Bite Your Tongue
Spill
12:23 P.M.
Brian;;
“Okay, that’s it,” Zacky said. He gave me an irritated look. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” I said, frowning in confusion.
“Dude, Matt’s landed on your property four times in the past fifteen minutes and you haven’t noticed.”
As Matt let out a wicked chuckle, I glanced down at the Monopoly board to see that he had indeed passed through an entire section that I owned.
“Oh.”
“That’s it? ‘Oh’?”
“Well, yeah. It’s just a game, Zacky.”
I leaned back against the couch, hoping he’d just stop talking. This wasn’t supposed to be a difficult day. We’d planned on having band practice, but Johnny’s parents had taken him away for a lame Family Fun Day, and Jimmy was being a whiny baby about the minor cold he had. The rest of us had gathered at Zacky’s house anyway and attempted to run through a few songs, but it just wasn’t the same without the others. Then we’d tried to do homework, an effort that lasted for a grand total of ten minutes before we’d decided to play Monopoly because none of us had played in forever and we were just that bored.
I’d hoped that the game would be enough to distract me from the thoughts running rampant through my mind. It had been two weeks since I’d kissed Korinne on the beach, and it was still all I could think about. I’d tried focusing more than usual on school, blasting music whenever it got too quiet, and keeping myself so busy there was no chance to think about anything, but no matter what I did, my mind simply refused to let go of the memory. I could practically feel her in my arms again, could practically feel her lips pressed against mine. I kept thinking about what would have happened if that lightning hadn’t struck nearby and startled us—exactly how far would we have gone?
“Brian!” Zacky’s exasperated voice, along with the handful of plastic green houses he’d thrown at my face, jolted me out of my thoughts. “You’re doing it again. You keep getting this blank look on your face like aliens are slowly sucking out parts of your brain.”
“Sorry. I’m just…distracted, that’s all. Whose turn was it?”
“Mine.” Matt snatched the dice from Zacky, rolled them around in his hand for a few seconds, and dropped them onto the board.
“What’s distracting you? Is Zoe giving you hell again? Jesus, I swear you just need to push that girl off of a cliff. I’ll do it for you, if you like.”
“It’s nothing.” I kept my eyes on Matt’s hand as he moved his silver thimble thingy around the board.
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be acting like a complete fucking weirdo. What happened?”
“I told you, nothing.” I was stuck in the mindset of the kiss memory being nonexistent as long as I didn’t talk about it. But Zacky knew me better than anyone, and I knew he’d annoy the living shit out of me until I told him what was wrong. I resolved to act completely normal from now on—even if I was fantasizing about Korinne every few minutes.
Zacky rolled his eyes and picked up the dice to complete his turn. He looked briefly at the board, and a second later, his eyes narrowed.
“Wait a goddamned minute—I own Park Place!” he exclaimed, glaring at Matt. “Pay up, fucker!”
Matt cursed loudly. Grumbling, he counted out the necessary amount from his colorful pile of money.
“Cheating scumbag,” Zacky muttered. Once he’d collected his money, he turned back to me. “Anyway. Like I was saying—what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Just drop it, Zacky. It’s not important.”
“Does it have anything to do with Korinne?” Matt asked. “‘Cause Stevie said she’s been acting really weird, too.”
Shit. I took the dice and feigned an intense focus on moving my silver iron around the board.
“I didn’t hear an answer, Brian,” Matt said in a nagging tone.
“Does anyone own New York Avenue? No? Okay, I’m buying it.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m not changing the subject,” I said cheerfully, paying for my new property. “I’m just buying New York Avenue, that’s all.”
“Which is a change of subject.”
“It’s your turn, Zacky.”
“I’m not going until you tell us what happened.”
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Apparently it is, since you’re getting all defensive—”
“Fine!” I didn’t even care anymore, I was so annoyed. “We kissed, all right? Zoe was pissing me off so I went onto the beach to think for a bit and I guess I lost track of time because the next thing I knew Korinne was there, looking all worried and adorable and all I wanted to do was kiss her, so I did. And maybe it would have gone farther than just a kiss if we hadn’t been struck by lighting, but I don’t know. I just don’t know. I can’t stop thinking about it and I’m pretty sure I’m going insane.”
Zacky blinked. “Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you getting back together with her, or—”
“Zacky,” I said slowly. “I have a pregnant girlfriend.”
