Next Year in Israel (19 page)

“I can’t wait.” Mia waved at the door. “Oh, look, there’s Jordyn.”

Our table wobbled as Jordyn walked over. “Ben and Jake told me you were here. Jake wants a pita ‘n’ chips.”

A diced cucumber dropped from my pita. How nice of her to mention him. Since his lovely assessment of me, a wall had sprung up between us. We didn’t avoid each other. That would have been impossible. It was more of a retreat into superficial conversations. Our one-on-one talks were gone.

Mia bit into a French fry.

Jordyn reached into her pocket for money. “You want anything?”

She didn’t fool me. The food was a bribe. She’d ask for something in return. I didn’t answer.

“Napkins.” Mia swallowed while Jordyn went to the food station. The Deleck was fairly empty and Jordyn immediately ordered.

“Diet Coke?” the cashier asked, then yelled in Hebrew to his co-workers. They laughed while Jordyn got out her money.

“I can understand you.” She handed us napkins. “Jerk. He knows I’m fluent in Hebrew.”

Mia wiped hummus from the corner of her mouth. “Rebecca doesn’t like them either.”

I wanted to barf. Mia was falling into her trap.

“Want to go to Eilat for Hanukkah break?” Jordyn asked.

“Sure,” Mia said. “It’s supposed to be amazing, like Ft. Lauderdale.”

I swallowed a piece of falafel. “I’m going to Avi’s. Aren’t you hanging out with Ben?”

“Ben and Jake can come,” Jordyn said like she hadn’t planned to include them.

Mia kicked me. “It would be a blast. Come with us instead of going to Avi’s.”

Jordyn put down Jake’s pita on the table. “Don’t let us pressure you.”

Blood drained from my face. As much as I disliked Jordyn, I didn’t want to be left out. It would be the last trip before we returned home. “You’re not pressuring me. I can see Avi after the trip. What are we gonna tell Leah?” I purposely didn’t look at Jordyn. “She won’t let us travel alone.”

“We could tell her we’re going to visit Ben’s aunt and stay at a youth hostel instead,” Mia said. “Ben will vouch for us.”

“Cool,” Jordyn said.

“I think Avi’s cousin lives there.” I remembered the photo on his refrigerator of three boys and a girl in their twenties.

“Call him,” Jordyn said. “We might get invited to his cousin’s.”

I smiled at Mia. “Think I will.”

“I gotta go. Jake wants his sandwich before work. Bye.”

Mia’s eyes pierced me like daggers. “Try to be nice to her.”

I ignored my twinge of guilt. “She doesn’t have to come. We can say there’s only enough room for two.”

“It was her idea to go.”

Didn’t she realize Jordyn couldn’t be trusted? She had already two-faced us once before. “She called you a slut.”

“That was ages ago.”

Apparently, Mia didn’t see Jordyn’s agenda. “She’s using us to get to Jake.”

“Get over him. There are plenty of other guys.”

“I’m over him.”

Mia rolled up her napkin. “Jordyn told me her new friends copy her. That’d drive me nuts.”

“Let’s go shopping after work for the trip,” I said. I was tired of talking about Jordyn.

“Only if she comes with us,” Mia said.

“Okay. I was gonna invite her.” I had no choice but to back down. If I whined more, Mia would side with her.

~ * * * ~

Later that day, we went shopping and found ourselves at a trendy boutique near the
kfar.
I held up a navy one-piece swimsuit. “I need a new suit. Mine is all stretched out.”

“That looks like something our grandmothers would wear.” Jordyn pointed to a white sequined bikini. “You should try it on.”

“Too much bling.” The navy suit was good enough. It had a plunging neckline.

Jordyn picked up the bikini. “You’ll change your mind when you see what it looks like on you.”

“This is cute.” Mia held up a skimpy flowered bikini.

“Try it on,” I said. Maybe we could stop talking about my taste in clothes.

“When I lose ten pounds,” Mia said.

“You can wear it,” I said. She had the personality to pull it off.

“I know what you mean. Ben doesn’t mind a few extra pounds,” Mia said with a smile.

Jordyn continued searching the rack. “I’ll try on the granny suit, if you try on the bikini.”

“Do it,” Mia said. “Jordyn knows clothes.”

True. Jordyn could name every couture designer on the planet, but Mia was testing me. I handed Jordyn my suit and took the sequined two-piece. “Okay.”

