Saturday Night (16 page)

As for Billy and Roy, they had time to remember that Christopher had been such a good sports player because he moved so fast, and then they were both bleeding.

Christopher would have landed a second punch on each of them, but he was having difficulty getting his balance back. There were plenty of witnesses now, but they were so completely surprised to have a fight break out next to them that they reacted even more slowly than Christopher.

One of them was Roddy.

Roddy had spent the entire week retreating. Retreating from Molly and her laughing at him.

Retreating from his mother and her conviction that Roddy was still dating Molly.

Retreating from Kip when she turned out not to be very nice after all. (He still couldn’t understand that; he’d gone out of his way to be easygoing. He would never understand that to Kip, he was just being wimpy.)

And now everybody was retreating from Christopher Vann. Chris would win by default because all his possible opponents were just backing off.

On the other hand, Roddy did not have the personality for assault, especially when Christopher outweighed him by fifty pounds at least. Billy and Roy struggled to get out of the way and into position to hit back. The girls screamed, especially Megan in her high, piercing voice. No music covered the screams. People began moving toward the noise, to see what was happening, so that within seconds there was a crowd, not just dancers.

Christopher regained his balance, drew his arm back and got ready to punch Billy. Billy, half on his feet, was nicely lined up to get his nose broken.

Roddy picked up the electrical cord that had been connected to the second guitarist’s instrument, jerked it hard in front of Christopher, and tripped him flat.

The most amazing event of Roddy’s life was not tripping Chris—it was that not one single person saw the electrical cord. What they saw was his bunched-up fist jerking through the air. Every person standing there thought Roddy had slugged Christopher and brought him down easy as that.

“Way to go!” yelled two of the witnesses, joyfully pounding Roddy’s back and then less kindly pounding Christopher, who was down now and not likely to get up again.

“Oh, Roddy!” cried Megan, her voice carrying all the way to the rose arbor, “that was wonderful of you!”

Roddy began to laugh.

“Oh, Roddy, I adore you!” cried Megan.

Billy and Roy got up sheepishly and said thank you and shook his hand. Somebody had a real handkerchief, which Billy put to his nose, and Megan gave Roy a wad of Kleenex, which he pressed to his split lip.

“Quick thinking, Rod,” said Gary, nodding congratulations.

Kip, of course, had planned for every possible event, and had hired two off-duty policemen. The two cops shouldered their way through the yelling teenagers. “All right, all right. So what happened?”

It was a woman cop. Roddy thought, she’s not even as big as I am. What can she do with an ape like Christopher?

And then he thought, She could arrest
me
for starting it!

But the first version came from the shrinking guitarist, and the second came from Megan, and the third from the drummer. The police officer said sharply to Christopher, “Get up, young man, and explain yourself.”

Christopher looked up at her, mumbled under the piercing threat of her glare, and got to his feet without help from anybody standing there. He didn’t look sober, but he didn’t look drunk, either. He looked totally humiliated and ready to be sick. The police officer withered him just by looking at him.

“You two boys all right?” she asked Billy and Roy. The boys nodded with embarrassment. Megan made little cooing noises over Roy’s bloody lip and Roy obviously was praying that she would stop making such a big deal of this, but Megan didn’t catch on and just got louder.

“Okay,” said the policewoman very very loudly. “Okay, kids, listen up. Who came with this jerk? Somebody’s gotta drive him home.”

Molly was almost at the exit. She had change, she could call her parents to come for her. Better never to walk back in there than—but Sue and Caitlin yelled at the top of their lungs, “Hey, Molly! He’s down this way! Over here! Want us to show you?”

The parents at the rose arbor smiled sympathetically at Molly. “Can you handle him, dear, or should we tell the police officer to take him home herself?”

Molly gritted her teeth. “I can handle him,” she said, walking back through the cafeteria. Somebody—probably Kip—had flung on all the lights, and now the romance was ruined: You could see the dingy acoustical tile on the ceiling and the stainless steel counters where the lunch ladies served every day.

“Revenge,” said Sue. “It’s sweet.”

“Probably even sweeter for Roddy,” said Caitlin. “I hear Molly dumped him to bring Christopher in the first place.”

“I can’t believe Roddy was the one to hit him,” Sue said. “It just goes to show, you can’t judge by appearance. I’m going to give Roddy another chance. He’s not such a geek after all.”

