Free Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert Page B

sparks.” Speaking at a normal volume, she asked, “Are you coming to my party on Friday? It’ll be Wes’s big homecoming.”
    â€œI didn’t know about it.”
    â€œWell, consider yourself invited. Every Friday night from now on, come to my house. I get a keg, everyone comes over.”
    I thought about the last party I’d been to at Shelly’s, and the uncertainty I felt must have shown on my face, because Harlan threw his arm around me and implored, “You have to come, Kara. It won’t be any fun without you.”
    â€œIt won’t be any fun if Harlan takes over the stereo again with his terrible techno,” Craig interjected.
    Harlan turned to me for support. “Sorry, not a techno fan,” I told him.
    Craig gave me the thumbs-up. “What bands are you into?”
    And a conversation about music started up. Soon we were on to movies, then books, and by the time evening crept in, we all seemed like old friends-at least Maya, Shelly, the guys, and I did. Mary and Jessica managed not to speak directly to me or Maya and went home an hour before the rest of us. But I didn’t care about them. I was too pleased that suddenly things were happening for me. I had new friends. I had plans for Friday night. I had a life.

10.
    O N F RIDAY I T OLD MY PARENTS I was sleeping over at Maya’s so I could do whatever I wanted that evening. Maya and I hung out at the park for a few hours before returning to her hotel room to get ready for the party. The plan was to walk to her cousins’ house and catch a ride with them.
    We walked a few blocks northwest, the houses getting bigger and bigger the farther we went. Maya murmured, “Wide lawns and narrow minds. That’s what my grandma said about this town when my dad told her we were moving here. My grandma speaks mostly in clichés.”
    I chuckled and told her, “Your grandmother was actually quoting Ernest Hemingway’s opinion of Oak Park.”
    â€œHmm, if it’s really like that, no wonder Wes is so happy to have gotten away.”
    â€œSo, is he coming home from college on spring break or something?”
    â€œCollege?” Maya laughed so loudly that someone in a house across the street flicked a light on and peered out the window at us. “Wes got expelled in November for setting off a smoke bomb in the caf.”
    â€œHoly shit, that was your cousin? They evacuated the school for half an hour!”
    Maya smirked. “Yep, that was Wes. Between that and his drug dealing, my aunt and uncle were fed up. They sent him to California. He’s working on my uncle’s friend’s farm and getting his GED. I guess he actually likes it out there, but Cassie misses him. She’s going to be so happy…” Maya trailed off, squinting at a shadowy figure crouched in a driveway two houses down. “Cassie!” she shouted, but the girl didn’t look up. She sat with her head in her hands.
    Maya rushed to her cousin, kneeling behind her and embracing her in a Harlan-style bear hug. Not wanting to intrude, I approached slowly. Cass’s tears glittered in the light that shone down from above her garage. She swallowed back sobs, stuttering, “He’s not coming home…Mom’s flipping out again…she has been all week…that’s why I haven’t been at school or the park…but I hoped he would still come home. I’m sick of dealing with this alone.” Then Cass noticed me. She blinked, summoning her strength, and said, “Oh, hi.”
    â€œHi,” I replied awkwardly, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.
    Cass rose and wandered down the driveway toward me, Maya following. Dabbing at her darkly lined eyes, Cass allowed a tentative smile, asking softly, “I met you before, right? At North Riverside Mall?” She furrowed her brow. “Kara?”
    â€œYeah,” I said, studying her.
    Cass was a willowy,