“A completely fucking psycho pregnant girlfriend,” Matt corrected.
“So what? Just because you got Zoe pregnant doesn’t mean you have to deal with it.”
“I already told you, I can’t just leave her—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But is being Mr. Responsibility really worth making yourself miserable like this?”
“Zacky—”
“I’m just saying. You still have a few months before the baby’s born, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, the way I see it, you’re not the father of her baby yet. The kid’s still in her stomach.”
“Yeah, but—”
“You deserve to have some fun, Brian,” he said. “Seriously.”
“Can we get back to the game now?” Matt asked irritably. “I’m ready to kick both of your asses.”
“In your dreams, Sanders!”
The two of them quickly became extremely competitive, and I tried my best to keep up. But I was mainly concerned with what Zacky had said, and how it made a slight bit of sense. The expiration date of my love life and the due date of Zoe’s baby were practically the same thing. I knew abandoning her at any point would only put the baby in danger, but I didn’t see why I had to be completely dedicated to her right now.
Maybe Zacky did have a point.
+++
12:45 P.M.
Korinne;;
I was rudely awakened from a very pleasant dream by the sound of someone munching away on a crunchy food. For several minutes, I tried to tune the noise out and go back to sleep, but the constant crunching sound soon became impossible to ignore. Annoyed, I opened my eyes to see Stevie sitting up against her pillow, reading Cosmopolitan and eating Doritos. I glared at her.
“Is that really necessary?” I asked.
“I’m hungry. And I didn’t want to be rude and go get breakfast while you and Delia were still sleeping,” she replied.
I rolled my eyes and sat up slowly so my ribs wouldn’t start hating me again. All of us had been in desperate need of some girl time, so Stevie had called for a resurrection of our Friday night sleepovers. We’d gone to her house, ordered pizza, and stayed up late last night giving each other manicures and watching chick flicks. Then we’d all just crashed in Stevie’s enormous king-sized bed, which was basically the most comfortable thing on the planet. Even sitting on it made me sleepy.
“So, you seemed to be having a pretty interesting dream,” Stevie said.
“Really?” I had the aggravating sensation of knowing I’d had a good dream but not being able to remember it. I always seemed to remember every single one of my bad dreams, but the good ones? Not so much.
“Yeah.” She smirked. “You were moaning a lot and I think you said Brian’s name a few times. I felt like I was watching a porno.”
My jaw dropped. “I was not moaning!”
“How would you know? You were sleeping!”
“I do not moan in my sleep, Stevie.” I could feel my face growing hot, so I got off of the bed and headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
“Yes, you totally do,” she shouted after me.
“Shut up!”
I located my toothbrush inside the bag I’d brought with me, stole some of Stevie’s toothpaste, and started brushing. As embarrassing as it was, there was no doubt in my mind that she was right. Ever since Brian had kissed me I’d been thinking about him a lot more than normal. I was pretty sure I’d failed a few quizzes over the past two weeks due to not being able to focus on anything but how badly I wanted to feel his hands on my skin again. I’d seen him while I was walking in the hallway once and I’d nearly plowed right into a freshman carrying an enormous, complicated pottery project. I was constantly distracted, and I guessed that distraction was manifesting itself into dirty dreams that my body cruelly wouldn’t let me remember.
“Good dental health dictates two minutes of tooth brushing, Korinne,” Stevie said. “Any longer than that and you’re just plain crazy. Stop stalling and get your ass back in here.”
Damn. I finished brushing and went back into the room. Miraculously, Delia was still sleeping, even though Stevie had been shouting at the top of her lungs. I envied her.
“I’m hungry,” I announced.
“Suck it up. You’re not going anywhere until you explain to me why you were moaning Brian’s name in your sleep.”
“But I’m hungry—”
“Omigod.” Stevie looked like she was about to squeal. “Did you have sex?”
“What?”
Stevie seized my shoulders. “DID YOU HAVE SEX WITH HIM?!”
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
“Are you sure? Because you’re totally acting like you had sex.”
“I’m sure. We just kissed, Stevie. Relax.”
She shrieked and started bouncing up and down. “Is that why you’ve been acting like a total freak lately?”
“I guess…I didn’t know I was acting any differently, but okay—”
Stevie cut me off with another loud shriek. This time, Delia woke up. She seized a nearby pillow and immediately attempted to suffocate Stevie with it.
“Shut up, you fucking maniac,” she grumbled.
