The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer

Author:Galt Niederhoffer [Niederhoffer, Galt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-312-37337-5
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2008-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

There were few things Tripler Pane loved more than a good emergency. Even as a child, she thrilled in a crisis, shepherding classmates during school fire drills, appointing herself the additional lifeguard during free swim at summer camp. In college, she was known as a benevolent busybody, a supervisory presence whose leadership skills usually benefited the group. It was Tripler who organized the biannual study review that enabled her friends to pass their finals, Tripler who divvied up the syllabus—often, she alone still had it in her possession—assigning various readings and lecture notes. It was Tripler who organized the late-night study sessions, ordered the pizza, bought the candy and Coke, roused the others to digest a semester’s worth of work in the span of one night.

It was Tripler who saw the business opportunity when the quality of these study sessions circulated throughout the student body, and Tripler who conceived of the idea to charge admission to the review. Tripler collected the proceeds and deposited the profits into an account at the New Haven Savings Bank that eventually accrued to pay for a spring break blowout in St. Bart’s. Tripler had scheduled and organized every group gathering, with the exception of weddings and funerals, since graduation. Tripler collected money for the crappy ski condos, the joint birthday presents, the New Year’s Eve booze. Tripler bought the extra witches’ hats—just to have them on hand—for the yearly Halloween bash.

But she had not assumed this post simply because she was the most competent organizer. She did it because she was, she felt, the most competent friend. Her evidence was a staggering list of emotional crises that she had helped her friends to navigate with dignity. It was Tripler who rescued Lila freshman year when she called from a closet in Skull and Bones, having found herself, after five glasses of champagne, the only remaining female in the building. It was Tripler who encouraged Weesie not to drop out of school when she decided, fall of freshman year, that she was not cut out for Yale. It was Tripler who took it upon herself to confiscate Annie’s Ritalin when a supply meant to bolster a midterm paper was replenished long past the middle of the term.

It was Tripler who soothed whichever sniveling soul was suffering her latest heartbreak: Weesie, when Jake broke up with her, Jake, when Weesie broke up with him, Annie, when Oscar cheated on her, and Laura, when Tom broke her heart and then reappeared, hours later, to pick up Lila for a date. This auspicious track record contributed to Tripler’s suspicion that she knew her friends better than they knew themselves. Unfortunately, this had no correlation to her knowledge of herself.

“It’s so obvious where he is,” she declared as she traipsed up the lawn toward the house. She turned toward Jake, who was trailing behind, and was greeted by a slap of wind. “If you were Tom,” she said, “where would you be?”

Jake paused and looked up at the house, tilting his head back to survey the structure in one glance.

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