We went to the counter, but Henry went in the back through the swinging doors. When he didn’t come out, I went back there to find him. He was in the closet staring at a shelf of paper towel rolls.
“What are you looking for, Henry?” I asked him.
His eyes scanned the paper towels. “I came in here for something, but now I can’t remember.”
“Maybe you should close the store and go rest. You don’t seem like you feel very well today.”
He nodded slowly. “Maybe you should go get Joe.”
“Joe is at the retirement center,” I told him. “Remember?”
Henry frowned and sat down on the step stool in the closet. “I can’t remember much of anything these days.”
I leaned down in front of him. “It’s okay, Henry. Everything is going to be okay.”
9
Don’t let them blindfold you,
Force into your mind
Something that’s not true.
— Kids from Alcatraz
«WHERE DOES HENRY LIVE?» ZION asked over lunch at school on Monday.
“He lives in a little apartment above the soda shop,” I said. “Like ours above the steakhouse. That way he doesn’t have to drive anywhere, and Mom makes sure he always has what he needs and takes him to the doctor and all that.”
“Why does Stagecoach Pass have those apartments?” Zion asked.
“Josephine told me when it was first built there was nothing else out there, and it was all dirt roads. It was too difficult for people to travel to Stagecoach Pass every day for work, so they lived there.”
“Interesting.”
“Of course, Henry and my family are the only ones who live there anymore.”
“Why doesn’t he retire?”
“He doesn’t want to. It’s what he’s always done. And it makes him happy.” I popped a grape in my mouth. “He’s going to be okay.”
“I hope so,” Zion said, swigging down his chocolate milk, his face worried. “He was so confused.”
“The doctor told Mom he has something called sundown syndrome.”
“What’s that?”
“As it gets later in the day, he gets more and more confused. I’ve definitely noticed it from time to time. He’ll be doing okay in the morning and then by dinnertime, he’s disoriented. It depends on the day. Sometimes he’s confused all day.”
Zion studied the table, a frown on his face while I chewed another grape. “Are we still on for the mall today?” I asked him. “I’ve got to find my costume.”
“Yep. My mom’s taking Lando and Janessa and you and me.”
I looked over at Lando’s table. Janessa was the one with long brown hair and perfect makeup who was always mooning over Lando. No smudged mascara for that girl.
I turned back to Zion. “I hope the Halloween store is open already.”
“Ma called them. It is.”
“Oh, good.”
“So what’d you end up doing yesterday?”
I popped another grape into my mouth with my foot, always aware of the many turned heads in the cafeteria watching me. “I brushed Chili, spent time with Spaghetti, and lounged with Fathead.”
Zion grinned. “You should have called Fathead ‘Cocoa’ or something. Then all your animals would have food names.”
Darn it. Why didn’t I think of that? It was too late now; Fathead was her name and would be forevermore.
Zion glared at something behind me, and I turned around to see what it was. Joshua walked toward us. I flipped back to Zion. “Oh my gosh.” I put my leg down from the table and slipped my foot back into my flip-flop.
“Hi Aven,” Joshua said. “You look nice today.”
I glanced down at my black flip-flops, jean shorts, and llamacorn T-shirt. In case you’re wondering what a llamacorn is, it’s an animal that is half llama and half unicorn. So basically, it’s the best animal ever. “Thanks?” I said.
Joshua sat down at the table with us. “What are you eating?”
“Grapes.”
“I like grapes.”
I nodded. “Interesting. We both like grapes.”
Joshua smiled. “I think we probably have a lot in common.” He had a great smile. Good teeth. Most boys my age were toothbrush-challenged, but I could tell Joshua wasn’t. It was hard to imagine him saying mean things to anyone. He seemed so nice. Maybe Zion was exaggerating.
I touched my flip-flop to his Adidas shoe. “You like soccer?” I asked.
“Yes!” He beamed at me.
“Then we probably do have a lot in common.” I glanced at Zion, who looked like he was about to hurl all over the lunch table. I wished he would stop acting like this and just be happy that a boy seemed to like me.
