The Islanders (22 page)

“Oh. Oh, God. I guess I'm getting a taste of my own medicine. It seems strange to think of Jake with some other girl. Jake with Claire. I guess it's not really any of my business, is it?”

“Are you going to tell Benjamin?”

“I don't think so. I mean, I don't want to look like I'm spying around.”

“You mean like me.”

“Sorry, Nina. I seem to be turning into a major hypocrite.”

“Well, don't hang yourself, Zoey. You had to fall off your pedestal of perfection sooner or later. It's kind of reassuring, actually, seeing you screwing up your life for once.”

“Thanks.”

“I didn't think you were capable of causing this much trouble all by yourself.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean, it's like you're a one-woman disaster, with ripples of hostility and jealousy and distrust—”

“Okay, Nina, enough.”

“—engulfing Jake and Benjamin and Claire and even me and Eesh.”

“I'm so glad you called, Nina.”

“Just remember, I never told you anything.”

“I'll remember. At least now I'm not feeling so much pity for Jake.”

“Funny, I'm feeling more. Poor
Jake
, being comforted by Claire.”

“I wonder if he kissed her?”

“I doubt it, Zoey. Besides, you don't care, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.”

“Bye, Nina.”

 

12:42 a.m. Fifty-seven degrees. Wind at eight knots, gusting to twelve, out of the southwest. Barometer stable. The front that came through yesterday just dropped a little light rain and moved on. Tonight we have wispy clouds and a warm evening.

I went over to Jake's house tonight to see if he was okay. He was pretty depressed over Zoey, naturally. But by the time I left, I think he was feeling better.

We made out for a while. He's very different from Benjamin. Like he's not quite as in control and cool as Benjamin always is. It's funny, because Benjamin's only a year older than Jake, but in some ways he seems so much older. I don't think Benjamin would ever have let himself cry in front of me, or seem so out front about the way he feels. Benjamin's always a mystery, which is exactly what he says about me. Jake is different.

I really didn't expect to make out with Jake, not that I wasn't interested. But it happened so naturally. He was so sad over Zoey and also, I think, from remembering Wade.

I guess I'm partly responsible for what happened to Wade. I don't think I'm completely responsible because all three of us, Lucas and Wade and I, were drunk. Any one of us could have been driving.

Still, I guess I am at least partly responsible. So I think I did the right thing taking Jake's mind off at least some of his trouble.

I'll have to tell Benjamin soon. I don't want to do to him what Zoey did to Jake. I owe him a straightforward explanation.

Besides, Nina is incapable of keeping a secret, so it's bound to come out before long.

I've decided. I'll tell Benjamin it's over. Tomorrow, on the ferry, before he can find out some other way.

The one thing I can be sure of it that he won't be as devastated as Jake was.

It was strange with Jake. I was strange with Jake. I felt different. Like at that moment he was really glad I was there. Like he needed me. That's exactly what it was, I felt like Jake needed me.

Benjamin never needs anyone but Benjamin.

CLAIRE HELD HER BOOKS CLOSE
to her chest like a shield and climbed the ramp onto the morning ferry. Lucas, Zoey, and Nina were already up on the top deck, standing at the back of the boat. Zoey looked down, refusing to meet Claire's eyes.

Turning, Claire could just see Jake trotting across the parking lot, followed closely by Aisha. Benjamin was seated toward the bow, alone.

Now would be the time, Claire told herself. Now, before Jake got on board.

She walked purposefully up to Benjamin, feeling at once determined and nervous. The nervousness bothered her. She had blown off guys before. Never quite this way, and never someone she'd been with as long as she'd been with Benjamin. But still, that was no reason for feeling almost sick.

She sat down on the bench beside Benjamin. “Hi, Benjamin,” she said.

“Claire,” he said in his neutral voice.

She sat there for a moment, trying to remember all the things she had memorized to say. Something about how people could change, and that was good, not bad. Something about how it wasn't like Benjamin would have a hard time finding another girl to go out with. And something else about how neither of them had ever said this was forever.

“Shouldn't you be sitting with Jake?” Benjamin asked.

Claire's mouth dropped open. “What . . . what do you mean?”

