The Long Winter #4
Orientation part 4
Madison Carter usually pulled her blonde hair up into a pony tail. She liked it that way, it kept her face hair-free, something she noticed her new roommate and (hopefully) friend Penny Stark had trouble with. The half-Asian girl’s hair was short, cut right up above the bottoms of her earlobes, and it was always falling into her face, or blowing across her eyes. She constantly battled it, shoving it behind her ears and pushing her fingers through it, and she always reminded Maddie that keeping her hair long enough to have a pony tail was a great idea.
That night, however, she was going to a fancy party at a big, fancy house. So she wore it down. It ran in big waves down to her shoulders where it curled slightly, and it bounced when she moved like the loose hem of her dress, a purchase during her trip to Paris the previous summer. It was probably the fanciest thing she owned, and paired with the thin gold chains she wore around her neck and wrists, she felt she looked every bit the rich girl her classmates would expect her to be. It helped, of course, that her new friends Penny and Leah were positively frumpy in comparison. How did two exotic girls like them come across as frumpy? And yet, they were. Penny looked like her mother still dressed her in a very conservative skirt and blouse (that girl had a closet full of pretty sundresses and she still chose that!), while Leah succeeded in matching the PMer in her own skirt and oversized sweater.
And then there was the verbal scuffle she had had with her boyfriend—that is, her fiance. He did not like the idea of her going to some party, especially with Clark escorting her. And she hated Clark for it. The fair-haired boy was effortlessly charming. At least, to Maddie he was. Tall, perhaps not quite handsome, the fair-haired boy had an easygoing quality that allowed him to adapt to any situation as though it was his natural habitat. He looked dashing in his slacks and button-up shirt with its rolled-up sleeves, and they were tailored, too: cut to fit his body perfectly. Knowing his mother was an award-winning movie star rankled her faraway fiancé, Brad. When she mentioned to him that she was going to this fancy party he was initially cautious, but then she had to go and tell him she was going with Penny, Leah… and Clark. Brad turned nasty, insulting her before hanging up on her and leaving her standing next to her bed shaking. She called back, but was sent straight to his voicemail twice before she sent him an apologetic “I love only you” text. Despite this she was smiling and laughing when she stepped out of her bedroom and went with Penny to pick up Leah from her room. Clark was waiting for her—for them in the common area when they descended the stairs.
With Ralph. He was a lanky boy with a big nose and bigger ears and had hovered around her before orientation and she barely had time to evade him afterwards with Clark. He asked her out no fewer than ten times in as many minutes when they first arrived. Only Loren’s presence at the foosball table the night Penny arrived kept the boy at bay, and even then he was only the width of the foosball table away. He and his roommate Henley, a boy with rather gaunt cheeks and eyes with a constantly fatigued look, led them out to their vehicles, a pair of tall, black things shaped like eggs with goofy huge wheels and comically menacing growls coming from their shining chrome exhausts. Penny called them Bentley Scrambled Eggs or some such (of course a lesbian in a robotics program would know things about cars!) and talked excitedly about their powertrains and customization options and driving dynamics in all weather, oblivious to how Maddie was only using her as a human shield to keep Ralph away. To her surprise, however, Ralph morphed from a desperate, stuttering wreck to a perfect gentleman in her absence that day. He gave her space in the car, letting her share the back seat with Penny and Leah on the drive out, and leading them into the grand house sprawling across the rocky coast of the lake instead of following her like a lost dog. She felt good enough about the situation to let him (and Henley) lead her and her friends around the house.
“…and finally, every room exits out onto the deck,” Ralph said, gesturing past the big double doors at the wide deck. It had several levels, all the way down to the dock where a trio of impressive boats were tied. “Braden tells me drinks are out there and up here in the kitchen.”
“Braden, ugh, he thinks I’m Mexican,” Penny groaned, shrinking down between Maddie and Leah and casting frightened glances around the room.
“Did you tell him you were ga—“
“No, and you’re not mentioning it to anyone here,” Penny cut Leah off.
“No one cares about it, you know,” Leah said. “You should just be honest.”
“I am honest about it. But I did my research, too, and I’m not going to risk being known only as that type of girl, because that’s what will happen.”
“You weren’t known as that type of person back in Port Matthew?” Clark asked.
“No, no one cared. I read that people care here, and that some can be pretty weird about it.”
“You know, they’re probably going to care a lot more that you’re from Port Matthew,” Leah said down her nose at Penny. “You should just tell him and then we can all move on.”
“If I get a chance I probably will, but I never met anyone who loves the sound of his own voice so much.”
“You haven’t seen his dad speak,” Clark grumbled behind her, low enough it went unnoticed by Ralph and Henley.