In the dressing room, I slipped the glittery bottom over my cotton panties and tucked in the extra material hanging from the sides of my legs. It fit, considering my underwear was twice as big. The top had thick straps that tied at the back and neck, and a generous layer of shirred spandex. Once it was on, I slowly turned around to the mirror, and I couldn’t believe what I saw. The wide straps hid my bony shoulders, my breasts looked bigger, and the v-cut bottom showed off my flat stomach. The sexy girl in the mirror was me.

“How does it look?” Jordyn called out. “Show us.”

I slipped through the black curtain.

“That looks incredible,” Mia said.

“God, you look awesome.” Jordyn sized me up and glanced at herself in a three-way full-length mirror. “White looks good on everybody.”

“Thanks,” I answered cautiously. I didn’t want to be stuck up. Nobody likes a girl who thinks she’s all that. “How did the grandma suit fit?” I already knew because Jordyn had changed back into her jeans and black tee shirt.

“It’s the wrong size,” Jordyn said.

I smiled, taking in the moment. I had put Jordyn in her place. “Do you want to try this one on?” As much as I liked being prettier than her, I wasn’t sure if the bikini was for me. Every guy on the beach would be checking me out like I was the last dry towel on the sand.

“No. I look better in a string bikini. You should buy it. It’s a Gottex.”

“Even I know Gottex,” Mia said. “I’d get one if I looked good enough in it.”

She had a point. Why not show the world what I looked like? I was almost a woman. It was time to start acting like it, and it wouldn’t be like I was walking around naked. Jordyn’s cheetah bikini was skimpier. “I don’t have enough
shekels,
” I said. Asking my parents for money was out of the question. Mom hadn’t given me any money for the trip and had told me not to ask her if I ran out. Dad had said I had to manage my own account. His allowance was long gone and I had already spent my own savings amassed from baby-sitting. He would never agree to an expensive bathing suit that was five times what I usually spent.

Jordyn fiddled with her oversized sunglasses. “I’ll lend you some
shekels
.”

“Yeah, we’ll cover whatever you need,” Mia said.

I felt giddy inside.

Chapter 19

THE BUS RIDE TO EILAT took five hours. By the time we arrived, the scenery had changed into a stunning view of russet-colored mountains. The bus plopped us at a crowded station filled with travelers and soldiers. I was determined to get along with Jordyn. No matter what, I wasn’t gonna exclude her from anything. And I wasn’t gonna let her upset me. I was thrilled as we collected our backpacks and sleeping bags from the luggage bin. It was my first girls’ trip. No Leah or Chatterbox chaperoning us!

“Look at these decorations,” I said as we walked down the main drag. All the shops and restaurants were adorned with Happy Hanukkah signs. “I wish my parents could see it.”

“It’s totally cool,” Mia said. “We’re the only Jews on my street.”

“Same at my house,” I said. Mom didn’t bother to put up decorations, and Dad limited his decoration to a small Happy Hanukkah sign on his apartment door.

Jordyn nodded. “We’ll always be a minority.”

After a trek through busy streets, we found the three-story walk-up where Shira, Avi’s twenty-five-year-old cousin, lived.

“Shalom.
” Shira opened her door. I recognized her straight black hair from the photo. Avi had briefed me on her. She looked like her Moroccan dad, wasn’t married, and worked as a scuba diving instructor. She picked up my sleeping bag. “Come in. Which one of you is Rebecca?”

“Me.” I walked in first. “Thanks for letting us stay with you.” I liked her apartment. A mahogany-framed daybed covered with white sheets, a gray spread, and black throw pillows took up the largest wall. An opened box of blue Hanukkah candles and a gold menorah were set on her glass cocktail table. “Where do you want us to put our stuff?” I asked.

She pointed to mirrored doors on the opposite wall. “In front of the closet. That’s the bathroom. Have a seat.”

Mia and Jordyn sat down on the daybed. I pulled up one of the director’s style folding chairs to the table.

Shira’s dark eyes turned to Mia and Jordyn. “What are your names?”

Mia spoke. “Mia and Jordyn. We appreciate your hospitality.”

Shira lifted a black change purse from the table. “I get a lot of visitors. Everybody comes to visit. The beach where I work is incredible. It’s not just for scuba diving.”

“We’ll have to check it out,” Jordyn said.

“I’ll take you tomorrow. I was on my way to the grocery store. You want anything?”

“No thanks,” Jordyn answered for us.

“Let me give you some
shekels
for food,” I offered. Mom insisted we contribute money for our share when we stayed with relatives.

Shira smiled at me. “I’ll get it. Help yourself to drinks in the refrigerator.”

I locked the door behind her. “That’s nice of her to buy us food. We should have brought her a gift.” Mom never arrived anywhere without a hostess gift.

