in there?”
“Hey,” Max said. He sounded tired. Claire peered around the side of the door and saw both of them sitting on the bed. Cleo’s eyes looked a little red. They were definitely fighting.
“You should come up soon,” Claire said. “Cathy’s talking about her job, which is fascinating, and Bets is getting ready to tell us all why we’re a disappointment. You don’t want to miss it.”
“We’ll be up in a minute,” Max said. He didn’t smile.
Claire felt bad for them. Once, during a trip with Doug’s family, she and Doug had gotten into a fight about the cable bill. It was so stupid, but at the time she was so mad she thought she was going to scream at him, right in front of his parents. She’d found the bill and saw that he’d added this crazy football package that basically doubled the price.
“We split this bill,” she’d hissed at him in their room. “And you didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me about it? To ask me?”
“It’s not a big deal,” Doug said. “I’ll pay for it.” Then he tried to shush her, which she hated.
“Don’t you shush me,” she’d said. “Don’t you dare shush me.”
The Winkleplecks were a quiet family. They never yelled. At dinner, if someone accidentally interrupted another person, they’d say, “Oh, I’m sorry. Go on.” There was no talking over anyone else. When someone started telling a story, the whole family turned and gave that one person their total attention. It made Claire feel very nervous to ever talk around them.
She knew Doug was scared that his parents were going to hear them fighting. “Shhh,” he kept saying. “It’s fine. I’ll pay for it, okay?”
“That’s not the point,” Claire had said. But she couldn’t quite say what the point was, exactly. Just that she was so mad at him that she wanted to scream, and she wanted him to scream back. But they couldn’t, and that made it worse. And Mr. and Mrs. Winklepleck were always there, quietly reading or watching TV at a very low volume. There was nowhere to go, and Claire stayed mad at him the whole trip.
And now it looked like poor Max was in the same situation. “Okay, guys,” Claire said. “See you up there. You want me to bring some drinks down here for you?”
“No, thanks,” Max said. “We’ll be up soon.” Claire left them down there, wondering what it was that they could be fighting about.
CLAIRE FRESHENED HER BLOODY MARY, and sat down next to Cathy on the couch. She reached forward and grabbed some slices of cheese. The worst part is almost over, she told herself.
Cathy turned to her and lowered her voice. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but I’m really sorry. About Doug and everything.”
“Thanks,” Claire said.
“I really mean it,” she went on. “I know how sometimes news can be worse when everyone else gets ahold of it. You forget how you even feel about it. But just remember that however you feel about it is fine.”
“Thanks,” Claire said again. But this time her eyes watered a little bit and Cathy squeezed her arm. Maybe being with Ruth had made Cathy a nicer person. And maybe Claire should ease up on the Bloody Marys a little bit.
LAST NIGHT, FRAN HAD TOLD HER that she was “D-runk.” That’s how he’d said it, pronouncing the D and the runk, as if they were two different words. She’d protested, telling him she was just tipsy. And then, as they walked into the kitchen to look for snacks, she’d tripped on her heel and ended up facedown on the kitchen floor.
“I’ve fallen,” she said, “and I can’t get up.”
“Come on,” Fran said. He lifted her up and brushed the front of her, like she was a little kid that had fallen in dirt. “Time to go home.”
“No, I was just kidding,” she said. “Don’t you remember that commercial? I was just pretending.”
Fran had walked her across the street and down the block to her front door. “I should get home anyway,” he said. “People are coming over early tomorrow. Why do people eat so early on Thanksgiving anyway? Who wants to eat mashed potatoes at noon?”
“We don’t eat until late,” Claire said. “Like six o’clock, usually.” She sat on the front cement steps and rested her head on her knees.
“Okay, then,” Fran said. He knelt down. “Do you want to go inside?”
“I think I’m just going to sit here for a while.”
“What?”
Claire lifted her head.