The Island: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand

Author:Elin Hilderbrand [Hilderbrand, Elin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC044000
ISBN: 0316043877
Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books
Published: 2010-07-05T14:00:00+00:00

CHESS

Day nine.

The next time Michael and I went to see Nick play, it was at Irving Plaza: Diplomatic Immunity was opening for the Strokes, and it was a very big deal. We couldn’t just stroll backstage; we had to get passes. It was April. I hadn’t seen or spoken to Nick since the week before Christmas in Central Park, and as far as I knew, Michael hadn’t either. Nick had stopped going to Christo’s poker game, which surprised Michael. It was his main source of income.

What had passed between Nick and me in the park was so intense that I had been emotionally hobbled for days afterward. I had been high as a kite at Michael’s company’s holiday party, and then mute and depressed with the hangover. It was a hangover, also, from being with Nick. But when Nick bagged on Christmas and then again on New Year’s, and then when I didn’t see him throughout the cold winter months, my feelings went into hibernation. To long for the impossible was counterproductive. My heart and body ached for Nick, but Michael was my better match: he had money, we did lovely things together at night and on the weekends. I was content.

And then, news arrived—via a text message to Michael—about the show at Irving Plaza. Backstage passes arrived.

As we walked into the show, Michael said, “So tonight we’re going to meet the girl Nick is dating.”

My jaw ached. “He’s dating someone?”

“I guess so. She’s a student. She goes to the New School.”

I got a bad feeling. Was there any way that… but I talked myself out of it.

I could barely stand to watch the show, though the band was better than ever. Opening for the Strokes had raised Diplomatic Immunity to a new level. Seeing Nick in person up onstage was both intoxicating and incredibly painful. I loved him, I desired him, it was so wrong, but it was the only right thing. My feelings were so overwhelming that I had tears standing in my eyes, and I thought, I have to tell Michael.

I would tell him that night, I decided, once we were home.

After Diplomatic Immunity had finished their set, Michael and I fought our way backstage. We saw Nick first, toweling off, still glowing, high from the energy of the crowd. I hated him in that moment; I wanted him to be a musician, sweet and pure, and not a smug and cocky showman. I wanted the glory of it not to matter to him. But he was a human being like the rest of us, and whereas Michael and I experienced a certain kind of glory on a daily basis, Nick didn’t, and so I forgave him his self-satisfied mugging. And then, in a fleeting second, I hated him again because there was someone in his arms, it was a girl, and it was not just a girl but Rhonda.

No, I thought. But yes. Rhonda was the girl, the girlfriend, she was a student at the New

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