Soria Girl

“Breaker, breaker, there is a giant cloud over the tree fort, over.”

“Then let me in! Over.”

“What’s the secret word?”

Kobe dropped his walkie-talkie, standing underneath the entrance to the tree fort in the Spencer’s back yard. I peered down at him, watching him hold his hands up as if to ask why I hadn’t let him up.

I spoke into my walkie-talkie. “C’mon, man!”

Kobe, my nine-year-old neighbor I met in third grade, grumbled under his breath and yelled out, “But it’s a bad word!”

Crash pushed me aside, sticking his head out the entrance. “Whatever, you’re a wimp.” Then he pushed the rope ladder out, and Kobe climbed up, joining me and Crash in the old tree fort.

A few years, Crash and Aliyah’s dad built them a big-ass fort in this huge oak tree in the recesses of their backyard. Their house was right in front of a giant (to us) forest that none of us ever had the guts to go into. This fort had the perfect view into it – sh’yeah, a perfect view into a bunch of plants.

Kobe, out of breath from climbing, flipped his red jewfro to the side of his face and grunted at us. “I wish you two would change the secret word. It’s not nice.”

“What’s wrong with ‘corndick?’” I asked him.

Crash laughed.

“See?! It’s a bad word!” Kobe defied.

“You’re just a scaredy cat,” Crash teased, lowering his voice.

Kobe, the youngest out of all of us, gasped and turned red. “No I’m not!”

“Yes you are!”

“No I’m not!”

“Scaredy cat, scaredy cat!”

They basically went on like that for the next five minutes, so I stepped aside and looked around the fort, taking in the changed atmosphere.

The wall to my right used to have “LAO” on it, written in a certain arrangement, nice and boldly written in white-out – it stood out. The oldest kid in our neighborhood, Travis, taught that one to us when he was seventeen; I was nine when it happened.

Now, “LAO” was faded and peeling. I bit my lip. Now Travis was on the mind – that kid was my brother from another mother, to coin a stupid phrase. I sighed…

“Why’re you staring at LAO? He’s a crusty old fart now,” Crash elbowed me, pointing at the wall.

I laughed a little. “No, he’s still goin’.”

Kobe shouted, “EW!” and stuck his tongue out at me. I clamped a hand down over his mouth, but the brat licked my hand. So I did what any normal person would do – I tackled him, ruffling his hair. Thumps echoed through the fort.

He pushed me away, stronger than an average kid, catching me off-guard. I lay back on my hands while he stood up, laughing evilly.

“Dude, what the crap?!” I stuttered.

“You just got beat up by a fourth grader!” Crash snickered, slapping my shoulder.

Kobe stood up and posed like a muscle man, grinning smugly. “Boy, when Travis comes home next week, he’s gonna be so proud’a me!”

I looked at him funny. “Wait…wha…when…wha…”

Crash and Kobe turned to me while I choked on word fragments.

“…Yeah?” Crash said.

“What about Travis?” I said, after taking a deep breath.

“You know his birthday’s comin’ up, right?” Kobe smirked.

Holy crap. June 22nd was that close?

“Yeah…” I trailed off.

“He’s coming back, Sor! He’s turnin’ twenty-one and we’re throwin’ him a party,” Kobe added.

“Like…really?” Sue me for being a skeptic! Last time I saw Travis was when I was in the latter half of my sixth grade year. He had left for the military and although I wrote him to tell him I no longer lived in Santa Monica, I hadn’t seen him physically since.

“Yeah, really!” Crash ushered. “Next weekend he’s flying back on leave.”

Out of instinct, I smiled so wide, man. There was a joy nagging in my stomach upon finding this out. “Sweet,” I whispered, summing up my feelings.

We were quiet.

Kobe stared at the ceiling for a moment, then furrowed his eyebrows together. “…D’you think Travis is gay?”

Crash’s eyes got all wide and he shot this really disgusted look at him. “What’re you talking about?!”

“Well, he doesn’t have a girlfriend!”

“How do you know?” I fired in. “We haven’t seen him in over a year.”

“Well…” Crash said. “You haven’t.”

“…What?” I questioned.

“He came back last Christmas,” Kobe explained.

…Man. Last Christmas, I was having a fake snowball fight with the guys. I was silenced.

“I still don’t think he’s gay,” Crash defended.

“But he’s out there with all those other guys. He’s gotta be lonely,” Kobe shrugged.

“Why the hell are we debating whether or not Travis is gay?! Why does it matter?” I stepped in.

Kobe tilted his head. “I don’t know.”

“You’re smart,” Crash said flatly.

We went quiet for a little while, simply because of a lack of things to say. I bit my lip, since the silence was a little awkward.

“…So…” Kobe said in an attempt to break it.

“…Do you have a boyfriend?” Crash asked me.

“Whoa!” I yelled. “Dude!”

“Ahhh, we struck a nerve, Señor Spencer,” Kobe smirked, elbowing Crash.

“True that, Monsieur Levine,” Crash said back.

Weird…

“You guys have no right to -”

“You have cooties! Oh my God!” Kobe gasped, for real freaked out. He scooted over to the opposite side of the fort, curling his knees up to his chest.

Crash laughed, joining him, jokingly gibing me. I knew he didn’t believe in cooties, but for the sake of friendship he was on Kobe’s side.

Yeah, I kinda wished it was that easy too…