“You have any plans for after school?” Joshua asked.
I turned to Zion. He frowned and shook his head at me. “Zion and I are going to the mall.”
Zion kicked me under the table, and I shot him a dirty look.
“Cool,” Joshua said. “We might be going to the mall later, too. Maybe I’ll see you there.”
“Okay.”
Zion glared at Joshua’s back as he walked away. “What is his deal?”
I shrugged. “Maybe he doesn’t have one. Maybe the deal is yours.”
Zion narrowed his eyes at me. “Why’d you tell him what we’re doing? It’s none of his business.”
“You know, people change,” I said. “Maybe he’s trying to make up for being a jerk before. Or maybe . . . you’re not remembering very well.”
Zion’s mouth dropped open and then he pushed his lips together. I was pretty sure he was grinding his teeth. “Maybe you’re not thinking very well,” he said through his clenched teeth.
“Nope. My thinking is working just fine. As usual.”
“I think you’re thinking challenged right now. You’re using poor judgment, as my dad says.”
“Never,” I said. “I’m a tremendous judge of people. That’s why we’re friends.”
Zion’s face relaxed a little. “I really do hope you’re not wrong.”
10
I’ll be there for you
When it all falls apart.
I’ll be there for you
When they break your heart.
— Kids from Alcatraz
ZION, LANDO, JANESSA, AND I WAITED at the curb for Mrs. Hill. Janessa and Lando ignored Zion and me as they flirted with each other, leaving us free to mimic them by making silly giggling noises and exaggerated moony eyes at each other.
Mrs. Hill pulled up, and Lando got into the front seat and slammed the door. Janessa turned to me. “I guess the three of us are stuck in the back. Evelyn, you should sit in the middle since you don’t need the arm room. And you’re waaaay smaller than Zion.”
Zion gaped at Janessa. “The van has a third row.”
Her face lit up. “Oh, cool. Then you guys can sit in it.”
I turned to Zion as Janessa got into the van, my mouth hung open. Zion’s eyes were huge. “I can’t believe she just said that, Evelyn,” he whispered. “It would have been funny if it was a joke.”
I stifled a laugh. “I know, but I don’t think it was at all. She’s pretty skilled, though—insulting us both at the same time.”
Zion and I climbed in through the sliding door of the van and sat in the third row together.
Mrs. Hill turned to us from the driver seat. “Everyone ready to go?”
“Yup,” I said. “Good thing I don’t need any arm room.”
Mrs. Hill raised an eyebrow, and Zion snorted beside me. Janessa let out a loud breath in front of us like simply being in our presence made her bored.
Mrs. Hill talked endlessly to us about her painstaking process of picking her Comic Con costume this year. “I am definitely not going to go as Wonder Woman,” she said. “Everyone will be doing that.”
“You could be Nubia again, Ma,” Lando said.
“Wear the same costume two years in a row?” Mrs. Hill cried. “I want to do something new this year, so
mething I haven’t done before. That rules out Nubia, Vixen, Misty Knight, Monica Rambeau, Skyrocket, and just about every black female comic book character that exists.”
“What about Amanda Waller?” Lando said.
Mrs. Hill snorted. “And wear a business suit? Plus, no powers. Guys have it easy. The number of male comic book characters compared to the number of female comic book characters is so unbalanced. And don’t even get me started on the number of mainstream black female superheroes.”
“You could go as Storm,” I said.
“So predictable,” Mrs. Hill said.
“Maybe you should do something really out of the ordinary,” I said. “Like go as a female version of a male character. Like the Hulkess or something.”
Lando cracked up. “Hulkess,” he repeated.
“I like it,” Mrs. Hill said. “There actually is a She-Hulk.”
“Cool,” I said. “She-Hulk.”
Mrs. Hill smiled at me in the rearview mirror as we pulled into the parking garage at the mall. “Good idea.”
“Yeah, good idea, Evelyn,” Zion whispered to me, and we giggled.
