Paper Towns — Chapter no 4

4.

We were driving down a blessedly empty I-4, and I was following Margo’s

directions. The clock on the dashboard said it was 1:07.

“It’s pretty, huh?” she said. She was turned away from me, staring out

the window, so I could hardly see her. “I love driving fast under

streetlights.”

“Light,” I said, “the visible reminder of Invisible Light.”

“That’s beautiful,” she said.

“T. S. Eliot,” I said. “You read it, too. In English last year.” I hadn’t

actually ever read the whole poem that line was from, but a couple of the

parts I did read got stuck in my head.

“Oh, it’s a quote,” she said, a little disappointed. I saw her hand on the

center console. I could have put my own hand on the center console and

then our hands would have been in the same place at the same time. But I

didn’t. “Say it again,” she said.

“Light, the visible reminder of Invisible Light.”

“Yeah. Damn, that’s good. That must help with your lady friend.”

“Ex-lady friend,” I corrected her.

“Suzie dumped you?” Margo asked.

“How do you know she dumped me?”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Although she did,” I admitted, and Margo laughed. The breakup had

happened months ago, but I didn’t blame Margo for failing to pay attention

to the world of lower-caste romance. What happens in the band room stays

in the band room.

Margo put her feet up on the dashboard and wiggled her toes to the

cadence of her speaking. She always talked like that, with this discernible

rhythm, like she was reciting poetry. “Right, well, I’m sorry to hear that.

But I can relate. My lovely boyfriend of lo these many months is fucking

my best friend.”

I looked over but her hair was all in her face, so I couldn’t make out if

she was kidding. “Seriously?” She didn’t say anything. “But you were just

laughing with him this morning. I saw you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I heard about it before first

period, and then I found them both talking together and I started screaming

bloody murder, and Becca ran into the arms of Clint Bauer, and Jase was

just standing there like a dumbass with the chaw drool running out of his

stank mouth.”

I had clearly misinterpreted the scene in the hallway. “That’s weird,

because Chuck Parson asked me this morning what I knew about you and

Jase.”

“Yeah, well, Chuck does as he’s told, I guess. Probably trying to find out

for Jase who knew.”

“Jesus, why would he hook up with Becca?”

“Well, she’s not known for her personality or generosity of spirit, so it’s

probably because she’s hot.”

“She’s not as hot as you,” I said, before I could think better of it.

“That’s always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people would want to

be around someone because they’re pretty. It’s like picking your breakfast

cereals based on color instead of taste. It’s the next exit, by the way. But I’m

not pretty, not close up anyway. Generally, the closer people get to me the

less hot they find me.”

“That’s— ” I started.

“Whatever,” she answered.

It struck me as somewhat unfair that an asshole like Jason Worthington

would get to have sex with both Margo and Becca, when perfectly likable

individuals such as myself don’t get to have sex with either of them—or

anyone else, for that matter. That said, I like to think that I am the type of

person who wouldn’t hook up with Becca Arrington. She may be hot, but

she is also 1. aggressively vapid, and 2. an absolute, unadulterated, raging

bitch. Those of us who frequent the band room have long suspected that

Becca maintains her lovely figure by eating nothing but the souls of kittens

and the dreams of impoverished children. “Becca does sort of suck,” I said,

trying to draw Margo back into conversation.

“Yeah,” she answered, looking out the passenger window, her hair

reflecting oncoming streetlights. I thought for a second she might be crying,

but she rallied quickly, pulling her hoodie up and taking The Club out of the

Wal-Mart bag. “Well, this’ll be fun at any rate,” she said as she ripped open

The Club’s packaging.

“May I ask where we’re going yet?”

“Becca’s,” she answered.

“Uh-oh,” I said as I pulled up to a stop sign. I put the minivan in park

and started to tell Margo that I was taking her home.

“No felonies. Promise. We need to find Jase’s car. Becca’s street is the

next one up on the right, but he wouldn’t park his car on her street, because

her parents are home. Try the one after. That’s the first thing.”

“Okay,” I said, “but then we go home.”

“No, then we move on to Part Two of Eleven.”

“Margo, this is a bad idea.”

“Just drive,” she said, and so I just did. We found Jase’s Lexus two

blocks down from Becca’s street, parked in a cul-de-sac. Before I’d even

come to a complete stop, Margo jumped out of the minivan with The Club

in hand. She pulled open the Lexus’s driver-side door, sat down in the seat,

and proceeded to attach The Club to Jase’s steering wheel. Then she softly

closed the door to the Lexus.

