by Paula Chase
“How’s the ‘tutoring’ going?” Her air quotes dangled in the air as she waited on the answer.
“Well, Greg’s on to you,” Kelly said. Her face beamed with obvious pleasure. “He had a light bulb moment today and realized you’ve been trying to hook us up.”
Michael’s window came down. “And it only took him, what? A month to figure that out?”
Mina shushed him. “Was he happy or…sad or what about that, Kel?”
“I’m going for happy,” Lizzie said. She smiled when Kelly’s face lit up more.
Kelly nodded.
“Yay! Happy?!” Mina grabbed Kelly’s hand and swung her arm side to side to a soundless rhythm.
“Very cool,” Brian said sarcastically. He tugged at Mina’s shirt. “Can we go? Dude’s a little hungry.”
“Word,” JZ hollered from inside.
Mina waved them off. “I want all the dee—” she started when Brian stepped on the gas, jerking the car forward and a foot away from Kelly and Lizzie. “Brian,” she pouted. “I almost hit my head. Come on, one more minute.”
JZ, Michael, and Jacinta laughed in the back, fueling Brian’s antics. “No. You been one more minuting me for the last fifteen minutes.”
Kelly and Lizzie jogged over to the truck.
“At least let me say bye. That’s so rude to just pull off,” Mina lectured.
Brian gestured to the open window. “A minute…starting now.”
“So did he ask you out, Kelly?” Mina asked. She sat back down in the seat and buckled herself in as she talked. “Did I work my magic right?”
“Fifty seconds,” Brian sang out.
“Brian, stop. I can’t even hear her.”
“He—” Kelly started.
Brian pulled the truck forward an inch. “Forty…thirty-nine…thirty-eight…”
JZ joined in. “Thirty-seven…thirty-six.”
“Oh, my God, y’all are so common,” Mina yelled over their countdown. “Kelly, call me later, or text me or something.” She turned to Brian, a sly glint in her eye. “And I’m gonna remember this countdown next time you want something from me, Mr. James.”
“Son, she threw the lockdown on you,” JZ said gleefully.
“Man, she showing off for y’all. She know she can’t resist me.” Brian tickled Mina’s side, getting a smile from her.
“Kell, for real, call me,” Mina managed to get in as the truck pulled off for the final time.
“Mina and Brian are so cute,” Kelly said, watching the Explorer glide slowly through the parking lot.
“So are puppies,” Lizzie said with a playful eye roll.
Kelly put her arm around Lizzie’s shoulder. “Aww, you miss hanging out with her, don’t you?”
Lizzie nodded. “Yeah. But I was only joking. Brian’s cool.”
“You’ll have the old Mina back all to yourself next year,” Kelly said.
“No, I’ll have the depressed and missing Brian Mina to myself next year,” Lizzie said, unable to keep the hint of bitterness at bay. Hearing herself, she switched subjects. “I was going to hang out and help some of the cast pack up props and stuff. But Mr. Collins had an emergency and called it off. Wanna chill?”
“As long as you don’t mind riding with me. I’ve got to drop my brother off to a swim meet,” Kelly said. She made a face. “Grand doesn’t mind letting me drive solo to run errands.”
In answer, Lizzie’s footsteps fell in sync beside her as they headed off the school’s campus and to Kelly’s house.
“So, did Greg ask you out?” Lizzie asked.
“Yes. We’re going to the Ria on Friday.” Excitement bubbled in Kelly’s voice, making her sound like a little girl. “He’s really nice. Kind of shy, but still willing to force conversation when things get too quiet. It’s cute. I just wish he’d have a Spanish light bulb moment.”
A stream of passing cars covered her and Lizzie’s laughter.
“Tough tutee, huh?” Lizzie asked.
Kelly shrugged. “I’ve had tougher. But he’s definitely in my top ten of tough people to teach.”
“Try saying that fast ten times,” Lizzie laughed. “Toptenoftough-peopletoteach, toptenof toughpeopletoteach, toptenoftuppupiltoteach…”
Kelly joined in until they’d sufficiently mangled the sentence into another language. They passed through the gated entrance to Kelly’s neighborhood, their voices the loudest thing in the quiet tony enclave of mansionettes.
