Kenya

We ended up seeing some musical about people turning into donkeys and speaking in old English. I didn’t hate it, but I’d much rather be making out with Perry in a dark movie theater. And that may make me a horrible person, but that’s kind of why I called her in the first place.

Perry held my hand through a lot of it. Her hands were soft and small, like Shannon’s. Shannon always wore the ring I gave her though, and Perry’s fingers were bare of jewelry. Her fingernails were shorter too. I figured she must have bit them or something. When I held hands with Shannon, I always noticed how long her nails were.

Perry gushed about how good the play was. I tried to keep my focus on her eyes, and not think about how nice her lips looked. They were kind of pouty and it was cute.

“I feel like we need to talk about our relationship status. If you want to just be friends, that’s completely fine, but you need to tell me.”

“Uhm.”

“It’s okay Ashley. Don’t feel like you have to pretend to like me. It’s really not a big deal if you don’t.”

“No, the thing is, I do like you, I just had a rough breakup, and I don’t want you to feel like you’re my rebound.”

“Oh.” Perry was silent. She made a thoughtful face for a moment and then went on. “So am I your rebound?”

“Not at all.” I lied through my teeth.

Perry bought it. “So does that, like, make us official?”

“I guess so.”

Perry smiled.

“My mom really wants to meet you,” I told her.

A pink blush spread to her cheeks.

We stood there for a few minutes. “So tell me what you want to do.”

“You tell me. I’m new around here. I don’t know squat.”

“Well I picked the play, and I know that you didn’t enjoy that.”

“Truuuueee.”

I wondered if I was that obvious about my hatred for sitting still in a theater with a bunch of old people.

“What’s there to do after ten o’ clock on a Monday night?”

“Good point.”

“I mean, we can theoretically go to my house, but my mom, dad, and older brother are there. So we’d have to be quiet, but we could watch a movie or something.”

“You can come to my, er, house.” It wasn’t really mine, but I wasn’t ready to explain my situation to Perry.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Just my mom and my aunt are there. And my mom sleeps like a beast and I really don’t care about my aunt.”

“Positive?”

“Yeah. I’m sure my aunt has movies, but no promises.”

Perry called her older brother and told him to tell her mom that she was going to a friend’s house. They had a small argument while she drove to my house. Finally she hung up the phone.

“He’s such an ass.”

“I have step-siblings, but I’ve never actually met them. I guess I wouldn’t really know.”

“Oh. Only-Child Symptom.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Sometimes you just say things and I have no idea what you mean and it’s sort of wonderful.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because my last girlfriend was kind of stupid, in a way that you aren’t.”

Perry grinned.

“That’s my street!”

Perry turned quickly onto my road and into the parking lot for my aunt’s condo.

“You almost got me killed, thanks Ash.”

“You weren’t paying attention.”

Perry shrugged.

I got out and walked with Perry up to the front door. I opened it as quietly as I could, though it still squeaked a little. Once inside, Perry and I kicked off out shoes and shuffled quietly across the wooden floor and to my room.

I opened the door quickly and made sure that we were inside before turning the light on. Perry blinked rapidly and her pupils shrank quite noticeably. It was kind of funny just watching her eyes alone because they looked so animated.

“Shit.”

“What?”

“I’m not gonna be able to find the movies without waking up the entire state.”

“I’ll live. I’m sure there’s something on TV.” She wasn’t looking at the TV. She was looking at my lips.

I stepped away from her and turned on the TV. I sat on my bed and Perry joined me. We watched some stupid cartoons for a while, or at least until I started to fall asleep.

“I should go,” Perry said. “You’re tired and there’s school tomorrow.”

“You can stay if you want. I’ll sleep on the floor, or out on the couch or something. I don’t want you to get hurt driving so late.”

“No really, it’s fine.”

“Perry, just stay. Please?” I gave her the sexy eyes and she bit her lip.

“You don’t have to sleep on the floor though. This is your house.”

“Well you’re not sleeping on the floor, so forget that.” As bad as I felt about playing her, I wanted her to stay because I missed waking up to a beautiful head of sweet-smelling blonde hair and glassy blue eyes surrounded with smudged makeup.

We fell asleep on opposite sides of my bed. Perry slept in one of my t-shirts and I in gym shorts and a t-shirt.

We did make out for a little while, but Perry wasn’t up for doing anything else and I wasn’t really either. It was late and in order to get to school on time, I had to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn.

---

My alarm went off at the butt-crack of dawn as promised. Perry groaned and rolled over. I’d almost forgotten that she was there, except that she had kicked me a few times during the middle of the night, and woke me up twice because I was snoring.

I hit the alarm off and almost rolled out of bed. I stumbled out into the hallway to go to the bathroom and piss. My mom was there. She smiled at me.

“How was your date?”

“Good.”

“Tell me about it?”

“Later. I promise.”

“Ashley, do you know where my jeans are?” Perry called.

My mom looked shocked. “Ashley, this isn’t even our house…”

“Mom, she just slept over. Nothing happened. I promise.”

“Ashley if I find out you’re lying or if you get her pregnant, I will castrate you myself.”

“Mom.”

“All right. But you better introduce me.”

“Sure. Let me pee and get ready though.”

“No problem.”

Even though I had planned on sneaking out, my mom stopped Perry and I in the hallway.

“Well she doesn’t look like she painted her face on.”

“Moooom. You can’t compare her.”

“I’m saying that she’s way prettier. Hi, my name’s Elle.” She shook Perry’s hand.

“Perry Clearwater.”

“Let me know if Ash ever hurts you or anything and I’ll take your side. He can be a little-…”

“MOM. We’re leaving.”

I pulled Perry out of the door without her consent.

Perry unlocked her car and threw her shirt from yesterday into the back seat. She’d ended up borrowing one of my slightly less-large sweaters and she wore her own jeans.

“I’m gonna have to live without my books today I guess.”

“Oh shit. I forgot about that.”

“Yeah, it’s no big deal. I think I only brought math home anyway.”

“Are you sure? We can be late for physics, I don’t really care.”

“Ashley, it’ll be fine. I promise.”

We walked into school holding hands and it wasn’t like in Twilight where everyone stared at us because we were the most flawless couple ever. People mostly just ignored us and went on with their lives. No one gave a shit.

Kenya stopped me. “We’re on poop duty again. Don’t be late.” He eyed Perry and then the look he gave me made my insides crawl, or something like that.

“Can someone say jealous?” Perry said and poked my arm.

“Ew, he’s not jealous. You’re wearing my sweater and it looks pretty ugly on you. He was grossed out.”

“Ashley!” Perry tried to hit me, but I caught her hand and pecked her on the nose.

Her cheeks turned red and she looked at the floor.

“I’ll see you after school maybe.”

“Yeah. Do you want a ride home?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, meet me where I parked.”

“All righty.”

Perry kissed me quick on the cheek. “See you,” she said and waved.

I turned the other way to head to Mr. Michelson’s office.