“Good morning to you, too.”
Once Stevie had managed to fend Delia off, she turned to me, her eyes bright.
“Okay. Spill. I want details.”
“We just kissed. That’s it.”
“Who kissed? I’m so confused,” Delia said.
“That’s what you get for sleeping in and missing half of the conversation,” said Stevie.
Delia gave her a playful smack with the pillow.
“Korinne and Brian kissed,” Stevie explained. “And now she apparently wants to do him, since she was moaning his name in her sleep.”
“I do not want to ‘do’ him—”
“Well, damn, Korinne,” Delia said, grinning. “If you want him that badly, just tell him.”
I gave an exasperated sigh. “We kissed! That’s all!”
Stevie ignored me. “Yeah, just walk right up to him and be like ‘Hey Brian, I want your seed.’”
“Oh my God!”
The two of them dissolved into giggles.
“You guys are disgusting,” I said.
Their laughter was infectious, though, and soon I couldn’t stop myself from joining in. For a few minutes, we sat there in a giggling mess. We finally grew calm after a bit, and Stevie resumed giving me an expectant look.
“Stevie, I told you, all we did was kiss. If we ever have sex I promise I’ll write up a full press release for you, okay?” I joked.
She rolled her eyes. “Have you talked to him about it yet?”
“No.” If thinking about the kiss stole my breath and scattered my thoughts, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what would happen if I talked to him about it. I had a feeling it would be a cross between melting into a warm puddle of happiness and simply tackling him to the ground.
“Why not?!” Delia demanded, yawning.
I shrugged. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of it if it was just nothing to him.”
“Korinne, Brian’s already said that he loves you even though he got some psycho bitch pregnant. I’d say that’s a pretty big fucking deal.”
“Yeah, but…what’s the point? He’s going to be a father soon, anyway. I’m not going to waste my time hoping to date him again if we’re only going to break up once Zoe has her little demon child.”
“Do you always have to be so pessimistic? Having hope isn’t such a bad thing, you know.”
I sighed and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to dwell on this. Thanksgiving Break is in a few weeks, and then he’ll be gone and I’ll have some time to myself to hopefully stop worrying about this.”
“Um…” Delia said timidly.
“What?”
“Brian’s not going anywhere over the break. Zacky told me that they were planning on staying home and playing video games for a week straight while everyone else was gone, but Zacky’s parents randomly decided that they’re going to go visit relatives in Washington, so…”
“Fuck.” I let my head fall onto the bed. I’d just assumed that Brian would be going on vacation or something, and I’d been looking forward to his temporary absence so I’d have a chance at regaining my sanity.
“What’s wrong?”
“Now I’m going to have to talk to him.”
“Why?”
“We’re neighbors, Stevie. And it’ll be Thanksgiving. Everyone gets all happy and friendly around Thanksgiving. What if his mom invites us over or something?”
“You’re acting like spending time with him is a form of torture.”
“I just…I wanted some time to myself.”
“Well…just lock yourself in your room for a week straight. There you go—mission accomplished.”
“Thanks for the profound advice.”
We sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Delia announced that she had to go home and finish some homework.
“Oh, come on,” Stevie said. “Don’t be a party pooper.”
“I have a project on The Great Gatsby due Monday and I haven’t even read the book yet.”
“That’s your problem.”
Delia laughed and started to gather her things. When she was all packed and ready to go, we waited downstairs with her until her mom arrived to pick her up.
“You aren’t going to abandon me to do homework, are you?” Stevie asked, once Delia was gone.
“I have to read Act III of The Crucible, and I’ve got a project involving the structure of atoms to do, but both of those will be really easy. I can just do it tomorrow.”
“Thank God.”
Laughing, we went back upstairs. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around, eating the leftover pizza and watching super-depressing Lifetime movies. Stevie dropped me off at home a little after seven, and when we pulled into my driveway, I had to blink several times to make sure I was seeing things correctly. Because if I was, then my mom’s car was present, and she was home. And she was never home this early on Saturdays.
Inside, the house smelled of chicken and potatoes cooked to perfection. Elias appeared in the hallway, his eyes wide.
“Mom’s home,” he said. “And she’s cooking!”
I let my bag fall to the floor. “What?”
“I got home from Maddie’s and she was here! Cooking! She had an actual chicken and actual potatoes from Whole Foods and everything!”