“He can’t be. He came with Kip.”

“With
Kip
?
Really
?”

Caitlin nodded. “I saw them come in together.”

“Amazing.”

Molly reached Christopher. Sue and Caitlin weren’t near enough to be able to watch. But they stationed themselves by the door to enjoy the final exit.

As for Roddy, he was grinning from ear to ear. He wished he had something else to do, like chew tobacco, or swivel a pair of drumsticks between his casual fingers. But Megan telling everybody how wonderful he was filled the gap. It occurred to Roddy that he could date Megan very easily right now.

He made a point of smiling at Molly when she rounded Christopher up. She did not smile back.

Roddy thought, May as well stick around. There might be some more action. Who knows what could happen next?

He grinned even wider.

K
IP MISSED THE FIGHT.

Moments before it broke out, the doorman came up to her. He was completely soaked. “Oh, you poor thing,” said Kip. “But you still look impressive. In a wet sort of way.”

He didn’t laugh back. “Miss Elliott, I’ve got to get out of these clothes. I kept thinking the rain would stop and I’d dry out, but I’m soaked through. I’m gonna get pneumonia and I had that last winter. I know I promised you all night long, but I’m going to have to leave. I’m real sorry.”

“Of course you should go home,” Kip said. “Don’t worry about it. Everybody had that great uniform on the way into the dance and they don’t need it going out. Thank you for lasting this long. You were a wonderful addition to the dance.”

He was pleased to be complimented. “You don’t have to pay me for the rest of the evening,” he told her.

Kip shook her head. “You earned it all.”

They shook hands and she walked with him to the front exit. It was still pouring. “Goodbye,” she said, “and thanks again.”

The doorman nodded and dashed out into the rain.

Wind flicked into Kip’s face. She stepped back into the foyer, and right onto somebody’s foot. She was wearing tiny sharp heels and they came down hard.

“Ouch!”

Kip whirled around. “I’m so sorry, Con! I didn’t know anybody was there!”

He smiled at her. It wasn’t much of a smile. He was pretty annoyed to have been stepped on. “It’s okay,” he said. He moved around her and stood for a moment in the door, assessing the rain.

“Have to get something out of the car?” she asked. “Here. Use the umbrella.” She picked up the enormous black umbrella she’d gotten for the doorman.

“No, thanks.” Con looked neither at her nor at the umbrella. He walked out into the rain. He didn’t run, the way the doorman had. He just walked. Within moments his hair was plastered to his skull. He didn’t seem to notice at all. He got to his car, unlocked it, and sat for a while in the driver’s seat.

Kip could not take her eyes off him. No, Con, no, she thought. Don’t drive away. Anne needs you. Don’t let her be right!

Con drove away. Alone. He vanished in the black rain.

Oh, Anne! Kip thought, her own heart hurting as much as Anne’s must be right now. You were right. He is walking out on you.

The unfairness of the world hit her. She moved limply back into the foyer and leaned on one of the huge dividing pillars.

“You jerk!” came a furious girl’s voice. “You stupid worthless jerk! What made you do that! You’ve ruined my whole evening. I
hate
you. Why did I ever come with you?”

Molly and Christopher were next to her in seconds. They never even saw her. Molly was pulling a raincoat over her shoulders and peering out into the rain. Deciding that her hair mattered more than her dress, she tugged the coat off and draped it over her head.

Christopher just stood there dully.

Molly began swearing at him. He roused himself enough to swear back but he lost interest after a few syllables. “Give me your car keys, you drunken idiot,” Molly said. “Kicked out of Harvard. Who needs
you
?”

“Maybe I was,” said Christopher. “But still. …” He couldn’t seem to figure out how to finish his sentence. Molly fished in his pockets to find his keys and saw Kip. “What’s the matter, Kip?” said Molly viciously. “You don’t have anything better to do than stand around and gloat?”

Gloat? Kip thought.

Molly grabbed Christopher’s arm and hauled him out into the rain.

Wow, Kip thought. What did I miss?

She hurried back to the cafeteria and spotted Pammy, a sure informant. “So what happened with Molly and Christopher?” Kip asked.

Pammy giggled. “You missed that? Probably just as well. You would have been a wreck worrying that your dance was ruined. Christopher beat up Billy and Roy, and Roddy punched Christopher back, and the cops made Molly take Christopher home.”

