Hallway Diaries

by Felicia Pride

  When they pulled up in front of the party, Giselle’s heart was pounding and she felt a little nauseous. The girls showed their invitations to the woman checking and scratching names off a long list and then walked through the door. Juanita felt like a celebrity on the red carpet. She looked amazing, and the whole scene so far was like nothing she’d ever experienced. They squeezed through the maze of teenagers. The music was pulsing, colorful lights were spinning on the dimmed dance floor, and all around them were unbelievable acrobats performing for the crowd. There were trapeze artists swinging above them, contortionists twisting their bodies on platforms, a woman balancing a handstand atop a bald man’s head, jugglers tossing glittery cones, and a woman spinning two chains with balls of fire on the ends. It was like a crazy dream. Everyone was dancing in a bit of a daze, staring at the acrobats floating about.

  “I told you this party was going to be amazing!” Alyce shouted over the loud music.

  Giselle looked around to see if she could find Alex, but there were too many people.

  Juanita had already started dancing. She was waving her arms in the air to the beat, shaking her hips and closing her eyes. This night was like the cherry on top. She’d never thought she was going to enjoy her visit to America as much as she was. As she danced, she celebrated this moment in time that she knew she’d remember for the rest of her life.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” the DJ said on the microphone. “Let’s give it up for the man of the hour and wish a big Long Island happy birthday to your very own Alex Nixon!” The music played even louder as Alex made his entrance, ten feet tall on a pair of stilts. He was wearing a crazy costume with a joker’s hat, and wild clown designs were painted on his face. He looked like a real performer. He was even dancing around a bit on the stilts. He reached into a velvet bag and tossed a handful of colorful Mardi Gras beads to the crowd. At the same moment a shower of confetti filled the air like a blizzard. It was spectacular. Everyone went crazy diving for the beads and cheering Alex on as he crossed the room. He walked over to the DJ and took the microphone in his hands.

  “I just want to thank y’all for coming to my party,” he said in his Georgia drawl. “Y’all have a good time and I’ll see you in a bit!” The crowd cheered again as he made his exit.

  “Hey guys, let’s check out the VIP room,” Giselle said, hoping Alex would go there after he changed and washed off his clown makeup.

  “Ooh, yeah, let’s go!” Dahlia said, volunteering to lead the girls through the dancing crowd.

  They showed their VIP tags to the huge man guarding the door, then walked in like movie stars. There was a large fountain of gooey chocolate fondue in the middle, surrounded with strawberries, banana slices, pieces of apples, and marshmallows on sticks. There was a smaller dance floor, and huge bedlike couches along the walls. In one corner was one of those statue performers who stand really still for a long time, and on the other side of the room on a small stage was a man eating fire.

  “I neber see some-sing like dis before,” Juanita said to all three girls, still in disbelief. “For my birs-day, I just eat dee cake in my house with my family.”

  Alyce and Dahlia laughed. Giselle was too busy scouting the room for Alex.

  After a few minutes Juanita needed to use the bathroom.

  “I’ll go with you,” Alyce said. “I have to go, too.” Dahlia decided to go along also, but Giselle didn’t want to miss seeing Alex. “You guys go ahead; I’ll be by the fondue.” The girls made a little train, weaved in and out of the crowd, and left the VIP room to find the ladies’ room.

  Alex had just cleaned his face, changed, and left the dressing room area, which was near the bathrooms. He saw a familiar face dancing in a three-girl conga line, but that couldn’t be the girl from the beach. Besides, this girl’s hair wasn’t even the same color. He took another look just in case and then grabbed her arm when he realized it was her.

  “Juanita?” he said, stunned to see her there.

  “Oh,” Juanita shouted with a smile, trying hard to remember his name. “Hi. What jou do here?” Alyce and Dahlia looked at the scene with a bit of surprise.

  “It’s my party,” he said. Juanita felt like an idiot. “What are you doing here?” he continued.

  “I come with my coh-sing, Giselle.”

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said, beaming. “I would have invited you myself, but I never got your number.”

