by Tara Kelly
“I warned you,” I said, motioning to his barely touched stew.
He put a finger to his mouth and shook his head.
“That’s a nice car you have out there, Justin,” Grandma said. “Are you going to pay your parents back for it?”
He swallowed a chunk of potato. “It was a birthday gift.”
“How about some salt?” Mom asked, frowning at the stew.
“You’re past forty now,” Grandma said. “Menopause is right around the corner. Sodium is the last thing you need.”
Justin used that moment to wipe his mouth, but his eyes crinkled at the corners.
“Your candor is always appreciated, Mother.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed the salt from the cabinet.
Grandma nodded at Justin. “Who pays for your insurance?”
“I do.”
“How old are you—sixteen?”
“Seventeen.”
“Your rates must be sky high.” She then launched into a lecture about the auto industry and insurance rates. Grandma loved to educate people about money, even though she’d always been a homemaker.
Justin smiled and nodded like he was interested the entire time. It was pretty impressive. Usually I left the room after about two minutes.
“Nobody cares,” I said finally. Anything to stop her from squawking for a few seconds.
Grandma jabbed her finger at me. “You’ll care when you start paying for it.”
“She has a point,” Justin said to me, knocking his foot into mine.
“Let’s see. No license. Not exactly a pressing matter at the moment.”
“It will be soon,” he said.
“How’s she doing?” Mom asked, salting her stew for the fourth time.
“Really well. We drove around downtown yesterday. Maybe we’ll try the freeway this weekend.”
I nearly choked on a bite of bread. “Do you have a death wish?”
Mom chuckled. “Just don’t drive like Grandma and you’ll be fine.”
Justin crinkled his brow at me, and I laughed. “Grandma knows two speeds,” I said. “Zero and eighty.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, puckering his lips. “Nice.”
Grandma shook her head. “I’ve never gotten a ticket.” She snatched her bowl from the table and rinsed it in the sink.
Then Justin offered to do the dishes for some ungodly reason.
“Why are you being so nice to my grandma?” I asked, walking him to his car twenty minutes later. The cool wind painted my arms with goose bumps.
“I had about two bites of her stew—or whatever that was. I felt bad.”
“She would’ve made me do the dishes anyway. It’s not like you were saving her the trouble.”
He leaned against the driver’s door of his car. “Then you’re welcome.”
I glanced at the dim lights of Naomi’s house. Her father’s SUV wasn’t in the driveway. “I hope Naomi’s dad didn’t let her down this time.”
“Does he do that a lot?”
I told him about meeting her dad and what Naomi said afterward. “She really scared me last weekend.”
Justin shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “You’re a good friend. I wish I’d had someone like you back home.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
He gave me a soft smile. “Just keep being you.”
“That doesn’t help much.”
“Do you want me to talk to her?”
“What would you say?”
He shrugged. “I think I can relate to where her head is at right now. And it doesn’t seem like she has anyone to talk to about it. Look at the lyrics she wrote.”
“She has me.”
Justin shifted his weight. “Yeah, but you’re so…”
I folded my arms across my stomach. “Clueless?”
“I was going to say levelheaded. Naomi’s in a place that’s hard to understand unless you’ve been there, and I think she knows that.” He looked toward her driveway. “She may not even want to talk to me. But I’ll try.”
“When?”
“How about tomorrow? We’ll tell her you have plans after school, and I’ll ask her if she wants to hang out at Café Mars or something.”
“Why can’t I come?”
“It’s better if I talk to her one-on-one—trust me. The members of my old band talked to me all at once, and it felt like a fucking intervention. Didn’t go over real well.” He looked down at his feet. “To say the least.”
“Oh.” The idea of Justin and Naomi going out alone bothered me. I felt left out of something important, but I wanted Naomi to feel better. “Isn’t telling her about your past going to be hard?”
He exhaled, studying my face. “It was harder telling you.”
I hugged myself tighter. What was that supposed to mean?
“Can you have your mom pick you up?”
My stomach tensed. “She has to work. It’ll have to be Grandma.”
“Hey, come here.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. The copper hue of streetlights shone in his eyes. “I’d much rather have you there.”
I looked away, unsure of where to put my hands. On his shoulders seemed too much like dancing. And I definitely wasn’t going to grab his butt.
He tilted my chin upward and ran his thumb along my cheek. I slowly met his stare again. He smiled and kissed me. My head spun and my knees shook, but somehow I managed to stay upright. His tongue brushed against mine, and I pushed back, wondering if that was what he wanted. The whole idea of mingling tongues baffled me. When he paused, I figured I’d done something wrong and pulled away.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“Why?” he whispered and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear.
“I don’t know how to do this, okay? Naomi is the only other person I’ve kissed. And it wasn’t like this.” I looked away again, wanting to smack myself. Now he knew everything. But at least he was almost as clueless in the romance department.
“It’s different with every person.”
“You’ve only kissed that one girl, right?”
His smile faded. “Does it matter?”
“Yes.” Because I hated feeling like such a dork.
“I’ve kissed a few people.”