He laughed scornfully. “Come on, Claire, you can do better than that stuttering act. I've known for a long time that you were setting your sights on Jake.”

“Nina told you?”

“No. Nina told Zoey, and Zoey's my sister. She loves me.” He said the last words with a tinge of bitterness.

“Look, Benjamin,” Claire said, flustered, “no one ever said it was going to last forever between us.”

“That's what you practiced up to say?” Benjamin demanded, sending her a wry, deprecating look. “What else? We'll always be good friends? Come on, Claire. I'm disappointed in you. I expected some style.”

“Sorry I didn't write better material. Maybe if I'd opened with a few jokes—”

“Jake will be an interesting change for you, Claire. You've
always needed to find a guy you could feel superior to.” He smiled sadly. “That's what you thought you were getting with me.”

“That's not true,” Claire said.

“Sure it is. You're an isolated, lonely, superior person, Claire. You sit up there on your widow's walk and watch the clouds overhead and the little people down below. And they have to be below you, that's the important thing, because you can't tolerate an equal for long.”

Claire realized her hands had formed fists. He was hurting her deliberately. He knew none of what he said was true, he was just saying it to get back at her for leaving him. “I think you're talking about yourself, Benjamin. You're the one who is isolated and . . . what was it? Lonely? Superior?”

Benjamin nodded. “Yeah, that's it. And it's why, sooner or later, you'll get bored with Jake and come back to me. Because we are so much alike, Claire, you and me.”

Claire gathered her books and stood up. “You know, I was feeling bad about breaking up with you, but now I feel better. I'm glad I'm breaking up with you. You're a jerk, Benjamin. You are arrogant beyond belief.”

Benjamin nodded. “Enjoy life with Jake, for as long as it lasts.”

“It will last as long as I want it to,” Claire snapped. “Just like our relationship.”

“Or until Jake learns the truth.”

Claire froze. “What are you talking about now?” she asked, loading her voice with weary disinterest.

“It's a small island, Claire. Too small for big secrets to be hidden for long.”

“You think anyone will believe you if you go around saying I—” She glanced around and dropped her voice to a whisper. “You think you can go around telling people I'm responsible for the accident? No one's going to believe you. They'll just think you're trying to hurt me for dumping you.”

“I would never tell,” Benjamin said sincerely.

“There's nothing
to
tell,” Claire snapped.

“Of course there is, Claire. You really think you can lie to me? I know you've remembered. Just a week ago the only people who knew the truth for sure were Lucas, and, I believe, your father.”

Claire gasped involuntarily.

“In one week we've gone from two people knowing to four. Your father won't tell, and neither will I, because as strange as it feels to admit this, Claire, I really do love you. But what about Lucas? How long will he keep your secret?”

Claire glanced sharply at Lucas, standing at the far end of the boat, laughing at something Nina had said, his hand casually intertwined with Zoey's.

“You want my prediction?” Benjamin asked in a soft voice. “I think in the end you'll be the one to tell the truth.”

“Me?” Claire asked incredulously. “If what you're saying
were
true, why would I do that?”

Benjamin shrugged and smiled his wry half smile. “Because in the end, as self-serving and ruthless as you are, Claire, when the line is drawn between right and wrong, I think you'll do the right thing.”

“You okay?” Zoey asked her brother, sitting down beside him.

“Yeah,” Benjamin said. His head was bowed forward. “It was okay. At least I deprived her of the pleasure of dumping me. Thanks to you.”

“I don't think even Claire would have gotten much pleasure out of that,” Zoey said. “I'm just starting to realize how painful it can be.”

Claire and Jake had gone below to the lower deck, out of sight, but not out of Zoey's imagination. It bothered her, thinking of them together, thinking that Jake was probably comparing her to Claire. Claire was beautiful in a dark, sultry way that lots of guys seemed to like. She had great, long silky black hair and a disgustingly perfect body. Probably by now Jake was glad that Zoey was out of his life.

“Anyway, it's over,” Benjamin said. “For now at least.”

“You don't think it will last between Claire and Jake?” Zoey asked.

Benjamin grinned. “Two weeks.” He stuck out his hand.

