Bite Your Tongue
It's A Date
3:34 P.M.
Korinne;;
“Holy shit. Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed another pile of clothes, tossing them into the washing machine.
“Oh, shut up, Elias. I don’t look that different.”
Having emptied my suitcase of dirty clothes, I got to my feet. Elias was standing two feet away, leaning against the dryer and looking at me like I was some sort of alien. I ignored him, shut the lid on the washing machine, and dragged my suitcase out of the laundry room. Since I lacked the energy to go all the way to the other side of the house and shove the suitcase into the back of my closet, I let it drop to the floor in the hallway, and then I sat down on top of it and tried my best not to fall asleep again. I was so tired. Two days ago, when Stevie’s mom had finally gotten sick of being away from home, realized that Stevie and I had to go back to school pretty soon, and decided it was time for us to leave London, she’d booked the first available flight, which just happened to be leaving in the middle of the night.
It’d seemed like a good idea at the time, since it gave us one more day to enjoy our vacation, but landing at nine in the morning after getting no sleep due to the flight’s turbulence definitely hadn’t been pleasant. Even less pleasant was the fact that I’d only been able to sleep for a few hours before waking up and remembering that I needed to unpack and call Jimmy to set a time for our date. First, I’d called Jimmy, and we’d agreed on him picking me up around six-thirty. Then I’d decided to do some laundry, only to be accosted by Elias. At first, he’d been upset that I hadn’t woken him up when I’d gotten home, but then he’d noticed my hair, and now he wouldn’t leave me alone about it.
“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” he asked.
“Go away. I’m tired,” I said, yawning.
Elias’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, what is that on your tongue?!”
“Um…”
“YOU GOT YOUR TONGUE PIERCED?!”
“Maybe.”
“Mom is going to kill you.”
Snorting, I got up and headed towards the stairs. “Please. It’s not like she’ll actually notice.”
Elias seemed to realize that I did kind of have a point. He sighed.
“Whatever.”
He followed me downstairs and into the kitchen, where he took a seat at the table and eyed me with concern.
“So, how was London?”
“Awesome.” I grabbed a box of blueberry Poptarts, removed two, and put them into the toaster. “Do we have coffee?”
“Since when do you drink coffee?”
“I don’t. I just need something to keep myself awake so I don’t fall asleep when I go out with Jimmy later.”
Elias raised an eyebrow.
“You have a date? With Jimmy?”
“Yes,” I said irritably. “Do we have coffee or not?”
“Not. Mom forgot to buy some last time she went shopping.”
“Fabulous.”
“I can go get you some, if you want.”
“No, it’s fine.” As I went to go retrieve my Poptarts, the doorbell rang, echoing through the otherwise silent house. Elias went to go answer it and returned a minute later with Maddie in tow. Her orange hair—which was a bit longer than it’d been the last time I saw her—was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and she was dressed in a black tank top, Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms, and red flip flops.
“Korinne!” she exclaimed when she saw me. She ran over to give me a hug and then stepped back, looking at me. “You hair looks so cool.”
“Thanks.”
“How was London? Was it the most amazing thing ever?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Did you see any celebrities?”
I refrained from the urge to roll my eyes. “Oh, yeah. I saw Kate Moss and Lily Allen in Topshop, and Daniel Radcliffe offered to buy me a drink in the hotel bar.”
Maddie’s face lit up. “Really?”
“No.”
She gasped. “How can you joke about such things?!”
Elias stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Maddie’s waist.
“Leave her alone, Maddie. She’s cranky,” he said.
“Oh. Right. I forgot about the whole jet lag thing. Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I bit hungrily into one of the Poptarts. “You two go have fun.”
Not long after they’d left the room, the doorbell rang again. I heaved myself out of the chair I’d settled into and went to go answer it. As soon as I opened the door, Stevie breezed past me, skipping and looking alarmingly alert for someone who’d been up all night.
“Um…what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help you get ready for your date, silly!”
“I don’t need any h—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you do!”
I started to protest again, but I noticed that she had her determined face on, and I definitely didn’t have the energy to argue. I also knew that I probably could use some help getting ready, so I decided not to reject the opportunity. I grabbed my Poptarts and let Stevie pull me upstairs to my room.
“Aren’t you tired?” I asked. I shut the door and flopped onto my unmade bed.
“Nope,” Stevie said cheerily. She threw open the door to my closet and appraised the contents with her hands on her hips.
“Seriously?”
“Actually, I’m exhausted. But it’s that weird kind of tired when you’re so tired it doesn’t even feel like you’re tired, if that makes sense.”
“Somewhat.”
Laughing, she turned back to the closet. “What happened to all of your clothes?”
“Well, I took most of them with me to London, so they’re being washed right now. They’ll be done soon, though.”
Stevie pursed her lips in disapproval.
“All right. We’ll have to wait until those clothes are done to pick out your outfit, because the only things I see in your closet are several hideous jackets and a purple shirt with a kitten on it.”
“…Yeah, I haven’t cleaned out my closet since like…elementary school.”
She gave me a look of horrified disgust. “I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“Okay,” I said, shoving some Poptart into my mouth. Once I had finished eating, I found myself being pulled off of the bed and pushed towards the bathroom. “What the—”
“Go take a shower. Or a bath, whatever. Relax, ‘cause I know you’re probably going to start freaking out sometime soon. I’ll go get your clothes once they’re done. Where do you guys keep your laundry stuff?”
“In the laundry room. It’s next to the basement door.”
As she left, I went into the bathroom to do as she’d ordered. I decided on a bath, mostly because the option of laying down and doing nothing was much more appealing to me than the extra effort it took to stand in the shower. I waited a few minutes for the tub to fill with water before getting undressed and climbing in until the water reached my chin.
