“Ohhell no,” he said. “I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”
“Youweren’t even a little bit curious about what happened to people?”
“Nope.”He grinned. “My dad was in prison by then, I had no interest inexplaining all that to that crowd.”
Iwas suddenly daunted. I was going to have to explain the werewolfthing over and over again. “Maybe I don’t want to do this,” I murmured.
“Okay,”Ben said. “Just to get it out in the open, why are we doing this?”
“BecauseI’m super curious and this is the kind of thing that only happens once,and if I miss it I’ll always wonder.”
“Allgood reasons. Right. Let’s go. We can always ditch if things gosidewise.”
“Butthey’re not going to go sidewise. It’s a high school reunion, whatcould possibly go wrong?”
Hegave me a scowling look. Don’t ever ask what could go wrong, I knewthat lesson.
Weleft the warm, late-evening June air and entered the excessiveair-conditioning of the hotel ballroom lobby. A few people, also insuits and cocktail hour finery, mingled, talking in groups. There wasnervous laughter. I didn’t recognize anyone, not right away. I lookedfor Sadie with a sudden spike of fear that I wouldn’t recognize hereither.
Benguided me toward a table where a couple of unassuming soccer-momtypes were standing guard over rows of name-tag stickers. They seemedfamiliar—one was brunette, average build, and might have been acheerleader. The other tanned, dark-haired. Also a cheerleader? Maybewe’d had algebra together?
Wefound our stickers, and the women’s smiles remained relentlesslycheerful—maybe they didn’t recognize me either. This had been a prettybig high school. So, now what? Just keep wandering around until Irecognized someone?
Thiswasn’t how high school reunions looked in the movies, where the bitchypopular girls came back as stuck-up suburban housewives, the jocks wereout-of-shape used car salesman, the oppressed nerds were billionairetech geniuses, and the people who were most unhappy had found their waywhile the people who were bullies got their comeuppance. High schoolreunion: a chance to right old wrongs and take revenge on the cool kids.
Butthat wasn’t how this looked at all. Everyone was scanning faces,walking past each other like we were at some kind of statue gallery,searching for signs of the people we had been years ago. Searching forfamiliarity. So many of the men—I had to shave twenty poundsoff them before they looked familiar, and it wasn’t that they hadgotten fat, but that they filled out. They weren’t scrawny boysanymore. Names hovered on the tip of my tongue. I should have looked inthe yearbook for a refresher before coming here. We were like deer inthe headlights, amazed that any of us had survived at all. Becauseenough time had passed to make us realize that nobody in high schoolthought they were cool, they just acted out on their worst insecuritiesand struggled to get through in one piece.
Highschool felt so big while we were living it,but the percentage of our lives those years represented got smaller andsmaller as time went on. What was an entire quarter of our lives tenyears ago was now, what, fourteen percent? And in ten more years itwould be ten percent. And the beat goes on.
“Youlook like you’re about to start crying,” Ben said.
“Ithink I’m sad,” Isaid.
“Let’sgo find you a glass of wine—”
“Kitty!”I turned to the call, coming from down the foyer. A woman rushedtoward me. She had honey-brown hair in a bob, and was stout andconfident, in a cute black dress and loud earrings. Sadie hadn’tchanged a bit. Except neither one of us had the confidence and poisefor slinky cocktail dresses back in high school. Now look at us, likewe were grown-ups or something.
Sheran up to me. In wolf language, this—a fellow predator coming at mewith arms outstretched—was an attack. But I was a civilized werewolfand she was a friend, and I was just so happy that I recognized her,and she knew me. And this right here made me glad I came. I reached forand accepted the enthusiastic hug. A little of the tension I’d beenfeeling slipped away.
“I’vemissed you!” she said into my hair, holding tight.
“I’msorry I lost touch,” I murmured. “You look really good!”
“Sodo you.” We separated and beamed at each other in admiration.
“Howareyou? What have you been doing?”
“Wehave so much to talk about!” She glanced appraisingly at Ben. “And youare . . .”
“Sadie,this is Ben.” I presented them to each other.
“Niceto meet you,” Bensaid neutrally.
“Hm,”she purred.
“Doyou want to go get a glass of wine or something?”
“OhGod yes.” We hooked arms and stalked into the ballroom. Benfollowed, amused.
Afteracquiring wine and staking out territory at one of thewhite-cloth-draped tables, we caught up. Sadie had gone to school atNorthwestern, then law school, returned to Denver to work for the legaldepartment of an environmental non-profit, which was exactly the kindof thing she always said she’d do, if maybe not exactly the way shethought. She’d had dreams of riding Greenpeace Zodiacs to save whales,which I was just as glad she never did. This was safer. She and Beninstantly bonded over law-school anecdotes and seemed relieved thattheir areas of expertise were so far apart they’d never had to meetprofessionally.
Asfor me . . . I didn’t have to explain much because Sadie said shelistened to my show sometimes. As soon as I’d gotten a website with acontact form she’d thought about sending me a note. The reunion finallyprompted her to do it.
Icouldn’t explain why I hadn’t ever reached out to her. “I . . . had arough couple of years there. And then I figured you’d be too angry towant to hear from me.” It sounded stupid now, and her frown ofreprimand told me that yes, it was stupid.
“So,”she said, idly running a purple-painted nail around the base of herwineglass. “You talk to Jesse at all?”
JesseKramer. Another set of memories crashed over me. Part of the old life,again. I shook my head. “I haven’t talked to him since graduation.”
“Ah,”she said suggestively.
Bencaught the tone. “And who is Jesse?”
“Justa guy,” I said, pretty sure I was blushing. I didn’t want to talk aboutthis. Ben arced a brow.
“Herboyfriend senior year.”
“Ohreally?” Ben’s brows went up. “Any chance I’ll get to