Zoey shook his hand. “I say six weeks, for ten bucks.”

“Make it five bucks,” Benjamin said. “I already bet a guy at school five bucks that you and Lucas wouldn't last three months.”

Zoey punched her brother in the arm.

“Oh, fine, beat up on the poor, helpless blind guy,” Benjamin said.

“Helpless, right,” Zoey said. “Look, you want to go to a movie tonight? We could pick something with a good sound track.”

“A movie on a Tuesday?”

Zoey sighed. “It's a long story. Aisha wants to go because she kind of told Christopher she would, only, if she shows up alone, it will look like she's going on a date with him. If there's a bunch of us, Aisha can act like it was just a coincidence. So Lucas and I are going, too.”

“I won't even try to make sense out of that. But I don't think I should go. I'd be the fifth wheel, no date.”

“Nina's coming, too,” Zoey said.

“Nina's not exactly a date,” Benjamin said. “But sure, why not?”

“See, that's perfect, because then you and Nina won't really be on a date so Aisha can say that she and Christopher weren't really on a date, they were just like you and Nina.”

“Well, as long as it all makes sense to you.”

“I've decided that where romance is concerned, nothing ever makes sense,” Zoey said a little wistfully.

        
1.
 
The major Axis powers in World War II were

            
a.
 
Germany, Japan, and France

            
b.
 
Japan, Russia, and England

            
c.
 
Germany, Japan, and Italy

            
d.
 
All of the above

Nina chewed her number-two pencil and looked up at the ceiling. All of the above? Possibly. But all six of them couldn't be
major
Axis powers, that seemed obvious. So, it wasn't
d.
That left three possibilities.

Benjamin would know. He'd know right off the top of his head. Of course, he was a senior, and she was only a junior. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe he just didn't want to date a junior. So she'd have to try to be extra sophisticated tonight at the movie. No dumb jokes, just the occasional witty observation. Fortunately, with Benjamin you didn't have to worry how
you were dressed because there'd be no time to get back to the island and change.

But you did have to worry how you smelled. Extra-long shower in gym.

Axis was the bad guys, so it couldn't be England, right? Weren't they the good guys usually? Except during the Revolution. And the War of 1812.

Wait a minute. Germany was definitely involved, so that eliminated
b,
anyway. So, it was down to
a
and c. Either France or Italy was the third bad guy. France or Italy.

Would they be able to sit together? Zoey was sure to sit next to Lucas, but maybe Aisha wouldn't want to actually sit next to Christopher. Aisha might sit on one end, then Zoey and Lucas, then . . . either Christopher or Benjamin. If Nina got between the two of them, she was okay. But what if Christopher was on the far end and she ended up the last person, with Benjamin too far away?

France or Italy. Mussolini! Yes, Mussolini! It was all coming back now. Mussolini was one of the bad guys, and that was definitely an Italian name.

She filled the little circle beside
c.

“In the second book in the series the author creates a
hurricane that we first see as a distant threat, far offshore from our mythical small beach town. At first we don't think it will be important, but because the author keeps coming back to it, reminding us that it is out there waiting, she . . . she does what? Um, Zoey?”

“Excuse me?”

“What do we call this technique?” the teacher asked. “Daydreaming again, Ms. Passmore? We call this foreshadowing. The author is foreshadowing.”

Zoey wrote in her notebook. Of course.

Like when one of your friends tells you you'd better be honest and let your old boyfriend know that you're breaking up. That would be foreshadowing. Or when you've noticed some girl who is always making eyes at your old boyfriend and when you do finally break up she rushes in to grab him without even waiting a day. That whole thing had been foreshadowed, but
Zoey was still surprised. Right now Jake and Claire were whispering to each other. They had changed seats so they could sit side by side. What did that foreshadow?

“It was foreshadowing by use of a metaphor. Claire? Metaphor, if you can stop whispering long enough to answer?”

“Metaphor is when you use one thing to describe another. Like, um, like the fog was a blanket, or the clouds marched with military precision.”

She's just showing off for Jake.

Zoey wrote in her notebook.

“And what is the metaphor in this book, and what does it foreshadow?”