We all separated once we got inside, Lando walking off holding Janessa’s hand. “No making out!” Mrs. Hill called after them.
Lando turned around, his mouth hanging open. “Ma, really?”
She turned to Zion and me. “Meet me back here in the food court in two hours.”
She didn’t need to warn Zion and me not to make out as we went off together. We headed straight for the Halloween store. I walked over to a wall of masks as soon as we got in there. I slipped off my flip-flop and grabbed a particularly bloody face with my toes. Then I sat on the floor and lifted the mask over my head with my feet, adjusting the strap. “ What do you think?” I asked Zion.
“That’s gross,” Zion said. “I don’t want to be around that all day at Comic Con.”
I stood up and hobbled toward Zion. “But don’t you want to make out with me?” I said from under the mask in a screechy voice.
Zion laughed and pushed me gently back. “Heck, no. Get away from me.”
“Come on, kiss me,” I said, inching my face toward Zion’s and making disgusting slurping noises. “Kiss me, hot stuff.” Zion squealed and tried to get away from me as I ran after him down the aisle with the mask on, still making wet kissing noises.
“Aven?” I heard someone say and I spun around. Joshua was standing behind me in the aisle with a bunch of other kids from school. His friends all gawked at me like I was such a weirdo, but Joshua smiled. “What are you doing?”
I stared at him through the eye holes in the mask. “Nothing,” I said. “Just torturing Zion.” I sat down on the floor and pulled the mask off with my feet and set it aside. Then I stood back up, my cheeks a blazing fire of red, no doubt.
Zion stood next to me and glared at him. “It’s none of your business what she’s doing.” As much as I wanted Zion to let things go with Joshua, I also felt a sense of pride at how much his confidence had grown in the last several months. He would have never spoken up to anyone like that last year.
Joshua smiled. “Look, man, can’t we let bygones be bygones?”
Zion shook his head slowly, but I asked, “What are you doing at the mall, Joshua?”
“Just hanging out. Can I hang with you guys?”
Zion said, “No,” and I said, “Sure,” at the same time. “We’re trying to find Comic Con costumes,” I told Joshua.
“Cool,” Joshua said. “Lando mentioned Comic Con at practice the other day. I remember your family’s really into comic book stuff, Zion.”
“Yeah,” Zion said. “And I remember how you called me a fat fanboy freak.”
Joshua glanced from me to Zion as a couple of his friends snorted. “No, I didn’t,” he insisted.
“Yes,” Zion said. “You did.”
“How do you even know it was me?” Joshua asked. “You’re always staring at the ground.”
That was sort of true.
“And your brother and I are on the football team together now, so we should try to get along.”
We all stood there quietly for a moment until I said, “Maybe you can help me pick out a costume, Joshua.”
His face lit up. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
Joshua told his friends he was going to hang with us for a while, and we walked through the store together. I motioned my head toward a Supergirl costume. “Too silly?” I asked him.
“No, I think it would look great on you.” Joshua removed the cape from the rack and placed it around my shoulders.
Zion kicked at a rubber baseboard on a nearby wall. “I want to leave,” he said. “I’ve already got a costume. And it’s almost time to go.”
I checked the watch around my ankle and saw that we still had forty-five minutes left, but I didn’t feel like arguing with Zion, especially when he was being so unreasonable.
Joshua walked with us back to the food court. Zion was quiet the whole time while Joshua and I talked about school. Clearly whatever had happened between Joshua and Zion was long over because Joshua was a totally different person. I couldn’t imagine him doing the things Zion had said, and it made me wonder again if Zion wasn’t exaggerating everything.
When we got to the food court, Zion and I sat down at a table while Joshua went to get a smoothie. “You better not actually like him,” Zion said.
“He’s nice,” I said.
“Aven,” Zion pleaded.
“And he’s cute.”
Zion groaned.
“You need to let this go. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Joshua walked back to us, two smoothies in his hands. “Here, I got one for you, too, Aven.” He set it on the table in front of me and sat down.
“That’s so nice. Thank you.”
