Rose Sees Red (7 page)

“Go crazy,” I said.

“Cool,” Tammy said.

The other drama kids crowded around me and clucked in approval. Somehow, after two months of being on the outside, they were treating me as though I was in.

“You’ll totally have to teach me how to dress like you do,” Tammy said. “I’m really into being kind of New Wave. Cigarette?”

She passed me a Dunhill Blue.

“No, thanks—I don’t smoke,” I said.

“I thought all the dancers smoked!” Tammy said.

“I don’t smoke,” Maurice said.

“Well, not you, Maurice!” Tammy said, playfully squeezing his arm.

Maurice had strong arms. Nice veins. He must have had those arms from all the partnering he did. I could just imagine what those arms would be like lifting me. I couldn’t stop looking at them. In truth, he wasn’t my type. I would’ve bet that most people wouldn’t have understood that. I didn’t want to get with him. I just would have killed to be partnered with him in a dance.

“I will take a cigarette,” Yrena said. “But I don’t want this one. I want an American one. A Marlboro.”

Someone passed over a Camel Light to Yrena, who put it in her mouth and lit it up.

In all the time I’d watched her in her room, I’d never seen her sneak a cigarette. Now she looked like she knew what she was doing—she didn’t cough or anything. But still, to me, the cigarette didn’t look natural in her hands or mouth.

“I smoke because it’s an appetite suppressant,” Tammy volunteered. “I’m so skinny because whenever I’m hungry, I just
smoke! And you know, actresses need to be thin, right, Maurice?”

“How would I know?” he said.

“Because of your mom?” Tammy said. “She does all those diet commercials.”

Maurice looked away.

Tammy didn’t pick up on it. “Isn’t this party great? We come every Friday.” She’d squeezed her way in between me and Yrena. She stood very close to Maurice. He took a step back away from her.

“I’ve never seen you here before, Rose,” he said.

“Doesn’t mean a girl can’t show up,” I said.

Free came bursting in.

“Hey again,” he said. “Just wanted to make sure that your friends knew about the No Nukes rally.”

He handed Maurice a flyer, which I hadn’t even looked at closely. It said: R
EVERSE THE
A
RMS
R
ACE
. N
O
N
UKES
R
ALLY
—O
CTOBER
30
TH
, 1982, C
ENTRAL
P
ARK II A
.
M
.
TILL SUNSET
.

“That’s tomorrow,” Maurice said. Then he turned to me. “You gonna go?”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” I said, even though I hadn’t been thinking about it at all.

“Maybe I could meet you there,” Maurice said. “No Nukes is important.”

“A protest?” Tammy interjected. “That sounds really hard.”

“Well,” Maurice said, “it sounds like it’s important.”

“Caleb Mazzeretti and all the stoners are doing some kind of skit there,” Stanley said, trying to insert himself into the conversation by acting like he was in the know. “They’ve been practicing all week.”

“Boring,” Tammy said.

“That’s cool. Caleb Mazzeretti is pretty cool,” Maurice said. “You’re friends with him, right, Rose?”

“No,” I said. “But I know his sisters. I was supposed to meet them here.”

“Hey, Yrena,” Free said. “Do you want to walk around the side of the building? You can see the Egyptian temple all lit up.”

Free took Yrena’s hand and I looked at Maurice. He nodded and we followed them as they quickly moved down the stairs and away from the drama girls.

I looked back over my shoulder, expecting Tammy to be seething. But instead she just turned to two of the other girls, laughing and talking in a perfect, tight little group. I was a little jealous that they had that. They were huddled together in a way that made them look like one body with three heads, like something that would be in
The Odyssey.
Or maybe more like those three witches from
Macbeth.

We hit the sidewalk that curved around the building. There, behind the path, were enormous windows, and through them we could see the Egyptian temple. Yrena and Free moved ahead of us and pushed through the bushes to get up
close to the glass, which was really dirty and covered with people’s names written in the dust. Maurice and I joined them and we all stood there, hands pressed against the glass, breathing together, leaving perfect handprints. The temple looked as though it were in a cage. I wanted to smash the glass and set it free, but why bother? Transported stones cannot go home. They rest where they have been dragged to. That building would sit at the edge of Central Park for eternity.

