Moonglow (9 page)

“No, Nap, I'm not selfish; I'm a realist,” she hisses. “Your problem is that you're a dreamer.”

It's as if the rest of us aren't there. If Nadine had lasers for eyes, her brother's head would be burnt to a crisp and would fall off his shoulders in a spray of black ash. She starts to walk toward Nap, oblivious that there are people all around her.

“You like to live in your little fantasy world, don't you? You like to see the world as a happy little daydream. You think you see the best in everything and everyone.” She doesn't stop talking until she's about an inch from her brother's face. “Wake up!”

Peripherally I can see Archie and Jess on either side of me trying to get my attention, but the tension, the magnetic pull between the twins is drawing me in, and I'm transfixed. Even though they're in the middle of a party, surrounded by people they hardly know, they're acting as if they're alone, having a private argument. It's revolting, but must-see viewing at the same time.

None of us really knows the twins that well, even Jess, and she's dating one of them, but if a poll were taken to find out which one is the stronger of the two, Nadine would be the unanimous winner. Standing in front of her brother, her body is like stone, her face is unflinching, and her words are like daggers. Napoleon, in contrast, looks like a feather in front of a fan.

“And then after you wake up, Napoleon, do us all a favor and grow up!” she screams. “I'm tired of being saddled with a baby for a twin.”

Napoleon's lips press together, and he wants to form a word. His lips start to open, but then close and press against each other even tighter. He does this twice more. I don't know if he's trying to choose the right word or if he's frightened. Might be a combination of the two.

“What, Nap? Baby don't know how to talk?”

By this time the crowd is speechless, and it's evident by the way Nap's eyes are darting around the room that he wishes they would start screaming or laugh about some dumb joke, anything to silence the silence. He catches my gaze and I don't know why, but I seem to give him strength. At least the courage to speak.

“Better than having a bitch for a sister!”

Thrilled that her boyfriend finally showed some spunk, Jess squeezes my hand. I squeeze it back, but I don't turn to face her. I have to see how Nadine responds. I never expect to hear her laugh. Deep and hearty.

“I'm a bitch because I want my grandmother to be in a facility where she can get the help she needs?” she asks rhetorically. “You would say something that idiotic.”

“No, you're a bitch because you want our grandmother dead!”

And just like that, Nadine's laughter stops. She tosses the dirty cups she was holding back on the table, causing them to fall over so a little soda river spreads out until it reaches the edge of the table and drips onto the floor. Moving even closer to her brother, Nadine forces Nap to take a few steps back until the backs of his legs crash into the wooden end table. Nap stumbles to the side in an attempt to get out of his sister's path.

“When did I say I wanted her dead?” she asks. “When did I say that?”

I can tell from the way Nap's looking at her that he's wounded, not physically, but emotionally. The way they go at each other reminds me of how Barnaby and I can sometimes argue. Instantly, I'm grateful that Nadine has come into my life; I've witnessed firsthand that I'm not the only girl in town who's filled with anger. Jess will never be replaced as my best friend, but Nadine is becoming something of a soul mate. Which is why I feel like I have to help her out.

“Nadine,” I say, “I don't think that's what Nap meant.”

She's so upset with her brother that when she turns to face me the anger remains on her face. It takes a few seconds for the harshness to recede, but then her face softens, and I can tell that she's grateful for my comment; it's helped her return to reality. Her lips start to move; they press against each other, a spot-on imitation of her brother, but she doesn't speak; she can't find the right words. The twins might be different in some respects, but they're still twins, and they have similar characteristics.

“Thank you, Dominy,” she says finally.

While I've been noticing that I have no reason to feel isolated and alone, others have noticed that the party is no longer a celebration about youth and its victories, but a debate about the elderly and their inevitabilities.

“Um, I thought this was a party for the football team?”

Leave it to Caleb to be able to sidestep the furious argument taking place right in front of him and make everybody laugh again. Almost everybody. Nadine looks like she's going to scratch my boyfriend's eyes out. I don't blame her or get upset, because I know the feeling quite well. I also know that it'll pass.

“Sorry, Caleb,” Napoleon mumbles, trying to control his anger. “You have a sister?”

“Two of them,” Caleb replies.

“Then you understand,” Nap says. “And you have my sympathies.”

It looks like Napoleon is about to engage Caleb in some intricate male-bonding handshake 'n hug ritual that I know my boyfriend would rather skip, when Jess once again comes to the rescue. By screaming at the top of her lungs.

“What's wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing.”

Lie of the century. Clearly she's lying because she's staring at me, bug-eyed, and I'm afraid her eyelids are going to expand and her eyeballs are going to pop out and dangle from their sockets.

“Jess, seriously, what's wrong?” I repeat.

By now everyone is facing Jess, and her expression is getting more fearful by the second. Part of me wants to shield my face because I really think her eyes are going to launch themselves into the air. The other part of me is growing very concerned.

“I, uh, I thought I saw a mouse,” Jess explains.

And this is the announcement that officially ends the party.

“Vermin?!” Arla shrieks.

There's a noise, sounds like cardboard pizza boxes being crushed and shoved into the garbage can. I know the harsh sound is connected to Nadine even before she speaks. “We do not have mice.”

“I . . . I just saw
one,
” Jess stutters, as if one mouse is so much better than two. “And it was little, but still it kinda freaked me out.”

Whatever reprieve I might have helped create is gone; Nadine is back in angry mode and doesn't take this contradiction very well. Her voice is calm, but I doubt her insides are. “I don't care what you think you saw, Jess, we do not have mice or any other kind of
vermin
in this house.”

