by Yessi Smith
To her mom’s confusion and delight, we all celebrated her art. After she retreated back into her room, Brinley told the room about her mom. Didn’t leave anything out, including how she was once led to believe her future could look similar to her mom’s.
Rather than the silence I expected, Seth offered to make her mom a worktable, so she could sketch and paint on it. That night Brinley’s joy, the trust, and loyalty she found in us, reached into my chest and squeezed.
Her dad joined Brinley and me after his shift, after our friends had left for the night. He and I argued over which was better – Star Wars or Star Trek. The obvious answer was Star Trek, but he disagreed until he realized I wasn’t letting up. It was good having her dad in my life. A man I was coming to like and respect.
Back at the beach, I waited for Nicole to show up like she said she would when we talked outside the restaurant. It was the main reason I pushed for us to come. I knew how much Brinley missed her friend and although I didn’t understand it, I wanted my girl happy.
After making an excuse about talking to Danny, I left Brinley on our towel when Nicole finally showed up. She nodded in my direction, but I could feel her nerves as if they were my own.
Immediately Brinley’s spine straightened when Nicole sat in front of her. I warred with myself, wanting to go back to Brinley, wanting to give her space and privacy to try to mend things over.
“They’ll be fine,” Danny said, following my track of vision. “Nicole misses her.”
“Yeah.” That’s what Nicole had told me. It was the only reason I wasn’t rushing to Brinley’s side and putting a protective arm around her. “I don’t trust her.”
“I do,” he said, as if that should be enough.
I guessed it was. It wasn’t like Danny would ever do anything to hurt Brinley.
“Did she say anything about what happened in front of the restaurant?” I asked. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about it, and I couldn’t help but worry Nicole would say something to others.
“Just that she was worried.”
I scoffed. “If she was so worried, why didn’t she stick around and, I dunno, be a friend? Make sure she was okay?”
“Mariah was meeting her for breakfast,” Danny said, his tone even. “She didn’t want Mariah to see Brin like that because she knew Mariah would go nuts telling people and starting rumors, so she left and had Mariah meet her somewhere else. That day, she was being a friend.”
Relief washed over me. I looked back at the girls. My gut tightened when Brinley threw her arms around Nicole.
“Prom,” Ari said, sitting down next to us. Seth followed along with Jeremy. “We need to figure out what we’re doing for prom.”
Danny stiffened. When Ari gripped his lap and squeezed, tension grew. Ari removed his hand on a sigh.
“I was thinking we could rent a limo,” Ari added.
I nodded. My heart dropped. Although I continued to work at the ice cream store, I didn’t earn that much money. The little I was able to save went into my Prom fund, so I could rent a tuxedo. I also needed to get a corsage for Brinley and a boutonniere for myself. At least, my aunt told me I had to make sure to get those things.
A limo, I wasn’t sure I could afford that. Not without completely wiping my small savings and leaving me nothing for after graduation. I couldn’t do that. Couldn’t rely on Brinley’s dad to support me, even though he didn’t want us paying rent for whatever apartment we found in San Diego. He was a good man, treated me with more kindness and understanding than my aunt. I couldn’t take advantage of that.
“My grandpa said he was going to rent a limo for us… or for me,” Seth stuttered.
“Why do you need a whole limo for yourself?” Danny teased. “Aren’t we good enough to go with you?”
“Yeah, sure.” Seth drew his brows together. “Unless I get a bunch of girls to come with me. Then you guys are out.”
I laughed. Hard. And when Ari stuck out his fist, Seth tapped it.
“A man with priorities,” Ari said. “I like it.”
“We can all pitch in for the limo,” Danny said.
Red spread across Seth’s pale complexion. “My grandpa won’t take your money. He’s too happy I’m going to a dance at all. I mean, it’s not like I’ve had much of a social life for a few years.” He laughed. It sounded tense and nervous.
“You guys thinking about asking anyone?” Ari asked him and Jeremy.
