Rules of Summer

In the half darkness she saw a hand by her face on the pillow, and beyond that a nightstand she didn’t recognize, topped with an iPod dock and a pile of John le Carré books. Rory waited a moment and then felt someone beside her shift position. A large, warm body lying right behind her. Connor, she remembered. They’d fallen asleep on his bed, in each other’s arms, still in their clothes. They’d come up from the beach and snuck up to his room and lain on his bed kissing for hours, until well past two in the morning. And now it was… what time was it? She sat up on one arm and peered at the phosphorescent clock face on the nightstand. 7:10 AM. She needed to go back to her room right this second.

She turned and looked at Connor’s peaceful sleeping face. Even unconscious, he was still beautiful. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead, and his eyes blinked open. “Hey,” he said drowsily.

“Hey,” she whispered. “It’s seven. I better get back.”

“Okay.” He reached up and touched her face. “I’ll see you later,” he said, cradling her cheek.

She slipped on her sandy Keds and went to the door. Luckily, the house was still quiet. She tiptoed into the hall, past Isabel’s closed door, and went down the stairs. Trixie was already up and alert, and Rory let her out into the backyard for a few moments to pee. The sun shone brilliantly outside, and birds chirped noisily in the trees. Last night still felt like a dream. When she woke up a little bit more, she’d be able to really enjoy it. She brought Trixie back inside and then opened her door. What she saw made her freeze.

Isabel lay curled up on her bed, sleeping peacefully, almost like a modern-day Goldilocks. Something terrible must have happened with Mike. Rory felt a pang of sympathy for her. “Hey,” she said, softly touching Isabel’s shoulder. “Isabel. Wake up.”

Isabel opened her eyes. Then she lifted her head and gave Rory a groggy but accusatory look. “Where were you?” she rasped. “I waited for you.”

Rory tried to think of the right way to say this. But there was no right way. “I was in Connor’s room. I fell asleep there. By accident.”

“Connor’s room?” Isabel asked, rubbing her eyes. “What were you doing there?”

Rory sat down on the bed. “Julia went home. And… we’re sort of together now. We were kissing in his room, and we fell asleep.”

Isabel stared at Rory. “What?” She sat up. “What?”

“Connor and I are going out,” she said. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that this might happen. But it just didn’t look like anything was going to happen again—”

“Again?” Isabel asked. “So you guys have hooked up before?”

“Just once. On the Fourth of July. And then he got back together with Julia and I just figured it wasn’t even worth saying anything to you when nothing was ever going to happen again—”

“So you kept this from me,” Isabel interrupted. Her face was starting to flush. “For weeks. Right?”

“Y-yes,” Rory stammered. “But I wanted to tell you. So many times.”

“So, after all the lectures I got about keeping Mike away from my family, and about sneaking into your room, and hiding him away from people, you’ve been having this secret love affair with my brother, basically right under my nose. Right?”

Rory fidgeted. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a love affair,” she said.

Isabel threw off the duvet and got to her feet. “I can’t believe that I thought you were my friend.”

“But I am your friend,” Rory said. “Nothing has changed.”

“Oh yeah, it has,” Isabel said. “Everything has changed.”

“Why are you so mad?” Rory asked. “It’s not like I did this to hurt your feelings or something.”

“Is this why we’re friends?” Isabel asked. “So you could get to my brother?”

“Of course not,” Rory said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. But why are you so mad?”

“I really needed to talk to you last night,” Isabel said. “And you weren’t there for me. Because you were having sex with my brother.” She put on her shoes. “Ugh. It’s so disgusting I can’t even think about it.”

“We weren’t having sex. Not even close.”

“Thank god,” Isabel muttered.

“You know, I actually thought you might be happy for me. Or at least, supportive.”

“Well, I needed you to be supportive last night.” She blinked, and Rory could see the tears in her eyes. “Mike dumped me.”

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” Rory said. “I’m so sorry.”

“For no reason. Just doesn’t want to see me anymore. Won’t tell me why, won’t tell me anything. And I came back here, needing to talk to you. But I guess you had more important things to do.” Isabel threw open the door.

“Isabel, please don’t be mad.”

“Oh, please,” Isabel snapped. “Just stay away from me, okay?”

Rory watched her slam the door, so hard the copy of A Confederacy of Dunces slipped off the nightstand and fell to the ground.