Kenya

My aunt sat both Perry and I down on the couch.

“Ashley, I don’t know how your parents dealt with things at your old home, but here whenever you have a girl over here, doors have to be open. That’s my only rule.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s so nice to meet you Perry.”

“You too. Ashley talks about you all the time.” I knew Perry was lying obviously, but if it got her and me in good standing with my aunt, it was worth it.

“Nothing good I assume,” my aunt muttered.

Perry smiled. “No it’s not like that at all.”

My aunt and Perry got to talking about the city and their interests and I just sat and listened to them while mindlessly picking at loose stitching on the couch upholstery.

Finally Perry checked the watch on her wrist. “Thanks so much for everything, but my mom wants me home for dinner and stuff.”

“Oh absolutely Perry, thanks for coming by.”

“It was my pleasure.”

Perry really was a charmer. My aunt was hard to win over, but she was clearly star struck by Perry.

I walked Perry out the door. We stood in the twilight darkness. “I’ll see you tomorrow Ash.”

“Yeah. Today was good.”

I didn’t mean to sound so insensitive about it, but Perry didn’t seem to care.

“It was. We should try it again maybe.”

“Maybe.”

“See you tomorrow,” Perry said and hugged me. She smelled so warm and sweet.

I kissed her nose and she giggled. “See you at school tomorrow. In class.”

“Your ISS is over then?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I miss seeing you in physics.”

“Me too.” And I kind of did.

“Bye Ash.”

“Good night Perry.”

We shared another small kiss and Perry was on her way.

I went back inside and locked the door behind me. My plan was to escape to my room, but my aunt’s stare stopped me dead in my tracks. “Sit down,” she said.

I sat down next to her.

“I don’t know what your game is Ashley, but you better not hurt her.”

“I have no intentions of doing that.”

My aunt smelled the bullshit. I mean, I really didn’t want to hurt her per se, but I just really didn’t feel like everything was right with her.

“And if you get her pregnant, I swear to god, you will be living on the streets, I don’t even care what your mom says.”

“She already threatened me, don’t worry.”

“You’re being safe right?”

“Of course. I don’t want a son, trust me.”

“Oh I trust that. It’s just that teenagers these days…”

“Right. We’re all crazy, satanic drug abusers.”

“Exactly. Well I’m done Ashley, but go take a shower because you smell.”

“Thanks.”

“I don’t know what that girl sees in you, but at least someone has more faith in you than everyone else.”

“Okay.”

---

The next morning Perry texted me and told me that she wasn’t feeling well so she was staying home. She also wished me a good first day back from ISS and told me not to get into any more trouble.

I went straight to physics when I got to school. I didn’t really have anyone to stand around and talk to, so I thought I’d feel like less of a loner if I went and got ahead on some homework or something.

Kenya stopped me. He hadn’t been on the bus that morning, so the fact that he was here sort of surprised me.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“It’s nice to be back and not scrubbing toilets, huh?”

“You didn’t scrub anything.”

“Touché. Where’s the lady?”

“Home sick.”

“Ah.”

“I wasn’t expecting to see her away from your side today.”

“Why?”

“Because you fucked.”

“How do you know?”

“You’re not telling me to piss off or get lost and it’s after eight in the morning.”

“Logic.”

“You’re just in a good mood. So I took an educated guess.”

He sat down next to me. Mr. Smith didn’t even bother to yell at me, or rather, he didn’t bother to yell at Kenya. I think most teachers figured out that Kenya behaved much better when you ignored him.

“I’m thinking that you should come over later and help me out with my college apps,” Kenya said.

“You’re going to college?” I didn’t mean to be rude, but it sort of just came out. I’d never expected that Kenya would want to do anything with his life. I don’t know why really, but he just didn’t seem like the type.

“Mostly because I want to get out of here. Smalltown, Oregon is no longer cutting it for me.”

“Ah.”

“And I’ll pretend not to be offended that you thought I was a stupid person.”

“Well you don’t really act smart and I don’t peg you as the type of person who gives much of a fuck about anything.”

“Touché.”

“Why do you want my help though? It’s not like I’m smart.”

“I guess it’s an excuse for you to come over without me having to be creepy and weird, but now that you asked, I’m just going to blow my cover and ask you to come over and hang out.”