“Do you actually go to museums? Or do you just drink on the steps and never go inside?” Yrena asked.

“I used to come here more,” I said. “There’s a good book about two kids who run away and live in there.”

“Oh, I read that book in fifth grade,” Maurice said. “I love that book.”

“I liked that they were here at night,” I said. “Sleeping on the old beds. Wandering through the art.”

“We are here at night,” Yrena said. “We are like your book.”

“I’ve partied more on its steps at night than gone inside during the day,” Free admitted.

“Tell me what is in there,” Yrena asked.

“Everything,” Maurice said.

“Endless rooms of Greek statues and Chinese vases,” Free said.

“And paintings, so many paintings,” I said. “Beautiful furniture, photographs.”

“It would take days to see everything,” Free said.

“Weeks,” I said.

“Years.”
Maurice smiled.

Yrena snorted.

“What?” I asked.

“You have the freedom to come here whenever you want and instead of coming to enjoy the actual treasures, you treasure your time outside talking,” she said.

“You were the one looking for a party,” I pointed out.

“A regular party, with disco music,” she said.

“We’re at a party on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We are artistic just by being here. We are the works of art,” I said.

“I like that,” Maurice said. “I really like that! I don’t need to be inside because I am a work of art!”

But Yrena and Free didn’t care anymore, because while Maurice was turned to me, they had started kissing.

“Uh-oh,” Maurice said. “I think they want to be alone.”

“I can’t leave her alone,” I said.

“Come on, I’ll walk you to the tunnel to give them a few minutes and then come back for them. Also—it embarrasses me to say this—but I really, really have to pee.”

“Me, too, actually,” I said.

I headed off with Maurice into the park. As we turned the bend, I looked over my shoulder and saw that Yrena and Free had stopped kissing and were writing in the dust on the museum window.

“You go first,” Maurice said when we got to one of the tunnels in the park. “I’ll stand here.”

The tunnel was creepy and dark. It smelled like pee already. I’d never thought of myself as the kind of girl who would go to a party and pee in a tunnel, but there I was, squatting and trying not to get pee on my shoes. I laughed.

“You okay? Or is that a signal?” Maurice asked.

“No, I’m laughing,” I said. I pulled up my underwear and then emerged from the mouth of the tunnel. I felt lighter and better.

“Stand watch for me,” Maurice said.

Once he was done, we walked back to get Yrena and Free and rejoin the party. Maurice and I started talking dance—specifically, about remedies for blisters on your feet. Even Free had some ideas about foot care. His advice for athlete’s foot? Use a mixture of honey and garlic slathered over the foot. Sounded pretty gummy and potentially yummy. We all agreed we’d try it.

When we breezed by Daisy and the Science girls, I didn’t get that knot in my stomach again. I didn’t cringe as she threw dagger-eyes at me. Or at least I didn’t cringe
much.

“I have an idea,” Yrena said, grabbing my arm and dashing me down the steps, away from the boys so she could talk to me alone. She stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out the flyer.

“That’s tomorrow,” I said.

“I know,” she said. “We will stay out all night!”

I shook my head. “I can maybe stay at this party for a little while longer, but I definitely can’t stay out all night.”

“But I do not want to go home yet. Now I want to see the sun rise. Now I want to go to the march.”

“Yrena,” I said, “we can go together tomorrow if you want. We just need to go home to sleep.”

“There is no other way,” Yrena said.

“ROSE!” two voices cried.

There, coming up the steps with swagger, were Callisto and Caitlin. Still calling my name, they ran over. Callisto looked David Bowie–perfect and Caitlin looked dramatic in a black pencil skirt and cute fifties sweater.

When they reached me, they both gave me a big hug.

“I can’t believe you made it,” Caitlin said.

“I think I have to go soon,” I said.

“You can’t go,” Callisto said. “We just got here!”

Yrena was mad. I could hear her as she stomped away from me, back up the stairs to Free. I turned back to Callisto and Caitlin.

“Who’s that sourpuss?” Caitlin asked.

“She looks like she’s sucking on lemons,” Callisto said.

“That’s Yrena,” I said. “She’s my next-door neighbor. She’s never been downtown before. Not without some supervision.”