“I won’t be here for Prom,” Jeremy replied. “I’m starting some college courses after spring break at UCLA.” He shrugged. “By then, I’ll have all the hours I need to graduate high school, so it didn’t make sense to stay here.”
“Ah, college girls.” Danny nodded his head in approval. As if the four of us didn’t know he was with Ari.
“I’ve been talking to Sammi some,” Seth piped in. “I was thinking about asking her.”
Sammi. The image of a small girl with pink hair and braces crossed my mind. She was cute, enthusiastic. Maybe the kind of girl that would draw Seth out.
“Drama girl?” Ari asked.
Seth dipped his head down to hide his blush.
“Invite her to the diner tonight,” Danny suggested.
“I don’t think…” Seth stammered.
“Don’t think!” Danny shouted and grabbed Seth’s phone. “Invite the girl, get the girl.”
Seth took his phone back, fumbled with it a few times, before it landed on his lap. Finally, he unlocked the screen and sent a quick text.
I looked back when I felt Brinley’s hand on my shoulder. While I brought her fingers to my lips, she knelt behind me before she sat down and fanned her legs on either side of me. I leaned in to her, she wrapped her arms around me and rested the side of her face against the back of my shoulder. She kissed me.
“Have I told you how much I love you lately?” she whispered too low for anyone else to hear.
“Not in the last five minutes or so,” I replied.
My fingers spread over her wrists, held her to me. Refused for her to ever let me go.
Nicole sat beside Danny. She looked happy and when she looked back at me, she mouthed, “Thank you.”
I didn’t know what she was thanking me for, but I nodded in response.
“What!” Seth scrambled to his knees, thrust his phone in Danny’s face. “She said yes. Sammi’s coming to the diner tonight.”
“You better bathe then,” I joked. “I’ve heard girls don’t like it when guys smell.”
Danny threw back his head in laughter while Brinley dug her teeth into my shoulder.
I rubbed where she’d nipped me. “Vampire.”
“Smelly boy,” she shot back.
“Not anymore,” I said, my voice low. “I didn’t have a home before. Now I do.”
There were so many different meanings behind that statement. Sure, when she first accused me of smelling bad I was kinda homeless, but what I said went deeper than that. I knew she got it.
I felt her smile against my shoulder. “Always.”
I brought our joined hands to my lips, kept her fingers there while I pressed kisses onto her warm skin. She sighed behind me.
“I gotta run to the bathroom,” Seth said.
“Don’t forget to wash your hands!” Danny shouted to his departing back. “Anything more than two shakes, and you’re just playing with it!”
Seth shook his head, sent his middle finger in the air. Brinley pressed her nose in to my back and giggled. It was such a pretty sound, my favorite sound.
“Volleyball?” Danny asked.
The guy was always moving. Never stopped. As if he thought that by standing still, life would somehow pass him by. When in reality you missed so much more when you didn’t take things slow, take them in.
He and Brinley were a lot like that. Exuberant, running circles around others, talking to everyone. Me? I was happy doing exactly what I was doing.
I let go of her hands, when Danny and the others stood. Turned my head back
when she didn’t move.
“I think I’m gonna stay here.” A satisfied smile twisted her lips.
It was the first time she’d chosen me over a group when we were around her friends. I cozied back into her chest when her fingers danced through my hair. It was the first time she chose to be background music rather than take the limelight. But Brinley, she always had my full attention.
Closing my eyes, I soaked in the sun. Soaked in the embrace of the girl who was my forever.
“Seth hasn’t come back yet,” Brinley said after at least ten minutes went by.
I turned to the building that housed the bathrooms and after a few more seconds went by, I stood up. Taking Brinley’s hand, I helped her up. We walked quietly together. It was as if we knew… something bad had happened.
From a few feet, I could see Jacob and Joseph saunter to the parking lot. I hadn’t even realized they were here, but was grateful they were leaving. They sent equal glares to the door that led to the men’s bathroom and then laughed, high fiving each other like the idiots they were.
