Unholy Confessions

After dinner, I couldn’t fight the urge to listen in on Johnny and Neche’s talk. Call it spying, eavesdropping or whatever, but she’s my sister and if he makes her upset again, he’d have to answer to me. I mean… I know best of anyone how hard it is to watch someone you love go through what my sister did. I did everything I could to protect her, and I would never mess up again.

“Just… watch yourselves please?” I heard Johnny ask.

“We will Johnny, promise,” she replied. I noted that she said we’d watch ourselves, not that we’d stay away from them. I knew, at least, I had no intention of staying away from them. I was the oldest… no way my cousin, two years my junior, was going to tell me what to do. I was worried about Neche too, but after everything we’ve been through, I knew what was best for her. And I could honestly say I felt no threat from these boys… as eccentric and tatted up as they were. Lost in my thought, I didn’t hear as Johnny started to walk towards me. I turned to run up the stairs but stopped mid step as I heard

“Eavesdropping, are we?”
I slowly turned around and faced Johnny.
“You really did take care of her… didn’t you.”
It wasn’t a question.

“Of course I took care of her. She’s my baby sister. Just like you’re my baby cousin.”
He scowled at me and I stuck out my tongue.

“Now now children,” Neche walked out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel, “Let’s get ready for tomorrow.”

“Yeah yeah,” I nodded, “You go shower first. I’m gonna have a smoke.”

“Don’t let Ma see you,” Johnny offered, “She’ll flip her shit.”

I nodded and shooed my sister and Johnny up the staircase. Once they had reached the top, bickering and arguing like normal, I went to find my cigarettes. They ended up being in my purse, hanging in the kitchen. I slipped the box of Marlboro reds and my cheetah print lighter out of my purse and his them in the palm of my hand. Walking back to the front door, I stopped to check my reflection. My dark hair was hanging in my eyes. I pushed it out of my face and fixed the dark eyeliner around my dark brown eyes. I blew a kiss to myself before stepping outside.

I sat down on the steps and lit up. I inhaled deeply and lifted my head back to release the smoke into the warm night air. It was nice being in Huntington Beach.

Neche and I were born here… then when we were five and four, our father had been given the transfer papers and away to Syracuse we went. It was the snowiest place in the United States, and it was awful. So being back where it’s warm, where snow is a joke… it was the best feeling of homecoming.

“Sneaking a smoke, are we?”

I inhaled too quickly and choked as the smoke hit the back of my throat. My eyes watered and after I had stopped coughing, I looked up to see Jason Berry standing over me on the sidewalk.

“What can I do you for, Berry?”

He laughed, “Miss me?”

“More like I felt the urge to vomit in your presence,” I joked and took a hit.

“I missed you too beautiful.”
He took a seat next to me and pulled his own pack of cigarettes out.

“So what are you doing here?”

“Well, you said if I wanted your phone number, I’d have to find a way to get it.”

“You came all the way over, just to get my phone number?”

“Sure did,” he replied, a cheesy smile plastered all over his face.

“Well, what if I don’t give it to you?”

“Ha, funny,” he took a hit off his cigarette and stood up, “Take a walk with me.”

“I don’t think that-“

“C’mon… just a little walk around the block. I’ll protect you from any bad guys.”

“Only cause they’d think you’re the bad guy,” I cracked.
He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Here,” I offered him my hand and he helped me to my feet. We began to walk around the neighborhood. At first, we were silent, the only sound was that of our shoes hitting the pavement and the crickets and tree frogs.

“So what are you doing here?” Jason finally asked.

I shrugged, “It’s not really my story to tell. It’s Neches story. Maybe you’ll hear it one day.”

“Fair enough. Are you excited for school?”

“Eh. More to meet people. And history class… I’m kind of a nerd that way.”

“You make a pretty sexy nerd though.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed, “Thanks… I guess?”

He laughed and it was beautiful. Before I knew it, we were standing back in front of my house. I didn’t want to leave him. It was a strange feeling. Sure, I had boyfriends back in Syracuse… but none had had such an effect on me so quickly.

“Well, here we are,” I felt awkward for the first time since he first showed up. He walked me to the front door.

“Need a ride to school tomorrow?”

“That would be fantastic,” I smiled and opened the door, “Well, goodnight Jason.”

I tried to slide through the door but Jason caught my hand. I stopped and watched as he brought my hand to his lips.

“Sweet dreams love, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I smiled, shut the door and ran up the stairs. I’d just shower tomorrow morning, I thought as I jumped onto my sister’s bed. Her head popped out of underneath her dark purple comforter.

“Hmpf?”

“Neche,” I crawled under the covers with her, “Guess what just happened!”

“Uhhh… don’t care Mina… tell me tomorrow,” she groaned and pushed me onto the floor.

But even the dismissal couldn’t bring me down. I quickly changed into an oversized RHCP t-shirt and crawled into my own bed. My walk with Jason replayed in my head over and over, and for the first time in years, I could honestly say I was excited for school the next day.