“How many?”
He let go of my waist. “I didn’t keep a tally, Drea.”
“I thought you were more like me.”
“We’re a lot alike. We’re both stubborn geeks with superb taste in music.” He reached for me.
I backed away.
His head tilted back, like he was searching the stars for answers. Too bad it was cloudy. “I’m far from perfect, Drea. So if you want to walk away right now, I don’t blame you. But I really like you. Everything about you.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but every question I had blurred together in a mass of gibberish.
He leaned over and gave me a quick hug. “Just let me know what you decide.”
It wasn’t until after he drove off that I found the words. I stood frozen for a while, letting the drizzle melt into my cheeks, and they came to me. Simple, but more truthful than anything else I could say.
Thank you.
IT WAS OFFICIAL. Rummaging through dusty boxes at seven A.M. on a Saturday stunk.
Mom hummed “Bus Stop” and grinned like a kid discovering a secret attic. Don, the dentist, was picking her up at nine and whisking her off to the San Juan Islands for a romantic weekend.
“Do you realize we can get a hantavirus and die from breathing in mouse turds?” I asked her.
She rolled her eyes and unwrapped some figurines. “It’s just dirt, Drea.”
I adjusted the flimsy breathing mask I’d found in Grandma’s closet. We sat in her freezing garage, placing various items on fold-out tables. Grandma would poke her head in every ten minutes or so to decide whether or not to sell them.
“Craigslist would be much easier. Who actually goes to garage sales anymore?”
Mo
m smiled. “People like Grandma. What’s really bugging you today?”
I flipped through an ancient calendar and shrugged. Justin had said about three words to me yesterday. I didn’t get a single moment alone with him because we had a quiz in English, and Naomi spent lunch planning a move to New York City. Neither of them called me last night.
“Grandma said she had to pick you up from school yesterday. How come?”
“Justin took Naomi out so he could talk to her about stuff.”
She wiped some dust off a green vase and frowned. “I thought Justin liked you.”
I looked at the concern in her dark eyes, and an ache formed in my throat. I still wanted to tell her what Naomi did at the mall and about Scott. She might’ve known what to do, but I knew it would scare her. Maybe enough to not let me hang out with Naomi again.
She squatted next to me and gave me a hug, stroking my hair. “Talk to me, sweetie.”
I breathed in the scent of her favorite shampoo. It always smelled a little like bubblegum. And that did it. I just started talking. About Naomi’s situation and Justin’s past. About how I felt sick every time I thought about last weekend.
Her eyes searched my face, and she gave me a weak smile. “I’m proud of you.”
That wasn’t what I expected to hear. “Why?”
“Because you knew what Naomi did was wrong and you had the guts to tell her that. You stuck by her and tried to help, even when you were scared.”
“But I just let it happen.”
“Yes, but now you know not to put yourself in that situation again. You can’t stop Naomi from stealing or dating the wrong guy. It’s not your job to be her mom.” She ruffled my hair. “Just like it isn’t your job to be mine.”
“Do you think she’ll stay away from Scott?”
Mom sighed and sat cross-legged on a throw rug. “I hope so. I know with me—I’m a hopeless romantic at heart. The idea of love blinds me. I see qualities that aren’t there because I want them to be there. I want to trust their words because it hurts too much not to. I look at your grandma and I think, How can she live like this? But I also envy her. She’s not afraid to be alone. I think Naomi and I need a little dose of that.”
“You just made sense.”
Mom laughed. “Well, that’s pretty rare, huh? We should celebrate.”
“Are you still going to let me hang out with Naomi?”
She sighed. “I’m not going to lie. I’ll be watching you more closely—asking where you’re going. No more sleepovers at Naomi’s. I want you home by midnight on weekends. And I want to talk to her dad.”
“No! She’ll hate me.”
“She’s going to get herself into a lot of trouble. I can’t sit back and do nothing in good conscience. Her dad needs to know what’s going on.”
“She promised me she would stop.”
“And I have no doubt she means well, Drea. But we can’t count on that. In the meantime, keep making music. Listen to her if she wants to talk. I think Justin will help look out for her too.” She poked my arm. “Grandma likes him, by the way. And he must like you an awful lot to have listened to her go on the other night. Trust me, not many of my boyfriends were so patient with her.”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I turned my attention to another box, digging at the contents. “Does his past bother you?”
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me a little nervous. But I think it’s great that he’s being honest about it. Does it bother you?”
“No. I like him—I mean, he’s becoming a good friend.”
She smirked. “He’s quite the cutie.”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom, please!” The thought of seeing him later today terrified me. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself again.
I was filming Grandma lining up a row of angel figurines when Naomi showed up. Her big blue eyes appeared in the frame, looking red-rimmed and sleepy. But her lips stretched into a wide smile. She had no idea I’d ratted her out.
“Hey, gorgeous,” she said, batting her eyelashes at the camera. The afternoon light pierced her blond roots, making her hair look thin.
“Hi.” I panned to Grandma. The school camera weighed a ton, and using a tripod was the only way I could keep it steady.
