The Leftovers

watched, along with just about everybody else at the dance, as Kylie turned and made the long walk of shame across the cafeteria to the exit doors. She kept her shoulders back and her chin up the whole way there, compensating with good posture for the fact that she was no longer welcome.
    *   *   *
    THE RULES didn’t require a couple to have sex once they got behind closed doors, but they did require both players to strip to their underwear. Jill and Max knew the drill and began undressing as soon as they entered Dmitri’s little sister’s pink-walled bedroom.
    “You again,” he said, flopping onto the bed in a pair of tartan-plaid boxers that Jill had seen a couple of times before.
    “Yup.” Jill was pretty sure he was equally familiar with her black panties and beige bra. “It’s Groundhog Day.”
    “Oh, well.” He plucked a bit of fluff from his navel and dropped it on the floor. “Could be worse, right?”
    “Definitely.” She climbed in beside him, using her hip to shove him close to the wall. “It could totally be worse.”
    She wasn’t just being nice. Max was a sweet, smart guy, and she was always relieved to find herself alone with him. He was easy to talk to, and they’d figured out a long time ago that they didn’t click as sexual partners, so there was no pressure on that front. It was more complicated with Dmitri, who was better-looking than Max and more interested in sex, but who also made it clear in all sorts of ways that he would have preferred to be with Aimee or Zoe. Sometimes they hooked up, but she was always a little sad afterward. The real disaster was getting stuck with Jason, but that almost never happened. She didn’t know how Jeannie could stand it. Maybe they just surfed girl-on-girl porn together.
    Max poked her arm. “You cold?”
    “A little.”
    He unfurled the duvet at the foot of the bed and spread it over them.
    “Better, huh?”
    “Yeah, thanks.”
    She patted him on the thigh, then rolled onto her side to turn off the lamp, because they both liked lying in the dark. Sometimes it felt like they were an old married couple, the way her parents used to be. She remembered going into their room to say good night, the two of them looking so cozy and contented in their pajamas, reading with their glasses on. These days, her father seemed a little lost up there, the bed off balance, like it was about to tip over. She figured that was why he slept on the couch so much.
    “You have Mr. Coleman for Biology?” Max asked.
    “No, I had Ms. Gupta.”
    “Coleman was really good. I don’t think they should’ve fired him.”
    “He said some pretty mean things.”
    “I know. I’m not defending what he said.”
    A few weeks earlier, Mr. Coleman had told one of his classes that the Sudden Departure was a natural phenomenon, a kind of global autoimmune reaction, a way for the earth to fight off the raging infection of humanity. It’s us, he’d said. We’re the problem. We’re making the planet sick. A couple of kids had been upset by this—one of them had lost his mother on October 14th—and some parents lodged an official complaint. Just last week the school board announced that Mr. Coleman had agreed to take an early retirement.
    “I don’t know,” Max said. “I really don’t think what he said was so crazy.”
    “It was harsh,” Jill reminded him. “He said the people who got taken were Rejects. The families didn’t like it.”
    “A lot of people say it the other way,” Max pointed out. “They say the rest of us are the Rejects.”
    “That sucks, too.”
    They were quiet for a while. Jill felt pleasantly drowsy—not sleepy, just relaxed. It felt good to be lying there in the dark, under the covers, a warm body beside her.
    “Jill?” Max whispered.
    “Mmm?”
    “You mind if I jerk off?”
    “No,” she told him. “Go right ahead.”
    *   *   *
    KYLIE WAS all the way down by the main office by the time Nora caught up with her. The hallway was empty, the fluorescent lights oppressively bright; Kylie’s face was wet with tears. Embarrassed, Nora diverted her gaze to the bewildering stain on her arm, a multicolored explosion of vines, leaves, bubbles, and flowers that must have hurt like hell going on.
    “Don’t you have a coat?”
    Kylie sniffled and wiped her eyes. “It’s in the car.”
    “Can I ask you something?” Nora’s voice was oddly calm, despite her inner agitation. “Was he gonna leave me?”
    Kylie shook her head.