Tina was incensed. She was at angry at David as she was at Maxine.
Maxine walked to David and jumped on the hood of the car, seating beside David.
“I didn’t attend. I got to school late today.” he answered, as he shifted to the left to create more room for her.
“Oh, okay. What were you guys talking about?” Maxine said, looking at Tina and Charlie.
Tina didn’t feel obligated to answer. Charlie answered immediately.
“Who do you think wins in a fight Maxine? Superman or the Incredible Hulk” he asked her.
Maxine smiled a “Where did that come from?” kind of smile and just shook her head.
“I’m not too into comics Charlie. I don’t know.” she answered, her voice calm and silky.
Tina then realized that Maxine knew their names.
“How does she know our names?” she asked herself.
“Who do you think wins David?” Maxine asked him. She was sitting very close to him now, so close Tina was sure he felt every word as a gust of wind on his face.
“I already told them my answer. I am not any better than you at this, this is their turf.” he replied.
Charlie went into a rant about how he showed Tina everything she knew about superheroes and only her umbrage at Maxine’s interruption prevented her from getting into a war of words with him. She felt she still might have if Blaise didn’t show up.
“Hey, get your asses off my hood.” Blaise shouted, surprising all of them as no one saw him coming.
David came off first, helping Maxine down. Tina noticed that Blaise wasn’t even ruffled that both of them were sitting on his hood. They were in the same group.
It’s me and Charlie, looking in from the outside.
But David, she still didn’t know. Was it possible to belong to the popular guys and still belong to a group like hers and Charlie’s?
Blaise interrupted her thoughts.
“I am on my way to the bar. I feel like playing pool. Are you coming David?” Blaise asked from inside the car.
David looked like he wanted to say no. He looked at Tina, his eyes begging her to speak. She refused.
“Come on David, you’ll be in my team.” Maxine said, dragging his left arm as she opened the backdoor of the convertible.
“Let’s go man. We don’t have all day.” Blaise added.
Tina watched as David waved a weak goodbye to Charlie and her. Charlie answered.
He never seemed ruffled by what Tina saw happening.
The other group was taking their friend away from them. Maxine was taking David away from her.
*******
David kept waiting for Tina and Charlie but he never went home with them. They would talk for a while and Maxine would show up. David would leave after a few minutes with Maxine. He sometimes came around to Charlie’s house after school, Charlie would call Tina on the phone and she would show up. Tina always wondered why he kept waiting for them since he never went home with them.
After a few weeks, Ronda started meeting up with them at the parking lot too. Her tight braids showing her chocolate scalp. Tina felt to ask many times why Ronda’s scalp shone in the sun. Ronda wasn’t like Maxine. She wasn’t of another clique or proud or a show-off. She was nice, neat and black. Tina asked Charlie if he had asked Ronda to be his girlfriend.
“She says we have to go through this ritual.” Charlie had answered, his voice dropping low as if to prevent others from hearing a top secret.
“Ritual?” Tina repeated. She was surprised, she knew Ronda was African.
But not so African
“I was as surprised as you are right now, more so even. She says there would be mixing of blood, oaths and all.” Charlie continued, his eyes transmitting the wonder in his mind.
“All of that just for you guys to date.” Tina asked, still unsure of what she was hearing.
“Yeah.” Charlie replied, removing his paper bag containing the head-sized hamburger in it.
Tina wasn’t sure Charlie knew what he was saying. Some weeks later after Ronda said yes to Charlie, he told her she said that was all make-believe. She just gave him an excuse to prevent him from pestering her about it. Tina laughed till tears dropped from her eyes at lunch that day. Ronda just smiled all through Charlie telling her. She was feeling good about herself, Tina was sure.
Tina liked Ronda. She was starting to like Maxine too, despite how she wore flashy clothes. She was starting to, just starting to like her when David went and showcased his silliness.
CHAPTER 5
HER FRIENDS MAKE FRIENDS
I
t was lunchtime. The rain had been heavy the night before, lasting till early that morning. Maxine wasn’t in school that day, so it was a table of four. She, David and Ronda start round wondering how Charlie’s mouth could house so much food without tearing apart.
“What’s up with Maxine today?” Ronda asked David.
He pushed his plate of rice aside. David wasn’t a big fan of rice, Tina had noticed. His mouth turned up into a scowl.
“I don’t know. I spoke to her last night. It has to be the rain. I’ll go to her place after school.” he answered.
Tina didn’t believe that David knew her house.
“You know her house?” Tina asked.
Everyone turned to look at her when she said that. Tina wondered if she had said something wrong.
“Of course I know her house Tina, why wouldn’t I?” David answered her, his eyes giving her a weird look.
“Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I say something wrong?” Tina asked.
“Hmm… not really.” Charlie answered.
“Why wouldn’t he know his girlfriend’s house?” Ronda added.
Tina couldn’t believe what she just heard. David was dating Maxine.
Maxine, of all girls?