“Dumb bastard never locks that car,” she mumbled as she climbed back

into the minivan. She pocketed the key to The Club. She reached over and

tousled my hair. “Part One—done. Now, to Becca’s house.”

As I drove, Margo explained Parts Two and Three to me.

“That’s quite brilliant,” I said, even though inside I was bursting with a

shimmering nervousness.

I turned onto Becca’s street and parked two houses down from her

McMansion. Margo crawled into the wayback of the minivan and returned

with a pair of binoculars and a digital camera. She looked through the

binoculars first, and then handed them to me. I could see a light on in the

house’s basement, but no movement. I was mostly surprised that the house

even had a basement—you can’t dig very deep before hitting water in most

of Orlando.

I reached into my pocket, grabbed my cell phone, and dialed the number

that Margo recited to me. The phone rang once, twice, and then a groggy

male voice answered, “Hello?”

“Mr. Arrington?” I asked. Margo wanted me to call because no one

would ever recognize my voice.

“Who is this? God, what time is it?”

“Sir, I think you should know that your daughter is currently having sex

with Jason Worthington in your basement.” And then I hung up. Part Two:

accompli.

Margo and I threw open the doors of the minivan and charged down the

street, diving onto our stomachs just behind the hedge ringing Becca’s yard.

Margo handed me the camera, and I watched as an upstairs bedroom light

came on, and then a stairway light, and then the kitchen light. And finally,

the stairway down to the basement.

“Here he comes,” Margo whispered, and I didn’t know what she meant

until, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a shirtless Jason Worthington

wiggling out of the basement window. He took off sprinting across the

lawn, naked but for his boxer shorts, and as he approached I jumped up and

took a picture of him, completing Part Three. The flash surprised both of us,

I think, and he blinked at me through the darkness for a white-hot moment

before running off into the night.

Margo tugged on my jeans leg; I looked down at her, and she was

smiling goofily. I reached my hand down, helped her up, and then we raced

back to the car. I was putting the key in the ignition when she said, “Let me

see the picture.”

I handed her the camera, and we watched it come up on the screen

together, our heads almost touching. Upon seeing the stunned, pale face of

Jason Worthington, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh, God,” Margo said, and pointed. In the rush of the moment, it

seemed that Jason had been unable to get Little Jason inside his boxers, and

so there it was, hanging out, digitally captured for posterity.

“It’s a penis,” Margo said, “in the same sense that Rhode Island is a

state: it may have an illustrious history, but it sure isn’t big.”

I looked back at the house and noticed that the basement light was now

off. I found myself feeling slightly bad for Jason—it wasn’t his fault he had

a micropenis and a brilliantly vindictive girlfriend. But then again, in sixth

grade, Jase promised not to punch my arm if I ate a live earthworm, so I ate

a live earthworm and then he punched me in the face. So I didn’t feel very

bad for very long.

When I looked over at Margo, she was staring at the house through her

binoculars. “We have to go,” Margo said. “Into the basement.”

“What? Why?”

“Part Four. Get his clothes in case he tries to sneak back into her house.

Part Five. Leave fish for Becca.”

“No.”

“Yes. Now,” she said. “She’s upstairs getting yelled at by her parents.

But, like, how long does that lecture last? I mean, what do you say? ‘You

shouldn’t screw Margo’s boyfriend in the basement.’ It’s a one-sentence

lecture, basically. So we have to hustle.”

She got out of the car with the spray paint in one hand and one of the

catfish in the other. I whispered, “This is a bad idea,” but I followed behind

her, crouched down as she was, until we were standing in front of the still-

open basement window.

“I’ll go first,” she said. She went in feetfirst and was standing on

Becca’s computer desk, half in the house and half out of it, when I asked

her, “Can’t I just be lookout?”

“Get your skinny ass in here,” she answered, and so I did. Quickly, I

grabbed all the boy-type clothes I saw on Becca’s lavender-carpeted floor.

