Page 36 of We Were Liars

WE PLAY TENNIS . Johnny and I win, but not because I’m any good anymore. He’s an excellent athlete, and Mirren is more inclined to hit the ball and then do happy dances, without caring whether it’s returning. Gat keeps laughing at her, which makes him miss.

“How was Europe?” asks Gat as we walk back to Cuddledown.

“My father ate squid ink.”

“What else?” We reach the yard and toss the racquets on the porch. Stretch ourselves out on the grass.

“Honestly, I can’t tell you that much,” I say. “Know what I did while my dad went to the Colosseum?”

“What?”

“I lay with my face pressed into the tile of the hotel bathroom. Stared at the base of the blue Italian toilet.”

“The toilet was blue?” Johnny asks, sitting up.

“Only you would get more excited over a blue toilet than the sights of Rome,” moans Gat.

“Cadence,” says Mirren.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“What?”

“You say don’t feel sorry for you, but then you tell a story about the base of the toilet,” she blurts. “It’s seriously pitiful. What are we supposed to say?”

“Also, going to Rome makes us jealous,” says Gat. “None of us has been to Rome.”

“I want to go to Rome!” says Johnny, lying back down. “I want to see the blue Italian toilets so bad!”

“I want to see the Baths of Caracalla,” says Gat. “And eat every flavor of gelato they make.”

“So go,” I say.

“It’s hardly that simple.”

“Okay, but you will go,” I say. “In college or after college.”

Gat sighs. “I’m just saying, you went to Rome.”

“I wish you could have been there,” I tell him.