Love Among the Pizza Boxes

I finally found a way out of going to the beach for a while:
Neither of us had bathing suits.
So I’m driving back to Shayla’s house with a triumphant little grin on my face.
Alfredofred is smiling, too.
“You seem pretty proud of yourself,” Shayla says and smiles.
I nod and shrug simultaneously. “Maybe a little.”
She just shakes her head. “… Sooo… Can you tell you tell me why Kairi was… You know what, never mind.”
“Why Kairi was what?” I ask.
Why Kairi was rubbing her boobs along Sora’s arm? I honestly don’t know.
“Well she was glaring at us- well. Mostly me.”
Crap.
Crap crappity crap crap crap.
I shrug. “No idea.”
You’re a terrible liar, my dear friend.
Shut up, Constance. Nobody likes you.
“Alright. Forget I said anything.” She nods. She believed me.
She believed me?
Awww, now I feel all bad inside.
Shut up, Constance.
No, Riku, I won’t shut up.
Fine then, Constance, be that way! But I won’t be listening to you anymore.
It’s a bad idea not to listen to your conscience….
I’m having a conversation with my conscience.
Great.
But I still feel bad. She believed me and it looks like it’s really bothering her and I know why Kairi was being such a slutty bitch on the trail today.
And I want to say something.
But I don’t.
We’re at her house again.
Shayla’s out of the car first. She’s at the door before I can get out.
Oh dear.
She seems pissed.
Let’s hope she’s not.
Because I don’t know what I did to make her mad.
I get out of the car and go to the door, too.
She smiles tightly. “I had a nice time.”
“Is something wrong, Shayla?” I ask, genuinely worried.
Because she still seems pissed.
Or upset.
And neither of those are good things.
“Nah.” She nods and gets her keys out of her pocket.
Well, obviously something is.
Say something, Riku!
But I don’t know what to say!
So shut your face, Constance.
“Are you sure?”
Nice.
Real nice.
That’s great, Riku. Just great.
She opens the door, letting out a burst of cool air. “I just don’t like people being mad at me is all.” She walks inside and tosses her keys on the coffee table.
“Well, uh – Don’t let her get to you. It’s Kairi we’re talking about, here. She’s the queen of drama.” Now you sound like that one girl off of Degrassi. Super duper.
“Oh really now?” She walks over to me and hugs me. “That makes me feel better then.”
Good job, Bucko.
I hug her back and smile.
She pulls away. “You wanna stay for a while?”
I nod. “Sure.”
“Great.” She nods too and then turns around. “Hmmmm…”
I walk into the house the rest of the way and close the door behind me.
“Penny for your thoughts,” I say to Shayla.
An old substitute teacher in second grade taught that to me.
Whenever I pretended to think, he would come by and place a penny on my desk.
By the end of the day, I had a collection of forty-six pennies.
He was a cool substitute teacher.
“Oh no, son. My thoughts are worth more than a penny.” There’s a smile in her voice. “I’m wondering what we’re gonna do.”
I chuckle.
Well alrighty then.
Now. Don’t just stand there.
Do something.
Anything.
……..
Nothing is cool, too, I guess.
Well, what am I supposed to do?
Gary has some ideas.
But Gary can go to hell.
“Kay. Let’s sit and think.” She plops down on the couch and pats the place next to her.
I walk over and sit next to her.
“Awesome. Sitting and thinking – sounds like a party.” Then I chuckle a little more.
Nice. Laugh at your own joke. You’re cool.
She rolls her eyes. “Why don’t we play twenty questions?”
“Okay, cool. You first.”
Because I suck at coming up with questions in this game.
Gary can come up with quite a few, but Gary can go to hell.
“Alrighty tighty.” Then she maneuvers herself around so that her arms are behind her head and her feet are in my lap. “Let’s start with an easy one. Favorite color?- No wait!... Oh my god… I don’t know your last name!” She cups her hands over her mouth.
I laugh a little. “Eraqus.”
Gah.
I hate my last name.
Maybe I’ll go change it to something cooler.
Like Bond. Like, James Bond.
The name’s Bond. Riku Bond.
That sounds gay.
No…. Just no.
“Oooooh. Exotic!” She wriggles around on the couch. “My last name’s Smith. It’s boring and generic, I know.” She sticks out her tongue. It’s a very cute tongue.
What?
A cute tongue?
That’s…. That’s just great, Gary, thanks.
I smile the stupid-ass smile.
Stupid smile.
Piece of crap smile.
Now… Let’s think of a question.
“If you could keep any animal in the world as a pet, which one would you choose?”
That’s great, Riku.
Super friggin’ duper, son.