Kelly’s shoulders shook through the last spasms of laughter before her face grew serious. “Angel texted me while I was tutoring Greg today. He wants me to go to prom with him.”
Lizzie stopped in her tracks. “What?” Her green eyes searched Kelly’s hazel ones for a hint of teasing.
Lizzie had her own thoughts about Angel (she didn’t like him), but she also didn’t like Raheem much. It was their personalities that turned her off. Angel was too slick and smooth; Raheem, too gruff and sometimey with pleasantries. But she knew that it was too weird a coincidence that she disliked both the best friends from one of Del Rio Bay’s most notorious low income neighborhoods. She didn’t need an equation to show what that added up to—snobbery.
Lizzie resisted the urge to roll her eyes for fear Kelly would think she was judging this new bit of news. Instead, she stood patiently, waiting.
Finally, after a few seconds, Kelly resumed walking and talking. “I haven’t answered him or anything. He kept texting me the last half hour of me and Greg’s session. I read them just before I met you guys in the lot.”
“What are you going to say?” Lizzie asked, forcing calm nonchalance into her voice. She fought the urge to scream, “Oh, my God, run! Run, Kelly, run!”
“Lizzie, I’m not going to prom with him,” Kelly said. She tittered nervously, prompting Lizzie to stop walking.
She quickly gathered her thoughts. She and Kelly had grown an easy, comfortable bond, nothing like the fragile tug-of-war connection she had with Jacinta. It wasn’t so long ago that Lizzie had thought Kelly was weird. Her first impression of Kelly was that she was some sort of freakishly quiet bookworm. But Kelly had proven to be one of the most honest, straightforward people Lizzie knew. And it was that honesty that prodded her forward.
“Kelly, are you thinking of going? I mean…you know, did it cross your mind?” Lizzie asked. Before Kelly could answer, Lizzie pushed forward. “I’m just saying, if it did, it’s cool to just say so. I won’t judge you…well, I mean, I’ll try not to come off judgmental.” She sighed, shaking her head. “It seems like…I don’t know…like we’re all only half sharing with each other now because of our boyfriends. Nobody wants to hear the truth.” Lizzie squinted, focusing on her next words, letting them pour carefully. “Like, I’m not jealous of Brian or anything. But it seems like maybe Mina isn’t really telling me everything…I don’t know. Maybe that’s just how it is, you know? You can’t confide in eight million people. And he is her boyfriend and…”
Kelly’s soft voice broke into Lizzie’s stream of words. “Liz?”
“I…sorry,” Lizzie smiled, embarrassed.
Kelly laughed. She took a few steps and waited until they were walking in sync again before she said simply, “Yes.”
“Yes, what?” Lizzie said. “I think I blacked out in the middle of my ramble. What did I ask you?”
They laughed long and hard, unable to pick up on the conversation again until they were in the car, Kevin, Kelly’s twelve-year-old brother, tucked in the back, head nodding to the impossibly loud music. Kelly switched all of the music to the back speakers so she and Lizzie could hear themselves.
She nodded her head to her purse. “Get my Sidekick out, please.”
Lizzie fished it out and thrust it toward her.
“No,” Kelly said, taking her eyes off the road for a second. “Text Angel back for me.”
“Me?” Lizzie said, her eyes wide. “What do you want me to say?”
Kelly smoothly changed lanes. She peeked in her mirror and c
hecked on Kevin. His head nodded vigorously to the music. Caught up in the tunes, his eyes were half closed. “Ask him what’s going on with the invite to prom,” she said finally.
Lizzie read it aloud as she typed:
Y me? We haven’t talked in months.
Kelly nodded. “Yeah. That sounds like me.”
“Guess we’re officially friends then. We can pose as one another when we’re messaging.” Lizzie grinned. “So you’re really thinking about going?”
Kelly’s brows furrowed. “I’m just curious why he’s asking me.” She snorted. “I know he’s not hurting for a date.” Her head shook slightly, and her voice lowered as if she was talking more to herself. “Do you know how bad I wished Angel was just a regular guy?” She rolled her eyes. “A good boy.”
