She arrived at school and had to drive aroundlooking for a parking spot. This was the one thing she hated aboutpick-up. You either had to get there twenty minutes early, or youhad to park out behind the school. She created her own spot on theside of the lawn and headed towards school. She checked her phone.Peter had e-mailed his itinerary and was due in around six. He wasactually getting home a day early. While she pondered that, itoccurred to her that she had never heard back from Julia. That wasodd. She hoped Julia was not beating herself up. The other motherswould be cruel enough. Elizabeth would reach out again, lettingJulia know that she was not upset, and was just concerned forJulia's well-being. Maybe she'd see her here at pick-up.
Elizabeth walked into school and headed towardthe auditorium where all the parents waited for the kids to bedismissed. She was scrolling through Facebook on her iPhone whilewalking in, not really paying attention. As she entered theauditorium, a hush fell over the usually chatty crowd. The silencewas abrupt enough that Elizabeth noticed it. She felt all eyes inthe place on her. Automatically, she dropped her head, unable tohandle being the focus of attention. She walked, with shouldershunched and head low, over to the table and signed the kids out.She slinked to a seat, only able to look up once she was seated.And even then, she tried to glance out of the corner of her eye,rather than make direct eye contact. She could swear that peoplewere staring at her. She glanced down and tried to look at herclothes. Had she spilled something on herself? Had somethingripped, leaving her exposed? She couldn't see anything wrong withher clothes.
The kids were finally dismissed, and Elizabethstood up. She greeted her kids with a smile, genuinely glad to seethem. They really were the light in her life. She placed a hand oneach child's shoulder and steered them toward the door. She sawTheresa Johnson looking at her. Elizabeth smiled at her. Theresagave her a death look and turned sharply away. Okay. Elizabeth didnot imagine that. She wondered what Theresa's problem could be?Could she really be that nasty over the Julia thing? Julia was theone who got drunk and threw up. Elizabeth was just her friend. Shesupposed that her growing friendship with Nancy put a marker on herback from catty, jealous women who wanted the benefits of Nancy'sfriendship. Whether it was collateral damage, or just jealousy,Elizabeth tried to shake it off. But even later on that night, itstill bothered her.
Peter arrived home later than expected.Although Elizabeth had been planning on a romantic reunion, she wasexhausted by the time he finally came up to bed. She really didn'tfeel like initiating anything, and she was pretty sure he wasn'tgoing to. Sitting on the bed, propped up against the headboard,Elizabeth sat with her e-reader on her lap. She didn't even havethe energy to start reading. Thoughts from the day kept tumblingthrough her head. Jack. Julia. Theresa. Peter. She couldn't doanything about Jack, other than ignore the elephant in the room.She was growing concerned about Julia and vowed to get into contactwith her tomorrow. Peter – well, she wasn't sure what to do abouthim.
But she was still bothered by Theresa's deathstare. She just couldn't let it go. Peter was lying next to her,flipping though the channels. Elizabeth tried to open a dialoguewith Peter by telling him about what happened at pick-up, thefeeling that everyone was staring at her, as well as the dirty lookshe was positive she had been the recipient of.
"Jesus Christ, Elizabeth! Why do you care aboutall of this shit?"
Elizabeth was shocked at his nasty reply. Shehadn't thought she was being especially whiney. She was trying tostay matter-of-fact. "Simmer down, Peter. Obviously, Theresa is madat me, but I have no idea why. Shouldn't you care if someone is madat you?"
"I guess," he shrugged. "What did you do toher?"
"Nothing that I know of."
"Then let it go."
"How can I?"
"I'm telling you to drop it. If you don't wantto drop it, I don't want to hear you bitching about it."
"Holy crap, Peter. Simmer down. I'm not justbitching about this. I was trying to tell you what happened atschool today. I don’t know why people were talking about me, but Iswear they were."
"Well, you must have pissed someone off then.What did you do?" Why did he automatically assume she was at fault?God, he sounded like Agnes. Why wasn't he defending her?
"Nothing, that's the thing. Julia got trashedat Nancy's party. She threw up in a centerpiece, Iguess."
"You guess? Weren't you with her?"
"I had run into someone from high school at theparty. They ended up giving me a lift, since Mitch had to takeJulia home."
"I guess you lucked out."
"Yeah. I did." Elizabeth wanted to tell himthat Jack was the one who had helped her with her flat when drivingto Susan's. But then, she couldn't remember if she had ever eventold Peter that she had been going to Susan's in the first place,or that she had had car trouble. They were not really speaking atall then, at least not about Elizabeth's life. "It was the guy Iwent to prom with."
There was no response. She looked over. Peterwas engrossed in the baseball game. He was lying on his side,facing away from Elizabeth. She just sat there, staring at him. Hewas completely oblivious to her. God, how she needed him right now.She needed him to sit up and take notice. She needed him to takeher into his arms and claim both her body and her mind until shecould no longer picture any man's face but his. She needed him toneed her, and to want her. Even just to touch her. Why didn't hesee the need in her eyes? Why didn't