“You could have just asked, really. I don’t think you’re creepy. Weird maybe, but you’re not creepy.”

Kenya smirked. He didn’t say anything.

Mr. Smith was glaring at us. He looked like he wanted to say something so badly, but he said nothing and continued teaching. I doodled in my notebook for a little while and ended up drawing a quite glorious picture of the school being invaded by stick-figure aliens. Kenya laughed at my drawing.

I texted Perry for a while until she went back to sleep because she started feeling crappy again. I didn’t really mind. I was sort of enjoying my doodling, which really, If I may say so myself, wasn’t all too bad.

Kenya ended up adding his own little section to my drawing until Mr. Smith told us to start paying attention and stop giggling or he’d separate us. Kenya stuck his tongue out at Mr. Smith’s back as soon as he faced the other way to write something on the board.

My classes all went by pretty fast. I was almost looking forward to hanging out with Kenya later, but I still had some reservations about it. Kurt gave me some pretty dirty looks over the course of the day. He didn’t say anything to me though. Ever since I’d found out that he and Kenya were kind of a thing he’d given me a pretty wide berth.

In my art class, my teacher pulled me aside afterwards. “Ashley, your work is really improving.”

“Oh thanks.”

Ms. Whaler, that was her name, gave me a permission slip. “I need to send a student from each one of my periods to an assembly in the city, so if you’re interested I’d like you to go. I feel like you’re the only one in here who actually takes my class seriously.”

“I think I’d want to go, but really, my art isn’t that good….”

“No, it’s not the best, but at least you take it seriously. I value that over everything else.”

“Well, thanks.”

I picked up my bag and stuff.

“If you have any questions, feel free to call me or shoot me an email.”

She was really sexy for a teacher. I think I may have mentioned that before. My mind started to wander and I sort of didn’t hear a thing that she said.

“Right?” she asked.

I stared at her. I had absolutely no idea what she just said. Thankfully, her desk phone rang.

“I’ll see you tomorrow in class Ashley. Let me know about that trip oka?”

“Sure.”

I had to scramble to make it to the bus on time. Kenya raised an eyebrow. “Where were you?”

I pulled out the permission slip from Ms. Whaler and showed it to him. He whistled.

“Dayum, a whole weekend alone with Ms. Whaler. She is a fine ass teacher.”

“There’ll be other people there.”

“I bet she totally digs you. I mean, what are you, six, seven years younger than her? That’s not really a long time… I mean you’re legal and everything, almost. Maybe…”

“She doesn’t like me. I’m the only one who takes that class seriously.”

“No man. She digs you.”

“Whatever.”

I got off the bus with Kenya at his stop. We walked a ways through a few neighborhoods to get to his house. It was small and sort of run-down. The pain was peeling and the windows were dusty, like they’d been overdue a good washing for several years.

He unlocked the door and kicked his shoes off. The off-white carpet had stains in a few spots but looked much newer than the rest of the house. Even inside, everything smelled like smoke and seemed sort of dingy.

“Sorry my house is such a shithole.”

“It’s not a shithole….”

Kenya laughed. “You’re too polite Ashley. This place is a dump and I can’t wait to get out.”

I shrugged.

“Do you want something to drink? Coke, beer, something stronger maybe? If I get you drunk will you be DTF?”

“DTF?” I asked, then realized. “Oh.”

Kenya smirked. “I’m kidding stupid. We’re past that point. And besides, I thought you knew that Kurt and I were in a healthy, non-abusive relationship involving at least seven other people.”

“If you hate it so much then why do you do it?”

Kenya shrugged. “I don’t hate it. I like it. And that’s why I put up with him.”

Kenya mixed coke with some sort of liquor.

“I’ll have some coke, please.”

“Get it,” Kenya said and sat down on the couch that was almost in their kitchen, but still in their living room. The whole place was just really small. I honestly believed that my aunt’s apartment was much bigger than this.

I grabbed a coke and sat down next to him. It was the only couch, so I really didn’t have much a choice in where I was going to sit, or else I probably wouldn’t have chosen to sit next to him.

“You don’t really like Perry do you?”

“Not really. I mean she’s nice and all, but she’s really not my type.”

“What is your type?”

“Stupid.”

“Ah.”