“Well, no one I know will care,” Ralph said. “Let’s go out on the deck and have some drinks. I heard there will be entertainment later and that’s going to be outside. Let’s go.”
And they followed him and he provided them with glasses of wine before vanishing into the crowd with Henley in pursuit of someone they both knew. Maddie turned around and looked at her friends, nodding with approval at both the fine wine in her glass and Ralph’s sudden discovery of manners.
“This is going well,” she said.
“Yes, at least so far,” Penny muttered, her eyes darting around as she hid behind her glass of wine. She did not take a single sip.
“He did not seem to have any sort of his earlier awkwardness around you,” Leah said.
“Earlier awkwardness?” Clark frowned at the three ladies.
“He came on to me awfully strong,” Maddie said. “And then he got weird when I told him I have a boyfriend—a fiance who’ll be joining me up here in the winter. If he’s finally over it I think he’ll become a pretty decent friend, and you know it’s always good to have someone a year or two ahead of you to kind of show you how to do things and where to go. You know, like a mentor.”
“Penny already has one of those,” Leah said, casting a sour glance at the half-Asian girl.
“Really? Who?” Clark asked.
“Professor Fairchild,” Penny said, smiling and lowering the wine glass. “She’s an old friend of my parents, they went to school together. She’s the whole reason I’m at the Institute instead of the University.”
“You’ll still have to take classes at the University, you know,” Clark said. “And there, not everyone is going to love the fact that you’re a Port Matthewan. Port Matthewite? Port—what do you people call yourselves?”
“PMers,” Penny said. “I found out earlier today. Why do they hate us so much?”
“Because PMers are fascists. Port Matthew is a police state run by a gang of super-toughs who don’t allow freedom of the press or assembly or speech.”
“We’re not fascists!”
“To be honest, if you were a fascist you’d be the most adorable fascist this world has ever known and I’m half tempted to emigrate and become a fascist myself if everyone out there is as adorable as you.” Clark was smiling at her, but she scowled back.
“I’m not sure if I should feel insulted by that or not…”
“Not. Come on, my little fascist friend. I’ll keep you safe from the Garies, wherever they may be lurking. Let’s go hit on hot girls together.”
And Penny and Clark split off as well, continuing their verbal sparring session. It warmed Maddie’s heart to see him taking such good care of their friend (especially after being so weird on the drive back from the cliff-jumping rocks) and her mind worked hard to trick herself into thinking she was not actually attracted to him. She glanced at Leah. The less-frumpy-than-Maddie-originally-thought-she-was girl was eying her through her tortoise shell glasses.
“Are you near-sighted or far-sighted?” she asked.
“Both, although there is a technical word for it I don’t remember right now.”
“So you’re blind without your glasses?”
“More or less. I would not attend class without them.”
Maddie nodded.
“How is your boyfriend?” Leah asked as they moved towards the railing of the top level of the deck.
“He’s fine. He wasn’t happy about me coming here tonight with you guys and, well, Clark.”
“And Ralph.”
“Oh. Right. And Ralph. I’m glad he stopped being creepy towards me.”
“Truly a blessing.”
Maddie nodded. She spotted Clark and Penny two levels away laughing as they gestured at the boats tied up not far from them. She was gripped by a fervent desire to cast lightning at the half-Asian girl, although she pretended not to know why.
“Clark is a Neanderthal,” Leah said.
“Hm? Clark? Wait, what? Why?”
“You disagree?”
Maddie mulled over an answer. She was certainly not in denial about liking him. Yes, she could admit that other girls may find a young man like him attractive, but not her. She was engaged. She wore a brilliant diamond ring on her finger and her fiancé was in line to take over his father’s large, successful business. She frowned at Leah.
“You like him, don’t you?” she said to the bespectacled girl.
“Certainly not,” Leah answered, a dull tone to her voice. “It is interesting to me, however that that is where your mind jumped first.”
“What? I don’t like him. Well, I like him, but not in, like, a romantic way. He’s a good friend. He’s going to be a good friend. He is a good friend. Look at how he’s taking care of Penny.”
“He called her a fascist. Last I checked, that was not a compliment.”
“Well, I suppose he can be a little rough…”
“Do you agree with him that Penny is a fascist?”
Maddie laughed. “No, of course not. She seems as interested in freedom as anyone.”
“But from a certain perspective Port Matthew does not look like a free country.”
“Well, they helped free Hong Kong.”
Leah nodded. Maddie was unaware of how Leah continued watching her because her eyes were on Clark and Penny on a lower level of the deck near the water. She was too busy pretending not to be jealous to notice the frown on Leah’s face turn into a look of alarm, barely registering the French girl’s hand on her arm.