A pair of jeans with a leather belt, a pair of flip-flops, a Winter Park High

School Wildcats baseball cap, and a baby blue polo shirt. I turned back to

Margo, who handed me the paper-wrapped catfish and one of Becca’s

sparkly purple pens. She told me what to write:

A message from Margo Roth Spiegelman: Your friendship with her—it

sleeps with the fishes

Margo hid the fish between folded pairs of shorts in Becca’s closet. I

could hear footsteps upstairs, and tapped Margo on the shoulder and looked

at her, my eyes bulging. She just smiled and leisurely pulled out the spray

paint. I scrambled out the window, and then turned back to watch as Margo

leaned over the desk and calmly shook the spray paint. In an elegant motion

—the kind you associate with calligraphy or Zorro—she spray-painted the

letter M onto the wall above the desk.

She reached her hands up to me, and I pulled her through the window.

She was just starting to stand when we heard a high-pitched voice shout,

“DWIGHT!” I grabbed the clothes and took off running, Margo behind me.

I heard, but did not see, the front door of Becca’s house swing open, but

I didn’t stop or turn around, not when a booming voice shouted “HALT!”

and not even when I heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being

pumped.

I heard Margo mumble “gun” behind me—she didn’t sound upset about

it exactly; she was just making an observation—and then rather than walk

around Becca’s hedge, I dove over it headfirst. I’m not sure how I intended

to land—maybe an artful somersault or something—but at any rate, I spilled

onto the asphalt of the road, landing on my left shoulder. Fortunately, Jase’s

bundle of clothes hit the ground first, softening the blow.

I swore, and before I could even start to stand, I felt Margo’s hands

pulling me up, and then we were in the car and I was driving in reverse with

the lights off, which is how I nearly came to run over the mostly naked

starting shortstop of the Winter Park High School Wildcats baseball team.

Jase was running very fast, but he didn’t seem to be running anyplace in

particular. I felt another stab of regret as we backed up past him, so I rolled

the window halfway down and threw his polo in his general direction.

Fortunately, I don’t think he saw either Margo or me, and he had no reason

to recognize the minivan since—and I don’t want to sound bitter or

anything by dwelling on this—I can’t drive it to school.

“Why the hell would you do that?” Margo asked as I turned on the lights

and, driving forward now, began to navigate the suburban labyrinth back

toward the interstate.

“I felt bad for him.”

“For him? Why? Because he’s been cheating on me for six weeks?

Because he’s probably given me god-only-knows-what disease? Because

he’s a disgusting idiot who will probably be rich and happy his whole life,

thus proving the absolute unfairness of the cosmos?”

“He just looked sort of desperate,” I said.

“Whatever. We’re going to Karin’s house. It’s on Pennsylvania, by the

ABC Liquors.”

“Don’t be pissed at me,” I said. “I just had a guy point a freaking

shotgun at me for helping you, so don’t be pissed at me.”

“I’M NOT PISSED AT YOU!” Margo shouted, and then punched the

dashboard.

“Well, you’re screaming.”

“I thought maybe—whatever. I thought maybe he wasn’t cheating.”

“Oh.”

“Karin told me at school. And I guess a lot of people have known for a

long time. And no one told me until Karin. I thought maybe she was just

trying to stir up drama or something.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Yeah. Yeah. I can’t believe I even care.”

“My heart is really pounding,” I said.

“That’s how you know you’re having fun,” Margo said.

But it didn’t feel like fun; it felt like a heart attack. I pulled over into a 7-

Eleven parking lot and held my finger to my jugular vein while watching

the : in the digital clock blink every second. When I turned to Margo, she

was rolling her eyes at me. “My pulse is dangerously high,” I explained.

“I don’t even remember the last time I got excited about something like

that. The adrenaline in the throat and the lungs expanding.”

“In through the nose out through the mouth,” I answered her.

“All your little anxieties. It’s just so . . .”

“Cute?”

“Is that what they’re calling childish these days?” She smiled.

Margo crawled into the backseat and came back with a purse. How

much shit did she put back there? I thought. She opened up the purse and

pulled out a full bottle of nail polish so darkly red it was almost black.

“While you calm down, I’m going to paint my nails,” she said, smiling up

at me through her bangs. “You just take your time.”

And so we sat there, she with her nail polish balanced on the dash, and

me with a shaky finger on the pulse of myself. It was a good color of nail

polish, and Margo had nice fingers, thinner and bonier than the rest of her,

which was all curves and soft edges. She had the kind of fingers you want

to interlace with your own. I remembered them against my hip bone in Wal-

Mart, which felt like days ago. My heartbeat slowed. And I tried to tell

myself: Margo’s right. There’s nothing out here to be afraid of, not in this

little city on this quiet night.