“Never?” Callisto said. “That’s weird. I mean, that’s really weird.”

“She’s from the Soviet Union,” I said. “For real, not like a
defector. She lives next door to me and her parents do something at the consulate. Maybe they’re spies. I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Caitlin asked.

“No,” I said. “She’s lived next door to me for two years and I’ve never spoken to her before tonight.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Callisto said. “My sister and I ask you to go out and you say no. But some girl from the USSR who you don’t even know asks you and you say yes?”

I started getting a little queasy. I felt as though I had done something bad and no matter what I said it was going to come out sounding wrong.

“I meant to say yes to you,” I said.

Callisto threw her arms up in the air aggressively.

“I feel like I’m mad at you,” she said.

“Oh, no. No. No. Please don’t be mad at me,” I said.

“Ugh,” Callisto said, and surprised me by pulling me in for a hug. “I’m not really mad.”

“But I’m just a little hurt,” Caitlin said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I meant to say yes. I just couldn’t.”

“I know! You’re like the Rock of Gibraltar! Keeping all your good stuff to yourself,” Caitlin said.

“Forget it,” Callisto told me. “Let’s get this party started. Let me have a sip of that bottle of something.”

I passed her the rum and the Coke. She took a swig of each and let out a little whoop. Then she passed the bottles
over to Caitlin and put her arms around my shoulders and pulled me up the steps.

“Let’s see who’s here,” she said.

We got a good vantage point so we could suss out the party.

“Nerds at twelve o’clock.” Caitlin pointed to a bunch of awkward boys standing together with their hands in their pockets. They looked like my brother and his friends.

“Stuyvesant, UNIS, Fieldston, Hunter, Science,” Callisto said, pointing at a different group on each step.

“Punks, New Wavers, jocks, brains, sluts,” Caitlin said, pointing to other groups on other steps.

“Good, then—looks like everyone is here,” Callisto concluded, jostling me in a friendly way.

“Let’s go join the PA’ers,” Caitlin said.

I started scanning the steps for Yrena, who I’d last seen standing with Free.

“I don’t see her,” I said.

“Who?” Caitlin asked.

“Yrena, the girl I’m here with.”

“She was over there earlier,” Callisto said.

“I know, but now I don’t see her. I don’t see Free, either.”

“Well, maybe they went to go make out,” Caitlin said. “It’s hard to do that on the steps.”

“You’re right. Or maybe they’re at the tunnel, to pee,” I said.

We walked to the back and saw plenty of people on the side of the building making out or smoking pot, but not Yrena. The only thing that was left of her was her name written in the dust on the window.

“Don’t worry about it,” Caitlin said. “We’ll find her.”

I wasn’t so convinced. She’d vanished into thin air.

Back at the steps, I made a beeline for Maurice.

“We’re looking for Yrena,” I said. “Have you seen her?”

“She said good-bye,” Maurice told me.

I started to freak out.

“Hey, Rose.” Daisy was standing there. She had her hand on her hip and she was looking angry. “Your friend is a bitch.”

“What?”

“I made out with Free last week at Jen’s party,” Daisy said. “I had dibs. And then I see her getting into a cab, leaving with Free and a couple of your PA friends.”

“Oh, that’s right—I think they went with Tammy to the rock,” Maurice said.

“The rock?” I said. “How could she leave me like that?”

“Yrena wanted to go to another party,” Maurice said. “And Tammy wanted to hang out with the drama people.”

“Come on, Rose,” Daisy said. “You should just bail on that girl and this party and come home with me. We could share a cab.”

“I have to think,” I said, a little startled by the offer.

“I’m trying to help you,” Daisy said, put off. “You should be nice.”

I almost said I was sorry. I almost believed that Daisy really wanted to make up with me. But then I realized she probably just wanted to pump me for information about Yrena. And for the first time since we had stopped being friends, I didn’t miss her. I didn’t care for her.

“I have to go to the rock,” I said. “I have to go find her.”

“I know where it is,” Callisto said.

I turned away from Daisy. I could imagine her cursing me out as soon as I was out of earshot.

“Come on. We’ll help you go get her,” Maurice said.

“You mean you guys will come with me?” I said.

“Of course,” Caitlin said.