Goodbye Earl(44)

Slowly, Sparrow put her hand between Rosemarie’s legs, and Rosemarie let out a soft breath and put her hand between Sparrow’s. Their backpacks sat in the grass at their feet. They kissed and kissed and touched like that until they both came, panting in the lush. On prom night when Rosemarie had sex with Leo, she imagined doing this with Sparrow but didn’t feel bad, because she was thinking about Leo too.

“Promise never to tell?” Sparrow said, breathing hard in Rosemarie’s ear.

Rosemarie’s secret mouth said promise, but her secret heart was beating no.

*



RACK was up late at Ada’s. Mrs. Plum had made Taylor leave the room and go to bed hours ago. Caro baked a blueberry pie she was proud of because it was the fourth one she’d made in a row that wasn’t runny. She’d gone on and on about how potato starch worked better than cornstarch, and the girls were sitting in a circle on Ada’s bedroom floor, eating her sugary success, sharing bites off two forks.

“So, Roy’s still doing better?” Rosemarie asked Kasey.

“Barely,” Kasey said.

“At least he has a job?” Caro chimed in.

“My dad said he saw him working on a car at the garage the other day,” Ada said.

“I don’t care anymore. I’m only here until July, then it’s New York City, baybee,” Kasey said.

“New York City?!” Rosemarie said in a fake cowboy voice. Kasey snorted.

“Caro and I will miss you both so much we’ll die, but I am happy for y’all. I know you and Roses have to leave Goldie so you can take over the world,” Ada said.

“Let’s promise to always keep in touch, no matter where we are or what’s going on in our lives. It might be hard sometimes, I know, but seriously, we have to promise,” Caroline said.

Rosemarie’s day had been full of promises. She thought of Sparrow and what they’d done. How good it’d felt. How huge that was for them. Finally!

Promising Sparrow she’d never tell anyone about it had been hard and stupid. Promising her girls she’d always keep in touch was an easy, best thing.

“Promise,” the four of them said at the same time.

Quadruple jinx.





2019


15





Ada


Ada was upstairs, attempting to coax her mother out of the bathroom she’d locked herself in just ten minutes before Taylor and Ben’s sparkler send-off.

“Mama, please unlock the door and get in bed. I’ll tuck you in and it’ll be nice and cozyyy,” Ada said, trying to make it sound as appealing as possible. Her mother loved her bedroom and spent a fortune on the best sheets and downy bedding. She recently had a high-ticket Italian alabaster egg lamp shipped across the ocean for her nightstand.

Rosemarie had stopped in the hallway and asked if there was anything she could do, but Ada told her no and to go back and enjoy the rest of the reception. Rosemarie had left reluctantly, and now that Ada was on the other side of the door alone, she wished she’d asked her to stay. Grayson had taken the boys home already, put them to sleep. She needed to get her mom out of the bathroom and into bed so she could send her little sister off on her honeymoon with sparklers and go home.

“I’ll…sleep in here,” her mom slurred. Ada watched the light disappear underneath the rectangle slip of door.

“Mama, no. No. You’ll be much comfier in bed. Please. Open the door for me and everything will be perfect. Don’t you love it when everything is perfect? I do!” Ada said.

“Oh yes, I love it wheneverthing is…perfect,” her mom said. The light flicked on again. The lock clicked. Her mom’s eyes were closed and she was leaning against the wall.

“Why’d you drink so much when you knew you had to take your pills too?” Ada asked.

“I need them. I take them because I need them,” her mom said with a thick tongue. Ada put Holly’s limp arm around her neck and carefully guided her to the bedroom. Got her in bed, unzipped her dress, and shimmied it off, only then realizing she’d peed on herself.

Ada went to the bathroom and cleaned up the floor, got a soapy wet towel and wiped her mom’s legs and in between them, positioned her on her side under the covers, naked from the waist down. She was snoring by the time Ada turned off the light. Her dad was out back with his friends; her brothers were out there drinking with theirs. Ada was upstairs alone, fixing everything. Again.

Outside, Ada grabbed a sparkler, found Rosemarie and Kasey, kissed her baby sister goodbye, and stood with everyone crying and waving as Taylor and Ben made their way down the sidewalk and got into the limousine. She told her daddy she’d put her mom to bed, then Ada drove herself home.

*



Everyone in her house was sleeping. She closed their bedroom door. Grayson was naked on his back under the covers. Ada woke him up by climbing on top of him and kissing him as she rocked her hips back and forth. Afterward, she cried. It happened sometimes.

“Are you okay?” Grayson asked.

“Yes. I’m just tired.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”





2004


16





Holly Plum was the head of the PTA, so oftentimes, Ada would literally bump into her mom in the hallway at school. This time Ada was looking down at the stack of graduation flyers she’d copied in the office before first period.