Fear gripped me. Completely took over. Letting go of Roderick’s hand, I sprinted toward the bathroom. Didn’t bother pausing before flinging the door open. Roderick was beside me, placed a hand on my elbow when I stopped suddenly.
Two quick strides carried me to Seth, who laid on the floor, his body huddled in a ball. I sank to my knees beside him, whispered his name before I reached for him. When I touched his face, he flinched.
“Seth?” I said his name a little louder this time.
Cuts marred his face. A small puddle of blood rested on floor where his head lay. Urine spread around him and I was sure he had some on him as well.
My heart trembled, but I stood up. Willed the anger back while I took paper towels from the dispenser and wet them under the warm faucet.
When I turned back to him, Roderick had helped him to a sitting position with his back against the bathroom wall. He kept his face turned down, but I could see one eye was already swollen shut.
Back on my knees, I placed the wet towel against his cheek. He flinched again and closed his other eye. I spent the next few minutes trying to clean up the mess two people I once considered friends had done.
Blood trickled from a cut on his forehead, from cuts below his right eye, from a cut on his lips and one beside his mouth.
The urge to cry built in my chest, but that would have to wait, when Seth no longer needed me.
When I finished, I leaned my back against the wall and sat down beside him. Leaning my head on his shoulder, I placed an arm around his waist. His shirt had small wet streaks that had stained his white shirt yellow. He pulled my hand away.
“It’s full of piss,” he said, his voice quaking.
“Then let’s take it off you.” I touched the bottom of his shirt and when he leaned forward a bit, I pulled his shirt over his head, careful not to touch him with the wet parts.
Tossing the shirt across the room, I rested my head back on his shoulder as I twined an arm around him.
Danny squatted in front of us and handed me a towel. I hadn’t even seen him come in, hadn’t heard the door when he’d opened it.
“You alright, man?” Roderick asked.
With his head leaned against mine, he nodded. It was slow, sluggish.
I covered the towel over the red marks on his chest and stomach and when I put my arms around him, I was careful not to hurt him.
Danny rocked on his feet, from his toes to his heel. “Ari’s taking care of Joseph and Jacob,” he said.
“I’ll see if he needs any help,” Roderick said.
“Roderick,” I called to him.
But he’d already turned away, already made his decision. I just hoped he wouldn’t get hurt or in trouble.
“Brin,” Seth said my name slowly. “Sitting with you on a piss infested floor with your arms around me while even more piss covers my body is what dreams are made of,” he edged back to give me a slow smile, “but do you think you can take me home?”
I snorted out a laugh. “Yeah, sure.”
Outside, Seth stood under the spray of one of the showers. His hands splayed over the concrete wall while he kept his head down. After I finished rinsing off, I looked around the corner to the parking lot.
Sure enough, Roderick and Ari had taken out their fury on Jacob and Joseph. I was happy to see their faces bloody, their shirts torn. They deserved worse. But someone had broken up the fight, and while the twins limped to their car, Roderick paced the parking lot like a caged animal.
“Your boyfriend looks crazy scary right now,” Seth said, coming beside me.
I wrapped a towel over his shoulders, enveloped an arm around his back.
“Head high, shoulders back,” I instructed. “You ready?”
He nodded. As we neared the parking lot, his hand slinked around my back, and he dug his fingers into my waist. He stammered out a breath, stopped moving entirely when other students from our school turned to watch us. Roderick came to us, waited for us to continue walking to the car.
“Head high, shoulders back,” I whispered again when Seth took a tentative step forward. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Not when you’ve got the prettiest girl, wearing nothing but a tiny bikini with her arms around you.” Roderick winked.
I covered my chest with a single hand and Seth laughed. It sounded real. Pained, but also real.
“My bikini is not tiny.” I stuck out my tongue.
I led Seth to the front passenger door of my car. When he got in, I stepped back. Danny snapped one of the straps of my bikini, and I shoved his hand away.