Great,
Zoey thought,
I know the answer to that question, but no, the teacher has to jump me when I'm thinking about something else.

Claire thought for a moment. “Well, I think the hurricane is a metaphor for the heroine's own passion. It's a metaphor for sexual desire. At first it was just out there, harmless, but as it came inexorably closer it became more powerful, more overwhelming, more dangerous, until the heroine was caught up and swept away by it.”

Zoey rolled her eyes. Half the guys in the room were now
sitting there with their tongues hanging out. Including Jake. And it wasn't even the right answer. The metaphor in the book had nothing to do with sex.

“Absolutely correct,” the teacher said.

“The square root of two
x
plus
zy
over
p
prime?” Aisha said.

“Correct, except that you have to remember your parentheses,” the teacher said.

Aisha winced, then shook her head good-naturedly. “Of course. I meant to say that.”

“It is important to be precise.”

Aisha nodded in complete agreement. It was absolutely important to be precise. Leave out a variable or misplace a parentheses and the whole meaning of the equation would change.

“Has anyone solved this yet for
x
?” the teacher asked.

Aisha had, but she didn't want to be a show-off. When she saw that Louis Goldman was getting ready to raise his hand, though, hers shot up quickly. No one was a bigger show-off than Louis, and she couldn't let him sit there and gloat. Not after she'd forgotten her parentheses.

She should never have worn this top. It was cut too low. Not slutty low, just low enough that Christopher would probably
think she'd worn it for him.

“Aisha?”

“X
equals negative three.”

The teacher winked. “I see you remembered the parentheses when you solved the equation. Correct.
X
equals negative three.”

Of course it did, Aisha thought. All around her kids wrinkled their foreheads and went back to their notebooks. Obviously a lot of them had come up with the wrong answer, which was hard to understand. How could you look at a simple equation and not understand it? It was so logical.

If everything in the world were so logical, life would be . . . well, it would be logical. One plus one equals two. It never equals three. That was how everything should be.

Christopher was bound to think it was a date. Which meant he would probably try to put his arm around her. What should she do? She didn't want to make a big scene, but by the same token she didn't want anyone to misunderstand.

“Now, let's talk about parabolas,” the teacher said.

Parabolas, good. She'd read ahead into this section, and it was really interesting stuff. In fact, she'd much rather be spending her evening understanding parabolas than going to a movie with Christopher.

No, not
with
Christopher.
Near
Christopher. Maybe not
even so near. They didn't even have to sit together. She could sit between Zoey and Nina. Or she could sit between Benjamin and Zoey, if Benjamin sat by his sister. Or . . .

Wait a minute. This could be an equation. Zoey would be
z,
Nina
n
, Benjamin
b . . .
It was a lot of variables, but with a little work she could have a strategy for every possible arrangement of points—or people—along a straight line, which was to say, a row of seats.

Okay, Lucas goes down the aisle first, then Zoey. That leaves me, Benjamin, Aisha, and Christopher. So I say something funny like, Hey, all you couples should be together and leave us single people to ourselves. Of course, then Aisha gives me a death look, but she's trapped, right? She has to go, either her first or Christopher first, which means either way Benjamin and I end up sitting together.

What if it's Aisha first? Then naturally Christopher would go next, followed, hopefully, by Lucas and Zoey. Unless Benjamin jumps in there and ends up between Christopher and either Lucas or Zoey.

“—I'm sorry, would you repeat the question?” Nina snapped back just before the teacher came down the aisle, prepared to pull her famous rap-on-the-head wake-up.

“The question, which you would have heard the first time if you had been paying attention, Nina Geiger, was ‘What do you call a verbal construction that involves a repetition of examples all making the same point?' And since I very much doubt that you know the—”

“That would be a tautology,” Nina said.

The teacher's mouth hung open, and thirty heads turned to stare at Nina.

Nina grinned back.
Ha. Thought you had me there, didn't you?

“Do you think you could offer an example?” the teacher asked poisonously.

“Yes, ma'am. Um, okay, like a funny example would be if I say that I love this class like a hungry baby loves his mother's nipple, like a . . . like a drunk loves a toilet with plenty of room to kneel, like a hooker loves a sailor on leave . . . Wait, one more—like a teenage guy loves his hand.”

