Operation Beautiful

“What happened?” Emmaleigh asks. A few seconds after the brawl started, Emmaleigh and Haley had leapt into the breadth of it and pulled us apart. Emmaleigh’s walking me to her house, her fingers linked sweetly through mine to compensate for my swollen eye.

“Christa’s been taking pictures,” I say, tightening my grip on her hand. “Me and Haley goofing off in math class, having fun and...stuff.”

Emmaleigh cocks an eyebrow. “Stuff?” I sit down on the curb, Emmaleigh following my lead.

“It’s really bad,” I say, resting my forehead in one hand. “There’s one...there was this one time when I was teasing Haley about something about Trevor and I said I would tell Trevor and she...” I take Emmaleigh by the shoulders and lie her down gently on the concrete. “And she jumped me like this--” I bring my face as close to her as I dare. “But with all her hair in the way it looked a lot more romantic than her threatening to remove my balls which is what she was actually doing.”

Emmaleigh bites her bottom lip gently. “I--I see,” she manages to say. I get off quickly and sit her up before I do something stupid.

“Yeah and then remember the photo booth?” I continue. She nods. “The pictures ended up all being of me comforting Haley.”

“How did she--” Emmaleigh’s eyes grow wide. “We never got those photos out of the booth did we?”

I shake my head and let out a sigh. “I guess Haley attracted more attention than I thought.”

“Did you explain that it didn’t mean anything?” Emmaleigh asks. “Or did you guys just jump into solving things with fists?”

“First of all!” I insist loudly. “It was only a black eye and a knock in the jaw before you and Haley stepped in.” I look over at her. “You guys were really brave, jumping in like that.”

Emmaleigh looks down and blushes. “It was just a reflex thing. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

I really want to lean down and kiss her but now seems like a really bad time. What with my face a mess and everything.

“Anyway,” I say, clearing my throat. “I did explain to him that it was nothing but he cut in and said he couldn’t take it anymore and he hates feeling jealous whenever he sees us together and couldn’t I just stop hanging out with Haley?” My words come out faster and faster as I get more agitated. “And I got mad because Haley’s my friend and its not like we hang out after school or anything and so I started yelling at him and he started yelling at me and somehow--” Emmaleigh strokes the back of my hand with her thumb, stopping my words in an instant.

“Calm down, Corey,” she says in her quiet voice. “You did what you could.”

“But how could he even think that I would just stop talking to Haley because he can’t keep a check on his emotions? He really--”

“Co-rey,” her head knocks gently against my shoulder and rests there. I feel my breath hitch.

“What?” I ask, breathlessly. We just sit there quietly for a minute. I feel my agitation fade.

“Feeling better?” she asks finally. I nod. “Good. Let’s go back to my house and I’ll take care of that eye.”

I use a finger to gently poke the skin around my eye. “You know how to deal with a black eye?”

She takes my hand and pulls me up. “No,” she says with a smile. “That’s what the internet is for.”

***
“I’m home!” Emmaleigh calls out.

“Hey, babe! I’m just packing. How are you?” I hear her mom call from the master bedroom.

“Good!” she yells back. “Corey got hurt so I’m gonna grab some ice!” It takes a few seconds before Emmaleigh’s mom comes bustling in.

“Corey! What happened?” She takes my face in her hands.

“Um. Hi, Mrs...uh...”

“Call me Loraine. Now, come over here to the kitchen. Emma! Get some ice!”

“Ma. I already said I would,” Emmaleigh says, rolling her eyes lovingly. She wraps the ice in a towel and puts it on my eye.

“Ah!” I breathe in sharply at the touch. The phone starts ringing.

“I’ll go get it,” Lorraine says. “Emma, take care of the poor kid, okay?”

“Always, Ma,” Emmaleigh says. Lorraine grabs the phone and disappears down the hall and into the master bedroom.

“So...ice is the big secret, huh?” I say, wincing against her touch.

“Actually, I don’t know. I’ll go check on that. In the meantime, why don’t you sit down?” She hands me the ice pack and sits me down at the dining table. “Don’t move, I’ll go get my laptop.” She disappears down the hall and into what must be her room.

“Did you know,” she begins, sitting down next to me with the laptop. “That the whole raw steak thing is a wives’ tale?”

“Fascinating,” I say sarcastically wincing again as the ice burns against my skin.

“Okay, so...I’m supposed to keep the ice on and off for fifteen minutes each,” she looks up at me with a frown. “For a day or two.”

I can’t stop my laughter. “For a day or two?”

She starts laughing too. “Yeah. And give you some painkillers for the, you know, pain.”

“Painkillers for the pain? I thought it was for the color!” We both start laughing again. “So,” I say finally. “How about that math?”

“You’re kinda beat-up,” Emmaleigh reminds me.

“Yes, but you have a quiz tomorrow,” I say. “And I refuse to let you fail. Besides, it doesn’t hurt that bad.”

***

“Nooo!! I meant negative one-half, I swear!!” Emmaleigh yells at me as I reach for one of the cookies on the plate in front of her.

“Well, you just said one-half,” I tease. “So I get to steal one of your cookies.” Yes, bribing with cookies is an unconventional tutoring method, but we’re having fun. Plus, we’re hungry.

“I’ll be right back,” Emmaleigh says, getting up. This is the second time in an hour. I’m not entirely sure where she’s going, but I don’t ask.

“Corey, dear, are you staying for dinner?” Lorraine calls from the kitchen.

“No, I was actually planning on going home at seven,” I call back. “Thank you, though.”

I hear Emmaleigh enter the kitchen. “Hey, Ma?” She mutters something under her breath.

“Next month. Why? Is something wrong?”

“No, just wondering.” Emmaleigh comes in and sits next to me. “Okay, so I understand thirteen part three. We just need to go over part four and that’s all that’s on the quiz.”

“Okay. That shouldn’t take too long. Cookie break?”

She laughs. “Okay.” We each lean over to dunk one cookie into the other person’s milk.

“Cookie break!” We yell loudly.

“Okay, chapter thirteen part four,” I say, looking down at the book. “So essentially it’s building off the whole sine cosine thing in the last section...”