Flat-Out Love

Celeste was lounging in a wicker chair, her head tilted back and her eyes closed, as she took in the April sunshine. Slowly, she lifted up a bit and peered over. “You’re right. This may be as many as he can handle. He is already rather accordion-like, isn’t he?” She dropped her head back down.

Roger looked at Julie and whispered. “I have the feeling someone isn’t so invested in someone else anymore.”

“I can hear you,” Celeste said. “I am decidedly invested. Oh, the mail is here.” She leapt from her seat and ran down the front steps.

Roger stared at his daughter as she bounded away. “She looks so… old. Does she look old to you, Matthew?”

Matt poured a glass of lemonade. “Yes. I’m fairly sure that I saw wrinkles on her sagging jowls. Also, she’s been downing the Geritol. We should look into a nursing home for her.”

“Matthew, relax. She looks good. I think her outfit is wretched, though.” Roger frowned. “But I’m supposed to think that. Right, Julie?”

Julie nodded. “Yes, you are. Fathers should hate what their teenage daughters are wearing.”

“Mission accomplished,” he said somewhat despairingly. “The too-short skirt and those dreadful earrings are your doing?”

“Guilty.”

Roger shook his head with acceptance and took a seat on the steps.

Celeste returned with the mail, tossed it onto the small table, and plopped back onto the cushioned chair. “My Seventeen arrived. I don’t care for the horoscopes or quizzes, or, truthfully, most of the articles, but I do enjoy the suggested fashion pieces.”

Julie sat down next to Celeste, so the two could debate shoe styles and prom updos. Celeste looked radiant and, for her, relaxed. Something had changed over the past few months. It was subtle, but Julie saw differences.

Matt scowled as he rooted through the mail. “Are you two honestly concerned with that stuff?”

Julie glared at him. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s not like coveting the perfect pair of strappy sandals negates our interest in political and social concerns, does it, Celeste?”

“Ooooh! Look at her hair!” Celeste pointed to a picture. “Do you think you could do that to mine? I find that very flattering. And, no, Matthew. I agree with Julie.”

“You’re smart,” he said. “You don’t need all that.”

“Yes, I know. I’m the smart girl. My identity has been overtaken by that label, and perhaps I would like to be seen as something other than the smart girl.”

Julie smiled at Matt. “So there.”

Celeste looked up. “I apologize. I don’t intend to be rude, Matty. But you are not a girl, and you do not understand the societal pressures that someone my age must contend with.”

“Contractions,” Julie reminded Celeste with a singsong tone.

“Oh, yes. Right. Sorry. Anyway, attractiveness is probably just a social construct, but succumbing to selected norms is not always a negative move. Julie, for instance, is a good example of someone who is both highly intelligent and socially skilled.”

“Fine.” Matt frowned at a pink envelope. He looked furtively at Celeste, who was now buried back in her magazine, and crossed the porch.

Julie watched as he opened the envelope, sca

“What’s that?” Julie asked loudly.

“What? Nothing. Junk mail.”

“No, it’s not. What is that?” Julie got up and marched over to him. “You do not get letters in pink envelopes, so hand it over.”

“Julie!” he hissed.

“Matt!” she hissed back.

She snatched the card from his hands. The envelope was addressed to Celeste, and the card was an invitation to a birthday party, a sleepover the following weekend.

“Hey, Celeste! You got invited to a party. For Rachel. Is she in your class?”

“Julie!” Matt grabbed the card back. “Don’t!”

Celeste let the magazine fall into her lap. “I did? She invited me?”

“She did?” Roger turned around and looked at his daughter.

“Yes, she did. Everyone can stop acting so ridiculously flabbergasted. Here.” Again, Julie swiped the card from Matt and handed it to Celeste.

Celeste looked intently at the invitation, her mouth begi

“Why not? Go to the party,” Julie insisted. “Have fun, hang out, eat cake, gossip.”

Roger stood up. “Julie, this might not be—”

“Celeste, do you want to go?”

“We can’t consider that an option, can we?” She glanced at Flat Fi

“It’s OK.” Roger waved Celeste up from her seat. “Why don’t you come inside with me? I want to show you the results from that study I did on combating the spread of harmful algae.”

Celeste didn’t look at Julie as she got up and handed over the invitation. “Please don’t worry about this. I understand that it would not work.”

Fuming, Julie crossed her arms. Celeste’s demeanor had changed, and she no longer looked relaxed. This was Matt and Roger’s fault entirely.

Matt put his hands in his pockets and looked down. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“Do you? Do you really? Goddamn it, Matt! How could you do this to her?”

He looked up, surprised. “Do what?”

She sighed. “Ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? You’re setting her up for failure. She knew you hid that invitation from her, and that told her you don’t believe in her.”

“She knew it because you made a spectacle out of it. She can’t go. You know that. That’s why I didn’t want her to see the invitation. It’s just another reminder of something that she’s not ready for.”

“Maybe you’re the one who isn’t ready? Maybe your parents aren’t ready? Huh? You mother had her wearing fricking pinafores, for God’s sake, until I took the kid to the mall!”

“Shhh! Stop yelling!” Matt warned. “This is not your decision.”

“It’s not yours either. It’s Celeste’s. She should be able to go if she wants to,” Julie insisted. “She’s ready.”

“She’s not ready.”

“She needs friends, Matt. When was the last time anybody asked her to do anything?”

Matt was silent.

“She needs friends,” Julie said again. “And so do you. You need her to expand her world so that you can have yours back.”

He nodded. “I know. But this Rachel’s parents probably made her invite everyone. Including Celeste.”

“Every girl in that entire huge class was invited to stay at their house? I don’t think so. Celeste got asked because this Rachel girl wanted to invite her. It’s just a party. If you don’t make a big deal out it, she might not either. You’re her brother. She looks up to you, and she needs to know that you believe in her.” Julie waved the invitation at him. “That you trust her, and that you think she can succeed. Don’t you get that?”

Matt avoided her eyes. “She doesn’t look up to me. She looks up to Fi

“And you. She loves you.”

He shuffled his feet. “You really think she can handle this?”

“Yes. I do. I know it.”

“What about Flat Fi

“She’ll fold him up and stick him in the bottom of her overnight bag. No one will know. She’s gone shopping with me a bunch of times without him, and I don’t even have to take him in the car when I pick her up from school anymore. Yes, he still has to stand by her bed or outside her door at night, and she still obsesses about him some of the time, but it’s not like it was. She’s getting busy with other parts of life. With life, for that matter.” Julie looked pleadingly at Matt. “She can do this. She’s dressing better, she’s into normal music, she picks out cute boys on television. Shut up!” Julie cut off Matt before he said anything. “This stuff is normal. She’s even talking less… less like someone who just graduated from an advanced articulation class. Well, sometimes. Let her grow up. She’s got to take a risk.”