When the laughter died down, the teacher asked Nina if she knew the way to the principal's office. She did, and went off down the hall shaking her head.

Never should have gone for that fourth one,
she chided herself.
I've always said three was the right number. When I tell this story to Benjamin tonight, I'll leave one out. After all, I'm going for sophisticated.

“I'm not going to see a slasher movie,” Zoey said firmly. “I don't see how people can find it entertaining to watch women being murdered. Sorry.”

They stood in a little gaggle outside the multiplex at the Weymouth Mall. Night was falling as cars with their lights on cruised through the parking lot, trying for parking places near the entrance. The crowd outside was sparse. Tuesday was not a big movie night, at least not now that school was back in session.

“It isn't really a slasher movie, and besides, lots of people get killed, not
just
girls,” Lucas countered without much conviction. “It's an action movie. It's what's-his-name, Dwayne, um, Statham or whatever. The karate guy.”

“I don't like violent movies,” Zoey said. Maybe it wasn't a major moral stand, Zoey thought, but she had decided after the last violent movie she'd seen, and the subsequent case of willies, that she was going to avoid similar stuff in the future.

“Me neither,” Aisha agreed.

“Okay, there's seven other movies,” Christopher pointed out.

“Six,” Benjamin said. “Because I'm not sitting through another movie about animated characters who save the rain forest or whatever. Shrill, shrieking voices bitching about the environment and every now and then breaking into a bad, bad song. It makes my skin crawl.”

“I agree with Benjamin,” Nina said. “Crawling skin should be avoided.”

“How about
My Sister's Boyfriend?”
Zoey suggested. “It's supposed to be hilarious.”

“I heard it sucked,” Nina said quickly. “I mean, who cares? A movie about some girl going out with her sister's boyfriend? I mean, so what, right?”

“Three down, five to go,” Aisha noted, looking uncomfortable standing beside Christopher.

“The lawyer movie?” Benjamin suggested.

“I'll bet it won't be as good as the one with Tom Cruise,” Aisha said.

“You know, he's really short,” Lucas said. “About five one.”

“And I heard he never takes a shower,” Benjamin suggested.

“You guys are so pathetic,” Zoey said, giving Lucas a playful shove.

“How about the Christian Bale movie?” Aisha said. “I like Christian Bale.”

“I like him, too,” Zoey agreed.

“I like him, but not when he was Batman,” Lucas offered.

“I like Batman, but not when he was Christian Bale,” Nina said. Then she seemed to glance nervously at Benjamin and smiled only when he laughed. What was with Nina tonight? Zoey wondered. She seemed jumpy or something.

They bought tickets and munchies and paraded into the theater, arguing about the relative merits of Milk Duds versus Raisinettes. When they came to an aisle toward the middle of the mostly empty theater, Lucas led the way with Zoey. They went down six seats and sat. Then Zoey realized no one was following.

“You guys don't like these seats?” Zoey asked.

“They're fine. After you, Aisha,” Nina said.

“Well, are you coming next?” Aisha asked.

“What do you care?” Nina asked suspiciously.

“I don't, I was just wondering. Because I'll go sit down, but, you know, uh, who would go next?”

Zoey exchanged a mystified look with Lucas. “Excuse me, but is this really that great a challenge?” she asked Nina and Aisha.

“Well, how about if I go sit down next?” Christopher said.

“Fine,” Aisha said. “Then you can go, Nina.”

“What, and you'll sit on the aisle?” Nina asked Aisha.

“Excuse me, but
I
have to sit on the aisle,” Benjamin said. “I have a hard time navigating over people's feet.”

“Let's see,” Zoey said, “Benjamin's on the aisle, Christopher's next to me; by my count that leaves two seats and, oh, surprise! Two of you. Or should I try to find my calculator?”

“After you, Eesh,” Nina said, standing back.

“No, really, go ahead,” Aisha said, stepping still farther back.

“Have those two finally lost their minds?” Zoey asked.

“Nah,” Christopher said, contentedly munching his popcorn. “It's just Aisha doesn't want to sit next to me because then this would be a date.”