Woah.
I’d forgotten just how relaxing a bath could be. I didn’t have any bubbles or scented candles, but the water was the perfect temperature, and the house was absolutely silent except for the faint roar of the music Elias had on in his room down the hall. For several blessed moments, my mind was at ease. Nothing existed but the warmth of the water around me. My eyes closed; my brain started to shut down, and soon I was drifting off to sleep.
It felt like only seconds later that loud knocking on the door jolted me awake.
“Korinne,” Stevie said. “You’ve been in there for thirty minutes. Do not fall asleep in the bathtub, or I will come in there and kill you with my bare hands.”
“But I’m tired,” I whined.
“Suck it up. You are going on this date even if the goddamn apocalypse commences and it starts raining zombies.”
Rolling my eyes, I reluctantly left the warm comfort of the tub, wrapped myself in a towel, and returned to my room. Stevie had retrieved my clean clothes from the laundry room, laid out several different outfits on my bed, and folded everything else.
“Jesus, Stevie. Did you dry all this stuff, too?”
“Yep.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“It’s no problem. I didn’t know what you planned to do with it, though, so I just folded everything.”
“That’s fine.” I stepped over a pile of folded shirts and looked at the outfits she’d put together.
“What kind of look are you going for?” she asked.
“Um…” My mind was blank. “I have no idea. I’ve never been on a real date before.”
“Of course you have! You went to that party with Brian…”
“Yeah, but that was a party. This is a one-on-one dinner date.There won’t be anyone else there to keep the conversation going if I suddenly can’t thing of anything to say.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“Oh, God. What if we get stuck talking about the weather?” My panic level started to rise. “I don’t want to talk about the weather!”
“Korinne, calm down. It’s Jimmy. He’s like, the most laid back guy ever. Don’t worry too much about this.”
“But—”
“We’re focusing on your outfit, now,” she said firmly. “So. Jeans, or a skirt?”
+++
6:15 P.M.
It wasn’t fair, I decided, that time seemed to speed up when you were nervous about something and wanted a few more hours in which to convince yourself that everything would be okay. As it grew closer and closer to the time Jimmy was supposed to pick me up, I grew more and more nervous. I tried taking deep breaths, listening to music, and watching TV, but nothing distracted me well enough, so instead I took to pacing back and forth in the upstairs hallway.
I knew I looked okay—after Stevie and I had settled on me wearing a royal blue scoop neck t-shirt, a flowy black skirt I’d found at the bottom of my dresser drawer, and the silvery ballet flats Stevie had given me for my birthday, she’d straightened my hair so it fell perfectly around my face and taught me how to properly apply liquid eyeliner, a skill that had continually evaded me for quite some time. I felt a bit weird in the skirt, since I didn’t normally wear them, but it was comfortable and cute, so I kept it on. Having a cute outfit, however, didn’t do anything to ease my nerves.
As I thought of all the disastrous ways in which the date could end, I cursed Stevie, wishing she’d stayed. She’d left about twenty minutes ago, stating that ‘her work here was done’, and while I’d initially been glad to have some alone time, I now wished that she was here so I’d have someone to talk to instead of dwelling on tonight’s negative possibilities.
“Are you okay?”
I jumped and whirled around at the sound of Maddie’s voice. She was emerging from the bathroom, looking at me cautiously.
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine.” I continued pacing.
Maddie frowned slightly. “You sure about that? ‘Cause it looks like you’re freaking out about something.”
“I have a date soon,” I blurted out. “With Jimmy.”
“Jimmy…Sullivan?”
“Yeah. And I have no idea what to do, or how to act, and…shit, I can’t breathe—”
“I can see you breathing, Korinne. Calm down. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“Really? Are you psychic?”
Maddie laughed. “No. Just…relax.”
“Relax…” I nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”
The faint sound of the doorbell ringing came from downstairs.
“OH MY GOD!”
“Korinne—”
“OH MY GOD, HE’S EARLY! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!”
She grabbed my shoulders. “Look at me. You. Will. Be. Okay. Okay?”
I held my breath for a couple of seconds to keep from shouting again. Once I was sure that I could speak at a normal volume, I thanked Maddie for her help and ran to go get the door. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Elias was standing there, looking at the door with his arms crossed and a defensive look on his face.
“Elias, please don’t tell me that you’re going to give Jimmy a hard time,” I said.
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
“Elias!”
“You’re my little sister—”
“I’m only a year younger than you!”
“—And he’s some guy coming to take you away to God-knows-where. I don’t trust him.”
“But you know Jimmy!”
Elias made a dissatisfied noise in the back of his throat. I took that to mean that he wasn’t going to say anything, hurried toward the door, and opened it. Standing on the doorstep was Jimmy, looking taller than ever in a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and jeans that fit him like a glove. His hair looked like it had actually come into contact with a comb sometime over the past few days, but he didn’t look fancy or anything, just…nice.
“Hey,” I said, smiling.
“Hey.”
Before either of us could speak again, Elias stepped up beside me.
“James.”
“Hey, Elias.”
“Hurt my sister and I will hurt you.”
Jimmy blinked. “Uh…okay…”
“Have a nice night, now.” Elias gave me a small push, and I gave him a dirty glare as I followed Jimmy in the direction of his car.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “He’s just doing the protective brother thing.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“And remember,” Elias shouted, right as we had reached the car. He smirked. “Always use a condom.”
“ELIAS! SHUT UP!” I shrieked. I wanted to die of embarrassment. I didn’t say another word until we were in the car, moving away from my house.
