"Todd," I laughed as he pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. He was so tall now—taller than me, and surely taller than Claire. A sleepy-eyed, towheaded boy remained rooted to the couch, staring at me curiously.
"Kristen, this is Derrick Harrington," Todd said, gesturing towards his friend. "He's staying with his grandparents, they live three houses down."
"We've been friends for so long that I basically live here," Derrick said. He turned his attention back to the TV as if he were bored of me already. Northern attitude. I liked him already.
"Here, you've got to meet—" In lieu of finishing his sentence, Todd bounded across the room and yanked open the back door. "Olivia! My cousin's here!"
The blonde girl rolled off of her beach towel and made her way back into the house. To my surprise, she wasn't wearing a bikini—she was wearing a crop top and shorts. A devotional was clutched in her hands.
"Kristen!" she cried. She tossed her devotional onto the couch, where it landed neatly by Derrick. "So wonderful to meet you!" She pulled me into a hug. I stiffened a bit—I wasn't the hugging type.
"How was your flight?" Todd asked, falling back onto the couch next to Derrick. Olivia settled in on the other side of Derrick, and they smiled at me in unison. Only then did Derrick finally relinquish his Xbox controller and turn to me.
"It was fine," I said, sitting down on the loveseat adjacent to their couch.
"Do they miss me in New York?"
"Everyone's always asking me when you and Claire are coming back," I said. Todd grinned.
"I can't go back," Todd sighed. "I fell in love with Chik-fil-a. I can't go where there aren't chicken biscuits."
"I know how you feel," I groaned, feeling a pang of longing for Nashville.
"So you're at Vanderbilt?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah, with Claire," I replied.
"What sorority are you in?" she pressed. It was all I could do not to laugh—people down here always judged you by your letters.
"Kappa Delta," I said cautiously.
"Me too!" Olivia chirped. I breathed out a sigh that I didn't even know I'd been holding in. Chapter reputations varied across the South, but she and I were sisters, technically. She couldn't look down on me now.
"I know you're Kappa Sig, Todd, but what about you, Derrick?" A wave of weariness came over me as it always did when I entered a Greek life conversation. I loved my sorority, and I loved that Claire and I were bonded by two different kinds of families, but I didn't place my Greek membership above all else the way some Vanderbilt girls did.
"DKE at UVA," Derrick said.
"Where are you originally from?" I asked.
"Fairfield," he replied.
"Westchester," I said, and we nodded at each other. Northern kids detouring at Southern Ivy Leagues before returning to New York City, the only place to be. We were cut from the same cloth.
Something beeped from the corner of the room, and then Jay's voice crackled over the intercom. "Everybody to the main house, please."
Todd, Derrick, and Olivia simultaneously rolled their eyes.
"Now, guys."
The three of them huffed and got off the couch. I followed them as they trudged out the front door and across the porch back into the house.
"Your mother's book club ran over and now she's craving sushi, so I'm just going to meet her downtown," Jay said as we gathered in the living room. "You four are on your own, but Martha went ahead and made some chicken and pasta. I left some bottles in the fridge. Have fun!"
Martha, a motherly Hispanic woman standing by the stove, cleared her throat.
"Um, Todd, just remember what we talked about," Jay said. Olivia and Todd blushed. "Your mother and I will be back before 11."
Jay headed out of the living room, and the four of us were left staring at Martha, who was stirring a pot of pasta sauce like nothing had happened. I glanced at Derrick, and he shook his head.
"Wine, guys?" Todd asked, clearly trying to break through the awkward silence.
"None for me, thanks," Olivia said loudly. Todd looked to me.
"Please," I said. Derrick headed into the living room and started pouring a glass for himself from a decanter of whisky. I opted for a Yellow Tail moscato.
We settled down onto couches in the living room and exchanged pleasantries about my trip down here for five minutes longer before Martha called us to dinner. As we sat down at the dining room table, I almost forgot that we were all barely out of our teens—I felt like a proper adult with my wine and chicken and pasta in that million dollar house.
"So why are you here again?" Olivia asked.
"I'm working for this independent bookstore for the summer," I said. "I'm helping them with their social media and sales."
"Claire and I used to work there in the summer all through high school," Todd added.
"That's so fun," Olivia said. I both loved and distrusted the way she talked—her tone was impossibly genuine.
