Page 99 of The Debutantes
“No, don’t worry. Besides the kidnapping part, he’s been a perfect gentleman.” I turn toward the locked door. “Even if theaccommodations suck!”
I raise my voice on that last part, which makes Vivian tense up, like she might need to fight or run.
“Relax,” I tell her. “They won’t hear us. These walls are basically soundproof.”
Vivian watches me for a second. “They?”
“Everyone’s favorite father-son duo.” I roll my eyes, but when I look at Vivian again, I realize she doesn’t know. “Coach and Marty?”
“Marty’s hisdad?” she asks.
Weirdly, I’m a little disappointed. I know, now, that the plan was doomed before it even started, but still, I thought my Maids would at least putsomeof the pieces together.
“Lily, what happened?”
“You really don’t know?”
Vivian blinks at me. “We know that someone at the Pierrot killed Margot and they’ve been covering it up. Coach and Marty brought you here because you knew, right?”
Nowwe’re getting somewhere. “And?”
She hesitates, like she doesn’t want to say it. “And Coach and Margot were having an affair.”
And now I actually laugh. I feel bad, but it’s just that Vivian has always been like this, straightforward and single-minded—which is great when it comes to things like soccer, but not so much with seeing what’s in front of her.
“Thatwouldmake more sense, wouldn’t it?” I tell her. “Well, you’re almost there, but not quite.”
I’ve pushed her too far.
“Oh my god, can you cut it out with this unbothered bullshit?” Vivian explodes, and finally, there’s the fire I recognize, the one she tries to tamp down everywhere but the field. “What is yourproblem? We’ve spent the past week looking for you and risking our lives and it’s like you don’t even give a shit.” She pauses, like she’s just really heard herself. “Sorry. Shit. I’m so fucking glad you’re okay, Lil. But I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, and you’re not helping.”
“No, you’re right. I guess I wasn’t much help, was I?”
I sigh. What does it matter, anyway? She’s here, and I’m starting to think that none of it matters, not really, so what’s the harm in her knowing the truth?
“Marty and Coach were at the Mississippi house that summer,” I tell her. “When I started being friends with Margot. Back then, though, I just knew Coach as Reed, ’cause he hadn’t started at Beaumont yet. They’d rented their own house for a week. You know, father-son bonding.”
Vivian frowns. “How did we not know that Marty was Coach’s dad?”
“Youdidn’t,” I correct her. I shrug. “But I guess it’s not that obvious. Coach’s mom remarried when he was little, and he took the stepdad’s last name and moved to Houston. Marty wasn’t superinvolved in Coach’s life, but they’d reconnected ever since Marty helped him get the Beaumont job. Turns out Coach was in a bit of a bind. He’d just gotten fired from his last coaching job when they found out he’d been dealing to students on the side. But Beaumont was willing to overlook that little hiccup, since our lovely Head of School happens to be in the Krewe.”
“Mr. Pierce is in the Pierrot, too?”
“Oh, they’re everywhere. Like termites. Or ravens circling a carcass, in his case.” I roll my eyes, thinking of Mr. Pierce in his ridiculous raven mask, showing off that Tulane student like a new luxury timepiece. “Anyway, one day that summer, Marty offered to take us all out on his boat. Me, Margot, our parents, and Coach. So we went. Watched the grown-ups get wine-drunk and reminisce about the good old days, or whatever. It was all pretty typical stuff, but even then, I could tell. The way he looked at her…”
“Coach?” Vivian asks.
“No,” I say. “Marty.”
I watch it hit her, the same skin-prickling feeling I had when I first saw it happen. We were sitting together, Margot and me, on the white seat cushions of the boat, spray in our faces and sun baking our shoulders, when Marty’s eyes caught Margot’s over the rim of his glass. Dipped down to her halter-neck bikini top. Flashed, for a moment, with bare and unashamed hunger, before focusing again on his conversation with our dads.
Margot didn’t miss it, either.
You see that?she whispered to me.
Gross,I whispered back.Totally shameless.
Margot shifted slightly.I don’t know. He’s kind of cute, for an older guy.
