Girls in Pants - Ann Brashares [54]
And then Lena had to ask herself, why was Effie resisting so hard? It was true they’d been missing each other this summer. They’d both gotten jobs early. They’d both spent as much time away from the house as possible. Was her relationship with Effie another casualty of the Valia debacle?
Had it gone more wrong than Lena knew?
“Effie?”
“What?” Effie snapped, still not turning her head.
Lena’s mouth seemed to work a little better with a charcoal in her hand. She opened it. “Ef, I feel like you don’t want this to work. Like you’re mad at me.”
Effie rolled her eyes. She made a show of blowing dry the shiny pink polish on her big toe. “Why do you think that?”
“Because you won’t look at me. You won’t sit still.”
If Effie had been Lena and Lena had been Effie, this could have taken all day. But luckily, Effie was Effie. When she finally turned, her face was full of expression.
“Maybe I don’t want you to go to art school.”
Lena put down her pad. “Why not?” She couldn’t help showing her astonishment. She always just assumed that Effie sided with her in any struggle against her parents, just as she always sided with Effie, even when Effie was wrong. Did Effie actually agree with her parents this time? Did she resent that Lena was causing more turbulence in their already turbulent home?
Effie’s eyes were full of tears. At long last she capped her polish and tossed it aside. “Why do you think?” she demanded.
Lena felt her own eyes pulling wide open. “Ef. I don’t know. Please tell me.”
Effie put her face in her hands. “I don’t want you to go. I don’t want you to leave me here…with all of them.”
On her knees, Lena made her way the few feet to her sister. She put her arms around Effie. “I’m so sorry,” Lena said honestly. “I don’t want to leave you.” She felt Effie’s tears against her shoulder and she held her tighter. “I hate to even think about leaving you.”
The beautiful thing about getting someone to tell you what was wrong was that you could tell them something to make it a little better. Lena made a mental note that she should try it more often.
In the lobby a while later, Carmen was hugging her mom good-bye when she saw Win. He smiled eagerly, doubling his pace to get to her, like he was afraid she might slip away.
“Carmen!”
“Hey, Win,” she said. She couldn’t help smiling at him. He was too sweet not to. Win and Christina were looking at each other. Win was probably wondering which distant relative of which distant acquaintance Carmen would be accompanying to the hospital now.
“This is my mom, Christina,” Carmen said. “Mom, this is Win.”
“Nice to meet you, Win,” Christina said.
Carmen saw him through her mother’s eyes and was again struck by his exceeding gorgeousness. Carmen found most guys who looked that good intimidating, but Win was different. He was not arrogant or scary. He had a self-deprecating smile and a shuffling posture totally at odds with the usual “I’m gorgeous” swagger.
“Nice to meet you, too,” he said earnestly. “I thought you must be related. You’re beautiful like Carmen.”
If Carmen had just heard about this statement rather than actually listening to it in person, she would have groaned and rolled her eyes and told Mr. Slick to get out of town. But hearing him say it and seeing the look on his face as he did, she believed it was the most innocent and sincere compliment she’d ever gotten. And so did her mother, apparently.
Christina flushed with pleasure. “Thank you. I like to think I look like her.”
Carmen felt unbalanced, buffeted as she was by all the goodness. She had no idea what to say.
“Carmen saved me today,” Christina volunteered to Win, emotion all through her voice. “My husband couldn’t make it to childbirth class, and Carmen came to my rescue. She’s my partner and coach. Can you imagine?” Christina was laughing, but her eyes were full of tears. Carmen had heard about pregnant women being extra emotional, but jeez, this was a bit much.
Win stared at Christina with rapt attention. And then he turned to look