  “Oh, sank jou,” she said, shouting over the music. “¡Feliz compleanos! It’s a berry nice fiesta!”

  “Thanks. You look so different. I almost didn’t recognize you!”

  She touched her hair. “Yes, I color it yellow.” Alex laughed, and then, as if coming out of a daze, acknowledged Alyce and Dahlia. “Oh, hey, guys. Thanks for coming to my party.”

  “It’s awesome,” Alyce said, smiling at him and then at Juanita. “The acrobats are amazing. We’re having a great time…. Happy birthday.”

  “Yeah, happy birthday,” Dahlia chimed in.

  Juanita excused herself and the girls to go to the restroom and promised him a dance when she got back.

  “Okay, okay, okay…” Alyce said, completely confused, as they entered the bathroom together. “When did you meet Alex?”

  “The bitch…Ay! I mean, the beeeeeeeach.”

  “Ooooooh,” they both said in unison, understanding now that he was one of the guys waifboarding that day.

  “He likes you,” Dahlia said, nodding with a smile.

  “Oh, absolutely,” Alyce added. “It was so obvious.”

  Juanita was used to attention from boys. She had many admirers in her town. Normally she would have shrugged it off, but no boys in her town had money like this. Besides, it might be fun to go home with a story of an American romance with a rich gringo, just like Tía Jackie had.

  CHAPTER 17

  Alex walked into the room and Giselle swallowed the chocolate-covered strawberry in her mouth with a nervous gulp. Everyone crowded around him in an instant to wish him a happy birthday. Giselle stood there trying to convince herself to be confident. You look great, she argued silently to herself. Stop beating up on yourself and just have fun. She lifted her head and made a decision to be bold and just go up to him with all the confidence she could muster.

  “Happy birthday, Alex!” she said, walking toward him with a little shake in her hips. He looked at her for a second and then realized who it was.

  “Gigi?” he said with the smile she had hoped she’d see. Alex thought she looked great. He loved the hair and was just about to tell her when he noticed the glob of chocolate on the corner of her mouth.

  “Go like that,” he said, wiping his own mouth with the tips of his fingers.

  “What?”

  “Got a little chocolate there on your…”

  Alex didn’t have to finish his sentence. He probably did, but she didn’t hear it. She touched the chocolate sauce on her mouth a second after she’d asked “what?” Giselle was mortified, and Alex could see it on her face.

  “Don’t even worry about that,” he said, putting his arm around her neck with a carefree laugh. “That fondue is pretty good, huh?”

  “Yeah,” she said, feeling just a little bit better now that his arm was around her. The DJ mixed in the next hip-hop song and Alex bounced up and down to the pounding bass. Giselle lifted her arms and started dancing too. She refused to let a little chocolate ruin her time with Alex.

  The girls saw Giselle dancing as they walked back into the room and quickly joined her and Alex. Juanita moved her hips like a belly dancer and twisted her hands as if she were a snake charmer. She was by far the best dancer on the floor. Alex slowly danced away from Giselle and soon was face-to-face with a smiling, dancing Juanita.

  Giselle stopped dancing and watched Juanita dance with Alex. She felt her whole body go numb. Alex was focused on her cousin with an obvious attraction, and Juanita was eating it all up. Alyce looked at Giselle with a huge smile. “Juanita has an admirer!”
she shouted, loving the little romance novel being played out in front of her eyes. “Isn’t that cute?” Giselle tried to smile, but it came out as a smirk.

  She tried to convince herself that it was just a dance. Lots of people would be dancing with Alex tonight, it didn’t mean anything.

  “They’re just dancing,” she said to Alyce. “Why does everything have to be a soap opera with you?”

  She took deep breaths and continued to dance, but she couldn’t help looking over at her cousin with the guy of her dreams. Why did I do this to my hair? she thought, feeling ugly again. Giselle slowly stopped dancing and left the room without a word. She ran outside to find a place where she could be alone. When she finally found a spot, she looked around, took two deep breaths, and then bawled out loud like a little girl. Her stomach went into spasms as tears and snot ran down her face. Thank God I didn’t tell anyone, she said to herself as she wept. Her only consolation was that no one knew how she felt about Alex. No one would ever know about Giselle’s humiliation of losing Alex to her loud, eccentric cousin.

