Page 117 of Fun Together
Mom has tears in her eyes, and she gives me a tight hug. “Honey, that was beautiful.” She pats my cheek. “We are so lucky to have you—our sweet, funny boy.”
Dad claps me on the back and says, “Great speech, son.”
I’ve never felt this confusing muddle of emotions before. Where I clearly did something so right, based on how my parents and everyone else reacted. But also, something so wrong. I feel selfish for basking in the pride of my parents’ praise while the woman I care about is currently feeling upset over what I said.
My parents are pulled into another conversation, leaving Andrew and I standing alone. I look over to check to see if Faye has come back outside, and see that Evie is standing with her, arms flailing animatedly in conversation. Faye is smiling politely, listening to whatever my sister is rambling about.
“I’m sorry I missed your calls yesterday. Busy day with work.”
“It’s okay. I was going to see if you could still pick me up from the airport, but I got an Uber.”
“Is everything okay? What happened with the trip?”
He shrugs. “Long story. How did things go with the plants?”
Maybe I’m paranoid, but I sort of think he’s asking to trap me in a lie. The lie being that I replaced the pothos plant that I think I killed in the hopes that he wouldn’t notice. Surely, he hasn’t had time to comb through his entire collection yet and confirm everything is as he expected.
Right?
Fuck, this is such a stupid thing to lie about.
“I killed the pothos,” I admit. “It had two brown leaves and everything I googled wasn’t helping and then I freaked out thinking you’d freak out and then I went to the store and bought one.”
“Okay . . .”
“I’m sorry.”
“Is that all?”
“What do you mean?” My God, he knows everything doesn’t he? I’m not a Catholic, but I feel like I’m in confession. Iwantto tell him everything. Ineedto tell him everything.
“Hey Andy,” Evie says, seemingly appearing out of thin air next to Andrew with an impeccably timed interruption. “Did you see our new pool? I was thinking about night swimming later.”
“Don’t have my trunks with me, unfortunately.”
“Who said you need those?”
Andrew just shakes his head and drinks his beer, wisely choosing not to engage with my sister. Evie loves to embarrass him, and I’d think her crush on him was kind of cute if I didn’t feel so uncomfortable right now.
Out of my periphery, I see Faye walk up to us. A bit of color has come back to her face, and I hope she’s okay.
I need to talk to her, alone. But I don’t know how.
“I’ve been trying to convince Dad to put in a hot tub next,” Evie says.
“Hot tubs can be tough to maintain. They can carry disease if they’re not kept up properly,” Andrew says, distracted.
Evie looks at him like he just said he doesn’t like chocolate cake. “Have you ever had a good time in your life?”
“Sorry if getting Legionnaires’ disease isn’t my idea of a good time.”
“Of course, you know the actual name of the disease,” she says, rolling her eyes. Then she turns to Faye. “Faye, you’ll back me up. Don’t you think we need a hot tub, even though they are apparently riddled with bacteria?”
Faye cautiously looks at me, and then Andrew, before shrugging casually. “That’s what antibiotics are for, right?”
“Exactly!”
Faye glances in my direction, but immediately reverts her attention to the beer bottle in her hand.
