The last secret_ a novel - Mary McGarry Morris [54]
She sits back down. Instead of being relieved, she keeps expecting the phone to ring. Just because he didn't answer doesn't mean he's in Boston with Ken. Oliver hates talking on the phone and Ken knows that. He has to take calls at the paper, but at home he'll just let the phone ring.
Drew is trying to blow his nose again. The cut on his cheek has healed, leaving only a hairline scar. Nora notices the rash of pimples on his face and neck. The worst ones are on his forehead, like hard red boils. She wonders if his prescription has run out. He needs a haircut and his sweatshirt is stained. Is her unhappiness blinding her to everything around her, she who has always had little patience with people who let their troubles consume their lives?
“Will you stop that? Please?” Chloe begs with a long sigh.
“Drew has a cold,” Nora says sharply. The last thing she needs right now is their arguing. “He can't help it.”
“Well, he can go in the other room and do it, can't he?” Chloe says.
“Maybe you should, Drew. If it's bothering your sister,” she says. Has their bickering gotten worse lately or is she just more sensitive to it? Stress fractures. Hairline cracks, all the little breaks. Before the big one.
“Everything bothers her,” Drew mutters.
“Well, at least I don't go around having fights with people. Brawls, I should say,” Chloe sniffs.
Drew keeps chewing, his gaze heavy with warning. “So how come you got early dismissal today? Where'd you go?”
Chloe's face drains of color. Nora puts down her fork. She asks Chloe what time she was dismissed. Chloe isn't sure, maybe around one or two, she thinks. No, it was morning, eleven, it said on the sign-out sheet, Drew explains. Why? Nora asks. Where did she go? And how, without a note?
Finally, Chloe admits forging Nora's signature on the dismissal note. But it wasn't just to skip. It was for a good reason. Jen had a doctor's appointment and she didn't want to go alone.
“So why didn't her mother take her?” Nora asks.
“Because … she couldn't,” Chloe says with a meaningful stare at her mother.
“Yeah, she probably forged her note, too,” Drew scoffs.
“What's wrong with Jen, is she sick?” Nora asks. Jen is Chloe's best friend. This year, anyway.
Chloe's eyes widen. She sighs in exasperation.
“Well?”
“I'd rather not talk about it right now,” Chloe says in that up-talking, singsong cadence Nora can't stand.
All right then, Nora says. If Drew will excuse them for a moment, they'll go into the den where Chloe can speak privately. The minute the door closes, Chloe explains that Jen was scared she had cancer. She had this weird mole that kept getting bigger. They're going to run some tests. Why wouldn't she tell her mother? Nora asks.
“Because of where it is.” She gestures to her groin. “She's embarrassed. You know how Jen is.”
“You're lying to me.”
“See! I knew you'd say that. I can't tell you anything!”
Nora opens the phone book. “I'm calling Jen's mother.”
“No! Jen'll never speak to me again. You'll get Mrs. Carnes all upset and then she'll hate me.”
“A risk I'll have to take, then.” She runs her finger down the column of numbers. “Or do you just want to tell me the truth? You were with Max, weren't you?”
Chloe weeps and begs her mother's forgiveness. It's true. He's going away for a three-month work-study in Costa Rica and she wanted to see him one last time before his flight. “I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry.”
“Don't you know what you do when you lie, Chloe? My trust … you break my heart,” she says, fighting tears. Especially after what your father's done to me, she aches to say, hungry for her daughter's love and understanding.
“I know and I'm sorry,” Chloe cries, “but … but I'm gonna miss him so much. It hurts just to think about it.”
So much for my feelings, Nora thinks, wiping her eyes, relieved in a way. No matter what disaster is going on with her parents, Chloe's life is still firmly on its normal track, with teenage tunnel vision obscuring all but her own troubles. As it should be, Nora thinks, though it doesn't make her feel any better. Just