Green Porcupine

I wake up early the next morning by and over-excited Frankito.
"You fell asleep on the couch!" he says, pointing at me proudly. He scurries over to Tre, who's asleep on the other side of the couch and jumps on him, which wakes him up instantly. "You fell asleep on the couch too!"
"Yeah, the movie we were watching was really boring," I say, looking over at Tre, who's still groggy.
"Do you wanna watch cartoons, buddy?" he asks as he ruffles Frankito's hair.
"No, I wanna go swimming!" he exclaims.
"Isn't it kind of early for that?" Tre asks, looking at his watch. Frankito shrugs his shoulders and runs off to his room. He comes back a few moments later in his bathing suit and water wings.
"I'm just going to put on my bathing suit," he says to Frankito, who's sitting on the floor fumbling with a pair of goggles.
"Bianca, do you want to go swimming with daddy and me?" Frankito asks me as Tre walks to his room.
"Maybe," I say as I walk towards the guest bedroom. I see that Ramona's bedroom door is open.
"Hey Ramona," I say, tapping on her door, "do you want to go swimming?"
"Okay!" she says as she grabs her bathing suit off the doorknob and shuts the door. I head to the guest bedroom to get my bathing suit on before heading to the pool. We play several games of water polo, boys vs. girls (just as Frankito instructed).
"I'm hungry," Frankito complains after the fifth game.
"Yeah, me too," Ramona adds in. We all head inside to get some breakfast.
"So what'll it be," Tre asks, drumming his fingers on the counter.
"How about pop tarts a la Tre or waffles a la Billie?" I suggest as I laugh.
"What's that?" Ramona asks as Frankito slams his fists on the counter saying,
"Cheerios! Cheerios!"
"Pop tarts a la Tre is strawberry pop tarts with chocolate spread on them and waffles a la Billie are waffles with chocolate spread and lucky charms," I say in a very matter-of-fact voice. As I mention the waffles a la Billie, Frankito stops saying "cheerios" and turns to Tre and says,
"I want Billie waffles instead!" Tre just laughs as he takes out the chocolate spread.
"Way to get Frankito on a sugar high before noon." I just laugh at him as I pop a couple of waffles in the toaster.
"I think I'll try that pop tart thing," Ramona says, pulling a box of pop tarts out of the cupboard. After a bountiful breakfast covered in chocolate spread the phone rings. Tre answers it.
"Ramona, it's for you." A smile stretches across her face as she picks up the phone.
"Hi Joey... good, and yourself? Hold on, I'll ask my dad." She turns to Tre with big eyes, "Can I go over to Joey's today?" Tre looks over at me with a face that says "this is your fault."
"Sure," he says, rolling his eyes.
"Yup, I can come, alright, see you later." She hangs up the phone. "Jakob wants Frankito to come over too." She scurries away excitedly.
"YAY!" Frankito says, flailing his arms as he runs off to get dressed.
"Just you and me," I say jokingly, stroking Tre's arm.
"Indeed," he says as he takes my hand and dips me.
"Don't mind me," Claudia says as she walks in and pours herself a cup of coffee.
"Good morning Claudia," I say as I go back to my own cup of coffee. Ramona runs in wearing her bath robe.
"Bianca! Can you help me choose what to wear?" she says, tugging on my arm, not giving me time to answer. I turn to Tre, who's quite amused by this display.
"I'm sorry I must end our conversation, I'm wanted in the dressing room," I say as I get pulled out of the kitchen by the rambunctious ten year old.
"She better not look like a hooker!" Tre yells after me.
"No worries, she'll look like a porn star!" I yell back, just to make him uneasy. Ramona decides on classic jeans and a black t-shirt with a pink star on it.
"Can I wear make-up?" she asks with big eyes.
"I don't know," I say, kind of uneasy.
"Please."
"Fine, just a bit," I say as I go to get my cosmetic bag. I decide to put mascara and clear lip gloss on her.
"Thanks!" she says as she looks in the mirror happily.
"You're welcome," I say as we walk out of her room into the living room where Frankito is playing with his Sponge Bob toys.

