Perfect Fifths_ A Jessica Darling Novel - Megan McCafferty [49]
“Sure I did. But I played with my mother’s or Bethany’s hand-me-downs. It wasn’t all corporatized and out of control. At least Bethany drew the line at letting crazy mothers pay for the removal of their prepubescent daughters’ nonexistent pubic hair. But what she considers harmless fun is still… I don’t know … troubling to me. I mean, what six-to-nine-year-old needs lip plumpers and lowlights?”
“Plumpers? Lowlights? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Right! Exactly! You’re a man, so your brain isn’t cluttered with this superficial garbage. I didn’t feel such intense pressure to pretty up and dumb down until I hit middle school. Today’s girls start conforming to sexist stereotypes much, much earlier than that. Do you know what youth market analysts call this phenomenon? The HIM Effect. The Hormones in the Milk Effect. Girls are growing up so much faster. It’s depressing that girls Marin’s age—and younger!—are already wasting so much brain space worrying about their looks when they could be doing something far more worthwhile with their time and energy. Do you think the boys in Marin’s class are so preoccupied with their appearance? No way!”
“They’re too busy beating the shit out of one another.”
“You’re right! Maybe when conspicuous consumption is back in style, Bethany can exploit male aggression and tap into the boys’ six-to-nine starter market. ’Roids ‘R’ Us! Get Juiced! Try the Andro Stack Wacky Pack!”
“You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”
“More than you know. Marin is so smart and sharp in a way that, quite frankly, kind of scares me, because I don’t want to see her lose the spark that makes her special. She’s one of the coolest people I know, by far the most levelheaded person in the family.”
“She was always a bit of a sage, wasn’t she?”
“Absolutely! She can just cut through all the bullshit and get right to the truth of the matter.”
“I remember one time—she must have been around four years old—she was talking about wanting to invent a robot sister doll. And when I told her it had already been invented, she said, ‘Darn. By the time I’m old, everything will be done already’ And I could only agree with her, feeling exactly the same way in my twenties as she did at four.”
“You’re not serious.”
“I am.”
“Stop it. No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am. What are you talking about?”
[Coughing.]
“What is it, Jessica? Are you okay?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s just…”
“What?”
“You weren’t there for that conversation.”
“What do you mean?”
“That was a conversation I had with Marin. Not you.”
“You’re wrong. I remember that conversation clearly.”
“You remember reading about that conversation in my journal.”
“What?!”
“I wrote about that conversation with Marin in my journal. One of the two notebooks I kept during your orientation week at Princeton, you know, the week before we—”
“Whaaaaa—?”
“The notebooks I wanted you to read to help you understand why … you know …”
“I remember the notebooks. But I also remember having been there for that story—or at least I thought I was there for that story.”
“You’re confusing my history with your own.”
“Are you… sure?”
“I’m positive.”
“I … I think you’re right… I …”
[Pause.]
“Don’t worry about it, Marcus.”
“That’s just really … unnerving. It makes me question how many of my memories might be stolen from someone else.”
“You loom large in Marin’s memory, so you must have had a few meaningful conversations that actually did occur.”
“I … ?”
“She still asks about you sometimes.”
“Really? What does she ask?”
“Oh, uh. Just… how you’re doing. That sort of thing.”
“And what do you say?”
“I say I don’t know how you’re doing because we’re not together anymore.”
“And what does she respond to that?”
“She … uh …”
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.”
“You shouldn’t have apologized. I will gladly take a dollar from you now.”
“Fair’s fair. Here you go.”
“Thank you. It’s a fair question, Marcus, and I’ll answer it. Marin wants to know why we can’t still be friends, even if we aren’t boyfriend and girlfriend anymore, because