“But…Mom’s almost never home. And she doesn’t cook…”
“I know!”
Cautiously, I went in the direction of the kitchen. I peeked around the corner to see my mother bustling around with a pan of roasted potatoes in her pot-holder-covered hand. On the counter was a crispy, brown chicken surrounded by vegetables, looking like it’d been snatched right out of the Food Network. She set the pan down and reached for some sort of dangerous-looking device that she turned on and started slicing into the chicken with.
“Um…Mom?”
“Oh, there you are! How’s your day been?”
I glanced at Elias, whose alarmed expression mirrored my own.
“…Good, I guess. How come you’re home so early?”
“I decided to only work a half-day today. But I’ll be taking some more time off when you kids have Thanksgiving Break.”
I gaped at her. “You’re taking time off of work?”
“Yes, honey,” she said, chuckling. She continued slicing through the chicken.
I glanced out the window to make sure the world wasn’t suddenly coming to an end. The atmosphere still appeared to be intact, and the ocean wasn’t rising up in a giant tsunami to drown us in one fell swoop, so I guessed she had to be telling the truth.
“Why?” I asked. “You haven’t had a day off since we moved here.”
“Well, I’ve been talking a lot to our nice neighbor—you know, your friend Brian’s mom.”
Oh, shit.
“…You have?”
“Yes. She’s a lovely woman. Anyway, we both agreed to try and spend more time with our children, and I thought, what better way to do that than to cook them dinner!”
“She’s lost her mind,” Elias whispered.
I stifled a laugh. “This just seems so random, Mom.”
“I know. But I feel terrible leaving you two to fend for yourselves all the time. I’m going to change that.”
“…Okay…”
“Also, Mrs. Haner and I are going to host Thanksgiving dinner. Her husband travels constantly, and she said Brian hasn’t been looking very happy lately, so I told her we could celebrate Thanksgiving together! Isn’t that great?”
I just stared at her. Of course she would pick now, of all times, to get friendly with the neighbors. Now I would have to see Brian. Now, I didn’t have a choice. With my luck, I’d probably end up having to be around him for the entire holiday.
“Yeah, Mom,” I said. “That’s great.”
Just fucking fabulous. Really.
Brian;;
“Okay, that’s it,” Zacky said. He gave me an irritated look. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” I said, frowning in confusion.
“Dude, Matt’s landed on your property four times in the past fifteen minutes and you haven’t noticed.”
As Matt let out a wicked chuckle, I glanced down at the Monopoly board to see that he had indeed passed through an entire section that I owned.
“Oh.”
“That’s it? ‘Oh’?”
“Well, yeah. It’s just a game, Zacky.”
I leaned back against the couch, hoping he’d just stop talking. This wasn’t supposed to be a difficult day. We’d planned on having band practice, but Johnny’s parents had taken him away for a lame Family Fun Day, and Jimmy was being a whiny baby about the minor cold he had. The rest of us had gathered at Zacky’s house anyway and attempted to run through a few songs, but it just wasn’t the same without the others. Then we’d tried to do homework, an effort that lasted for a grand total of ten minutes before we’d decided to play Monopoly because none of us had played in forever and we were just that bored.
I’d hoped that the game would be enough to distract me from the thoughts running rampant through my mind. It had been two weeks since I’d kissed Korinne on the beach, and it was still all I could think about. I’d tried focusing more than usual on school, blasting music whenever it got too quiet, and keeping myself so busy there was no chance to think about anything, but no matter what I did, my mind simply refused to let go of the memory. I could practically feel her in my arms again, could practically feel her lips pressed against mine. I kept thinking about what would have happened if that lightning hadn’t struck nearby and startled us—exactly how far would we have gone?
“Brian!” Zacky’s exasperated voice, along with the handful of plastic green houses he’d thrown at my face, jolted me out of my thoughts. “You’re doing it again. You keep getting this blank look on your face like aliens are slowly sucking out parts of your brain.”
“Sorry. I’m just…distracted, that’s all. Whose turn was it?”
“Mine.” Matt snatched the dice from Zacky, rolled them around in his hand for a few seconds, and dropped them onto the board.
“What’s distracting you? Is Zoe giving you hell again? Jesus, I swear you just need to push that girl off of a cliff. I’ll do it for you, if you like.”
“It’s nothing.” I kept my eyes on Matt’s hand as he moved his silver thimble thingy around the board.