“A Chameleon.” She nods and then starts dancing on the couch and singing ‘Karma Chameleon’.
And I scrunch my eyes closed and begin to laugh a very unattractive laugh.
She starts laughing too and then she starts to roll off the couch.
But before she hits her head on the floor I catch her like the über special knight-in-shining-armor I am.
What?
No.
So now one arm is behind her back and the other is supporting her head.
She just smiles up at me. “My hero,” she coos. And then she stands up and sits on the couch again.
I chuckle some more.
I’m doing that a lot today.
“Your turn.”
“Mmmkay. Can you sing?” And then she giggles. “Cause I can’t.”
I’m still sorta chucklin’ away. And I scratch the back of my head. “I don’t really know,” I answer honestly.
‘Cause I don’t.
“Then sing something.” She smiles encouragingly.
Oh dear.
Oh dear, oh dear.
Who even says that anymore?
Pffft. Loser.
Shut up, Gary.
Now I kinda look like a dear in the headlights.
‘Cause I don’t know what to sing. Or if I’ll even be any good.
If I really suck that’ll be embarrassing.
If my voice cracks it’ll be even more embarrassing.
But I’m sure my voice won’t crack.
I’m not going through puberty anymore.
And voice-cracking only happens in puberty.
Right?
Ha-ha, no.
Your voice still might crack.
“C’mon. Pleeeeeeeease?” She bats her eyelashes.
Ugh.
Stupid eye trick.
Fine, then.
Go on, Riku.
Sing something.
So I sing the first thing that comes to mind.
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”
Oh God.
That song had the word ‘love’ in it.
Well poo.
Poptart in a pencil sharpener.
She giggles. “That was cute.”
It was?
It was.
Okay.
Cool.
Well, at least my voice didn’t crack.
Rejoice!
No.
Just no.
So I just laugh and scratch at the back of my head again. “Thanks.”
“Alright. Saddle up buckaroo, it’s your turn.”
I laugh some more.
“Where’s your favorite place on earth?”
I’ve been asked that question before.
By Selphie, come to think of it.
We ran out of things to talk about one day.
“… Hmm… You’re arms.” She says jokingly.
I snort.
I’ve heard that one before.
She smiles. “Uh. I’d have to say… Hm. The observatory when no one else is there. With all the stars shining and it feels like I’m a part of that big old galaxy… Yeah.”
I nod. “That’s pretty cool. Sounds like fun.”
Sure, why not? Let’s answer my own question.
“My favorite place in the whole world…”
That’s a toughie.
The islands?
No.
Pizza Hut?
Hell no.
“My dad’s garage.”
What?
Okay.
You’re cool.
“Really? Why there?” She tilts her head.
Yes, Riku. Do tell. Why your dad’s garage?
“Because my dad fixes up old cars in his spare time. At least – he used to. Now he spends his time drinking a beer on the couch with his pants undone. Anyways. So I would always hang out with him in the garage while he fixed up an old car and we would listen to an old radio station through an ancient radio from when he was a kid. And he would hand me a bottle of root beer that looked like a bottle of real beer. And I remember feeling so grown-up. And every once and a while, he would even let me use the wrench or something.”
Wow.
That’s the most you’ve ever talked in a really long time, Riku.
Yes, I know, Constance.
She smiles and her eyes crinkle up. “That’s really a nice memory.”
I nod slowly, smiling a bit of a nostalgic smile. “Yeah…. It really is.’’
I blink a couple times. “So. Your turn.”
She nods and looks down. “Tell me more about your family.” She looks up again.
I stare at her for a second.
My family.
“Well, nowadays my father owns a Pizza Hut. I told you that before. But my mother….” I pause for a second. “She used to come into my room at night when I was really little. And she’d sing to me and tell me stories. And tell me how special I was to her. And every morning I’d wake up to find her in the kitchen, cooking up some crazy concoction she dreamed up the previous night. Most of the time, it wasn’t that good at all. But still – she kept on trying.
“And when I’d get home from school, she would sit down with me at the kitchen table and we would do my homework together. I always had trouble in school. So to help me concentrate on my school work, she and I would make up stories about different aspects of my homework.
“And once I was done with homework, she’d shoo me outside. And when I came back, she would always be wearing her apron and oven mitts, and smiling a huge smile as she cooked. My father would come in from the garage and kiss her and tell her he loved her. Then we’d sit down together at the round table and we would eat and talk. And even though we were done eating, we would still talk. We would talk about my parents’ childhoods, and things they used to do when they were kids.
“My mother would always tell me how happy she was, and that her greatest dream had come true. And every time, when I would ask her what that dream was, she would say that her dream has always been raising a family. And so she was always so happy and smiley. She is the sweetest woman I’ve ever known.
