Calamity Jane

My entire day is spent splashing in the ocean water, soaking up the sun, and laughing with Hector and his family. We’re going back into the water for the millionth time today and it still feels like it did this morning.

I jump onto Hector’s back, scaring the hell out of him. He stumbles, almost falls, and then cusses at me, laughing. I tighten my grip around him and he places his hands on my feet. He speeds up, breaking into a slight run and dives into a wave head on. I only have a moment to hold my breath and latch on tight before I’m plunged into momentary darkness.

I hear the water rushing underneath and the sound of laughter. Hector is still right there with me. We come back up and I gasp for air, still holding onto him. “Asshole!” I yell, not really meaning it. We both laugh and he carries me out deeper.

We’re silent as he keeps on. “So,” he says, “does this mean we’re… friends?”

I laugh and don’t say anything. He turns his head slightly so that we’re looking at each other and I try to make a serious face. “No!” I say. “How could I be friends with you?”

He laughs and in a quick motion, yanks me off of his back and dunks me underneath the water before I can do anything. I struggle to get up and after a few moments, he lets me back up. “Are we friends yet?” he asks, after I stop coughing and look at his stupid, grinning face.

“No!” I say, struggling to release myself from his grasp. He only laughs and dunks me yet again. I use my legs to kick wherever I can, trying to hit him at least once. He pulls me back up and laughs.

“Friends?”

“NO!”

He laughs loudly and pushes me entirely underwater for a seconds. This time I’m ready. When he pulls me up, before he can say anything, I kick him in the chest and stun him. He releases me and I lunge at him, submerging us both into the water.

I swim back up to the surface and laugh to myself, looking around for him. I wait a couple seconds and then stop smiling. “Hector?” I ask, stupidly. I look around and panic a little. Something tugs at my foot and I’m pulled under. I scream and swallow a mouthful of seawater in the process.

I fight him up to the surface and slap him, coughing up water. “You asshole! I thought you were drowning!”

He laughs. “Aw, you were worried about me. That makes us friends then.”

“No it doesn’t-”

“Shh,” he says, “I’ll keep throwing you under until you say we’re friends.”

I roll my eyes and cross my arms. “Just because you can dunk me in the water doesn’t mean you could beat me on land.”

He smirks. “Is that a challenge?”

“Yes,” I reply defiantly. “It is.”

I start swimming towards the sand and he grabs me. “What are you doing?” I screech, fighting him. He laughs, takes a hold of my legs, and throws me over his shoulder.

“You‘re too slow,” he teases, going at an accelerated speed. I feel dizzy looking at the water upside down.

“Let me down!” I say, hitting his butt as hard as I can. He jumps and drops me on the sand, grabbing his butt and swearing.

“That fucking hurt!” he yells. I sit up on the sand, grinning up at him. His family is a few feet away, laughing like hell. He frowns at me and squints his eyes, looking like a cat about to attack its prey. I stop smiling and scoot back. He lunges towards me.

“NO!” I scream, trying to fight him off. He uses one hand to pin down my arms and starts tickling me like crazy. “No!” I half screech, half laugh. I try kicking him off but it doesn’t faze him. He continues on, laughing at me now. I can barely breathe from laughing and tears are falling down my face.

“Please… stop,” I say, between gasps of breath, “I give up. Please.”

He pauses. “What? What did you say?”

“I give up!” I reply angrily. “I give up!”

“So we’re friends?”

“Yes!” I answer helplessly. He grins in triumph and stares at me a moment.

“Hey, Hector,” Alex says, coming over. He looks at both of us with a raised eyebrow. “At least have some decency and take her back to your room.” My mouth falls open and Hector looks at me with wide eyes. I suppose to any onlookers our position would seem like something else.

Hector turns beet red and climbs up off of me. I laugh awkwardly and stand up, avoiding eye contact. Alex laughs and slaps him on the shoulder. “I’m only joking kid.”

I look over at the others who are gathering up their things. Its nearly dark. I go over to join them, Alex and Hector’s conversation no longer within earshot. Yamilex smirks at me and hands me my bag. “Here,” she says, “looks like you were having fun.”

I scratch my hair and sigh, ignoring her. “Taylor do you-”

“Jane, you have sex hair,” Taylor states, only momentarily glancing up at me. Her eyes return back to the magazine she’s absorbed in. I can feel my face burning red.

The others chuckle and continue putting their stuff together. “Looks like you got some sun, chica,” Sonia comments, giving me a thumbs up.

I look away, too embarrassed to speak, and pick up my towel and fold it around my waist. Hector comes jogging over and picks up his towel, which was beside mine. He gives me a secret smile and wraps it around him. “Here, I’ll carry it,” he says, motioning to my beach bag. I protest but he takes it anyway and winks at me, running off towards the board walk.

