“Lorraine,” Clara said darkly, “no one does the things you do. Because the things you do are stupid. And selfish. And thoughtless. And mean.”
“No, they’re not! I think about them a lot!”
“Marcus is happy—doesn’t that matter to you at all? Is the happiness of other people so repulsive to you?”
“You’re not listening to me, Clara! This woman is a snake! She’s absolutely reptilian!”
“You listen to me: I am not going to ruin his life. And neither are you. Try being a friend for once.” She turned and stormed toward the kitchen door.
“You think he’s happy?” Lorraine called at Clara’s sparkling back, making her halt. “Who gets engaged five weeks after breaking up with the love of his life? That’s not the act of a happy person, no sirree.”
Clara turned, blinking. Lorraine thought she saw a hint of something in the girl’s eyes—longing, perhaps?
Suddenly, a handsome swell with dark, wavy hair and brilliant green eyes poked his head in. He looked familiar from the Opera House—was he a gangster? No, after a few moments Lorraine remembered that he was Clara’s editor at the Manhattanite … Parker Richards. Not only did Clara have a glamorous job writing for one of the city’s hottest magazines, but she got to stare at this man’s gorgeous mug all day at the office. Some girls had all the luck.
“Clara, there you are! I’ve been looking all over for you,” he said. “You’re missing a great show out there.”
“Well, you’re missing a pathetic show in here,” Clara replied. She glanced from Parker to Lorraine. “Huh, would you look at that? My two least favorite people in one place. I’ll take that as my cue to leave.” Then she marched back out to the party, nearly mowing Parker over, and the door swung closed behind her.
Lorraine swallowed hard. How was she supposed to help Marcus now? She wanted to have new leaves, she really did. But already her plan had gotten all fouled up, just like all her plans did.
“That didn’t go so well,” Melvin observed. “What did you do to her to make her hate you so much?”
Lorraine bit her bottom lip. It seemed that Clara really did hate her. And deep down, Lorraine couldn’t blame her. She couldn’t blame Gloria, Marcus, her parents, or anyone else. She was a life ruiner, just like Clara had said. There was nothing she could do to fix it.
“Oh, please,” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Melvin pulled her into his skinny arms, and she felt so pathetic that tears pricked at her eyes. She cried against his tweed jacket while he patted her hair. “There, there, Raine. It’ll be all right.”
As she clung to him, Lorraine realized he smelled really nice. Not of cologne, like the other boys, but of the comforting scent of soap and clean laundry. His arms felt stronger around her than she’d expected. Maybe lifting all those heavy books had given him a bit of muscle.
Lorraine pulled away a little and looked up at him. Melvin wasn’t so unattractive, really. He had a fine, straight nose and a cleft in his chin that she’d never taken the time to notice. He didn’t have too many freckles, just a few—and they were sort of cute. Plus Melvin had always been so nice to her. Unlike Hank, he didn’t have any ulterior motives.
“I wonder what you’d look like without your glasses,” Raine said, her voice light and feathery.
Melvin kept one arm around her and raised the other to take his glasses off.
His eyes immediately crossed, and any hint of romance Lorraine might have felt was whisked away.
“Oh God, put those back on right this instant!” she ordered.
He slid the glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, then put his hands in his pockets and gave her a bashful smile. “Yeah, they really do something for my face.”
Lorraine nodded. “They hide it. But enough of this.” She dragged her fingertips under her eyes to remove any black tracks of mascara and turned toward the door to walk back out to the party. Lorraine had come here to have a good time; she wasn’t going to let Clara Knowles or Melvin and his disconcertingly small eyes keep her from doing just that.
She thought about her sorry life at Barnard and how much it would be improved if Marcus introduced her to his friends, if the other girls saw that she was popular and fun and a good