Lizzie nodded her head, though she wasn’t entirely sure. Kelly was a pretty girl. Smart, too. She didn’t get Kelly’s attraction to Angel at all. No matter how cute he was, his attitude ruined it for Lizzie. She couldn’t see past it. But she kept that to herself.
“He really is a nice guy,” Kelly said, as if reading her mind. She looked at Lizzie long enough to relay an apologetic eyebrow shrug, then chuckled nervously. “But too much drama for me.”
“Greg seems like your type,” Lizzie said.
“He’s a total sweetie. I think he’s even shyer than me when it comes to dating…I like that,” Kelly said, laughing.
The Sidekick tinkled, and both girls looked down at it as if it had spoken.
“What did he say?” Kelly asked, her voice tense.
Lizzie read it, “Haven’t talked in months ’cause of you, baby girl. I been right here, waiting for you to stop tripping. So what’s up?” Lizzie looked over at Kelly’s thoughtful face. She fought the urge to lecture or beg Kelly to stop going down this road again. No wonder Angel was such a good drug dealer—he certainly did a good enough job pushing himself on Kelly. It was like she couldn’t help herself. When Kelly didn’t say anything, Lizzie prompted. “What should I say?”
Kelly eased the car into the deceleration lane and turned into the North Rio Swim Center. She pulled up to the front of the building, turned the radio down, and looked up at Kevin in her mirror. “Gerard’s dad is bringing you home, right?”
Kevin made a face at her. “Yes, mom.”
“I’m just making sure, Kev,” Kelly scolded.
He laughed, his hazel eyes crinkling in the corners. “Yeah, I have a ride. Thanks. See you at home.”
He dashed out without a second glance.
Kelly waited for him to go inside before pulling away from the curb.
“So…what do I say now?” Lizzie asked.
Kelly tucked at her hair until it was completely smoothed behind her ears. She gnawed at her bottom lip as she spoke. “Tell him that I lost sleep wishing he wasn’t who he is. And that I really believed him when he said he’d stopped selling drugs. And that I still think about him even though I totally don’t want to. And that I wish I could unmeet him because he’s on my brain so much it makes me feel crazy.” She looked at Lizzie, her pretty face frowning. “Tell him that,” she said softly.
Lizzie smiled, chuckling as she pretended to type. “Okay, what came after losing sleep?”
Kelly cracked up, shaking her head. “Just tell him I’m busy that night.”
Lizzie eyed Kelly’s head, shaking slowly back and forth as if she was holding a conversation with herself. She wasn’t sure if Kelly was shaking her head over Angel’s ballsiness or her own inability to resist him. Seemed like all of them were addicted to their boyfriends in some way or another. Her stomach fluttered, hating the feeling of powerlessness. She typed back quickly, then pulled her phone out and sent her own message to Mina. Speaking of powerless.
Tomorrow
“I know I got to be right now,
’cause I can’t get much wronger.”
—Kanye West, “Stronger”
“See…now, what am I supposed to say to that?” Mina asked. She flipped her phone open so Michael could see the text from Lizzie:
So, Mi u never said…r u in or out, girlie?
Michael looked up from his sketch long enough to read the message, then went back to drawing. He and Mina sat on the floor of his basement room, their backs against the sofa. Music filled the room, covering their conversation.
Mina flipped the phone closed and looked to Michael for an answer.
“So, let me get this straight,” Michael said. He looked up from his sketch pad to the ceiling, a look of exaggerated concentration on his face, and tapped his chin with a pencil. His eyebrows worked in his dark chocolate face, rising and falling before settling into a steeple. “You and Brian did it?”
Mina nodded, ignoring the lectury vibe shimmering in Michael’s voice. Lectures from Michael, she was used to. They kind of went with getting advice from him, a necessary evil. She didn’t like them, but she was used to them.
“And Lizzie doesn’t know?” Michael’s eyebrow went up another notch. “You’re the one with all the best friend rules. What’s the expiration date on sharing something that huge?”
Mina snorted, rolling her eyes. “Like an hour. I’m way passed that expiration, Mike, seriously.”
“But you told Cinny?” Michael’s voice rose to a telling, now-you-know-that’s-wrong pitch.