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be acting like a complete fucking weirdo. What happened?”
“I told you, nothing.” I was stuck in the mindset of the kiss memory being nonexistent as long as I didn’t talk about it. But Zacky knew me better than anyone, and I knew he’d annoy the living shit out of me until I told him what was wrong. I resolved to act completely normal from now on—even if I was fantasizing about Korinne every few minutes.
Zacky rolled his eyes and picked up the dice to complete his turn. He looked briefly at the board, and a second later, his eyes narrowed.
“Wait a goddamned minute—I own Park Place!” he exclaimed, glaring at Matt. “Pay up, fucker!”
Matt cursed loudly. Grumbling, he counted out the necessary amount from his colorful pile of money.
“Cheating scumbag,” Zacky muttered. Once he’d collected his money, he turned back to me. “Anyway. Like I was saying—what the hell is wrong with you?”
“Just drop it, Zacky. It’s not important.”
“Does it have anything to do with Korinne?” Matt asked. “‘Cause Stevie said she’s been acting really weird, too.”
Shit. I took the dice and feigned an intense focus on moving my silver iron around the board.
“I didn’t hear an answer, Brian,” Matt said in a nagging tone.
“Does anyone own New York Avenue? No? Okay, I’m buying it.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“I’m not changing the subject,” I said cheerfully, paying for my new property. “I’m just buying New York Avenue, that’s all.”
“Which is a change of subject.”
“It’s your turn, Zacky.”
“I’m not going until you tell us what happened.”
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Apparently it is, since you’re getting all defensive—”
“Fine!” I didn’t even care anymore, I was so annoyed. “We kissed, all right? Zoe was pissing me off so I went onto the beach to think for a bit and I guess I lost track of time because the next thing I knew Korinne was there, looking all worried and adorable and all I wanted to do was kiss her, so I did. And maybe it would have gone farther than just a kiss if we hadn’t been struck by lighting, but I don’t know. I just don’t know. I can’t stop thinking about it and I’m pretty sure I’m going insane.”
Zacky blinked. “Well, what are you going to do about it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you getting back together with her, or—”
“Zacky,” I said slowly. “I have a pregnant girlfriend.”
“A completely fucking psycho pregnant girlfriend,” Matt corrected.
“So what? Just because you got Zoe pregnant doesn’t mean you have to deal with it.”
“I already told you, I can’t just leave her—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. But is being Mr. Responsibility really worth making yourself miserable like this?”
“Zacky—”
“I’m just saying. You still have a few months before the baby’s born, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, the way I see it, you’re not the father of her baby yet. The kid’s still in her stomach.”
“Yeah, but—”
“You deserve to have some fun, Brian,” he said. “Seriously.”
“Can we get back to the game now?” Matt asked irritably. “I’m ready to kick both of your asses.”
“In your dreams, Sanders!”
The two of them quickly became extremely competitive, and I tried my best to keep up. But I was mainly concerned with what Zacky had said, and how it made a slight bit of sense. The expiration date of my love life and the due date of Zoe’s baby were practically the same thing. I knew abandoning her at any point would only put the baby in danger, but I didn’t see why I had to be completely dedicated to her right now.
Maybe Zacky did have a point.
+++
12:45 P.M.
Korinne;;
I was rudely awakened from a very pleasant dream by the sound of someone munching away on a crunchy food. For several minutes, I tried to tune the noise out and go back to sleep, but the constant crunching sound soon became impossible to ignore. Annoyed, I opened my eyes to see Stevie sitting up against her pillow, reading Cosmopolitan and eating Doritos. I glared at her.
“Is that really necessary?” I asked.
“I’m hungry. And I didn’t want to be rude and go get breakfast while you and Delia were still sleeping,” she replied.
I rolled my eyes and sat up slowly so my ribs wouldn’t start hating me again. All of us had been in desperate need of some girl time, so Stevie had called for a resurrection of our Friday night sleepovers. We’d gone to her house, ordered pizza, and stayed up late last night giving each other manicures and watching chick flicks. Then we’d all just crashed in Stevie’s enormous king-sized bed, which was basically the most comfortable thing on the planet. Even sitting on it made me sleepy.
“So, you seemed to be having a pretty interesting dream,” Stevie said.
“Really?” I had the aggravating sensation of knowing I’d had a good dream but not being able to remember it. I always seemed to remember every single one of my bad dreams, but the good ones? Not so much.
