Life on Banana Street

I grasped my chest and almost hyperventilated. “He’s-he’s dead?” I said with a cracked voice. He nodded solemnly. I fell into his arms and cried for a while. “How did Tre know?” I sat back up on the bed and wiped my tears.

“Well he told me that even himself was shaken when he saw him. Tre went over there like he does everyday for band practice and opened the door that was opened. He said it was gruesome.” I shook my head and kept myself from crying again.

“Is there a-a funeral?”

“Yeah, this weekend. We’ll go together.”

“Wait, was he murdered?” He nodded again. I had flashbacks of our childhood and how badly I treated him and…I could have prevented this from ever happening. I could have gone out with him and stayed with him. I could have known who did this. I did everything wrong. A single last tear dropped from my eye and landed into the journal I was writing in causing the ink to blur. I remembered the times we shared and nothing mattered except having fun. Now, now it was all gone and there’s nothing I can do. I didn’t go to class that day, everything was perfect, until today. I didn’t go to class for the rest of the week. I was sitting in the corner of the room my bed was in and a knock at the door came. “Come…In.” Mr. Fedie opened the door.

“Addie, why haven’t you been coming to class? I came over to see if you were ok. Are you? Ok?”

“No. I’m not.”

“Why not?”

“Mr. Fedie, Billie’s dead. My first love is dead. Do you know anything about how I feel?”

“Yes, my first wife died. I was married to her for about 15 years, I was so depressed, I never thought I would date again. But I met this wonderful girl and we got married.”

“So you forgot all about your first wife.”

“No. Even though I was sad and I got married again, it didn’t hide my feelings for her. It still doesn’t. I still love her, but I’m willing to move on. You get what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if I can live again. I lost…my best friend. My love.”

“Well, I’ll leave you alone and you come out whenever you feel like it. Do you want me to bring your assignments here?”

“No, I’ll make it up when I get out of this room.” He shut the door and walked away. And Ms. Sunshine didn’t make it any better either. Finally, I built up the courage to leave the room and walk to the front office.

“Yes, may I help you?”

“I need to know something.”

“Yes, ma’am, anything.”

“Is it possible to drop out of college?”

“Of course, people do it all the time, but you need to fill out these forms to say why.” I took the forms and went back to my room, scuffing the floor with my house shoes. Soon, I was done. So I called Jeff.

“Hello?”

“Jeff,” I sniffed. “Can you come to my room?” I heard someone knock on the door.

“Damn Jeff. You’re here that fast?”

“What are you talking about? I just left my room.” My heart stopped as I wondered who could be at the door.

“Come in! Door’s open.” Mr. Gabriel came in the room, yes Gabe.

“Gabe? What are you doing here? And how did you know this was my room?” He walked over to me and grabbed the room phone and hung it up slowly.

“Addie, we need to have a talk,” his voice raspy.

“About what?”

He chuckled. “About what…ABOUT WHAT IS YOUR FRIEND!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your friend! Billie?”

“What did you do to him?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Your other friend killed him!”

“What other friend? Jeff would never-”

“No, no, no! Not Jeff! He’s too much of a dumb ass to kill anyone! The tree guy!”

“Tree? I don’t know any tree guy.”

“It sounded like tree.”

“Tre?”

“That’s the ticket,” he said pointing to me. “I bet you thought I killed him in a jealous rage.”

“Yes, very much so.”

“Well I don’t have the guts to kill someone close to you. You’re not worth it.”

“Why are you like this? Aren’t we still going out?”

“Of course.” He pushed me on the bed and kissed me. Wrong timing. Jeff was standing at the door and I saw his heart broken face as I tried to pull out of the kiss. I pushed Gabe off of me and went out the door to Jeff but he already walked away.

“Jeff! Jeff! It didn’t mean anything!” Gabe came out of the room and said, “It didn’t mean anything? Oh, you’re stepping out on me aren’t you?” I was in a love triangle. I think. While Jeff walked away, I went back to Gabe and talked to him. “Look, I was only going out with him because I thought we weren’t together anymore.”

“Why wouldn’t we be together?” He asked puzzled. Obviously, he was oblivious to the situation.

“Don’t you remember when Billie and I ran from you at the hospital?”

“No. Wait, you ran from me?” I stared the Russell stare at him (‘Come on, yeah right’ stare)

“Yes. You went psycho.”

“Oh, well, none of that matters now I have my Pookie.” He was kissing my neck several times when a hall monitor came down the hall.

“Excuse me, sir. Do you have a permit to be harassing this young lady?”

“She’s my girlfriend, I don’t need a permit.” He was still holding me close.

“Sure Mister. Miss, do you have a problem?”

“No Sir.”

“Very well then.” He turned around but still looked at Gabe like he didn’t make the winning goal on a soccer team.

“That was awkward…” Gabe said.

“Yeah.” I put my head on Gabe’s chest and suddenly remembered Jeff.

“Um…I’ll be right back ok?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” I went the way he was going but stopped at the next hallway. I’m never going to find him. This is- Something grabbed my leg and knocked me to the ground. “Jeff! What the-”

“Shh!” He put a finger to my lips.

“I don’t want Gabe to know we’re here,” he whispered.

“Jeff what are you doing?” I whispered back, putting emphasis on the ‘doing.’

“I could ask you the same thing.” He crossed his arms and looked smug at me. “How could you kiss him? We are going out you know,” this time he put emphasis on the ‘are.’

“I know, I didn’t do it. He did.”

“Yeah right. Lay off the bong.”

