Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares [48]
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why won’t you see Brian? The poor guy is dying.”
“He’s here to see Katherine,” Tibby said defensively.
Carmen was not a particularly patient person. “Shut up. He loves Katherine, I know, but he wants to see you.”
“Why can’t I just be by myself if I want?” Tibby asked churlishly.
Carmen sighed. She was in one of her tough-love moods. “Because Brian loves you. And I am pretty sure you feel the same way. So what are you doing? Like it or not, you’re going to NYU in a month and a half. You can’t just leave it like this.”
Tibby was tired of hearing it. Her mom had been in her room singing the very same tune not twenty-four hours before. “Why is everybody in such a hurry to shove me and Brian together? Why does he have to be my boyfriend? Are you not a real person if you don’t have a boyfriend? Why does everybody have to be in love with somebody?”
“You don’t have to be in love with somebody,” Carmen replied. “But it so happens that you are. And besides, Brian means more to you than just being your boyfriend.” Carmen looked around distastefully at the mess. “Is this about Katherine?” she asked. “Because Katherine’s getting better fast and you’re the one acting broken.”
“It’s not about Katherine,” Tibby said, just to get Carmen off her back. “It’s not about anything. And anyway, maybe you’re wrong. Maybe I just don’t like Brian in that way.”
Carmen sized her up. “Are you honestly telling me that you don’t like Brian in that way?”
Tibby couldn’t say no without lying, so she decided to say nothing instead.
“Hi, Dad. It’s me.”
“Hey, bun! How good to hear your voice. What’s up?”
Carmen and Al talked pretty regularly on Sunday evenings, so a call on a Thursday night did tend to prompt the old “What’s up?”
Carmen had been, in her slightly sick way, excited to tell her mother she would not fulfill her lifelong dream of going to Williams College. It turned out she was not at all excited to tell her father. She’d put this call off a hundred times.
“I…um…How’s Lydia?”
“She’s great.” Her dad obviously knew she was stalling.
“How’s Krista?”
“I think she’s fine.” Al was always more circumspect on this subject. He didn’t want to make it seem like Krista was the girl who lived with him while Carmen was the girl he talked to on Sundays. In spite of the fact that this was true.
“Tell her I say hey, okay?”
“Of course. She’ll be happy. Now, tell me. Is everything good with you? How’s your job?”
“It’s…fine. Listen, I’m calling because…well, because…” She had to make herself say it. “Because I’m thinking a lot about this fall.”
“Okay…”
“I might not be ready to leave home just now.” She said it so fast it came out like one long word.
“Bun, explain what you mean.”
“With Mom and David, and Mom expecting the baby and everything. It’s hard to picture leaving right now.”
“Okay…”
“I might just stay here this fall. I might even go to U of Maryland. I got accepted there, you know, like, just in case.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize that.”
“It happened recently.”
“So. You say you might stay home this fall?”
“I think I probably will.” She let out a breath she’d been holding for at least a minute.
“No Williams, then.”
“Maybe not.”
“Maybe not?”
“Probably not.”
“Probably not.”
“Yeah. The thing is, I have to call them at Williams and tell them. I can’t just hold the spot if I’m not going to use it, you know?”
“Yes, I’m sure you’re right about that.” Her dad didn’t sound mad, really. He sounded calm.
“So I’ll go ahead and call ’em, I guess.”
She could hear her father switching the phone to his other ear. “Bun, why don’t you let me take care of it, okay? I put down a big deposit already, and I might need to work with them a bit to get it back.”
“Oh, no. Do you think…?” Carmen couldn’t stand the thought of her dad getting stiffed for thousands of dollars along with everything