“Yeah.” She smirked. “You were moaning a lot and I think you said Brian’s name a few times. I felt like I was watching a porno.”
My jaw dropped. “I was not moaning!”
“How would you know? You were sleeping!”
“I do not moan in my sleep, Stevie.” I could feel my face growing hot, so I got off of the bed and headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth.
“Yes, you totally do,” she shouted after me.
“Shut up!”
I located my toothbrush inside the bag I’d brought with me, stole some of Stevie’s toothpaste, and started brushing. As embarrassing as it was, there was no doubt in my mind that she was right. Ever since Brian had kissed me I’d been thinking about him a lot more than normal. I was pretty sure I’d failed a few quizzes over the past two weeks due to not being able to focus on anything but how badly I wanted to feel his hands on my skin again. I’d seen him while I was walking in the hallway once and I’d nearly plowed right into a freshman carrying an enormous, complicated pottery project. I was constantly distracted, and I guessed that distraction was manifesting itself into dirty dreams that my body cruelly wouldn’t let me remember.
“Good dental health dictates two minutes of tooth brushing, Korinne,” Stevie said. “Any longer than that and you’re just plain crazy. Stop stalling and get your ass back in here.”
Damn. I finished brushing and went back into the room. Miraculously, Delia was still sleeping, even though Stevie had been shouting at the top of her lungs. I envied her.
“I’m hungry,” I announced.
“Suck it up. You’re not going anywhere until you explain to me why you were moaning Brian’s name in your sleep.”
“But I’m hungry—”
“Omigod.” Stevie looked like she was about to squeal. “Did you have sex?”
“What?”
Stevie seized my shoulders. “DID YOU HAVE SEX WITH HIM?!”
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
“Are you sure? Because you’re totally acting like you had sex.”
“I’m sure. We just kissed, Stevie. Relax.”
She shrieked and started bouncing up and down. “Is that why you’ve been acting like a total freak lately?”
“I guess…I didn’t know I was acting any differently, but okay—”
Stevie cut me off with another loud shriek. This time, Delia woke up. She seized a nearby pillow and immediately attempted to suffocate Stevie with it.
“Shut up, you fucking maniac,” she grumbled.
“Good morning to you, too.”
Once Stevie had managed to fend Delia off, she turned to me, her eyes bright.
“Okay. Spill. I want details.”
“We just kissed. That’s it.”
“Who kissed? I’m so confused,” Delia said.
“That’s what you get for sleeping in and missing half of the conversation,” said Stevie.
Delia gave her a playful smack with the pillow.
“Korinne and Brian kissed,” Stevie explained. “And now she apparently wants to do him, since she was moaning his name in her sleep.”
“I do not want to ‘do’ him—”
“Well, damn, Korinne,” Delia said, grinning. “If you want him that badly, just tell him.”
I gave an exasperated sigh. “We kissed! That’s all!”
Stevie ignored me. “Yeah, just walk right up to him and be like ‘Hey Brian, I want your seed.’”
“Oh my God!”
The two of them dissolved into giggles.
“You guys are disgusting,” I said.
Their laughter was infectious, though, and soon I couldn’t stop myself from joining in. For a few minutes, we sat there in a giggling mess. We finally grew calm after a bit, and Stevie resumed giving me an expectant look.
“Stevie, I told you, all we did was kiss. If we ever have sex I promise I’ll write up a full press release for you, okay?” I joked.
She rolled her eyes. “Have you talked to him about it yet?”
“No.” If thinking about the kiss stole my breath and scattered my thoughts, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what would happen if I talked to him about it. I had a feeling it would be a cross between melting into a warm puddle of happiness and simply tackling him to the ground.
“Why not?!” Delia demanded, yawning.
I shrugged. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of it if it was just nothing to him.”
“Korinne, Brian’s already said that he loves you even though he got some psycho bitch pregnant. I’d say that’s a pretty big fucking deal.”
“Yeah, but…what’s the point? He’s going to be a father soon, anyway. I’m not going to waste my time hoping to date him again if we’re only going to break up once Zoe has her little demon child.”
“Do you always have to be so pessimistic? Having hope isn’t such a bad thing, you know.”
I sighed and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to dwell on this. Thanksgiving Break is in a few weeks, and then he’ll be gone and I’ll have some time to myself to hopefully stop worrying about this.”
“Um…” Delia said timidly.