The pork got stuck in her mouth. She felt it expanding, filling every crevice in her throat, cutting off her oxygen. She pushed her hand into her bag and brought out her bottle of water. She guzzled it down fast, forcing the pork down along with it.
Charlie places his hand on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asked, seeing her eyes water.
“I’m fine, a piece of pork got stuck in my throat.”
Ronda told her to drink some more and started talking about one time when bread got stuck in her throat. Charlie was soon laughing to her funny story.
Tina looked at David. She saw him, his eyes lowered, peeking at her through closed lashes. He didn’t speak till they left the table.
David walked slower than the others when they left for their classes after the lunch break. Tina saw him dawdle behind the Charlie and Ronda who were too engrossed in each other to notice. She was about walking faster to meet up with them when a hand held her back.
“I want to talk to you.” David said.
Tina didn’t reply. She was so angry she didn’t trust her tongue. She didn’t look at him, preferring to focus on her gaze on the clock on the wall. It looked like the second hand was moving half a second too slow. Tina felt like the rest of the day should just fly by, and the person who caused that was standing right in front of her.
“I am sorry you had to know like that. I should have told you.” he said, holding her hand with a loose firmness. She didn’t feel pressure but she knew he wouldn’t let her hands go if she tried.
“You don’t have to apologize David, we are just friends.” She tried to smile after saying that but she just couldn’t pull it off. The expression came off more as a grimace than any other.
“I do. I should have told you before I even did it.” he answered.
She looked at him; she saw the regret in his eyes and was confused. She liked David, liked him more than his friendship could offer. And sometimes she could see he liked her too, she could see he liked her that way. Right now she looked into his eyes and she saw it.
Was that regret in his eyes too? That had to be hiding away behind the plea looming at the surface.
Tina didn’t know whether to accept his apologies or reject them. Both wouldn’t suffice. What she wanted to David could not be taken again. He had chosen another.
*******
From that day, David stopped waiting for them at the parking lot after school. Ronda told Tina he went to Maxine’s class when school ended. They went home together from there. They still met in the mornings, ate together at lunch and hung together whenever they had time. But Tina felt the gap between David and her widening. He still sought her eyes out whenever he entered a room she was in. Tina saw them thinking the same things many times the group had arguments during lunch break.
Tina missed him, his assured looks and the confidence he exuded. He was able to talk to anybody in school refusing to follow unspoken rules and associate only with social cliques. Tina thought they would never become close any longer till when they were paired together in History class. Each pair was meant to work on a topic provided by their teacher as an assignment. There would be cardboard presentations and other groups were allowed to ask questions that affected how the group was scored. The assignment carried a lot of marks and each pair was meant to spend a lot of time working together.
“David McCallister, your partner is Tina Jordan.” the history teacher said, reading out from a white sheet which had edges that looked like they would cut deep.
Tina looked straight at David when she heard that. He was already looking at her when she saw him. He smiled, a small smile Tina wouldn’t have noticed if she didn’t know him so much. She smiled too, unable to hide hers like he did his.
He waited for her after the class, risking getting late for his next class. He had changed his hairstyle, laying all the strands down towards his back. He wore a white shirt with gold buttons, the sleeves were rolled. Tina saw that David had much hair on his arms.
So much hair already?
He wore jean pants on clean white snickers. He was starting to dress like Maxine already, Tina noticed. She was angry at where her train of thoughts was going.
“So when do we start to work on it?” David asked her.
She walked forward a bit, allowing David to follow her down the corridor.
“When are you going to be free?” she asked him. She wanted him to be the one to choose the time and place.
“I am free anytime you are. Today is Friday, how about we meet up tomorrow?” he answered.
“Tomorrow is cool. Where should we see?” she asked. She noted how his bag had no stains on it. It was pure black.
This isn’t his bag. This is Maxine’s bag.
Tina pushed her thoughts behind her.
“Well it’s an assignment, not a date or anything, we need somewhere we can do some research.” David replied.
“Typical of you to point that out. Real smooth.” Tina thought.
“Why not your place?” he added.
Tina felt okay with that. Her parents knew David, they could do it in her room.
“Show up tomorrow, I’ll be waiting.” she said, speeding up to get to her next class in time.
“It’s a duet Tina. Curly shouldn’t come and bring up bogus arguments again.” he shouted as she walked away.
“I know, new boy.” Tina shouted back.
CHAPTER 6
NOTHING TO BE SORRY ABOUT
H
e got to her place by noon the next day. Tina heard her mom greet him as he walked into the sitting room downstairs. After a few seconds, she heard her name.
“Tina, Tina. David is here.” her mom shouted.
Tina walked down the stairs, remembering to jump over the middle one that made the loud creaking noise. Her dad always said he would fix it; he just had to nail it at the edges. He always forgot.
David was downstairs, watching a football game. He didn’t see her come down. She walked to his side and sat.
“What are you watching?” she asked even though it was obvious what he was watching.
“T.V” he replied.
Tina understood his answer. He was giving her an answer as cheeky as the question she asked.