As I took a swig of my smoothie, Zion got up. “I can’t deal with this. I’m going to the bathroom,” he declared and left.
Joshua gave me a weak smile. “He’s giving me a hard time.”
“He doesn’t make friends easily,” I said. I saw Joshua’s group walk into the food court. They watched us with sly looks as they sat down at a table nearby. “Do you want to go sit with your friends?” I said.
Joshua shook his head. “No, I want to sit with you.”
I smiled a little. “Why?”
“Because I like you, Aven?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, why do you seem so surprised?”
“You just don’t know me very well.”
“I know enough,” he said. And then he set his smoothie down on the table and leaned in toward me.
A million things ran through my mind in the split second as his face moved toward mine. Oh my gosh. What was he doing? Was he truly going to kiss me? Was I going to have my first kiss? Right here in front of all these people? Right here in the middle of the food court? Right in between Taco Bell and Cinnabon?
I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even know how to kiss. What if I accidentally licked his nose or drooled down my chin?
Was this how it worked in high school? “Hi. My name’s Bob. Nice to meet you. Let’s kiss.”
What if I turned away? Did I want this boy I barely knew to be my first kiss? Would he and his friends think I was a jerk?
I mean, Joshua was really cute. And he was popular. And he was nice. But still, how was this happening like this?
Remember, Aven. You are cool. You are blasé.
It was no big deal. Was it? I mean, was it?
I closed my eyes and waited for Joshua’s lips to touch mine.
But nothing happened.
I opened my eyes and saw Joshua watching me. He shook his head and called out to his friends, loud enough for everyone in the entire food court to hear. “I can’t do it! It’s too gross!”
Their table erupted into laughter as he got up and walked back to them. One of them slapped his hand and said, “You lose, man. You should’ve picked truth. You lose.”
/>
My heart pounded. Blood flooded into my ears. My vision blurred. I couldn’t breathe.
What.
Was.
Happening?
All of the noises in the food court blended together until I could barely hear anything. My body felt light, floaty. Like I wasn’t there. Like it wasn’t real. Just a dream. I wished it were a dream. That it wasn’t real.
And then I was back there. And I knew it had happened. And when my vision focused and I could finally draw a breath, I saw Zion standing there, staring down at me, his mouth hung open, a horrified look on his face. “Aven?” he said softly.
I jumped up from the table so quickly that I knocked the chair over. I stumbled on rubbery legs as I ran out of the food court. All I heard as I pushed through the mall doors into the scorching heat of the day was the blood pounding in my ears and the distant voice of my friend calling after me.
I walked around the outside of the mall until I was dripping with sweat and so far away from the food court, I didn’t think anyone could find me. I stepped back into a store and took my phone out of my shoulder bag. I struggled to hold it with my shaking foot and dropped it onto the ground. I turned it over with my toes and saw that the screen was now cracked. My eyes filled and then tears spilled onto the ground next to my cracked phone as I struggled to hit the “Mom” button. I told her I was sick and she needed to come get me.
My phone rang over and over as I waited for her. Zion, every time. And then texts: “WHERE ARE YOU?” “ARE YOU OKAY?” “MY MOM IS WORRIED.” “ARE YOU STILL AT THE MALL?”
I finally texted him back: “I’M FINE. MY MOM IS DRIVING ME HOME.”
I stood there over my phone, tears falling onto the department store floor, the worst humiliation of my life weighing down on me like it might crush me to death.
I texted one last thing to Zion: “DON’T TELL ANYONE WHAT HAPPENED.”
11
Suck, suck, suck.
Everything sucks.
And everywhere sucks.
And everyone sucks.
Suck, suck, suck.
— Screaming Ferret
I WENT TO BED AROUND SEVEN THAT night, too queasy to eat dinner. I lay there a long time, listening to the player piano belt out “The Entertainer” in the saloon below me. Eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. I put in my ear buds and blasted some Screaming Ferret to drown out the noise—the noise of the player piano. The noise of my mind.
Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus Page 6