“It is pretty tiny,” he said.
Roderick’s hands skimmed over my waist, grazed the side of my breast. His eyes heated, his lips remained in a frown.
“You okay?” I touched his face.
He turned into it, pressed a kiss to my wrist.
“I am now.”
“Diner tonight.” Danny smacked the top of my car while he spoke to Seth.
“I don’t think I’m gonna make it,” Seth answered.
I got it. Understood why he didn’t want to go, why he wanted to hide. But hiding didn’t solve anything.
“Why don’t we go to the cave instead?” I asked.
“Seth’s got a hot date tonight,” Danny said. “She’s supposed to meet us at the diner.”
A blush deepened on Seth’s cheeks and relief flooded me when his dimples popped out. He was hurt, but not broken. He’d be okay.
“Yeah?” I arched a single brow. “Who’s the lucky girl?”
“Sammi,” he mumbled. “But it’s not a date,” he rushed out.
“Okay, so bring your non-date to the cave.”
“What cave?” he asked me.
“You’ll see.”
Roderick and I had gotten to our cave early to stream up the lights I’d left outside the cave so they’d be exposed to the sunlight. Our work didn’t come out as nice as Danny and Ari’s, but it looked good. The framed poems they’d given us on Roderick’s birthday were spread equally in Roderick’s room and in mine. I kept his poems, and he kept mine. But he let me keep the one we’d written together.
“Think we can start eating before they get here?” he asked, sneaking a quick peek at the takeout we’d gotten.
I angled my head to the side. “Maybe some tortilla chips and salsa.”
“That’s my girl.” He grinned.
After a quick rummage through the bag, he pulled out a small bowl and the container with chips. He dipped a chip in the salsa and brought it to my lips. I took a bite and moaned. Not because it was that good, but because I loved the heat that collected in his eyes when I did that.
“What’s this?” Danny raced into the cave. Sweat collected on his forehead, but he didn’t seem to be the least bit winded. “You guys eating without us?”
“When we were a few feet away, he swore he heard you guys eating,” Ari said, an amused expression behind his eyes
, “so he took off in a sprint.”
Danny shot an accusatory finger in our direction. I pointed at Roderick, who still had part of the chip I hadn’t finished in his hand.
“I thought we were friends,” Danny said.
“It was all Brin,” Roderick defended himself. “She made me feed her a chip.”
“Sure,” the melodic voice of Sammi reached me. “Blame the girl.”
I grinned. “Don’t you know we’re always to blame?”
With her head tipped up, she spun a few circles. She took in everything with an open smile. When she stopped, she held a hand to Seth’s shoulder while he cupped a hand on her elbow. My smile widened, I couldn’t help myself.
Seth’s eyes narrowed in my direction, and I bit back my smile. Not that it mattered, his attention went back to Sammi as soon as she spoke again.
“This place is amazing,” Sammi said.
Roderick held me from behind, trailed his nose over my throat. “Yeah, it is,” he replied.
“How’d you find it?” she asked.
Roderick and I laughed. I told her our story, not the whole thing. I left out how Roderick had slept here, how I’d found him here sick and took him back to my house. That part was ours.
Roderick told them about our poems. I didn’t feel self-conscious when they read them. Only assured in the boy that had stolen my heart.
“Can I write a poem too?” Sammi asked.
“After dinner, woman,” Danny griped.
“You and that endless pit of a stomach,” I said.
“A growing boy needs sustenance,” he replied.
Ari held out a plate he’d prepared for Danny. He took it but didn’t start eating until Ari was by his side. At least his manners extended to his boyfriend, if not to the rest of us.
I swiped a piece of beef fajita from Roderick’s plate. He pretended to stab me with his plastic fork while I ate it.
“So good,” I murmured.
“Yeah, it’s not bad,” Seth said. “Thanks for picking this up for us.”
“To Brinley, my hero.” Danny raised his soda bottle in the air.
I raised my middle finger.