We pile into Tre's SUV and head over to Billie's house. We pull up in his driveway and the kids run out of the car and ring the door bell. Joey answers the door and Frankito pushes past him to go play with Jakob.
"Hi Ramona. So do you want to watch a movie or play video games or something?"
"I'd like to watch a movie," she says as he leads her into the house.
"Joey, is your dad home?" Tre asks, watching him closely.
"Yeah, he's in the backyard." I lean over to whisper in Tre's ear.
"They're ten years old, what's going to happen."
"Who knows, he can be an early bloomer!" Tre says in a less than sane voice.
"I seriously doubt it," I say as I walk into the backyard. Billie is sitting on the porch smoking a cigarette.
"What's up?" Billie asks as he stubs out his cigarette.
"Tre's paranoid that Joey will dirty his daughter up," I say jokingly. Billie laughs as Tre makes a strangling motion with his hands implying that I'm annoying him.
"Adie wants to go shopping with you today," Billie says, pointing towards the house.
"So does this mean we have to be responsible and watch the kids?" Tre asks, pretending to be disappointed.
"Guess so," Billie says as he opens the patio door to go back in the house. "Mike's supposed to come over with Estelle too."
Adrienne, Jill, Brittney (Mike's girlfriend) and I spend the whole day shopping while Billie, Tre and Mike stayed to watch the kids. After the shops closed, we head back. When we get there Mike, Tre and all the kids are in the pool. Billie is standing at the barbecue in a sopping wet bathing suit flipping hamburgers.
"Hello ladies," Tre says, holding a water gun.
"Don't you dare!" Jill says, holding up her hand.
"Then jump in and join us," Tre says, climbing out of the pool.
"Can we at least put on our bathing suits?" Adie asks impatiently. All of a sudden I feel a cold stream of water hit my back and apparently so did Jill, Brittney and Adie. We turn around to see Frankito smirking evilly with a water gun in his hands.
"That's not nice!" I yell, pulling at my sopping wet shirt.
"Come in the pool or Frankie shoots again," Tre says in a villainous voice.
"Fine! But we're going to put on our bathing suits first!" Brittney says, glaring at Tre.

The rest of the time I spent in Oakland was barbecues. The final night I was there, it was a kid-free barbecue, Tre is supposed to come to New York with Ramona for a week. I got to meet Jill's new boyfriend, James. They seemed to be made for each other; they're so sappy in love with each other.
"Hey, you know what I realized?" Jill says after a few drinks. "You and Tre are the only ones here who are single."
"Honestly, the two of you can't seem to hold a relationship," Adie adds in.
"Hey, I was engaged to Mark!" I say in my own defense. "And Tre's been married twice!"
"You called off the engagement and Tre jumped into those marriages too quickly," Jill says, shaking her head. I look over at Brittney for some backup, but she just shakes her head laughing.
"You two are so dysfunctional, you should just end up together," Brittney says, laughing. I shrug my shoulders and say,
"It wouldn't be a bad life."
"So are you saying after all these years, you still have feelings for Tre?" Jill asks, mocking my response.
"I'll always love Tre."

"I think I've gone insane."
"What else is new?" Billie says, taking a sip of his beer.
"No, I mean I'm in love with Bianca again." Billie chokes on his beer a bit.
"You're kidding, right?" Tre just shakes his head.
"I know! I'm just attracted to her. I mean for the past few years, she's been just a friend, but I want more."
"Maybe you never stopped loving her," Billie says as he puts his hand on Tre's shoulder in a cheesy fashion, and starts laughing his head off at the cheesy moment he just committed.
"I think you're right."
"I was kidding, Tre," Billie says, shaking his head in mockery of the whole situation, that would explain why your marriages failed; you still had feelings for Bianca."
"Maybe, it's just lately... I don't know," Tre says, waving his hands around.
"Meh, she's like the only woman alive who can stand to be with you for longer than ten minutes, I mean, she knows too much about you," Billie says, still mocking Tre.

"What's so funny?" James asks as Mike chuckles to himself.
"Ahh, Tre and Bianca. All week they've been ogling at each other."
"Didn't Jill say they used to go out?"
"Yeah, when they were teenagers, but I think they never really let go."
"Yeah, I sensed some tension between them," James says, staring at Tre more closely.
"I'm still wondering if they're going to do anything about it or if they'll just dance around it for another ten years."