“Korinne? You okay over there?”
“Yeah…I’m just going to kill my brother, that’s all.”
Jimmy laughed. “He was just messing with you.”
“Yeah, well…I’m still going to kill him.”
Jimmy shook his head. As we came to a stop at a red light, he turned to look at me.
“You look really pretty, Korinne. I like your hair.”
I was pretty sure that I actually blushed.
“Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“I combed my hair,” he said, sounding proud.
“Yeah, I noticed.”
Both of us laughed, then.
“So…where are we going?” I wondered.
“Um…I was thinking we’d go to Daphne’s Greek Cafe. You like Greek food, right?”
“Sure.”
“I mean, we can go somewhere else, if you want—”
“Whatever you have planned is fine, Jimmy.”
“Okay.” He looked relieved. “Good, ‘cause it’s cheap, and I don’t have all that much money.”
“Oh. I brought money, though, just in case…”
“Korinne, we’re on a date. You are not going to pay for your food.”
“But—”
“No.”
“Jimmy!”
“Scream my name all you want,” he said, grinning, “But I’m still paying.”
“Fine.”
He glanced at me, chuckling.
“What the hell’s so funny?”
“You’re cute when you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry!”
“You sound angry.”
“Just…shut up and drive the car.”
He was still chuckling by the time we reached the restaurant, but my irritation had all but vanished, so I didn’t mind. His laughter was infectious, and as we headed inside, I found myself start to giggle.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. I just…can’t stop laughing, for some reason.”
“All right, then.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m kind of tired.”
“Oh, that’s fine.” He seemed amused. “I can think of a few ways to keep you awake.”
I tried my hardest not to snort and made a mental note to get more sleep before the next time I saw him. In an effort to stop myself from laughing, I inspected my surroundings. Daphne’s Greek Cafe’ was definitely of the fast food variety, but it was clean, brightly-lit, and well-decorated. The air was awash with dozens of delicious aromas, and all of the food I saw people eating looked like it tasted awesome.
There was a short line of people waiting before the counter, and while we waited our turn, I looked over the menu, trying to find something I knew I could eat. The guy that had pierced my tongue had said that I could eat pretty much anything after the first few days, as long as I avoided hot and spicy foods, but it had only been a little over two weeks since I’d gotten the piercing, and I was still super paranoid about doing something to screw it up.
“What’s wrong?” Jimmy asked.
“I’m just trying to find something I can eat.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
I stuck my tongue out at him. He raised his eyebrows.
“You got your tongue pierced?”
“Yep.”
“Interesting.” Jimmy looked intrigued.
“Don’t go getting any ideas.”
“Oh my God, seriously? All I said was ‘Interesting’, and you automatically assume that I’m thinking something dirty.”
“That’s because you are. Right?”
He gave me a wicked grin. “Maybe.”
“Of course.”
It was soon our turn to order. After much deliberation, I settled on a grilled chicken pita sandwich and a Greek salad, hoping my tongue could handle it. Jimmy ordered grilled steak kabobs and french fries. Then we found a table, sat down, and began to enjoy our food.
+++
7:10 P.M.
Brian;;
I hated Zoe. I mean, I’d hated her for so long that I’d forgotten what it was like to not want to stab myself whenever she was around, but right now, I hated her more than anything. We’d had a huge fight after I’d told her that I had proof of her sending inappropriate pictures to Korinne, and since then, we’d basically been at each other’s throats. Instead of sitting at home and enjoying the last week of summer by watching some movies like I wanted to, she’d demanded that I take her to go get something to eat. She was sick of all the food at both of our houses, and she’d declared ten minutes ago, after seeing a commercial advertising Daphne’s Greek Cafe’, that she wanted some spanakopita. I didn’t even know what the fuck spanakopita was, but she wouldn’t shut up about it, so I had no choice but to drive her there.
“I want a Coke, too,” she said, messing with the air conditioning. “No, wait, a Sprite.”
“Okay. Anything else—”
“No, a Coke. Definitely a Coke.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter in my hands.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Spanakopita, and a Coke. Ooh, and maybe some calamari…it looked so good on the commercial…”
“I only brought twenty dollars, Zoe,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“Oh, shut up. The food’s bound to be cheap. And if not, you have a credit card, don’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Okay then. Just get me my damn spanakopita and calamari and Coke.”
I took a deep breath and let it out. The restaurant was visible up ahead, and I kept telling myself all I had to do was get her what she wanted and she’d shut up, even though that hardly ever happened.
“What exactly is spanakopita? Is it a vegetable, or—”
“It’s a pie, Brian. Spinach pie. I want two pieces,” she snapped.
“Fine.”
I wanted to slap her, but instead, I quickly claimed the first parking spot I saw. I left the engine on so she wouldn’t complain about the heat and got out of the car.
“Are you coming?” I asked.
“I can’t get out of the car! THERE’S A HIDEOUS PARASITE OF A BABY DISTORTING MY BODY, BRIAN! I’M DISGUSTING!”
“Okay, well, I’ll be right back.”
I turned and walked toward the building, ignoring the unpleasant things I could hear her shouting at me. When I got inside, there was an enormous line, and I let out a sigh of relief. Thank God. At least now I had an excuse to get away from her for a longer period of time. For a few minutes I looked at the menu, trying to figure out if I had enough money to order something for myself as well—I was kind of hungry. I was soon distracted, though, by an extremely good-looking girl who was attempting to get through the line, insisting to the disgruntled people that she only wanted to get to the bathroom. The person in front of me refused to move, so when the girl got to me, I gladly stepped aside. She looked up, giving me a grateful smile, and my mouth fell open in shock as I realized who it was.
