. “Well, you guys had every right to doubt me. I'm sorry I kept so many secrets. From now on, I won't. It was really stupid.”

“We were the stupid ones,” Judith admitted. “Or really, I was. Meredith kept telling me we could trust you, but I guess I just didn't believe her.”

“Well, it doesn't matter,” I said. “Come on in.” I stepped out of the doorway so they could come inside. Judith handed me the bottle of cider, but Meredith held on to the bottle-cap belt, turning it over in her hands like she was worried I wouldn't like it or something.

“Let me show you how it works,” she said.

She was still showing me how the buckle she'd made fastened—it was adjustable, and kind of complicated—as we walked into the living room. I glanced around in surprise. Patch was gone—it was like he'd evaporated or something.

But before I could say anything about it, Meredith and Judith had started wandering around the living room, looking sort of confused. And in a flash, I could tell just what they were thinking: Where were my other friends? My family? My scene? They cooed
over the refreshments and the cool sofa and everything, but I could tell that they thought I was still hiding something from them.

“Hey, I know this isn't what you were expecting,” I said, standing awkwardly in a corner of the room.

Meredith bit her lip. “Well, it is a little … quieter.”

“Yeah, I know. When you hear about the Flood house, people are always talking about our parties and how it's a huge hangout. But the thing is, it's this way a lot of the time too. My parents travel a lot, and when my brother and sister are out having their adventures, I'm actually just alone.”

Judith frowned. “That must be so weird. I'm sorry, Flan.”

At first I was afraid she was being sarcastic; it took me a second to realize she was actually sympathizing with me. But before things got too heavy, Noodles ran in, wagging his tail and squealing, and Meredith and Judith practically went into hysterics.

“Oh, he's so cute,” shrieked Meredith. Noodles stood on his hind legs, waving his front paws at her, until she got down on the ground and held him in her lap.

“How old is he?” asked Judith, scratching him behind the ears.

I shrugged. “I don't really know.”

“So he's a rescue, then?”

I thought of the tacky model from the bar—her Mickey Mouse shirt, her belly button ring, her flip-flops.

“You could say that, yeah,” I answered.

“Well, he is amazing,” Judith said. “He's the cutest little thing I've ever seen!” Noodles promptly licked her face—I think he knows when he's being complimented.

We sat around, eating red velvet cupcakes and listening to the party CD I'd made. Meredith recommended some bands to me and promised to burn me copies of their albums. We mostly just joked around and gossiped about people from school until the guys showed up.

The second the doorbell rang, all three of us leapt up. And even though it made them look kind of over-eager, Judith and Meredith came with me, giggling and fixing their hair, when I got up to answer it.

Bennett, Eric, and Jules were standing on the steps, looking awkward as I swung the door open. Bennett was wearing a collared Madras shirt and he had his hair slicked back. He smiled at me, sort of shyly but with his dimples showing, and held out a bunch of yellow lilies. How did he know they're my favorite?

“These are for you,” he said. He quickly added,
“From all of us,” but before he could get the words out, Meredith and Judith went, “Awww …”

“Thanks so much,” I said, grinning.

Bennett blushed. I think that if other people in our class at school could've seen him right then, they never would have called him the
second
-cutest boy in tenth grade. Especially because Eric, who was supposedly the first, was standing right next to him in wrinkled blue jeans, with this big scowl on his face like he was too cool to be there or something. It was definitely not the kind of expression you see on male models, that's for sure. Even Jules looked cuter, because at least he was smiling. He stood behind the other two, wearing this vintage suit jacket that looked like it was from the seventies or something, and
he
looked like he couldn't have been happier. The minute she saw him, Meredith looked away and stared straight down at her feet—I think she was glad he'd shown up too.

“It's so great to see you guys,” I said, stepping aside to let them in. “I'm so glad you could come.”

“So this is the famous Flood house,” said Eric, striding into the living room before anyone else. He looked around and sniffed the air. “Hmm. Hmmm. Not too shabby. Yeah, it's all right, Flan. I'm glad to finally see it myself. You know, your brother's got a rep
for being the biggest party animal in the West Village. But don't worry, I never really bought it.”

“Thanks,” I said, rolling my eyes. I went out to the kitchen to put the flowers in some water. As I was running the tap, it occurred to me for the first time that maybe Eric was jealous of my brother. And now they were both here. Oh boy, oh boy. This was going to be some evening.

I went back out to the living room, where my friends were all drinking the sparkling cider Judith had brought. I sat down next to Bennett on the sofa and poured myself a glass. The guys were trying to make conversation with Judith and Meredith, but it wasn't going too well.

“So, Judith, who do you have for history class?”

Giggle, giggle.

“Hey, Meredith, you know this song?”

Shy silence.

After a while, Jules and Bennett were actually able to get a conversation going about movies—Meredith mumbled that she liked pirates, and Judith giggled something about flying snakes—but they didn't have much help from Eric, who was sitting in one of the chairs with his arms crossed, still scowling. I wondered how they'd managed to drag him there. Probably he'd just wanted to see our house himself so
he could go back to school and say parties at the Flood house weren't all that.

Finally we poured out the rest of the cider, and the party fell into a real lull.

“I have some board games up in my room,” I offered. “We could play Scrabble—or Monopoly.”

“I call the race car,” Bennett volunteered.

“I know a better game we could play,” suggested Jules. He had a kind of mischievous grin on his face and even before he reached for the cider bottle, I knew what he had in mind.

“Oh no, not spin-the-bottle!” cried Judith, delighted. “Let me go first.”

She jumped up out of her chair and went to the coffee table.

“Wait a second, we have to sit in a circle,” said Jules.

So we all sat down on the carpet in a circle around the table. I moved the box of red velvet cupcakes (which were now half gone) down onto the floor, and Judith gave the bottle a spin, then squealed. Because it ended up pointing right … at … Eric.

There was a long, really awkward moment as Eric stared at her like she was a total stranger on the subway, and then I realized that Eric was actually nervous about this kiss.

“Relax,” Bennett said. “It's just a kiss.”

“Shut it,” Eric said. And everybody sort of giggled.

“If you don't want to …” Judith said.

“Of course I want to!” Eric said, and then his face got this look that was sort of like, “Okay, I'll do this, but I am really, really embarrassed.” He closed his eyes, puckered up, and leaned slowly over the coffee table. But just as she moved her face close to his—

“Oh my God, it's Patch Flood!” Judith shrieked. Meredith, bringing a cup of cider to her lips, promptly dropped it into her lap.

I turned to look, and there he was: my brother, standing in the doorway to the kitchen, wearing his board shorts and a clean T-shirt. His hair was all sun-bleached and wavy. And he was holding a bag of chocolate animals from Li-Lac, my favorite candy store.

“Hey,” he said with an effortless smile. “I realized I hadn't brought anything for the party, so I snuck out the back door. Hope you like these—Flan always used to have them at her parties when she was a little girl.”

Judith and Meredith stared at each other, their mouths still hanging open. Eric crumpled up his napkin and threw it over his shoulder in disgust since he'd been totally called out as somebody who had never really kissed a girl before, even though he was
handsome. If he'd been jealous of Patch before, he was crazy with anger and embarrassment now. Finally, Meredith was the first one to speak: “Flan,” she whispered, “this is the best party ever!”