“But my brother gave it to me!”

“You could have said no…”

“He said it was sugar.” I said smiling, almost laughing.

“Bong is a pipe smart one.”

“I knew that…” I looked away. I didn’t know that.

“Right.”

“So tell Gabe that you’re going out with me now. Not him.”

“But Jeff! He doesn’t know I broke up with him!”

“Just go break up with him now!” He pushed me into my dorm where Gabe was laying on the bed reading a magazine.

“Oh hey Babe! Whatcha doing?”

“Um Gabe, we need to have a talk.” He sat up on the bed and patted next to him for me to sit down.

“About what?”

“You know the talk we had about the hospital?”

“Yeah what about it?”

“Well…” I looked around the room. “We sort of…got in a fight and broke up.”

“What? Why would we break up?”

“Because you went psycho!” He looked heart broken, the same look Jeff had.

“Well I guess I’ll leave in the morning if that’s how you feel about it.”

“I didn’t mean to leave you like this, but I’m…” I hesitated.

“You’re what?”

“I’m with Jeff.” He put his hand on his mouth and shook his head.

“Just tell me one thing.”

“Anything,” I said like I was giving myself to him.

“Where did I go wrong?”

“It’s just that…I was so bored with you.”

“We were engaged! Why wouldn’t that have been an adventure?”

“I don’t know ok?”

“Well you must know if you did it!” He went over to the wall and banged his fist on it.

“Don’t take it the wrong way. I just wanted to see what Jeff was like.”

“You’ve dated plenty of men to know what an adventure is. I guess I just wasn’t good enough.” I couldn’t stand the guilt. I went over to him, grabbed his neck and kissed him. “What was that for?” he asked.

“For making me love you again.” He smiled and kissed me again. After a while, I said, “Now you go home. I’ll be home as soon as possible.” He left the room although it was dark outside and my guess is he went home. Oh damn. Jeff. I walked a few hallways down to his dorm and knocked.

“Who is it?” I heard from a distance.

“Addie.”

“Oh, I’ll be there in a minute.” I heard several unlocks of the door and I saw Jeff’s dorm partner, Blake.

“Oh Addie, he said he would be out for a while. Can you leave a message?”

“Yeah where’s the beep?”

He laughed and said, “Look, he should be back any minute. Why don’t you come inside and I’ll give him a call.”

“Sure, but don’t attack me.”

“Only if you want me to.” He smiled his grinny, smug smile at me and I walked past him to the couch.

“So do you want anything to eat?”

“You have food in your dorm?” He stared at me like I was alien.

“Doesn’t…everybody?”

“Um no. Then I wouldn’t have asked you that you had food.”

“Oh, yeah.” He jumped from behind the couch and turned on the TV.

“You have a TV?”

“Doesn’t everybody?”

“Um no.” There was silence for a while. Blake reminded me so much of Jeremy. The way he tries to kiss you but pulls back because he was just playing. I think they were related or something.

“Blake tell me something.”

“Anything for you my darling.”

I worked around the fact he called me darling and said, “Do you know anyone named Jeremy?”

“Of course. He’s my brother.”

“Your name is Blake Callais?”

“Yeah you didn’t know that?”

“Once again, um no.”

“Well how do you know him?” He crossed his arms and leaned against the arm of the couch.

“I’m like best friends with Mitzi.”

“Oh, Mitzi. I never liked her. Although she was hot.” He was biting his lip. I snapped.

“Oh, yeah I was the reason they got a divorce.”

“You were?”

He looked very happy with himself. “Yep! Said she was cheating on him and he believed me! Dumb ass…Just wanted them apart. They didn’t look good together. You know what I mean?” I was filled with rage up to my eyeballs.

“Um didn’t you say you were gonna call Jeff?”

“Oh yeah. I’ll do just that.” I jumped off the couch and reached on his bed a phone and dialed his number. He paced a little until he answered. “Hey Jeff. I got your girlfriend here.” I saw him take the phone away from his ear and there was yelling on the other end. “Chill man, she just wants to talk to you. Ok. Ok. No. Ok. Talk to you later.”

“And?” I said.

“Oh, he just pulled up to the campus. He’ll be here in a few minutes.” We waited for a while and finally Jeff came through the door.

“Hey Babe.” He walked over to the couch and hugged me. “You wanted to talk?”

“Yes. Privately.” He looked at Blake.

“Alright, alright. I’m leaving.” He left the door and Jeff got up and opened the door.

“Blake, go to the cafeteria or something. Don’t listen.”

“Oh. Y’all are gonna get freaky aren’t ya?”

“Um probably not.”

“But in case ya do, here.” He handed him a condom with a smile on his face as he slammed the door in his face. He sat back down on the couch and put his arm around me.

“Ok, back to business. What is it that you wanted?”

“Um, I’ve been thinking. I’m going to drop out of college soon, so I can move back home.”

“Oh, well I’m going to miss you!”

“No, Jeff. This is exactly what I didn’t want to happen.”

“This can’t be good.”

“It’s not.”

“Well go on.”

“Ok, well. I didn’t want it to come to this, but I think it’s time we separate. I still want to be friends though.”

“This hurts Addie.”

“It hurts me as much as it hurts you.”

“Then you wouldn’t have done this!”

“Jeff! This isn’t easy ok?!” I said taking tone.

“Don’t get all testy. Geez.”

“No, you don’t know what it’s like! Both you and Gabe are exactly the same I just don’t know what to do anymore! I love both of y’all.” I was in a damn pickle. Welcome to Banana Street.