She rolled her huge, brown eyes as her head lolled against the backrest and she continued talking as if we were mid-conversation. “Rainbow’s always been a bit of a name caller. She grew up with a home-stay family that clearly didn’t teach her any manners.”
“I have manners. I just prefer truth to bullshit,” she retorted.
“That’s the better option,” I agreed.
They both looked at me with mild surprise and then, startlingly, evaluation.
“Heard you got divorced,” Rainbow said. “Does that mean you finally found a spine?”
“Rainbow!” Tayline protested.
“What? She just said she prefers honesty.”
“That was more cruel than honest.”
“I don’t mind, really,” I interrupted, and I meant it. I was done with being mild mannered and subservient, with observing everything but never giving my input. I stared hard into Rainbow’s dark eyes and said, “I found a spine.”
“Cool. I noticed the sad eyes.” She gestured to my outfit, a sleek black turtleneck dress. “This new you is better.”
“Agreed.”
Tayline had gnawed on her full bottom lip as she watched our exchange, but now she leaned forward with an earnestness that warmed my heart. “Seriously though, you’re okay?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat unsuccessfully. “I’m getting there.”
“You moved here, right? From Vancouver.”
I nodded. “I bought the old cabin on Back Bay Road.”
Tayline screwed her nose up adorably but Rainbow snorted.
“Yeah, it needs a little work,” I admitted.
“You’ll need a thousand hands and scads of money to make the place habitable.”
I peered at Rainbow shyly. “I don’t have many hands or scads of money.”
“Your husband wasn’t rich?”
“He is.”
They stared at me, drawing their own conclusions.
“Asshole,” Rainbow swore, shaking her head.
I shrugged because she was right, but I wasn’t at the point where I felt comfortable talking badly about William.
“We could help, if you needed more hands?” Tayline offered, her doll-like eyes wide with sincerity.
“I’d like that,” I said.
“Cool,” she said with a massive grin. “I’m so excited we can be friends now!”
“Every other woman at Entrance High is engaged or married,” Rainbow explained, as if marriage was to be avoided at all costs.
Given my experiences, I was inclined to agree with her.
“Not Willow,” Tayline amended.
“No, but she’s a bitch so we don’t hang out with her.”
“And not Kathy.”
“No, but she’s a certified hermit and, God love her, she’s ugly as sin so we don’t hang out with her either,” Rainbow explained.
I blanched at her candor, which made both of them laugh.
“Now that you live here, you should know now that nearly everyone in Entrance is freaking gorgeous,” Tayline said, leaning forward in her chair to stare at me with large, earnest eyes. “Like seriously, there just may be something in the water here.”
“I think it’s that like draws like,” Rainbow commented.
“For whatever reason, there are a shit ton of pretty people in this town and us, the smart and pretty ones, we’ve gotta stick together.”
I had no experience with women like this, with girlfriends or even any friends at all. The only relationships that I had ever known were with my conservative parents, my husband or the shallow acquaintances I had with other housewives back in Vancouver. Even in high school, I hadn’t socialized much. I was too busy being groomed by my parents and William to be his future wife.
Moving to Entrance was about more than finding my independence from them, it was about learning how to live. Having friends, even and maybe especially friends like Tayline and Rainbow, seemed only fitting.
So, I smiled genuinely at them and said, “Seems like a good idea to me.”
They both beamed back at me as the bell for sixth period rang out.
“So, we’ll see you tonight at McClellan’s?”
“Totally.”
McClellan’s was cool. It was all wood, different colors and textures but totally beautiful, the big square bar most of all. It was packed with people, even on a Monday night, so it was filled with the sound of good humor and camaraderie. A happy place for happy people.
It made me feel odd, taking a part in the scene when normally, I only read about them. It was difficult not to sit back, acting as silent narrator as my companions, Rainbow, Tayline and Warren, who went by his last name, among them, laughed and reminisced about past school years and made predictions about the future. They were including me, everyone seemed determined to do so, but it only made it harder for me to let loose.
“I’ve got fifty smackaroos that the new MC kid sleeps with the entire grad class within the first six weeks,” Willow said over the rim of her fancy blue-sugared cosmo.
“Willow! You shouldn’t bet on the students’ love lives,” Harry Reynard, our soft-spoken librarian, protested.
She snorted. “Oh come on Harry, you have eyes. That boy is fine. Another few years, and I’d take him for a ride, if you know what I mean?”
“I think everyone knows what you mean,” Tayline said. “But I have to agree, he is seriously gorgeous. I forgot how to conjugate the verb faire in class today, I was so stunned by his pretty face.”