  Juanita didn’t even notice her cousin was gone. She was too busy moving her body to the music. Once she got started, she could dance all night long without stopping for a moment of rest. Alex didn’t have much rhythm at all—not like the boys back home, who could dance circles around him—but she loved how he didn’t care. It was fun to dance with him. As she danced, she couldn’t help feeling as if she were Cinderella at the ball—without the jealous stepsisters, of course, and with the freedom to dance way past midnight without a care in the world.

  After Giselle washed the tears off her face and reapplied her makeup, she came back to the party.

  “Where were you?” Alyce shouted over the reggae music.

  “I don’t feel well,” she said, looking at Juanita and Alex still dancing with each other. They looked too cozy. There was no doubt about it; they were completely into each other.

  “I think I’m going to call my dad to pick me up,” she said, putting her hand over her forehead. “I have a killer headache.”

  “Are you serious?” Dahlia screeched. “Man, that totally sucks. Are you sure you don’t want to run to the store, get some meds, and see if it goes away?”

  “No,” Giselle said. “I really need to lie down.”

  She went back outside and called her father. He was having dinner with Katie but told her he’d be there as soon as he could. As Giselle hung up, she saw Juanita rushing toward her.

  “Que pasa, Prima, jou sick?” she asked, her forehead scrunched up with concern. Giselle felt her body heat up. She had to take a deep breath in order not to explode right there and then.

  “I’m okay, I just have a headache.”

  “You go home now?” Juanita asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You want I go with you, Prima?”

  She looked Juanita square in the eyes. “No, that’s okay. You can stay. I wouldn’t want to mess up your night or anything. You look like you’re having way too much fun to leave.”

  Juanita smiled and did a little hop. “I am! I neber see a party like dis in my life. But I go home if jou like me to, okay, Prima?”

  “No,” Giselle said, rolling her eyes. “I want to go home by myself.”

  “Jou want I pray for jou?”

  “No!” Giselle shouted. “Leave me alone. Just leave me alone!” Juanita stepped back and looked at her cousin in shock.

  Giselle fought back her tears. “Juanita, I’m fine, just go back inside and have a good time. My dad will be here any second and I’ll just go home and go to sleep. Go ahead. Enjoy. Alyce will take you home tonight.”

  “Okay, Prima,” Juanita said. My goodness, she thought. She gets grouchier than me when I’m sick.

  As Juanita went back inside, three stretch Hummers pulled up in front of the club, waiting for the VIPs to be transported to the next party at the beach house. In all her daydreams since she had gotten the invitation, Giselle never could have imagined this night turning out the way it did.

  CHAPTER 18

  Juanita never could have imagined the night turning out the way it did. She was in one of the biggest cars she’d ever seen in her life, had just left the most amazing party she’d ever experienced, and was having an incredible time with an American boy. The Hummers pulled up to an enormous house on the beach. There was a huge bonfire on the sand—it must have been eight feet tall—and there were comfy lounge chairs scattered around it. On the large wooden deck facing the ocean there were tables filled with food, and the funky, chilled-out music in the background set a perfect laid-back atmosphere.

  “So,” Alyce said to Juanita when Alex stepped away. “Are you going to give him a big ol’ birthday kiss or what?”

  Juanita blushed. “I no going to kiss him. I don’t know him berry much.”

  “Are you kidding?” Dahlia said. “It would be perfect. Look around, it’s like a movie set for a love story!”

  Dahlia was right; it was the perfect setting for a kiss, and it would make a perfect ending to a perfect night and a perfect trip to America. Back home she never had this much freedom to stay out late, unaccompanied by family or family friends. She loved the amount of independence American teenagers seemed to have. When would she ever get the opportunity to enjoy a night out like this again?

  When Alex came back, he and Juanita took a long walk by the water. He kicked nervously at the waves washing over his feet as they talked.