Knowing Jess, chances are good that the mouse was a product of her imagination. A quirky shadow, one of those black squiggly lines you see in your eye from time to time, and she made the rest up. The nonverbal consensus is that everyone believes Nadine when she says her house is vermin-free. Everyone except for her brother and my boyfriend. Her brother because I'm guessing he's still anti-Nadine and doesn't want to agree with his sister regardless of whether she's speaking the truth and my boyfriend because I know that he has a fear of all things that fall under the rodent umbrella. Rats, squirrels, hamsters, guinea pigs, and, of course, mice. He's frightened of them all, kind of his phobia. Whenever he sees a squirrel he unconsciously clutches my hand and scrunches up his face into this grimace. It's actually a cute look. So I completely expect it when he tells me he has to leave.

“C'mon, we have to go,” he says, his voice shuddering.

“No!” Jess screams, turning me to face her. “I need her to stay with me.”

“I need her to come home with me!” Caleb shouts back. It's like he's forgotten he's a guy and a football player and my boyfriend, and he's become my little sister or something.

“Sorry, Caleb,” Jess whines. “I really need Dominy to walk me home.” Frantically, Jess's eyes dart around the room until she lands on a solution. “Archie'll drive home with you. The party's over anyway.”

“C'mon, Winter,” Caleb says, his voice still shaky.

“Sure thing, Bells,” Archie replies.

Caleb's already got his jacket on. “Sorry, Dominy, you know how I get.”

I do. “No big d,” I tell him. I try to give him a kiss good-bye, but he's racing up the stairs with Archie right behind him. “Call me when you get home!”

Outside, Jess, Arla, and I are walking, but Arla's the only one doing any talking. Jess is still shell-shocked from whatever it is she thinks she saw, and I'm trying to peel back the complicated layers that make up the Jaffe household. I've barely scraped the surface of the matriarch when Jess makes us stop. She clutches Arla's hand, and they both face me. I feel the moonlight bathe my face, and I feel exposed.

Jess bends her head close to Arla and whispers, “Look at her.”

Baffled, Arla follows orders and looks at me. In less than three seconds she gasps.

“Oh my God!” Arla screams. “How did I not see it? It's . . . it's...”

“What?!”

“Guh-ross!!”

Involuntarily, I look behind me, around me, thinking that I misheard Jess's instruction and something nearby is the object of their disgust. But I'm wrong; the gasps of horror are directed at me. Okay, I admit that I'm vain, but I sort of have a reason to be. If I were taller I could model. Then I realize it has to be karma, cosmic revenge. I made fun of Jess and Nadine's pimples, so now my face has gotten hit with a new crop of zits. I probably have red, blotchy skin, littered with white spots. My face must look like a slice of the pizza that we just ate. Unfortunately, it's even worse.

“What do you mean, I'm gross?!”

“Sorry, Dom, it just slipped out,” Arla apologizes. “But . . . and it hurts me to say this, but gross really describes it quite well.”

I feel the moonlight on my face and the rage churning in my stomach; I've had enough. “Show me!”

Jess's and Arla's heads snap toward each other, and if I wasn't so pissed off I'd think it was comical.

“Should we?” Arla asks.

“We have to,” Jess replies.

Arla digs into her purse for, presumably, a compact, and Jess launches into a speech that is supposed to calm me down, but it has the opposite effect. “Remember that most things like this are temporary; they never last very long, and no matter what you may look like, Dominy, we still love you. And we will help you get over this, we promise!”

I yank the compact out of Arla's hand and flip it open. The glow from the moon is blinding, and I can't see myself; for a moment I don't exist, but then I come into focus and a second later I scream. “I have a moustache!”

Jess looks like she's going to cry. “Yes, honey, you do.”

“Nadine was right,” I say, putting the pieces together. “There wasn't any mouse; you were creating a diversion!”

Now she really does cry. “What else would a best friend do?!”

I look at myself again, and I start to cry. No, I don't really have a full-grown moustache, but I have hairs all along my upper lip, deep red, which makes sense, but then at the corners of my mouth the hair is darker, almost jet black, and thicker. Suddenly, I feel faint. My heart is racing, and I feel sweat forming on my forehead. How can this be happening? How can I look so disgusting?

“I
am
guh-ross!” I shout.

“No, you're not,” Arla protests.

“You said I was!”

“Temporarily! Temporarily guh-ross!” she repeats with even more conviction.

Standing is no longer an option. I grab onto their arms so the girls can lower me onto the curb. The three of us sit there, me in the middle, and try to make sense of my situation.

“My face was fine when I left my house,” I remember. “When did you notice I was little Miss She-ape?”

“Right after Nadine and Napoleon were fighting,” Jess admits. “You calmed Nadine down and turned around. I swear on the eternal soul of Siddh
rtha Gautama, the Buddha, that I almost lost my shiz right then and there.”

Arla shakes her head. “It couldn't have happened that fast,” she says. “It had to have been there all night, and we just didn't see it.”

No! There's no way my sudden hair extensions could have gone unnoticed.

“The lighting in their basement isn't really that good,” Jess adds. “And, Dom, you always get dressed so fast you hardly take a good look at yourself before you leave your house.”

Normally that's true, but tonight was different. “I did, Jess,” I tell her. “I looked right in my mirror to make sure my outfit looked good for Caleb since I haven't been the best girlfriend lately.”