“What kind of T.V?” she asked.
“It’s a flat screen color T.V” he replied, focusing on the game he was watching.
Tina laughed at that. She always laughed first at his inside jokes. The game was about to come to an end, Tina couldn’t see who was winning but she saw the time was almost up. When the game ended, David looked at her telling her he was ready with his eyes. Tina stood up and led the way up to her room. David looked surprised when he entered her room as if seeing her grayish cream walls for the first time. He sat on her bed, bouncing up and down a bit as if he needed to get used to its softness. Her window was open and a cold wind came in, ruffling David’s sleeping hair. He didn’t notice, his attention was still outside where some boys were playing basketball. Tina had never felt so much awkwardness in one place. She was desperate to break the ice, she needed someone to say something.
“So what do you think we should work on?” Tina asked him, drawing his attention back to her.
He looked at her but didn’t respond at first. His gaze wandered up and back down to her feet, Tina tried to guess what he was thinking.
Is he checking me out?
“Are you checking me out?” she blurted out, regretting the question as it left her lips.
David went red-faced. It became obvious she either hit the nail right on the head or he was doing something else and she embarrassed him.
“I would do that? Like right in front of you, in your room? Really?” David answered, a smile creeping into his eyes. He started chuckling after saying that, especially as Tina struggled to find a fitting reply. After three trials where she opened her mouth and closed it again without making any words, she said something.
“Well, you were staring at me in a weird kind of way.” she replied, going to her table to pick a pen and paper. She went to her table more to avoid his boring gaze than to pick the pen or paper.
“I wasn’t Tina.” he replied.
She said nothing in reply. She just came and sat at the edge of the bed, as far away from him as possible.
“Not that I haven’t before, or wouldn’t, but I wasn’t doing that now.” he added.
Tina didn’t look up but there was a deep reddening of her cheeks and a silly grin Tina couldn’t stop from developing. After a few futile seconds of stopping the embarrassing facial expressions, Tina covered her face with the paper, giving up on facial stolidity. David laughed outright when she did that. He laughed then he went to close the window. Tina wondered what her reaction had to do with the window.
“I know you do sometimes. Dork head.” she replied.
“I don’t want us to work on popular people.” David said, going back to the assignment.
“Let’s do something the other groups would never think of doing. It’ll make us special, probably making Miss Pebble give us more marks. And it’ll make our topic so different, the other groups wouldn’t be able to conjure difficult questions.” he continued.
Tina liked his plan. The only problem was that what would be that topic.
“I don’t have an idea of a topic we could use, except the obvious American heroes.” she replied, cutting the paper at the edges. She wanted it to have round edges, like her bed, her favorite jotter and every other thing she loved.
Like David’s face, curved chubbiness, not the muscled sharp outline that other guys had.
Her eyes wandered up from the paper and met David’s gaze. He had been staring at her and when her eyes came up, he averted his gaze. He pretended to observe something on the floor. Tina was notorious for the neatness of her room and she knew it. Her floors were clean. They still had the red wooden color they had always had, David was just avoiding her gaze this time.
“How about places? Washington D.C, it is the capital.” David said.
“That’s just too basic.” Tina replied. Presenting on the capital removed the uniqueness of the topic which was the reason Tina
agreed to not using popular people in the first place. She didn’t like it and her tone showed it.
“Yeah, I agree.” David said.
They both kept silent for a while after that. David’s Adam’s apple kept bobbing up and down like he was swallowing something.
Or he was counting the time. He wants to get out of here.
”Don’t you have someplace you need to go?” Tina asked him, drawing a quizzical look from him.
His eyes thinned to a line and his mouth took that easy downward bend.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You were behaving like you had somewhere to go, you looked impatient.” she replied.
“I don’t. I was thinking of a topic to use.”
“Do you want me to go?” he added
“No.”
That was a little too fast.
“No, I don’t. I just don’t want to be the one holding you back from seeing Maxine.” she said.
David looked surprised, the downward turning of his mouth changing direction to form a smile.
“Do you have a problem with Maxine?” he asked.
He was asking as if he knew the answer to the question already.
“No, I don’t.” she answered curtly.
“Why don’t we talk about the Santa Fe Trail?” David said, his eyes lit up as he did.
“I think that would be a wonderful topic. Wow, I didn’t know you knew so much about trading routes. Last I checked if a trading route didn’t pass through a soccer pitch you didn’t care about it.” she answered. She was surprised he had heard of the trail at all.
“I am not so dumb, madam.” he answered.
“How did you get to know of the Santa Fe Trail?” she asked him.
“Maxine has a lot of encyclopedias. I think I read something relating to it when I went to her place last.” he replied.
“It just had to be Maxine.” Tina thought.
“Oh, that’s great. I didn’t take her to be much of a reader.” she said, coating her thoughts with kinder words.
“She is a reader. She knows a lot but tries to hide it. She is a whole lot of other things than just being a beautiful cheerleader.” he replied.
After All This Time: What She Wished Page 3