"What about you?" I asked. "Are you just here to hang out?"
"Oh wow, no," Olivia replied. "I'm interning with a ministry in Orlando. It's a bit of a drive, but it's more sensible to stay here than rent out some place up there."
It took all I had to keep from bursting out laughing. Of course Todd was dating a Bible beater. The Lyonses had always been strict Methodists. Claire never missed a Young Life meeting and Todd was much of the same. Claire still drank with all the frat stars, though—once she'd gotten blackout drunk and attempted to recite the Lord's Prayer backwards. Todd had had similar drunken mishaps, from what I'd heard from Claire, but now here he was, abstaining along with holier-than-thou Olivia. Something had changed.
"That's wonderful," I said, accidentally mimicking her overly sincere tone. Derrick choked on his whiskey a bit, but neither Todd nor Olivia noticed.
Olivia beamed. "Is God in your life, Kristen?"
"I'm Episcopalian," I replied automatically. "I go with Claire to Young Life a lot." It was all a lie—I hadn't been to church since before the divorce, and I only went to Young Life with Claire if absolutely begged. I didn't discount those who were church-y, I just didn't get any personal gratification from it myself.
Olivia opened her mouth as if to launch into some ministry spiel, but Derrick cut her off. "So you're a communications major?"
I bristled. I didn't like the implications that came with the so-called 'easy major'. "English, actually."
Derrick nodded. At the far end of the table, Olivia's phone lit up.
"Aw, Danny liked my Instagram! Look!" She held up her phone for Todd to see. He smiled, but more at her than at her glowing iPhone. Derrick shot me an uncomfortable look.
"That reminds me, I left my phone in the other house," Derrick said. "Did you leave yours there too, Kristen?"
His foot knocked against mine under the table. "Yeah, I did. I'll go with you."
I followed him outside, avoiding Todd's suspicious look. When we got back to the guest house, I watched Derrick poke around in the couch cushions, bemused.
"Sorry, I just don't like when Olivia gets on her Jesus tangent," Derrick said. "And the fact that she's bringing up Danny. I just don't know how Todd isn't seeing through it."
"What do you mean?"
"You know who Danny is, right?"
Of course I knew who Danny Robbins was. He'd gone to Lakeside Prep with Claire and Todd, and even though he was two grades above Todd, he'd supposedly changed Todd's life. Danny was the one to convince Todd to go to USC, to major in business, to pledge Kappa Sig, to stay in Young Life.
"Yeah, I've heard a fair bit about Danny," I said.
"Then you know that he and Olivia dated when she was a freshman," Derrick said, finally extracting his phone from between the couch cushions.
"How could that be?" I asked, frowning at the stairs.
"She's a year older than Todd," Derrick explained. "In the grade below you. They dated for a semester, then Todd came waltzing in the next year, and it was like Danny had been priming her for him or something. He became Todd's big brother in Kappa Sig and they all act like it's not awkward, but I really honestly think that she never got over it. She's still crushing on Danny and I swear that all the signs are pointing to them hooking up, or whatever it is that you do when you like someone but refuse to have sex before marriage."
I fell back onto the couch, trying to take it all in.
"C'mon, they'll start to wonder what we're up to," Derrick said and reached out a hand to pull me back up. "I'm glad you see through the bullshit, though."
I laughed and skipped onto the porch, the feeling of his hand still on my wrist.
When we sat back down at the table, Olivia and Todd were still completely absorbed in each other. I began gulping my wine, and Olivia broke out of her trance to stare at me with concern.
"So what's the name of the bookstore, Kristen?" Derrick asked, digging into his pasta.
"Blue Willow Bookshop," I replied.
"Oh, so you must know Massie," Derrick said. Todd dropped his fork with a loud clang.
"Massie?" he demanded. "Who's named Massie?"
"Some girl I met at a party last week," Derrick said around a mouthful of spaghetti. "Apparently Blue Willow is like her favorite place in Kissimmee, like she goes there every day or something."
"Valerie hasn't mentioned her," I said carefully. Todd looked like he was about to go into cardiac arrest.
"Right, you haven't started yet," Derrick said. "Sorry, it feels like you've been here for three years already."
"I'm glad that I've fooled you already," I said. Only later did I realize what an odd thing it was for me to say. Unlike them, I had nothing to hide.