“Korinne?!”
“Oh. Um…hey, Brian.”
She looked just as shocked as I felt, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the fact that she looked like a completely different person. Her hair was shorter and a purplish color and styled in a way that I really liked. She was wearing a skirt, for Christ’s sakes. And she looked…well, happy. Tired, but happy. I wanted to grab her, throw her to the ground, and kiss her. Then I reminded myself that, unfortunately, she probably hated me. And I had a girlfriend, anyway—even if I sometimes wanted to throttle said girlfriend with my bare hands.
“Hey,” I said. I tried to think of something interesting to say, but all I could come up with was “What are you doing here?”
“I’m, uh, on a date,” she said nervously, not meeting my eyes.
My hands clenched into fists. “With Jimmy?”
She nodded.
I mentally cursed Jimmy to the most fiery, unpleasant bowel of hell that existed. It wasn’t fair that he got Korinne, and I was stuck with Zoe The Psycho Maniac.
“Oh. Well…I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “About the picture thing. Stevie sent me proof.”
“She did?”
“…Yeah. I just…I know I was a jerk, but I don’t want you to…hate me, or anything.”
“I don’t.”
She looked uncomfortable, and I hated myself for making things so awkward. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting her to say when I apologized—her careful detachment was a bit disappointing, but at least she wasn’t so angry she was attempting to kill me.
“…Okay. Well, I’ll let you get back to…whatever you were doing…” My eyes fell on the small bottle in her hand. It looked like some sort of medical liquid. “What’s that for?”
“Oh. I have to rinse with this to clean my tongue piercing after every meal.”
I blinked, not sure that I’d heard her correctly.
“You got your tongue pierced?”
“Yep.” She waved at me and moved toward the restrooms. “See you later, okay?”
I watched her until she disappeared through one of the doors, oddly mesmerized by the swishing of her skirt.
“Okay,” I said finally.
With a dry mouth and what felt like a hole in the pit of my stomach, I waited in the line, ordered Zoe’s food, and returned to the car. Zombielike, I slid into the driver’s seat and handed Zoe the bag containing her food. She snatched it from me so fast that I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d torn the skin off of my hand.
“What the fuck is this?” she said, holding up a wrapped piece of spanakopita.
“…It’s what you wanted, Zoe.”
She made a disgusted noise.
“Not anymore. I want a burger from In-N-Out Burger, now.”
In-N-Out Burger wasn’t even remotely close to where we were now.
“You want me to drive an extra half an hour just so you can get a fucking burger?”
“Yes.”
Anger spiked through my every nerve. Anger not just directed at Zoe, but at life in general. Millions of retorts to her bitchiness flooded my mind, and instead of voicing any of them, I seized the bag and tossed it out of the window with every ounce of strength I had. Then I put the car into drive and sped out of the parking lot—my heart feeling like the smashed spinach pie on the ground—hating life a little bit more with every passing second.
+++
8:30 P.M.
Korinne;;
“Jimmy, stop it. I can’t enjoy my ice cream when you’re making dirty jokes about what ice cream cones look like every five seconds.”
“Well, you should have gotten your ice cream in a bowl, then.”
I gave him a playful shove, sending a small portion of his chocolate ice cream hurtling to the sidewalk below.
“You suck,” he said.
“You wish.”
Jimmy burst into loud guffaws.
Any other time I would have been embarrassed by my boldness, but now, I was having way too much fun. Even seeing Brian at the restaurant hadn’t put me in a bad mood like I’d expected it to, since I’d been in such high spirits during dinner. When I’d returned to the table, I’d managed to convince Jimmy to let me use the money I had to pay for ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. And then we’d taken to sitting on the hood of his car in the parking lot, eating our ice cream and just being silly.
Once he stopped laughing at me—I really didn’t see what was so funny; he made dirty jokes all the time, so why couldn’t I?—he chomped through the last bit of his cone. I finished mine a minute later, and then we just sat there, looking at each other. It was getting a bit chilly and I wanted to move closer to him for warmth, but I didn’t want him to think I was trying too hard.
“I should get you home,” he said.
“What? No, I don’t want to go home!”
“Korinne, you’ve yawned like five times in the past ten minutes.”
“So?
“Aren’t you tired?”
“Well…yeah, but I like spending time with you, so…”
He smiled. “I like spending time with you, too.”
“Really?”
“What, you don’t believe me?”
“Of course I believe you, I just…” I trailed off as he moved over so we were touching.
“Do you need me to prove it to you?” he asked, placing his arm around my waist.
My breathing went funny as I realized just how close our faces were.
“Sure,” I said breathlessly, eagerly.
He kissed me then, and though his lips were cold from the ice cream, I felt heat rush throughout my entire body. His arm around me tightened ever so slightly as I kissed back, and when he kissed me more forcefully, his lips seeming to leech the air right out of my lungs, a jolt of energy shot through me. And as the kiss—regrettably—ended, I was glad for his arm around me because I probably would have fallen over and accidentally knocked myself unconscious on the car’s hood.
With his face still close to mine, he gave me a toothy grin. “Believe me now?” he whispered.
I nodded, not sure if I could speak without my voice sounding too shaky.
His grin widened. “Good.”
He hopped off of the car, pulling me with him, and kissed me again—quickly, but sweetly—before opening the door for me. I thanked him in a trembly voice and then settled into my seat, my heart beating like I’d just run a marathon.
Korinne;;
“Holy shit. Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed another pile of clothes, tossing them into the washing machine.
