Kenya

Kenya and I actually ended up doing homework instead of not doing anything productive. Kenya was much smarter than I’d initially thought; he just didn’t care at all. He was better at math than I could ever hope to be.

“I dunno. I just have a thing for numbers. I always have. I sucked at geometry though. I’m sort of a rational thinker.”

“I’m horrible at math. I think I’m painfully left-brained.”

“That’s why you’re such a blossoming artist. That or Ms. Beck just really really wants to bang you.”

“You’re sick.”

“Like you haven’t thought about it.”

“But still.”

The doorbell rang. I got up to get it.

It was Perry, so I let her in. “Hey Perry.”

“Hey.” She saw Kenya lying on the floor with his nose in a textbook. “Are you busy…? I can come back later, but I think we need to talk.”

“We do.”

We stepped out into the hallway. I closed the door behind us so Kenya wouldn’t hear. He’d find out anyway, but I wanted it to be private.

We both started talking at the same time.

“I’ve been sleeping with Kenya.”

“I don’t actually love you.”

There was a moment of stunned silence. I was the one stunned of course. Perry didn’t really look that surprised at what I said.

“With Kenya?”

“Yeah. The one and only.”

“And he’s in my living room.”

“That’s the one.”

“Then why did you lead me on?”

“I thought you didn’t love me?”

“I don’t, but I’m not a God damn robot, I have emotions.”

Perry looked like she was about to cry.

“I’m so sorry Ashley. It’s been going on for a while and I’ve like him all along and it was his idea to get with you to take my mind off him because of Kurt, but it didn’t work.”

“That little shit.”

I tried opening the door, but it had locked when we stepped outside. I banged on it until Kenya opened it. He took one look at me and then one look at Perry.

“You told him didn’t you?” he asked her.

She nodded.

Kenya grabbed his bag. “It was nice Ash.”

“You’re just going to walk away?”

“I’m not sorry.”

“Kenya,” Perry said pleadingly.

He didn’t even give us a backward glance.

“I’ll see you at school Ashley.”

“Right.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

I went to my bedroom and sat on the bed. I was hurt, that was for sure, but mostly I just felt used. I was simply a cover-up for Kenya/Kurt/Perry. I wasn’t sure how love triangles worked in this town, but certainly they were a lot different than they were at home.

The worst thing though was that now I had no one. Kenya and Perry were my only two friends, and they left me. For once I wasn’t the person who cut off the friendship. For once, I wasn’t the one who’d ended up hurting everyone.

My mom came in and asked if I was coming to dinner. When she saw my face, I think she assumed that I wasn’t.

“If you feel better Ash, come and eat something.”

“Okay.”

I ended up talking my mom into paying for me to go on the art field trip. Truthfully it wasn’t that hard. Both she and my aunt were avid supporters of the arts.

I turned the field trip form in the next day to an absolutely beaming Ms. Beck. “It’s so wonderful that you’re going to go. For a second I thought you weren’t really interested and I was going to have to take someone else.”

I felt like she held my gaze for a bit too long. I looked away and picked up my stuff. “I’d better get, um, going. I’ve got a bus.”

“Right Ashley. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Have a good one.”

I sat on the bus next to this one girl that no one ever sat next to. She was sort of strange I guess and I couldn’t imagine being friends with someone who read fan-fiction on their phone during a bus ride, however, at this moment in time I wasn’t really filtering my friend options. I was getting lonely already and it’d only been a day.

“I’m Ashley.”

The girl looked at me like I had six eyes and an arm growing out of my forehead. She was wearing all that eyeliner that was popular back in, like, the MySpace days.

“Who paid you to talk to me?” she asked.

“No one paid me. Can I not sit here?”

“Not if you’re going to make fun of me.”

“I really wasn’t going to. I swear.”

The girl looked at me really skeptically. “My name’s Minnie.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Minnie had the most perfect skin I’d ever seen on a person and I was trying to figure out if it was her makeup or what.

“Why the hell are you staring at me? I told you that you could sit here, isn’t that enough?”