“What?”
“Brian’s not going anywhere over the break. Zacky told me that they were planning on staying home and playing video games for a week straight while everyone else was gone, but Zacky’s parents randomly decided that they’re going to go visit relatives in Washington, so…”
“Fuck.” I let my head fall onto the bed. I’d just assumed that Brian would be going on vacation or something, and I’d been looking forward to his temporary absence so I’d have a chance at regaining my sanity.
“What’s wrong?”
“Now I’m going to have to talk to him.”
“Why?”
“We’re neighbors, Stevie. And it’ll be Thanksgiving. Everyone gets all happy and friendly around Thanksgiving. What if his mom invites us over or something?”
“You’re acting like spending time with him is a form of torture.”
“I just…I wanted some time to myself.”
“Well…just lock yourself in your room for a week straight. There you go—mission accomplished.”
“Thanks for the profound advice.”
We sat in comfortable silence for a moment before Delia announced that she had to go home and finish some homework.
“Oh, come on,” Stevie said. “Don’t be a party pooper.”
“I have a project on The Great Gatsby due Monday and I haven’t even read the book yet.”
“That’s your problem.”
Delia laughed and started to gather her things. When she was all packed and ready to go, we waited downstairs with her until her mom arrived to pick her up.
“You aren’t going to abandon me to do homework, are you?” Stevie asked, once Delia was gone.
“I have to read Act III of The Crucible, and I’ve got a project involving the structure of atoms to do, but both of those will be really easy. I can just do it tomorrow.”
“Thank God.”
Laughing, we went back upstairs. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around, eating the leftover pizza and watching super-depressing Lifetime movies. Stevie dropped me off at home a little after seven, and when we pulled into my driveway, I had to blink several times to make sure I was seeing things correctly. Because if I was, then my mom’s car was present, and she was home. And she was never home this early on Saturdays.
Inside, the house smelled of chicken and potatoes cooked to perfection. Elias appeared in the hallway, his eyes wide.
“Mom’s home,” he said. “And she’s cooking!”
I let my bag fall to the floor. “What?”
“I got home from Maddie’s and she was here! Cooking! She had an actual chicken and actual potatoes from Whole Foods and everything!”
“But…Mom’s almost never home. And she doesn’t cook…”
“I know!”
Cautiously, I went in the direction of the kitchen. I peeked around the corner to see my mother bustling around with a pan of roasted potatoes in her pot-holder-covered hand. On the counter was a crispy, brown chicken surrounded by vegetables, looking like it’d been snatched right out of the Food Network. She set the pan down and reached for some sort of dangerous-looking device that she turned on and started slicing into the chicken with.
“Um…Mom?”
“Oh, there you are! How’s your day been?”
I glanced at Elias, whose alarmed expression mirrored my own.
“…Good, I guess. How come you’re home so early?”
“I decided to only work a half-day today. But I’ll be taking some more time off when you kids have Thanksgiving Break.”
I gaped at her. “You’re taking time off of work?”
“Yes, honey,” she said, chuckling. She continued slicing through the chicken.
I glanced out the window to make sure the world wasn’t suddenly coming to an end. The atmosphere still appeared to be intact, and the ocean wasn’t rising up in a giant tsunami to drown us in one fell swoop, so I guessed she had to be telling the truth.
“Why?” I asked. “You haven’t had a day off since we moved here.”
“Well, I’ve been talking a lot to our nice neighbor—you know, your friend Brian’s mom.”
Oh, shit.
“…You have?”
“Yes. She’s a lovely woman. Anyway, we both agreed to try and spend more time with our children, and I thought, what better way to do that than to cook them dinner!”
“She’s lost her mind,” Elias whispered.
I stifled a laugh. “This just seems so random, Mom.”
“I know. But I feel terrible leaving you two to fend for yourselves all the time. I’m going to change that.”
“…Okay…”
“Also, Mrs. Haner and I are going to host Thanksgiving dinner. Her husband travels constantly, and she said Brian hasn’t been looking very happy lately, so I told her we could celebrate Thanksgiving together! Isn’t that great?”
I just stared at her. Of course she would pick now, of all times, to get friendly with the neighbors. Now I would have to see Brian. Now, I didn’t have a choice. With my luck, I’d probably end up having to be around him for the entire holiday.
“Yeah, Mom,” I said. “That’s great.”
Just fucking fabulous. Really.