“Taylor! Get your ass up!” Maurice orders, picking her up out of her lounge chair. She’s the only one not moving or doing anything. She cusses him out briefly and continues to read her magazine, completely unfazed. He releases her, picks up her bright orange chair, gathers her belongings and starts stalking off towards where we first entered. The rest of her family goes, pair by pair, behind them. Yamilex and I are the last ones to walk back. I glance back momentarily, taking another last look at the ocean. It’s grown dark and secretive. I shiver and look forward.

“Do you like my brother?” Yamilex asks out of the blue.

“What? No,” I say, perhaps a bit too harshly.
“Oh,” she says, smiling. “Did he tell you about this morning?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You were holding hands in your sleep,” she informs me, laughing wildly. She leaves me standing there before I can even give her a reply.



I drag my weary legs across the street, to the motel parking lot, to that familiar gold lettered door and knock. It opens right away and Hector lets me in. He’s freshly showered, with jean shorts and a black t-shirt on and a towel wrapped around his shoulders. Water drips from the ends of his hair and he uses the ends of the towel to dry it.

“Where’s Yamilex?” I ask, scanning the room. I want to slap her or hit her or something and don’t quite know why.

“She’s, uh, she’s with Aracelis,” he responds.

“Oh,” I say. I sit down on our bed and lay back, closing my eyes.

“Are you going to take a shower?”

“No,” I mumble. I open my heavy eyes and toss the towel from my waist onto the floor. I kick my flip flops off and turn onto my side. Hector is standing on the other side of the bed, looking at me.

“Are you hungry?”

“No, I’m sleepy,” I mumble, burying my head into the pillow.

“You need something,” he insists. I hear the fridge open and then movement on the bed. He taps my shoulder and I ignore him. “Come on Jane.” He pulls me up by my arm and I groan loudly.

I open my eyes a bit, letting them adjust to the light. He has a container full of cut strawberries, sprinkled with sugar. Two forks are in his other hand. He hands one to me and places the container in between us. I take a bite and my stomach growls in response. I laugh, not realizing I was even hungry.

He smiles and takes a bite, watching me the whole time. He removes the towel from his shoulders with his free hand and tosses it to the floor, with mine. I turn slightly and cross my legs. “This is good,” I say, chewing. “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

I look down at my stomach, a little self conscience that I’m sitting here like this in a bathing suit. “You look pretty,” Hector says out of the blue. I look up at him with my mouth open.

“Huh?”

“You look pretty with your hair wavy like that. And you got some sun. I didn’t realize you had freckles. They really show now.”

He continues eating, like it’s no big deal, so I do the same. He randomly reaches out his hand and smells a strand of my hair. “You smell like the ocean,” he says, “and sun block.”
I laugh. “Well I was at the beach all day.”

He nods in agreement and glances at the door. “What are you going to do about your parents?” I had told him all about the deal with my parents earlier today, among other things.

“Oh,” I take another piece of fruit, “I forgot about them, actually.” I scratch my hair and sigh. “I guess I’ll move my things out Monday while they work. I’ll look for an apartment. Maybe Taylor would let me sta-”

“You can stay with me,” he interjects quickly. “I have plenty of room.”

“What? Really? You have an apartment?”

“Yeah, duh,” he looks at me like I’m slow. “You think I live on the street corner and sell drugs?”

“Well…” I laugh. “No. Where do you live?”

“About twenty minutes from my sisters, downtown.”

“Okay,” I say. “Well… it will only be temporary…”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

I stare at him, blushing a little. “What?”

He avoids my eyes. “Well… I mean, I um, well… it’s just me and it’s a two room apartment. I’m all by myself and it would be nice to have someone else.”

“Oh,” I say, “sure. We’ll talk about it. I can help pay rent.”

He waves his hand. “Don’t worry about that right now. We’ll figure something out. But I mean, that’s what friends do. They help each other.”

I smile. “It’s been a while since I had any friends, to be honest.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” he says sarcastically.

I shove him and grab the bowl of strawberries, eating nearly all of them. “Shit,” he says, “for someone who wasn’t hungry, you sure are eating a lot.”

I glare at him and set it back down, falling over on my back. My hair reaches the floor and I stare up at the ceiling, letting my arms hang.

“Sit up, Jane,” Hector orders, grabbing my shoulders.

I laugh and push all my weight towards the bed so he can’t raise me up. He struggles and then climbs over. I wriggle my way onto the floor but he catches my feet. I kick at him and try to get free. I giggle. “You play too much,” I say, reaching my hands up towards his. He holds my hands and lifts me up to my feet.

“You don’t play enough,” he says seriously. “That’s why you’re so sad.”

The door opens and Yamilex comes in. She completely ignores the both of us, though I know she must have seen us. She turns the television on, sits on her bed, and flips to MTV. We both stare at her until she looks our way. “What?” she demands, adjusting her glasses. “I don’t care about your stupid flirting.”

I let go of Hector’s hands and take the bowl over to the table. I can feel his eyes on me when I go to the bathroom. I smile to myself and look in the mirror. My hair is wavy and has knots in it. My face has color and the dark circles aren’t as noticeable. I feel like a child for the first time in a really long while, but it‘s in a good way. I’m happy for once.