“Oh, shut up, Elias. I don’t look that different.”
Having emptied my suitcase of dirty clothes, I got to my feet. Elias was standing two feet away, leaning against the dryer and looking at me like I was some sort of alien. I ignored him, shut the lid on the washing machine, and dragged my suitcase out of the laundry room. Since I lacked the energy to go all the way to the other side of the house and shove the suitcase into the back of my closet, I let it drop to the floor in the hallway, and then I sat down on top of it and tried my best not to fall asleep again. I was so tired. Two days ago, when Stevie’s mom had finally gotten sick of being away from home, realized that Stevie and I had to go back to school pretty soon, and decided it was time for us to leave London, she’d booked the first available flight, which just happened to be leaving in the middle of the night.
It’d seemed like a good idea at the time, since it gave us one more day to enjoy our vacation, but landing at nine in the morning after getting no sleep due to the flight’s turbulence definitely hadn’t been pleasant. Even less pleasant was the fact that I’d only been able to sleep for a few hours before waking up and remembering that I needed to unpack and call Jimmy to set a time for our date. First, I’d called Jimmy, and we’d agreed on him picking me up around six-thirty. Then I’d decided to do some laundry, only to be accosted by Elias. At first, he’d been upset that I hadn’t woken him up when I’d gotten home, but then he’d noticed my hair, and now he wouldn’t leave me alone about it.
“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” he asked.
“Go away. I’m tired,” I said, yawning.
Elias’s eyes widened. “Oh my God, what is that on your tongue?!”
“Um…”
“YOU GOT YOUR TONGUE PIERCED?!”
“Maybe.”
“Mom is going to kill you.”
Snorting, I got up and headed towards the stairs. “Please. It’s not like she’ll actually notice.”
Elias seemed to realize that I did kind of have a point. He sighed.
“Whatever.”
He followed me downstairs and into the kitchen, where he took a seat at the table and eyed me with concern.
“So, how was London?”
“Awesome.” I grabbed a box of blueberry Poptarts, removed two, and put them into the toaster. “Do we have coffee?”
“Since when do you drink coffee?”
“I don’t. I just need something to keep myself awake so I don’t fall asleep when I go out with Jimmy later.”
Elias raised an eyebrow.
“You have a date? With Jimmy?”
“Yes,” I said irritably. “Do we have coffee or not?”
“Not. Mom forgot to buy some last time she went shopping.”
“Fabulous.”
“I can go get you some, if you want.”
“No, it’s fine.” As I went to go retrieve my Poptarts, the doorbell rang, echoing through the otherwise silent house. Elias went to go answer it and returned a minute later with Maddie in tow. Her orange hair—which was a bit longer than it’d been the last time I saw her—was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and she was dressed in a black tank top, Spongebob Squarepants pajama bottoms, and red flip flops.
“Korinne!” she exclaimed when she saw me. She ran over to give me a hug and then stepped back, looking at me. “You hair looks so cool.”
“Thanks.”
“How was London? Was it the most amazing thing ever?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“Did you see any celebrities?”
I refrained from the urge to roll my eyes. “Oh, yeah. I saw Kate Moss and Lily Allen in Topshop, and Daniel Radcliffe offered to buy me a drink in the hotel bar.”
Maddie’s face lit up. “Really?”
“No.”
She gasped. “How can you joke about such things?!”
Elias stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Maddie’s waist.
“Leave her alone, Maddie. She’s cranky,” he said.
“Oh. Right. I forgot about the whole jet lag thing. Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” I bit hungrily into one of the Poptarts. “You two go have fun.”
Not long after they’d left the room, the doorbell rang again. I heaved myself out of the chair I’d settled into and went to go answer it. As soon as I opened the door, Stevie breezed past me, skipping and looking alarmingly alert for someone who’d been up all night.
“Um…what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to help you get ready for your date, silly!”
“I don’t need any h—”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you do!”
I started to protest again, but I noticed that she had her determined face on, and I definitely didn’t have the energy to argue. I also knew that I probably could use some help getting ready, so I decided not to reject the opportunity. I grabbed my Poptarts and let Stevie pull me upstairs to my room.
“Aren’t you tired?” I asked. I shut the door and flopped onto my unmade bed.
“Nope,” Stevie said cheerily. She threw open the door to my closet and appraised the contents with her hands on her hips.
“Seriously?”
“Actually, I’m exhausted. But it’s that weird kind of tired when you’re so tired it doesn’t even feel like you’re tired, if that makes sense.”
“Somewhat.”
Laughing, she turned back to the closet. “What happened to all of your clothes?”
“Well, I took most of them with me to London, so they’re being washed right now. They’ll be done soon, though.”
Stevie pursed her lips in disapproval.
“All right. We’ll have to wait until those clothes are done to pick out your outfit, because the only things I see in your closet are several hideous jackets and a purple shirt with a kitten on it.”
“…Yeah, I haven’t cleaned out my closet since like…elementary school.”
She gave me a look of horrified disgust. “I don’t even know how to respond to that.”
“Okay,” I said, shoving some Poptart into my mouth. Once I had finished eating, I found myself being pulled off of the bed and pushed towards the bathroom. “What the—”
“Go take a shower. Or a bath, whatever. Relax, ‘cause I know you’re probably going to start freaking out sometime soon. I’ll go get your clothes once they’re done. Where do you guys keep your laundry stuff?”
“In the laundry room. It’s next to the basement door.”
As she left, I went into the bathroom to do as she’d ordered. I decided on a bath, mostly because the option of laying down and doing nothing was much more appealing to me than the extra effort it took to stand in the shower. I waited a few minutes for the tub to fill with water before getting undressed and climbing in until the water reached my chin.