“When I was nine, she told me that I had a little sibling on the way. I was so excited. So months went by. And pretty soon my mother looked like she was swollen with more than one baby. But no – this baby was just really big. I was pulled out of school on a Tuesday afternoon by a neighbor, who told me that my mother and father were at the hospital, and that I was going to go see my new baby sister. So the neighbor took me to the hospital, and the nurse let me in to see my mom.
“Her face was splotchy and red and shiny. Her hair stuck to her face and her eyes were swollen. She looked at me and took my hand. Then she told me that she loved me and the nurse escorted me out of the room. The neighbor and I waited down the hall in a different room. The room was sterile white and the lights hurt my eyes. The floor was a multi-colored carpet and in one corner was a huge mess of dirty hospital toys. I told our neighbor that I didn’t want to stay in here, that I wanted to see my mom. But the neighbor just looked at me and shook his head.
“My father came in about an hour later. He knelt to the ground and hugged me so tightly, and he began to cry. And I didn’t know what was going on, and I had never seen my father cry before. So I cried, too.”
I take a deep breath.
I run a hand through my hair, then run it down my face.
“God….” I sigh. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.”
“No. Go on.” She looks sad. She knows what happened I think.
“That night, my father told me how much he loved her. I told him how much I still love her. He cried some more. So did I. And, uh…..” I clear my throat. “… Yeah. I miss her. She was an amazing woman. And it was touching the way my parents loved each other. I mean, I was a little boy. So I didn’t think so at the time. But now that I look back on it, I remember little things that they used to do. Like whenever they sat in the car together, they would hold hands. And they would always tell each other, every day, that they loved each other.
“My father misses her, too. That’s why he’s been drinking a lot lately. I haven’t seen him for a couple months. Just talked to him on the phone occasionally. I mean, sure – he’s like, my boss. But he’s sorta winding himself down, relying on the manager to do all his work for him. I think all the alcohol is really getting to him. And I think that’s his goal in all this drinking. Even though he still has his son, it’s just not enough for him. He’s always telling me how much he wishes she would just come back. He’s always telling me that he wants to be with her again.”
And then I sigh. And I stop talking. And I look at the ground.
Shayla does the same. She holds her hands at her sides and just looks at the ground.
Then she puts her knees on the couch and wraps her arms around me. And she just stays like that.
I grit my teeth. I’m biting back tears.
But I’m not going to cry. Because I told myself I wouldn’t do that anymore.
So I hug her back and stare off into nothingness.
I think Shayla’s crying.
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispers.
I just kinda stroke her hair and shake my head slowly.
Because I don’t know what to do, either.
Shayla places her hands on either side of my face and studies my face, her eyebrows furrowed. And then she places a sorrowful little kiss on my lips.
I blink. And I blink a ton.
I refuse to cry.
I refuse.
“We’re not done with twenty questions yet,” I murmur to her.
“Screw twenty questions,” she says and lets go of me and sits back on her heels. “Your turn.”
But – she just said……
I’ll never understand girls.
“Well, let’s hear about your family.”
“… Alright. My father. He’s a very distant person. I barely know him. My mother’s an idiot. She doesn’t know anything about the world because she’s always had a man taking care of that for her.” She nods. “Then… Yeah. I don’t have any siblings. And the only people I’m really close to are my grandparents and Zermine.” She chuckles when she says ‘Zermine’. “My grandma has always been like a mother to me. She’s insane. I swear it. But she’s got sharp shooting moral compass. And I respect that. She’s a great lady. She taught me all about tampons and condoms… But now she’s in an old folks home with my grandpa and they both have dementia. My grandma doesn’t really remember me. But that’s okay I guess.” She half-smiles. “And that’s my family.”
I nod slowly.
We’ve both been doing that a lot today.
“So you and Zermine are really close?”
“You bet. We’re married so I should hope so.” She laughs a little. Then mutters something about kissing a girl. “She’s one crazy Chiquita banana.”
Did I just hear something about kissing a girl?
Gary sure hopes so.
Gary can go make love to a tree.
No he can’t.
Because then I would essentially be doing the same thing.
Which is gross.
“Did you say something about kissing a girl?”
Great Riku.
Just great.
Shayla snorts. “Yep. I kissed a girl and I did not like it. The blender said ‘you may now kiss the bride’ so we were only following orders.” She shakes her head and scrunches up her face.
“You took orders from a blender.”
That came out as a statement.
Weird.
“Yes. I did. That’s what happens when you’re smashed. You heed all the blender’s commands.”
And then I laugh.
She makes me laugh.
That’s a very good sign.