Sophie whirled back around and slapped the arm of her chair. “At least my parents notice when I’m a f**kup. Who’s your dad spending all his time with these days? One of The Pussycat Dolls?”
Cassie let out a loud guffaw. Heather raked her fingers angrily through her pixie-short hair. “Ha frickin’ ha,” she said in a small voice, suddenly sounding sober.
“Your dad knows The Pussycat Dolls?” Emily asked, mostly to cut the tension.
The elves turned their attention to Emily, almost like they’d forgotten she was there. “Actually, no,” Heather snapped. “But he’s a music producer and knows a lot of other artists.”
“Knows them intimately,” Lola said meaningfully. “He brought one of the runners-up on American Idol to Heather’s graduation party and was all over her. You should have seen Heather’s face!”
Heather kicked her chair. “Tell the whole world, why don’t you? Like your life is so perfect? How’s your brother? What rehab facility is he in these days?”
Lola’s face paled. She didn’t elaborate, but Emily remembered the name Rocco from the conversation Lola had had on her cell phone behind the gingerbread house earlier today.
A silence fell over the group. Sophie puffed on her Marlboro Light, staring into the middle distance. Heather tapped her foot against the porch rail. Emily shifted her butt in the uncomfortable lawn chair, wishing she could find the right words to say to make everything better. This reminded her of the dynamic between Ali, Emily, and her old friends at the end of seventh grade, especially when Ali hinted at a secret she knew about one of them but the others didn’t. Maybe there was some deep-seated animosity within this group, too.
But in a strange way, hearing the elves’ secrets was also kind of reassuring. Like Emily, the girls were human. Fallible. Vulnerable. They had secrets A might glom on to, if A were still around. It made her feel less alone.
Cassie stretched in her chair. “So what do you think, Santa? Do all guys suck?”
Emily pulled her hands inside her down coat. “Pretty much. That’s why I’m into girls.”
All four heads whipped up. There was a long tip of ash at the end of Sophie’s cigarette, but she didn’t flick it away. “Yeah, right,” Cassie said.
“It’s true.” Emily tried to sound nonchalant. “I dated this girl named Maya in the fall.” It felt weird saying it out loud—bragging about it, almost. But if there was a group she could tell this to without judgment, it was probably the elves.
Cassie’s eyes were wide. “Are you out?”
“You could say that.” Emily didn’t bother adding that A had outed her against her wishes.
“What did your parents say?” Sophie gasped.
“They freaked,” Emily admitted. “But they’ve come around, I guess.”
“Whoa.” Heather crossed her arms over her chest. “Maybe I should try saying that to my parents. That would probably get them in the same room at the same time.”
Cassie leaned forward and blinked curiously at Emily. “What would you do in my situation with Colin? If Colin was a girl, and she wasn’t speaking to you and acting all weird, would you confront her or would you just blow her off?”
Emily sat back, amazed Cassie was asking her for advice. “I would talk to him,” she decided. “But I wouldn’t be too clingy about it. Act like you don’t really need him, like he needs you.” If only she had done that with Ali when she’d had the chance.
Cassie nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too.” She cuffed Emily on the shoulder.
A loud screech of feedback suddenly sounded through two invisible speakers on the back porch. Then a song by Jay-Z blared out, and Lola got up and started twisting her hips. “Oh my God, I almost forgot,” she said, pausing mid-twirl. “I brought something for us.”
She disappeared into the house, returning a few seconds later with a crumpled paper bag that she upended on the ground. Cone-shaped fireworks spilled out. “We had these left over from the summer. I thought it would be fun to set them off tonight.”
“Sweet.” Cassie grabbed a rocket-shaped one from the bag without hesitation, placed it on the concrete, and lit the wick. Sparks flew off the long striped tube, and everyone stepped back. Emily’s heart thudded hard. She would always associate fireworks with The Jenna Thing.
A high-pitched peal rang out in the air, and the firework shot into the sky and exploded just over the rooftops. “Yeah!” Lola and Heather bellowed, giving each other a high five. Emily looked around nervously. Wouldn’t they get in trouble for this?
It wasn’t something the elves were worried about, though. One by one, each of the girls sent a firework screeching into the air. Upstairs lights flipped on in the neighboring houses. Someone yelled “Shut the hell up!” from a window. Partiers stepped outside to see what was making so much commotion.
Cassie passed a bottle rocket and a book of matches to Emily. “Your turn, Santa.”
Emily turned the firework over in her hands, wondering how her mother would handle the police calling her at 2 A.M. saying they’d taken Emily into custody. But she’d made so much progress with the elves. She couldn’t turn back now. And she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t having fun.
She placed the firework on the ground and struck the match. The wick lit immediately, burning down faster than she expected. She stepped back just as the rocket launched into the sky with a high-pitched wail. It crackled in the air, sending a shower of sparks toward the ground.