Naomi walked behind me, peering at the little LCD screen. “You’ve got it zoomed in really far. I can practically see the dirt under her nails.” She pressed a button, pushing the image of Grandma farther away. “There ya go.”
I elbowed her arm. “I had it there for a reason, Naomi.”
“Sorry. Damn.” She huffed and sat on the grass. “So I guess you’re mad after all.”
“What do you mean?” I focused on Grandma’s face. She watched the street, hands on her hips. Her eyes widened with each passing car.
“You said it was okay. I mean—he asked me, and we’re just friends. It’s not like it was like that, you know?”
Her words melded together in my head. All I could think about was what she’d do when my mom called her dad.
“Oh, what? You’re going to ignore me now? You should’ve just said something, Drea.”
Grandma turned then, her eyes piercing the frame. She instantly covered her face and spun around. “I told you to turn that off, Drea! You’ll scare the customers away.”
“What customers?”
“I’ll throw it in the street. I’m not kidding,” Grandma said.
“Then you can pay my teacher three thousand dollars to replace it.”
Grandma crinkled her nose and stormed back into the garage, mumbling something about disrespect. “Get me if anyone shows up!” she called.
I clicked the camera off and knelt in front of Naomi. The grass was damp and cold.
“Do you want a blanket?” I asked.
She studied my face for a moment. “You aren’t mad, then?”
“No—I just had a good shot and you messed it up. That’s all.”
“I was trying to help! But I guess I can’t do anything right.”
I looked away from her glare, hugging myself. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Like, yesterday—you bit my head off because you dropped your lunch box. It wasn’t my fault, Drea. I didn’t knock it out of your hands.”
The cutting sound of her voice made me want to get up and run, but I closed my eyes, trying to think of the right words.
“You could at least look at me,” she said.
“I don’t like seeing you so angry at me.”
A few seconds of silence went by. Finally, she exhaled. “Sometimes it just seems like I annoy you. Like you don’t want me around.”
I opened my eyes. She was looking down, running her fingers through the grass. “I do want you around.”
“Okay,” she mumbled. We sat quietly for a minute before a smirk crossed her lips. “Justin told me about his juvie days last night. That’s kinda hot, right?”
“Are you kidding?”
“No way. Justin in handcuffs? Awesome.” She laughed.
Their talk didn’t help as much as I’d hoped.
“Why is that funny?”
She leaned back on the palms of her hands. “Um—because it’s Justin. That image is a little hard to picture.”
“His mom died. Do you think that’s funny and awesome too?”
Her mouth dropped open. “Of course not. But shit happens, people die. It’s not a reason to stop living yourself.”
I pulled up a chunk of grass and let it sift through my fingers. “Whatever.”
“There you go again—acting all pissy.”
My stomach tensed. “I just don’t understand some of the things you say.”
“It’s called having a sense of humor, Drea.”
I counted the loose blades of grass in my hand. “Okay.”
“I should’ve been sixteen in the eighties,” she continued. “I would’ve been the perfect punk chick.”
“Why can’t you be a punk chick now?”
“Because Sid is dead,
duh.”
I threw grass at her. “He died in 1979.”
She rolled her eyes. “Semantics. Anyway, Justin had a conniption because I called Green Day old-school punk. So he gave me a CD with the Dead Milkmen, Sex Pistols, the Clash, and a bunch of others on it. Good stuff.”
“Cool.” I looked at her empty driveway across the street. “Is your dad home this weekend?”
“Nope, but his vacation starts next Saturday. He claims he’s taking me car shopping.”
My chest relaxed. At least I had a week to convince Mom not to call. “You never said how your dinner went Thursday.”
“It was a dinner with Dad, not an all-night party. What exactly is there to talk about?”
“You seemed excited, that’s all.”
“What I really want to talk about is you and Justin. He’s so gaga over you.”
I let a smile slip.
“Ooh. You’re blushing. Something’s totally happened—fess up.”
I buried my face in my knees.
“Oh my God. You hooked up with him!”
I put my hand against her mouth. “Shut up. My grandma will hear you.”
She pulled back. “I wasn’t talking that loud. Don’t be so paranoid.”
“We kissed,” I whispered.
“What?” She leaned forward, her eyes widening.
I brought my mouth to her ear. “Kissed.”
“Kissed what?”
“You know—with our mouths.”
Her brows pinched together. “That’s it?”
I ached to tell her the truth. That I’d never had a boyfriend before. I wanted to ask her all about her first time. What was normal, what wasn’t. But she’d probably think that was funny too.
A slowing car caught my attention. Justin pulled up to the curb in front of us.
Naomi grinned, standing up. “Speaking of a certain ex-thug.”
“Don’t call him that.”
She rolled her eyes and ran over to Justin’s car.
I stayed back and watched them through the lens of the camera. The world looked so different this way. Naomi’s smile seemed less real, and Justin looked almost shy. I zoomed in as he pulled out of their hug. He stared right into the camera, like he was trying to see inside my mind. Naomi glanced over at me and whispered something. He eyed the ground and shrugged.