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.It was the most transparent lie I’d ever told, but what else could I say? She knew I hadn’t walked home.Still, if she wanted to confront me about the incident, she’d have to call me a liar.That was beneath Eve’s dignity, so I’d be alright as long as no critical evidence came her way.Somehow, I got through the rest of the day.I studied for my history test, even tackled the interminable Algebra-Trig review sheet, and by the time I got through my last problem set, Mom and Dad and Milly were back.Milly, naturally, had to ring the doorbell seven hundred times.“Christ,” I muttered as she pushed past me, her blonde curls windblown, her cheeks little-girl flushed.“You should have been there, Andy,” Milly said.“There was this crazy bee infestation and just about everyone got stung but me and Mom.” Dad strode past us into the kitchen, his brown shopping bags overflowing with fruit, his right hand swollen and red.“All in all a great day,” Dad said sarcastically.“We paid for the privilege of picking fruit in the baking sun, and then getting attacked by swarms of wasps.”“Ugh,” Milly said.“How many times do I have to tell you wasps do not even swarm? They were yellow jackets.”“Killer bees, I think,” Dad said, just to annoy her.Milly was going through a bee phase.Before that, it was crustaceans.I had to admit, once they got home, stung or unstung, I started to feel almost normal.It was easier to pretend nothing was wrong with them there, providing the unknowing audience for my drama.Little did Mom and Dad know that their very presence made it easier for me to pursue my slutty, lying existence.Later at dinner, just when the whole ordeal started to recede from the forefront of my mind, Dad called me out on my late night.He eyed me kind of funny with his fork in the air, a small piece of pork chop speared on the end.He pointed the piece of pork at me.“I thought I heard the front door around dawn?” Dad had a way of letting you think he was oblivious and then he’d draw you out when you least expected it.Mom raised her eyebrows at him across the table, as if she were surprised he was busting me like that at the dinner table, or maybe only he’d heard the door opening at dawn.“I couldn’t sleep on that lumpy guest bed they have over there,” I said.“I was all sunburned and I’d already been tossing and turning for about five hours.I heard Doug come home from some date, and asked him to drive me home.” I was surprised how easily this lie tripped off my tongue.“I hope he wasn’t drinking, Andy,” Mom said.You could tell she thought something was fishy, but the only thing she could really take on in the middle of dinner like that was the getting into a car with a buzzed college guy.“Nope,” I said.“Douglas is Mr.Clean.” I had no idea why I said that since it was pretty far from the truth, but he did look clean cut, and, of course, he went to Princeton.At that point I was almost enjoying my fabrications.It made me a little dizzy just to say Douglas’ name in front of them, my secret lurking in those syllables.They let it go for the moment, but Mom had her eye on me.I knew it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.It happened later that night as I was getting ready for bed.I had gotten changed and washed up, and was laying all my stuff out for track practice the next day.I was getting my rhythm back, feeling my groove.That’s when Mom knocked on the door and let herself in.“Hey sweetheart,” she said and perched herself on my bed.I continued folding my track stuff up and putting it all super-neat into my gym bag.“You didn’t tell me how things went with Eve at the house.Was everything ok?”“I told you when you called.It was great.Awesome.The lifeguard took her in the water and everything.Don’t you remember?”“Yes, I know.But what about everything else? You seem a bit preoccupied, and I wanted to make sure you were ok.”“Yeah.” I sighed.I’m fine, just worn out, you know.”“I know, sweetheart.You must be tired, but Andy? Can I ask you a question?” She peered over at me, and kind of half-shut her eyes.My Mom isn’t the prying kind, but she is perceptive.She’s a teacher at the after-school center in town, where she works with kids who have learning disabilities, so she isn’t one of those moms who has to read in books what teenagers are like.“Yeah, Mom?” It took her a minute to compose herself, and then she let loose with her question.Did she ever catch me off-guard!“Is there something going on between you and Douglas? Are the two of you an item?” That word “item” hung in the air like a poison gas.Item.Oh, God, I thought, how much and how little she knows about me.It made my head spin
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