going to tell Mom and Dad about rehab eventually?” I ask. Deanna had begged me not to tell our parents how bad things had gotten for her, and I respected her wishes. But I still felt like they should know.
“Yeah. Eventually. I mean, I know they’ll love me and still be there for me no matter what,” she pauses, “I think I just want to get further into my sobriety first. Maybe I need to prove it to myself. And I don’t want them to worry.”
“Don’t you two need to get your stories straight about exactly what happened in Vegas first?” Aurora, sensible as always, points out. It’s a fear that I’d voiced to her previously.
“Yeah,” Deanna nods. “If our parents find out that I checked into a full-time rehab facility for a full month, they’re going to have some questions…like how I could afford it.” She shoots me a pointed look.
“True.” I nod but look away. When Mom and Dad had asked about our birthday reunion, I obviously sugarcoated it. I didn’t tell them how Deanna seemed to be spiraling. And, I also didn’t tell them about the part where I spent a week in a casino-hotel penthouse with a billionaire…with an impromptu trip to Europe.
“I’ll tell them.” Deanna reaches over and gives my hand a squeeze. “I don’t want you to protect me anymore. But I also need to know how much I need to protect you when I tell them.”
“There just doesn’t seem to be any point to telling them, you know? It’s not like me and David had any kind of future. So why bother telling them about a past that is just that… The past.”
“I don’t know,” Aurora shakes her head in apparent disbelief. “I still can’t believe that you’re never going to see this guy again, ever. I mean, you lost your virginity to the guy. He inspired your first Brazilian wax. You spent an entire week shacked up in his penthouse…” She pumps her hips playfully.
“Yeah, doing it like rabbits,” Deanna adds, grinning and likewise making lewd gestures.
“Ugh, stop it, you two.” I can’t help but giggle. With their love and playful humor, Aurora and Deanna have kept me emotionally afloat these last months.
“Look, we’ll figure out a story for the parents. Something about how I got into rehab and paid for it that doesn’t involve him.”
“Thank you.” I give her a smile. It’s like when we were kids, sneaking racy women’s magazines and reading them in secret. Although I’m not thrilled to keep all of this from Mom and Dad, it has brought Deanna and me closer. “I think I just need to leave it all as a memory. A sort of dream I lived.”
“Like a perverted fairytale,” Deanna quips.
“Yeah, Cinderella and the Casino King,” Aurora adds.
“Shut up,” I swat at them but I’m giggling.
“Who would’ve thought you’d use that cherry stem trick,” Deanna says.
“I still can’t believe I did that.” I cover my face with my hands in embarrassment but I’m laughing.
“I still can’t believe Mr. Millionaire was your first. I mean, I for sure thought that you’d lost it to your prom date years ago!” As Deanna and I got closer over the last months, I revealed to her that I’d been a virgin when I met David. She’d been horrified at the thought that her high-stakes poker game led to my deflowering, but I’d quickly assured her that I had no regrets about what had happened.
“It never got that far.” I shrug.
“Thank God! As someone who did lose their virginity on prom night, let me tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” Aurora says reassuringly.
“I’m pissed I missed it, to be honest. Prom, I mean, not the whole losing-your-virginity-afterwards part,” Deanna adds. She’d left Parkville as soon as she finished her last senior exam, refusing to take part in any of the celebratory formalities—like prom and our graduation ceremony.
“You were ready to see the world,” I say, matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, but I missed out on some important things at home.”
“You can always make up for lost time.” Aurora gestures to the three of us, curled up on the couch. Her dark eyes, sweet and kind, remind me yet again of Marta’s. I had made the connection when I first saw the housekeeper in Vegas and I’m struck by the similarity often now when I look at Aurora. I admit, it’s a bit weird, because thoughts of Marta, inevitably bring up thoughts of David.
“Anyway, Vegas is all in the