Woah.
I’d forgotten just how relaxing a bath could be. I didn’t have any bubbles or scented candles, but the water was the perfect temperature, and the house was absolutely silent except for the faint roar of the music Elias had on in his room down the hall. For several blessed moments, my mind was at ease. Nothing existed but the warmth of the water around me. My eyes closed; my brain started to shut down, and soon I was drifting off to sleep.
It felt like only seconds later that loud knocking on the door jolted me awake.
“Korinne,” Stevie said. “You’ve been in there for thirty minutes. Do not fall asleep in the bathtub, or I will come in there and kill you with my bare hands.”
“But I’m tired,” I whined.
“Suck it up. You are going on this date even if the goddamn apocalypse commences and it starts raining zombies.”
Rolling my eyes, I reluctantly left the warm comfort of the tub, wrapped myself in a towel, and returned to my room. Stevie had retrieved my clean clothes from the laundry room, laid out several different outfits on my bed, and folded everything else.
“Jesus, Stevie. Did you dry all this stuff, too?”
“Yep.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“It’s no problem. I didn’t know what you planned to do with it, though, so I just folded everything.”
“That’s fine.” I stepped over a pile of folded shirts and looked at the outfits she’d put together.
“What kind of look are you going for?” she asked.
“Um…” My mind was blank. “I have no idea. I’ve never been on a real date before.”
“Of course you have! You went to that party with Brian…”
“Yeah, but that was a party. This is a one-on-one dinner date.There won’t be anyone else there to keep the conversation going if I suddenly can’t thing of anything to say.”
“You’ll be fine.”
“Oh, God. What if we get stuck talking about the weather?” My panic level started to rise. “I don’t want to talk about the weather!”
“Korinne, calm down. It’s Jimmy. He’s like, the most laid back guy ever. Don’t worry too much about this.”
“But—”
“We’re focusing on your outfit, now,” she said firmly. “So. Jeans, or a skirt?”
+++
6:15 P.M.
It wasn’t fair, I decided, that time seemed to speed up when you were nervous about something and wanted a few more hours in which to convince yourself that everything would be okay. As it grew closer and closer to the time Jimmy was supposed to pick me up, I grew more and more nervous. I tried taking deep breaths, listening to music, and watching TV, but nothing distracted me well enough, so instead I took to pacing back and forth in the upstairs hallway.
I knew I looked okay—after Stevie and I had settled on me wearing a royal blue scoop neck t-shirt, a flowy black skirt I’d found at the bottom of my dresser drawer, and the silvery ballet flats Stevie had given me for my birthday, she’d straightened my hair so it fell perfectly around my face and taught me how to properly apply liquid eyeliner, a skill that had continually evaded me for quite some time. I felt a bit weird in the skirt, since I didn’t normally wear them, but it was comfortable and cute, so I kept it on. Having a cute outfit, however, didn’t do anything to ease my nerves.
As I thought of all the disastrous ways in which the date could end, I cursed Stevie, wishing she’d stayed. She’d left about twenty minutes ago, stating that ‘her work here was done’, and while I’d initially been glad to have some alone time, I now wished that she was here so I’d have someone to talk to instead of dwelling on tonight’s negative possibilities.
“Are you okay?”
I jumped and whirled around at the sound of Maddie’s voice. She was emerging from the bathroom, looking at me cautiously.
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine.” I continued pacing.
Maddie frowned slightly. “You sure about that? ‘Cause it looks like you’re freaking out about something.”
“I have a date soon,” I blurted out. “With Jimmy.”
“Jimmy…Sullivan?”
“Yeah. And I have no idea what to do, or how to act, and…shit, I can’t breathe—”
“I can see you breathing, Korinne. Calm down. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“Really? Are you psychic?”
Maddie laughed. “No. Just…relax.”
“Relax…” I nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”
The faint sound of the doorbell ringing came from downstairs.
“OH MY GOD!”
“Korinne—”
“OH MY GOD, HE’S EARLY! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!”
She grabbed my shoulders. “Look at me. You. Will. Be. Okay. Okay?”
I held my breath for a couple of seconds to keep from shouting again. Once I was sure that I could speak at a normal volume, I thanked Maddie for her help and ran to go get the door. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, Elias was standing there, looking at the door with his arms crossed and a defensive look on his face.
“Elias, please don’t tell me that you’re going to give Jimmy a hard time,” I said.
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
“Elias!”
“You’re my little sister—”
“I’m only a year younger than you!”
“—And he’s some guy coming to take you away to God-knows-where. I don’t trust him.”
“But you know Jimmy!”
Elias made a dissatisfied noise in the back of his throat. I took that to mean that he wasn’t going to say anything, hurried toward the door, and opened it. Standing on the doorstep was Jimmy, looking taller than ever in a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up and jeans that fit him like a glove. His hair looked like it had actually come into contact with a comb sometime over the past few days, but he didn’t look fancy or anything, just…nice.
“Hey,” I said, smiling.
“Hey.”
Before either of us could speak again, Elias stepped up beside me.
“James.”
“Hey, Elias.”
“Hurt my sister and I will hurt you.”
Jimmy blinked. “Uh…okay…”
“Have a nice night, now.” Elias gave me a small push, and I gave him a dirty glare as I followed Jimmy in the direction of his car.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “He’s just doing the protective brother thing.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“And remember,” Elias shouted, right as we had reached the car. He smirked. “Always use a condom.”
“ELIAS! SHUT UP!” I shrieked. I wanted to die of embarrassment. I didn’t say another word until we were in the car, moving away from my house.