“Gah! I know. I know I shouldn’t have told her first but…” Mina dropped dramatically, her back across Michael’s outstretched legs, crushing his sketch pad. “Why didn’t Liz tell me about the pact sooner? I swear, if I’d known…”
“You wouldn’t have done it?” Michael’s grin made it clear he didn’t believe that, and Mina didn’t dispute it.
She crossed her arms over her eyes as she answered. “I’m saying, if I’d known she was thinking about something like that…then either I would have gone ahead and taken the stupid pact or not. It would have been either I was in or out. But it’s all bad timing now.” Her foot shook with an involuntary tic. “It’s like, if I tell her now I can’t take it, she’ll be all ‘why not’ and…”
Michael shrugged. “And you can just tell her why.” He tugged at his sketch pad until it popped from under Mina, then laid it on top of Mina’s arm and sketched. “Just tell her that somehow Brian fell on top of you, and his…”
“Michael,” Mina screamed, sitting upright, upsetting Michael’s human desk. She fixed him with a disapproving stare, resisting the urge to laugh. “For real, it’s not funny. I don’t want Lizzie to think I don’t have her back on this whole abstinence thing…even though I sort of don’t.”
Michael pulled Mina back down, placed her arm back over her eyes, and resumed his sketching. “Just joking, Diva. Real talk, just truth up. That’s what you’d tell anybody else.” He lifted the pad and Mina’s arm and peeked down at her. He waited until she opened her eyes. “Wouldn’t you? Shoot, didn’t you tell JZ to truth up when him and Lizzie got into that beef over him cheating off her Algebra test?”
Mina only nodded.
“What? No special exceptions for your case?” He patted her arm as if he were an old grandma. “Aww, my girl growing up.”
Mina rolled her eyes. “Growing up sucks.”
“Just tell her, Mi. She won’t be mad that you can’t take the pact—” Michael paused, making Mina take her arms away to look up at him.
“Why’d you stop?”
He laughed. “Okay, she might be a little mad.”
Mina bolted upright. “What? Do you know something I don’t?” She frowned. “You and Liz be keeping stuff from me now that y’all always at some theatre thing together.”
Michael’s eyes rolled to the ceiling. “Okay, somebody who just lost her virginity and told someone other than her best friend should not be talking about who sharing what secrets.”
Mina smacked at him. “Stop being right, daggone it!”
“Can’t. It’s a bad habit,” Michael joked. He started as his cell phone vibrated beside him. He picked it up, looked at the nu
mber, then stood up, letting Mina’s head slide to the floor. “Hey, what’s up?” he said into the phone, walking off to a corner in the far side of the room.
“Dag, leave me hanging much?” Mina yelled to him. She sat up, flipped her phone back open, and read Lizzie’s message again.
“Truth up,” she murmured.
She began typing a response, then stopped. She couldn’t text something like this. But calling Lizzie and telling her over the phone wasn’t much better. If telling your closest friend you were no longer a virgin didn’t merit a face-to-face, she wasn’t sure what did.
Her fingers flew across the QWERTY keyboard of her phone.
Don’t be mad…but I’m out for this one.
She scanned the message quickly, then hit “send.”
Telling Lizzie something was better than nothing at all, at this point, she reasoned, then silently lectured herself, Tomorrow…we’ll talk tomorrow.
Pinky Rings and Promises
“I promise not to hurt you, I promise not to lie.”
—Tiffany Evans ft. Ciara, “Promise Ring”
The pool’s water glistened, a perfectly still glass of blue until JZ threw a beach ball, raft, and floating chaise chair into the middle. A shockwave of ripples bounced the items around. They bobbed furiously like they had invisible ghost riders.
“Good job, Jay,” Mina muttered. “Remind me never to get you to help me do anything.”
“What?” JZ asked, his voice muffled as he rummaged in the tiny shed at the corner of the large pool. He came back out with a tiny basketball hoop. “We can switch jobs if you don’t like how I’m doing it.”
He dropped the hoop in and rushed toward her, threatening to scoop her up and dump her in. Mina fended him off with a flick of the long-handled net she was using to clean the pool, wetting him.
“Alright, kids. Play nice,” Jacinta warned, a safe distance from the flying water. She lay back in a brown-striped chaise, soaking in the afternoon sun.