Frost - Marianna Baer

to the waiter, “do you think the restaurant is going to get new

seating anytime soon? Because if they do, I’d be interested in

buying one of these booths.”

Cliff stifled a smile. “I don’t think so. I’ll check, though.” He

chuckled as he walked away.

“You’re joking, right?” I said to David.

“I know it sounds extreme,” he said. “But think about it.”

“Burning down the haunted house,” I said. “Like in a cheesy

horror movie? Are you crazy?” Right away I knew it was a bad

choice of words.

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“David and I are both crazy,” Celeste said in a woo-woo,

exaggeratedly eerie voice. She wiggled her fingers in the air. “And

we’re going to make you crazy, too.”

“No, we’re not,” David said. “I don’t necessarily mean a fire.

Just something to make the house unlivable. You know all about

house construction. What could we do to make it unlivable? Like,

a major plumbing leak or something that ruins some stuff.”

“I don’t want it to be unlivable,” I said. “In case you’ve

forgotten, I live there!”

“So you’ll move into an empty room somewhere else.” David

pulled out a breadstick and snapped it in half.

“No. This is a ridiculous idea.”

“Leena,” David said. “Celeste can’t keep living there. And any

other solution involves making her look sick. Unless you want us

to make up some story about how you guys are mean to her.

We’ll tell the dean she’s too miserable to stay there.”

“No way,” I said. “Absolutely not.” Aside from the fact I’d be

mortified for them to do that, this whole plan was predicated on

the fact that Celeste would be okay if she moved out. Could David

honestly believe that?

“Come on,” David said, cajoling, as if he was trying to

convince me to take a breadstick or something equally trivial.

“Next year we’ll have a nice place in the city. You can handle

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living in some other dorm until then. What’s the big deal about

you staying there?”

The big deal? He knew how I felt about my room. How could

he even ask? And how could they be so casual, so . . . so . . . so

goddamn cheery? I stared at my fork. “I don’t want to move out.”

My voice was tight.

“It’s a good plan,” Celeste said to me. “We know it’s kind of

weird, but not so much if you think about it.”

“It’s kind of impractical, to put it mildly,” I said. “And what

about Viv and Abby and Ms. Martin? You’re going to make all of

them move out, too? And Kate is supposed to move in next

semester. What about her? We’re all supposed to live there.”

“Do you have a better idea?” David said.

I couldn’t believe he was putting me in this position in front

of Celeste. He knew what I thought.

“A problem with the wiring,” he said. “Don’t old houses have

dangerous electrical problems sometimes?”

“The dangerous wiring isn’t in the house,” I muttered.

“What?” David leaned toward me.

“Nothing. I mean, yes, of course there could be dangerous

wiring. But we wouldn’t know.”

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“What if we just scorched the wall?” he said. “Not a full-

fledged fire. Just enough to make them nervous. You know, a big,

scorched area around an outlet. Would that be enough for them

to move you?”

With no warning, Celeste stood up, jiggling the table and

sloshing our drinks. She lifted her glass. “A toast,” she said.

“What?” I said.

“I can’t even tell you how good this feels,” she said. “Even

just knowing that you guys know, and that we’re going to do

something about it. I have been so fucking scared and so fucking

alone. I would like to toast our new coalition. Formed out of a

betrayal, yes,” she said, looking me in the eye, “but formed

nonetheless.”

“Celeste,” David said. “Leena did the right thing, telling me.

We wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t.” He lifted his Coke. “We

should be toasting her.”

“Fine. To Leena,” Celeste said.

Their eyes pinned me against the back of the booth. At that

moment, I couldn’t see how not to do what they wanted. I lifted

my glass.

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Chapter 38

“HOW CAN I DO IT-?” I said. “How can I help Celeste

without losing David?” Please be wise , I thought. Please, I need

help. I need wisdom. Cubby’s eyes stared back at me in the light

from the camping lantern. I’d taken a pill to calm down, but what

I really needed was answers.

You can’t.

I shivered. “I don’t understand how he can be so blind.”

He’s not blind. He’s sick.

“No.” I shook my head. “He just wants her to be okay.”

He wants her to be crazy. He likes it.

No. I knew that he wanted to take care of her, but he would

rather he didn’t have to. I knew that. He wasn’t sick.

And now he’s going to take away Frost House.

“No.”

Someone was knocking on the bedroom door. Loudly. My

room light was on; I couldn’t pretend to be asleep.

I emerged from the closet, unlocked and opened it.

Celeste stood with a manila envelope in her hand.

“Okay,” she said. “I told you not to tell David. Right?”

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I swallowed. “Right.”

“But, I’ve decided, there’s no reason for me to be mad,

really, since David is being so great. I actually . . . I want you to

have this,” she said, handing me the envelope. “As a kind of

thanks. You know, I see that you were really just freaked out. And

how can I blame you after the way I was acting at the party? That

was too much to expect you to deal with.”

I ran my finger along the sharp edge of the manila flap. I had

visions of finding something inside that she could use to blackmail

me. “Should I open it?”

“Of course.”

I eased out an eight-by-ten color photograph. In it, a

cockroach wearing a tiny white dress and gold wings appeared to

be flying in front of what was obviously a painted sky and green

mountains—like the flats from a miniature stage set. It was

delicate and strangely beautiful.

“You made this?”

She nodded.

“This is what you do with the roaches?”

Celeste leaned forward on her crutches so she could look at

the picture. “Well, basically. But this is the only one that’s of an

angel. I have a whole bunch of different painted sets that I

photograph them in front of. I have so many roaches because I

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ruin a lot in the process. It’s hard to get it all perfect. I don’t like

correcting stuff in Photoshop. I like it to be all . . . real.”

“It’s really strange. In a good way,” I said. I slid it back in the

envelope. “I like it. Thanks so much.”

“Sure,” she said. “Well, like I said, I realized you were trying

to help. And as it happens, you ended up doing the right thing.

David and I will owe you after this is all over. I’m sure he feels that

way, too. I’m sure this will, you know, bring you guys closer

together. All of us. Like, now it’s the three of us in on it. Right?”

“Sure,” I said. But I must have hesitated just a second too

long.

“You still think I’m sick. Don’t you?” she said.

My big toe followed a crack between two floorboards. She

wouldn’t hurt me, would she? I didn’t think so. Her violent

tendencies were toward herself.