“Korinne? You okay over there?”
“Yeah…I’m just going to kill my brother, that’s all.”
Jimmy laughed. “He was just messing with you.”
“Yeah, well…I’m still going to kill him.”
Jimmy shook his head. As we came to a stop at a red light, he turned to look at me.
“You look really pretty, Korinne. I like your hair.”
I was pretty sure that I actually blushed.
“Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself.”
“I combed my hair,” he said, sounding proud.
“Yeah, I noticed.”
Both of us laughed, then.
“So…where are we going?” I wondered.
“Um…I was thinking we’d go to Daphne’s Greek Cafe. You like Greek food, right?”
“Sure.”
“I mean, we can go somewhere else, if you want—”
“Whatever you have planned is fine, Jimmy.”
“Okay.” He looked relieved. “Good, ‘cause it’s cheap, and I don’t have all that much money.”
“Oh. I brought money, though, just in case…”
“Korinne, we’re on a date. You are not going to pay for your food.”
“But—”
“No.”
“Jimmy!”
“Scream my name all you want,” he said, grinning, “But I’m still paying.”
“Fine.”
He glanced at me, chuckling.
“What the hell’s so funny?”
“You’re cute when you’re angry.”
“I’m not angry!”
“You sound angry.”
“Just…shut up and drive the car.”
He was still chuckling by the time we reached the restaurant, but my irritation had all but vanished, so I didn’t mind. His laughter was infectious, and as we headed inside, I found myself start to giggle.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. I just…can’t stop laughing, for some reason.”
“All right, then.”
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m kind of tired.”
“Oh, that’s fine.” He seemed amused. “I can think of a few ways to keep you awake.”
I tried my hardest not to snort and made a mental note to get more sleep before the next time I saw him. In an effort to stop myself from laughing, I inspected my surroundings. Daphne’s Greek Cafe’ was definitely of the fast food variety, but it was clean, brightly-lit, and well-decorated. The air was awash with dozens of delicious aromas, and all of the food I saw people eating looked like it tasted awesome.
There was a short line of people waiting before the counter, and while we waited our turn, I looked over the menu, trying to find something I knew I could eat. The guy that had pierced my tongue had said that I could eat pretty much anything after the first few days, as long as I avoided hot and spicy foods, but it had only been a little over two weeks since I’d gotten the piercing, and I was still super paranoid about doing something to screw it up.
“What’s wrong?” Jimmy asked.
“I’m just trying to find something I can eat.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
I stuck my tongue out at him. He raised his eyebrows.
“You got your tongue pierced?”
“Yep.”
“Interesting.” Jimmy looked intrigued.
“Don’t go getting any ideas.”
“Oh my God, seriously? All I said was ‘Interesting’, and you automatically assume that I’m thinking something dirty.”
“That’s because you are. Right?”
He gave me a wicked grin. “Maybe.”
“Of course.”
It was soon our turn to order. After much deliberation, I settled on a grilled chicken pita sandwich and a Greek salad, hoping my tongue could handle it. Jimmy ordered grilled steak kabobs and french fries. Then we found a table, sat down, and began to enjoy our food.
+++
7:10 P.M.
Brian;;
I hated Zoe. I mean, I’d hated her for so long that I’d forgotten what it was like to not want to stab myself whenever she was around, but right now, I hated her more than anything. We’d had a huge fight after I’d told her that I had proof of her sending inappropriate pictures to Korinne, and since then, we’d basically been at each other’s throats. Instead of sitting at home and enjoying the last week of summer by watching some movies like I wanted to, she’d demanded that I take her to go get something to eat. She was sick of all the food at both of our houses, and she’d declared ten minutes ago, after seeing a commercial advertising Daphne’s Greek Cafe’, that she wanted some spanakopita. I didn’t even know what the fuck spanakopita was, but she wouldn’t shut up about it, so I had no choice but to drive her there.
“I want a Coke, too,” she said, messing with the air conditioning. “No, wait, a Sprite.”
“Okay. Anything else—”
“No, a Coke. Definitely a Coke.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter in my hands.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Spanakopita, and a Coke. Ooh, and maybe some calamari…it looked so good on the commercial…”
“I only brought twenty dollars, Zoe,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“Oh, shut up. The food’s bound to be cheap. And if not, you have a credit card, don’t you?”
“Yes, but—”
“Okay then. Just get me my damn spanakopita and calamari and Coke.”
I took a deep breath and let it out. The restaurant was visible up ahead, and I kept telling myself all I had to do was get her what she wanted and she’d shut up, even though that hardly ever happened.
“What exactly is spanakopita? Is it a vegetable, or—”
“It’s a pie, Brian. Spinach pie. I want two pieces,” she snapped.
“Fine.”
I wanted to slap her, but instead, I quickly claimed the first parking spot I saw. I left the engine on so she wouldn’t complain about the heat and got out of the car.
“Are you coming?” I asked.
“I can’t get out of the car! THERE’S A HIDEOUS PARASITE OF A BABY DISTORTING MY BODY, BRIAN! I’M DISGUSTING!”
“Okay, well, I’ll be right back.”
I turned and walked toward the building, ignoring the unpleasant things I could hear her shouting at me. When I got inside, there was an enormous line, and I let out a sigh of relief. Thank God. At least now I had an excuse to get away from her for a longer period of time. For a few minutes I looked at the menu, trying to figure out if I had enough money to order something for myself as well—I was kind of hungry. I was soon distracted, though, by an extremely good-looking girl who was attempting to get through the line, insisting to the disgruntled people that she only wanted to get to the bathroom. The person in front of me refused to move, so when the girl got to me, I gladly stepped aside. She looked up, giving me a grateful smile, and my mouth fell open in shock as I realized who it was.