“Ralph is approaching.”
“Hm?”
“Ralph…”
It was too late. She tore her gaze from her friends to frown at Leah and then a new hand landed on her shoulder.
“Hey, Maddie. How are you enjoying the party?”
“This place is great, it reminds me of my parents’ lakehouse in Ontario, only with electricity.”
“Electricity? Your parents’ lakehouse doesn’t have electricity?”
“We go up there to escape from it all, so no, of course we don’t. We have a friend of ours fly in and land us on the lake. We always go together a couple of times every summer.”
And Maddie walked down the deck with Ralph in animated conversation, not realizing Henley had swooped between her and Leah to prevent the other girl from following. Ralph continued to be, if not a gentleman, then at least inoffensive. He kept his hands to himself and allowed an appropriate amount of distance between the two of them. She did notice he kept a full glass of wine in her hand, and it was not until she was leaning against the railing of the deck in a secluded corner away from prying eyes and ears that the heat of danger ignited across the back of her neck.
“This is an awfully nice night,” Ralph said, leaning beside her.
She eased away, further into the corner. “It is. I agree.”
“You know, I wanted to apologize, you know, properly, for how I acted earlier towards you.”
“Oh, well, apology accepted—“
“I was, well, I didn’t know how serious you were with your boyfriend—“
“Fiance.” Maddie held up her glittering ring. Ralph did not look at it.
“So, you know, I need you to know I’m not some sort of cad. Not like Clark.”
“You think Clark’s a cad? That’s ridiculous.” Maddie felt herself a moment away from jabbing Ralph in his bony chest, a misspoken word from screaming at him and causing a scene.
“Well, I mean, look at him down there. That girl he’s with, the one you and Leah came with, she’s a lesbian. And he’s still hitting on her. I don’t know, maybe she’s not really as gay as she says since she looks like she really likes him.”
“That is so stupid, there’s no way those two are getting together. Penny’s shown no interest in boys at all, and I’ve caught her checking me out more than once. Frankly, since I'm her roommate I’m planning to tease her mercilessly, but—“ Maddie felt the heat of fear change to embarrassment and flood up to her cheeks. Ralph had raised his eyebrows at her and his cheeks flushed a little in embarrassment for her.
“Well, that’s…” Ralph swallowed and shrugged his shoulders to straighten his shirt despite not needing to. “That’s between you and her. I was just making an observation. I don’t really want to talk about them anyway.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have brought them up then.”
Maddie stared down at them. Still paired off. Still laughing and joking with each other. Flirting? No. They wouldn’t flirt with each other any more than Clark would flirt with his buddy Bart. Razzing each other, maybe. Trading insulting statements about this idiotically huge house and the size of the three boats floating in the water. But if they were flirting they were worthy of her contempt. Of her unbridled anger over the feelings that churned inside her she refused to acknowledge. She opened her purse and pulled out her phone and checked for messages from her fiancé.
“Well, anyway, I just wanted you to know that I want to be your friend. I think we can get along really well, and when we’re in class together I’ll bet we work together really well, too.”
Maddie put her phone away and looked back up at him.
“What? Just friends? I suppose that’s fine. I mean, just so you know what the boundaries are.”
“I definitely know what the boundaries are. You can trust me. For real.”
Maddie poured all of her attention on him (anything but look down at Clark and that bitch Penny again). It was like seeing him again for the first time. He had the same desperate look in his eyes when he first introduced himself when she first arrived. She knew he would not be able to handle being friends with her, but he was not leaning into her and he had not done or said anything particularly inappropriate (aside from insulting Clark, which she did not care about because who was Clark to her? He liked that lying skanky bitch Penny Stark and it sure looked like she liked him back (Despite being a “lesbian,” or so she said)).
“Okay. I’m glad you straightened that out with me. Between us.” Maddie made herself smile at him and he sighed and nearly collapsed with relief.
“Oh, that’s great! You really have made my night. I was afraid I’d already ruined things between us, but I’m so grateful, you’re such an understanding person, you’re like, the nicest girl I’ve ever met.”
She continued smiling at him and again that fear warmed the back of her neck and she felt sweat slick down her back.
“Come on. Let’s go find our friends. I’m sure they’re around here somewhere…”
And Maddie breathed her own sigh of relief. Her shoulders sagged forward as she fell in a little behind him. He continued talking, saying something about how good the wine was, how nice the weather, maybe they could go on board one of the boats, and she did her best to pay attention. The problem was she knew where her “friends” were and was not sure she wanted to find them again. But Ralph doubtlessly did not want to find them either, so she resigned herself to using him as a shield against the ugliness inside herself she could not face.