“You have really pretty skin.”

“Thanks. I guess.”

The rest of the ride was silent and she didn’t even say goodbye when I got off at my stop, but it had gone a lot better than I expected. At least she talked to me.

Home was boring. I couldn’t be trapped there anymore. I felt like I needed to go out and do something; I needed to go out and live a little bit.

I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going, but I left my mom a note and headed downtown. I sort of kind of knew my way around from riding in the bus to and from school and then from getting groceries with my mom.

I found myself wandering through the park that Perry and I had first kissed in. It hurt a little bit to think of that and to think that she wasn’t the only one getting played in that relationship. Honestly though, that’s not what hurt. What actually hurt was that I thought Kenya and I were finally friends and that I finally had a guy to hang out with.

I sighed and sat down on a park bench. I stared at people’s feet as they walked by. Nothing really registered with me until a scuffed up pair of combat boots stopped in front of me.

It was Minnie.

“Wow,” was all she said.

We looked at each other for a minute before she sat down next to me.

“You look really upset.”

“It’s been a bad few days, I guess.”

“Can I ask what happened?”

I was sort of cynical about her. I felt like she was the kind of person who you felt like you could tell anything, but then they ended up sharing your darkest secrets with the entire population of planet Earth.

“I don’t know. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“You can tell me. It’s not like I have anyone to tell. And I feel bad for you. You just seem so lonely and I guess I just feel the same way.”

I was reluctant at first, but eventually I told her about Kenya and Perry. I left out everything that would severely compromise Kenya, such as the numerous other people he was simultaneously sleeping with. It felt good to tell someone who I was pretty sure wasn’t involved in this entire love-triangle thing.

“Jesus. I thought nothing happened here.”

“Yeah. It’s so much more drama than I’m used to. I mean kind of. I guess I just never used to be involved in it.”

Minnie patted my knee in a friendly, ‘it’s okay’ sort of way. “You’re handling it well I think. I don’t know what to say though really. I’m not much of a talker; more of a listener.”

“It feels good to tell someone.”

“But Kenya though? I mean I sort of guessed that he was a player, but Jesus.”

“I know.”

We ended up talking over tall glasses of bubble tea in a too-hot teahouse in the attic of a store.

“This is so gross,” I said, chewing on one of the nasty bubbles.

“You don’t eat them.”

“Then what are they there for?”

“No one knows,” Minnie said and shrugged.

“What are they even made of?”

“I’m not sure. They are edible, but they sort of have the consistency of snot.”

“Yeah, I realize this.”

“Where’d you move here from?”

“Jersey.”

“Wow. So that’s going to be a big change once winter comes around, huh?”

“I never even thought about that. But yeah, I guess it will be.”

“It’s a lot rainier here, I imagine.”

I sighed.

“Why’d you even come down here anyway?” Minnie asked.

“I couldn’t be home any longer.”

“Oh.”

“And why are you out and about?”

“Art classes at the library.”

“Like what kind of art?”

“Drawing.”

“That’s really cool that you can actually draw. My art teacher, Ms. Beck, thinks I have a lot of talent and wants me to go to this art thing, but I’m not that good at all.”

Minnie laughed. “That’s too priceless.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ms. Beck only asked you because you’re hot. I mean, no offense, but she’s notorious for flirting a little too much with some students.”

“And she doesn’t get into trouble for this?”

“No one’s complained. They get an A in her class and good stuff to put onto a resume and she gets her kicks. That’s just life I guess.”

I shrugged.

Minnie looked at her watch. “Hey I’ve got to go. My parents have this dinner thing and I have to watch my sister. Partay.”

“Sounds like fun,” I said and stood up.

Minnie led the way out of the teahouse and down the creaky, wooden stairs. On the sidewalk, we just kind of stood out of people’s way for an awkward moment. “I guess I’ll see you later,” she said.

“Yeah. Thanks for the talk.”

“Hey, it was fun. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks.”

Minnie waved and made her way down the street.