Mia dragged her backpack across the loop carpet. “I like Shira’s menorah. After going to Jerusalem, I see why Hanukkah’s special.”

“Me too.” Hanukkah was the one Jewish holiday we celebrated at home. The
kfar
had a ceremony for the first night of Hanukkah that consisted of the same prayers and candle lighting we did at home.

“It feels different in Israel,” I said. “More special. It’s impossible not to notice all Hanukkah signs everywhere.”

“Let’s go to the beach when Shira gets back,” Jordyn yelled from the bathroom. “It must be seventy-five outside.”

Mia reached for her sleeping bag. “Ben said he and Jake might come down tomorrow.”

“I thought this was a girls’ trip.” There was excitement in my voice. If Jake saw me in my bikini, he’d be sorry for picking me apart. Jordyn opened the closet. “What are you doing?” I asked.

Jordyn held up a blue bikini. “Look at her clothes. She’s got two Gottex suits and an exquisite cocktail dress.”

“Don’t go through her things,” I said. Shira’s clothes were organized by color; her shoes were lined up neatly on the floor.

Jordyn touched the silky fabric of Shira’s black strapless dress. “This is my size. Someday, I’ll be a bestselling novelist with a closet full of designer clothes.”

“Don’t forget the gorgeous boyfriend who worships you,” Mia said.

My list was longer. I wanted to be working at a job I liked, and for sure, have the gorgeous boyfriend. Only our relationship would be equal. We’d know everything about each other, and never fight. We’d eventually get married—not right away, though, because Mom and Dad said they’d jumped into marriage without getting to know each other. “I’m hungry.”

The fridge was bare except for milk and butter. I took out Choco, an individual plastic bag of chocolate milk that was the same size as a toddler’s juice box. There was nothing in America like the milk bags of Israel. I bit off a corner and drank through the tear like I had seen Avi do at his house.

The door handle turned.

Shira walked in and tossed her change purse next to the Menorah. “Forgot my list.” She picked up the mail stacked on the counter. “It was here. Maybe it’s on my bed.”

Mia picked up a pillow. “I don’t see it.”

Shira walked toward her closet. “It must be in my other purse. The one I used yesterday.”

I hoped Jordyn would get out of the closet quickly.

“Maybe it’s on the floor.” I looked at the carpet.

“It has to be in my purse. I put it there yesterday.”

I took a breath. Maybe Shira wouldn’t care that Jordyn was trying on her clothes. After all, she was on her way to the store to get us groceries.

“What are you doing wearing my dress?” I heard Shira say. “I did not say you could try on my clothes.”

It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. I walked closer. Jordyn’s shorts and tank top were on the floor. Jordyn unzipped the dress. “You have nice clothes.”

How obnoxious. Jordyn needed to apologize, even if she didn’t mean it. I noticed that Jordyn had misplaced the bikini by a red tee shirt.

Shira’s phone rang.

Jordyn stepped out of the dress and dropped it on the floor.

Shira watched Jordyn. Her phone rang again.

Mia picked up the dress and put it on its hanger. “I’ll put it back in the proper place.”

Shira stepped out and answered her phone in Hebrew.

“Bitch.” Jordyn picked up her shorts. “What’s the big deal about looking at her clothes?”

I glared at Jordyn.

“Say you’re sorry, Jordyn,” Mia whispered.

Jordyn snapped on her shorts.

Shira kicked Jordyn’s sleeping bag to the front door. “Hold on.” She looked up for a second. “Avi’s friends are leaving.”

I wasn’t sure what to do. We had nowhere to go.

“You’re leaving,” Shira said again. “Bye-bye.”

Jordyn picked up my sleeping bag and lugged it out along with hers, like she was doing me a favor. I clutched my backpack. “What are we gonna do now?”

“Let’s go to the youth hostel,” Mia said. “I think it might be near the bus station.”

Jordyn lit a cigarette, walking ahead of us. “I remember the way to the station.”

I followed her, wanting to punch my sleeping bag. She had been rude to Avi’s cousin, and she acted as if nothing was wrong. Mia walked beside me calmly. “The hostel was our original plan,” she said in a low voice that Jordyn couldn’t hear. I walked next to Mia in silence, annoyed at her change in alliance.

Grace had changed alliances, too. In the spring of tenth grade, Grace was my only friend left. Others had gone on to different cliques or moved away, and nobody at school wanted anything to do with me. Grace was the one person I could count on, until Emmy entered the picture and befriended Grace when they were assigned to a science project together. Sometimes Grace would still sit with me at lunch, but other times she’d be with Emmy, and I’d be alone.