Page 54 of The Way I Used to Be

“Same thing. Except easier, because my parents will believe anything. Trust me,” I assure her.

We make it to my house in only eleven minutes. Mara and I tiptoe through my front door and pause, listening for any signs that we might be caught. I silently lock the door behind us and we move to my bedroom as fast as we can. I press my hand gently against my bedroom door so it just clicks into place. I turn around to face Mara, who’s standing in the middle of my bedroom with her hands palms up, her mouth hanging open.

“Did we just seriously pull this off?” she asks slowly, her mouth closing with a grin, grabbing both of my hands in hers.

“I think we did!” I whisper back.

“Holy shit!” Mara squeals, jumping up and down.

“Shh-shh,” I mouth, silently laughing.

We change out of our weed-stenched clothes and into pajamas. I roll out my sleeping bag on the floor as Mara climbs into my bed. I lie down and take a deep breath.

“We are totally badass, you realize that, right?” Mara whispers.

I feel myself grin. “Good night.”

“SO, EXPLAIN TO MEhow you wound up here last night?” Dad says, standing over Mara at our kitchen table. It has only been a few hours since we crept in; Mara meets my eyes cautiously as she scoops up a spoonful of cereal and puts it in her mouth. This was about our fifth bowl of cereal each.

“I told Mom already,” I lie. “Megan started with us, and we decided to leave. Now that Mara has a car.” I smile at him.

“I never liked Megan, anyway,” Mara adds. And we can’t help it, we burst out laughing.

“Scary thought, you girls behind the wheel,” he says, blowing on his coffee. He walks into the living room, shaking his head.

“See?” I tell her.

“Hurry up, Edy. There’s something I wanna go do,” Mara whispers.

Twenty minutes later we’re sitting in Mara’s car in the parking lot of a seedy strip mall I’ve never even seen before. There’s a liquor store, a watch-repair shop, a hydroponics place, and a dollar store.

“Okay, you got me, Mara. What the hell are we doing here?”

“Look,” she says, pointing to a detached building at the very back of the plaza. The sign says:SKIN DEEP: ALTERNATIVE BODY ART.

“Again, I ask, what are we doing here?”

“You kno-ow...,” she sings, unbuckling her seat belt.

“Are you still high?” I shout.

“It’s my birthday!” she yells back.

“No, your birthday was Thursday. Remember, you got your car and we went out to eat. And then your birthday was Friday—I’ll give you that one, okay? And we bought alcohol illegally. And then we got baked with two complete strangers from our rival school. But now it’s Saturday. It’s not your birthday anymore, Mara. And I am absolutely not letting you do anything you can’t undo, if you’re thinking what I’m thinking you’re thinking!”

“Okay, Mom,” she says with a laugh, getting out of the car.

I open my car door. “Wait!” I call after her. She turns around and grins, walking backward a few steps. I run to catch up with her. “Okay, just hold on. This seems like a super shady place, Mara.”

“It’s not shady! Cameron works here. It’s fine,” she says, shooing me with her hand as she walks ahead of me.

“Him again?” I moan. “Mara, please.”

“Not him again. Him... still. Look, he’s my friend, Edy. He’s not a bad guy. I don’t know why you hate him so much.”

“He hates me too!” I try to defend myself.

“He does not!” she snaps, reaching for the door. “Edy, please just be nice to him. I want you with me for this, okay?”