  “I’m really glad you came tonight, Juanita,” he said.

  “Me too,” she answered. When he leaned in for a kiss, she closed her eyes and let herself be kissed…like a character in a real American love story.

  Juanita got in so late that she decided to sleep in the guest bedroom. She didn’t want to wake up her cousin, especially if Giselle was feeling sick. The next morning she peeked in Giselle’s room—she was still asleep. She couldn’t wait for her to wake up so she could tell her all about her little adventure and her kiss by the ocean. Juanita went downstairs to make breakfast for everyone to ease the urge to wake her up and tell her everything.

  “Good morning, Juanita,” Brian said as he shuffled lazily into the kitchen. “Breakfast smells delicious.”

  Brian let her serve him a plate of fried eggs and bacon with buttered toast. “I’m surprised you’re up,” he continued. “I thought you’d be dead asleep after getting home so late.” Juanita loved the way he said “home” as if she truly lived here.

  “My body still wants to dance,” she answered, dancing in her fuzzy socks. Brian laughed, then bit into the crispy strips of bacon on his plate.

  “Hey, Juanita,” he said. “Did anything happen at the party to make Giselle want to leave?”

  “She had a headache,” Juanita answered.

  He nodded. “No, I know. That’s what she said, but I just wanted to make sure. I heard her crying all night, that’s why I’m asking.”

  Juanita tried to think, but Giselle had left the party before it had really even begun.

  “Maybe she have really big pain in her head…. La pobresita.”

  Juanita decided to take Giselle’s food upstairs. If she was that sick last night, she probably should stay in bed all day. She fixed a plate and a tall glass of orange juice, put them on a tray, and carefully brought it upstairs.

  When she opened the door, Giselle was already awake and sitting up in her bed.

  “Good morning!” Juanita said, putting the tray on her cousin’s lap.

  “Thanks, but I’m not hungry,”

  “Prima, jou should try,” Juanita insisted. “It’s berry, berry good.”

  “Very!” Giselle shouted impatiently. “It’s very good. Very with a V. Stop with the berries, you sound like freakin’ Strawberry Shortcake!”

  Juanita didn’t like her cousin’s tone but brushed it off as the bad mood of a grouchy sick person.

  “How jou feeling in jour head—pain?” Juanita asked, trying not to sound bothered by Giselle’s last statement. S
he wanted her to be in a good mood so she could tell her what had happened with Alex.

  “I’m fine,” she said, wishing Juanita would stop being nice so she could be mad at her in peace. Giselle put the tray to the side and got out of bed to go to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and scoffed. Her hair was sticking up and pushed dramatically to the side. She had never had this much bed-head when her hair was straight. She tied it back in a ponytail, washed her face, and brushed her teeth as slowly as possible, prolonging her seclusion. Giselle knew Juanita would be there when she got out—and she was.

  “Giselle,” Juanita blurted as her cousin finally came out of the bathroom, “I kiss dee boy Alex on the beach!”

  Giselle felt as if she had just been punched in the stomach. She felt the insides of her body shake, and she couldn’t seem to control what came out of her mouth next.

  “Wow, is that what you do in your country, kiss boys you barely know?” she said in a tone that was meant to cut her cousin deep. “They have a word for that over here in America, you know—it’s slut.” Juanita knew this word and knew she wasn’t even close to being that—she didn’t even want to have sex until she was married. Her eyes widened and she stood up to defend herself, but no words came out of her mouth.

  “You want to get a reputation like that for a stupid boy like Alex?” Giselle continued, getting louder and louder as she went on. “Besides, the only reason he even touched you was because he thought you were rich. Trust me, no guy in this neighborhood would even look at you if they knew you lived in a little shack in a third world country. You don’t believe me, try going to another party looking the way you did when you first got here, with your nappy hair and cheap, tacky clothes!”

  Juanita understood exactly what was going on; she’d kissed a boy Giselle liked. She knew the sound of jealousy and it was coming out of Giselle like a bad odor—but it didn’t take away the sting of her cousin’s words.