“Korinne?!”
“Oh. Um…hey, Brian.”
She looked just as shocked as I felt, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the fact that she looked like a completely different person. Her hair was shorter and a purplish color and styled in a way that I really liked. She was wearing a skirt, for Christ’s sakes. And she looked…well, happy. Tired, but happy. I wanted to grab her, throw her to the ground, and kiss her. Then I reminded myself that, unfortunately, she probably hated me. And I had a girlfriend, anyway—even if I sometimes wanted to throttle said girlfriend with my bare hands.
“Hey,” I said. I tried to think of something interesting to say, but all I could come up with was “What are you doing here?”
“I’m, uh, on a date,” she said nervously, not meeting my eyes.
My hands clenched into fists. “With Jimmy?”
She nodded.
I mentally cursed Jimmy to the most fiery, unpleasant bowel of hell that existed. It wasn’t fair that he got Korinne, and I was stuck with Zoe The Psycho Maniac.
“Oh. Well…I’m sorry,” I blurted out. “About the picture thing. Stevie sent me proof.”
“She did?”
“…Yeah. I just…I know I was a jerk, but I don’t want you to…hate me, or anything.”
“I don’t.”
She looked uncomfortable, and I hated myself for making things so awkward. I didn’t know what I’d been expecting her to say when I apologized—her careful detachment was a bit disappointing, but at least she wasn’t so angry she was attempting to kill me.
“…Okay. Well, I’ll let you get back to…whatever you were doing…” My eyes fell on the small bottle in her hand. It looked like some sort of medical liquid. “What’s that for?”
“Oh. I have to rinse with this to clean my tongue piercing after every meal.”
I blinked, not sure that I’d heard her correctly.
“You got your tongue pierced?”
“Yep.” She waved at me and moved toward the restrooms. “See you later, okay?”
I watched her until she disappeared through one of the doors, oddly mesmerized by the swishing of her skirt.
“Okay,” I said finally.
With a dry mouth and what felt like a hole in the pit of my stomach, I waited in the line, ordered Zoe’s food, and returned to the car. Zombielike, I slid into the driver’s seat and handed Zoe the bag containing her food. She snatched it from me so fast that I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d torn the skin off of my hand.
“What the fuck is this?” she said, holding up a wrapped piece of spanakopita.
“…It’s what you wanted, Zoe.”
She made a disgusted noise.
“Not anymore. I want a burger from In-N-Out Burger, now.”
In-N-Out Burger wasn’t even remotely close to where we were now.
“You want me to drive an extra half an hour just so you can get a fucking burger?”
“Yes.”
Anger spiked through my every nerve. Anger not just directed at Zoe, but at life in general. Millions of retorts to her bitchiness flooded my mind, and instead of voicing any of them, I seized the bag and tossed it out of the window with every ounce of strength I had. Then I put the car into drive and sped out of the parking lot—my heart feeling like the smashed spinach pie on the ground—hating life a little bit more with every passing second.
+++
8:30 P.M.
Korinne;;
“Jimmy, stop it. I can’t enjoy my ice cream when you’re making dirty jokes about what ice cream cones look like every five seconds.”
“Well, you should have gotten your ice cream in a bowl, then.”
I gave him a playful shove, sending a small portion of his chocolate ice cream hurtling to the sidewalk below.
“You suck,” he said.
“You wish.”
Jimmy burst into loud guffaws.
Any other time I would have been embarrassed by my boldness, but now, I was having way too much fun. Even seeing Brian at the restaurant hadn’t put me in a bad mood like I’d expected it to, since I’d been in such high spirits during dinner. When I’d returned to the table, I’d managed to convince Jimmy to let me use the money I had to pay for ice cream at Baskin-Robbins. And then we’d taken to sitting on the hood of his car in the parking lot, eating our ice cream and just being silly.
Once he stopped laughing at me—I really didn’t see what was so funny; he made dirty jokes all the time, so why couldn’t I?—he chomped through the last bit of his cone. I finished mine a minute later, and then we just sat there, looking at each other. It was getting a bit chilly and I wanted to move closer to him for warmth, but I didn’t want him to think I was trying too hard.
“I should get you home,” he said.
“What? No, I don’t want to go home!”
“Korinne, you’ve yawned like five times in the past ten minutes.”
“So?
“Aren’t you tired?”
“Well…yeah, but I like spending time with you, so…”
He smiled. “I like spending time with you, too.”
“Really?”
“What, you don’t believe me?”
“Of course I believe you, I just…” I trailed off as he moved over so we were touching.
“Do you need me to prove it to you?” he asked, placing his arm around my waist.
My breathing went funny as I realized just how close our faces were.
“Sure,” I said breathlessly, eagerly.
He kissed me then, and though his lips were cold from the ice cream, I felt heat rush throughout my entire body. His arm around me tightened ever so slightly as I kissed back, and when he kissed me more forcefully, his lips seeming to leech the air right out of my lungs, a jolt of energy shot through me. And as the kiss—regrettably—ended, I was glad for his arm around me because I probably would have fallen over and accidentally knocked myself unconscious on the car’s hood.
With his face still close to mine, he gave me a toothy grin. “Believe me now?” he whispered.
I nodded, not sure if I could speak without my voice sounding too shaky.
His grin widened. “Good.”
He hopped off of the car, pulling me with him, and kissed me again—quickly, but sweetly—before opening the door for me. I thanked him in a trembly voice and then settled into my seat, my heart beating like I’d just run a marathon.