“Roddy punched Christopher back?” Kip said. “Did anybody have a video tape going?
That
would be worth seeing. What else did I miss? This will teach me to escort wet doormen to their cars.”

“Let’s see. Rumor has it that Con dumped Anne because she’s pregnant. Nobody believes that because Molly started the rumor just to be rotten. Molly racks up boys like charges on her American Express card. Maybe this will slow her down a little.” Pammy looked hopeful. Then, being Pammy, she changed the subject so fast Kip got confused. “All those hot little cheese things are gone. They were yummy. We went back for the little bacon things, too, and they’re gone. Next dance be sure to order more of them, okay, Kip?”

“Sure,” said Kip. But she gave no thought to bacon things, or cheese things, or even Molly.
Rumor has it. Molly started it
. Somebody
did
walk in on us in the bathroom. And now I have five hundred people here talking about Con leaving—and he just left. Pammy missed that. Must have been busy watching the fight with Roddy and Christopher. But Anne didn’t miss it. She knows Con is gone. Poor Anne! I’d better go see if I can help her.

Sue dragged Jimmy to the other end of the cafeteria to join Anne and Con. “I don’t want to go there,” objected Jimmy. “What if it’s true? I can’t handle it.”

“If it’s true, we won’t have to handle it,” Sue said. “Anne will be the one handling it. Pick up your feet, Jimmy.”

“I want to go real slow,” Jimmy said. “I don’t want to have to watch Anne handling it, either.”

“Coward,” Sue said.

“Runs in the family,” said Jimmy.

Sue pulled him through the crowd. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Have faith in the Couple of the Year.”

On a wooden bench in the farthest corner they saw the pink and ivory-gray gown that was Beth Rose. Thirty or forty feet away, Gary was dancing with Jennie. Sue dragged Jimmy farther on. Beth Rose and Anne were the only ones on the bench.

No Con.

Sue’s eyes flew around the room.

But now they were close enough to see Anne’s face. Stunned, totally wiped out, Anne was a shadow of herself.

It
was
true, Sue thought. The knowledge hit her as hard the second time as it had the first. She walked over to Anne. Jimmy read her face as well as Sue had, and he dropped behind, busying himself at the food.

Sue plunged right in. “Anne, I just heard. Are you okay?”

Anne’s dull eyes focused on her. “Heard what?”

Oh boy that was stupid, Sue thought. Of course Anne doesn’t know the whole room is talking about it. And if she finds that out from me I’d rather be dead. What I have to do is get her out of here before she realizes the gossip is spreading like that lightning. “That you weren’t feeling well,” she said quickly, trying to cover up.

Anne looked away. “I feel lousy.”

“Want us to drive you home?” Sue asked.

Anne got straight A’s. She was no fool. If Sue was offering a ride home, it could only be because Sue knew that Con wasn’t around to take her himself.

Home, Anne thought. The minute I walk in early without Con I have to tell my mother and my grandmother. “No, thanks,” she told Sue.

Sue looked at Beth Rose. Beth did not look anywhere but at the floor. She was good at watching the floor; she did it all the time under normal circumstances.

Sue knelt down in front of Anne, feeling both stupid and yet right. Taking a limp hand in hers she said softly, “I’m sorry, Annie. I’ll help you if you’ll let me.”

Anne trembled. Her eyes locked with Sue’s. Sue thought that Anne would break down, and she didn’t know if that was the right thing or not.

But Jimmy couldn’t stand the emotional level the girls were reaching. “Oh, big deal,” he said. “So they’ve split up. Happens all the time. Anne’s tough. She doesn’t need Con.”

Everybody looked at Anne. She didn’t look tough. She looked as if she needed Con desperately.

The band started a very fast, very wild number, with hard crashing chords and zinging guitar slides that hurt the ears. Out on the dance floor the kids burst into crazed stomping and flinging of arms and legs. Gary led the way.

Anne laughed, and it sounded like a bell with a crack in it. “That’s one point of view,” she said to Jimmy. “A person can make it on her own, right?”

“Right,” Jimmy said.

Anne stood up. “Come on, Beth!” she cried. “We’re both alone. We’ll dance together. Who needs boys?” She grabbed Beth’s hand and dragged her out among the dancers.