“Are you still talking tothat guy?” She pretended she didn’t know his name.
I shrugged. “Kind of.”
She scoffed as we pulled up to my house. “Whatever. Have fun with your new friend, Étienne.”
“Are you still talking to James?” I asked in protest.
“Yeah. But that’s different.”
“How so?” I shook my head. But she didn’t respond. “Dana! Having more friends doesn’t mean I can’t be your friend too. This isn’t pie.” I rested my arm on the center console.
She exhaled and blinked slowly as I tried explaining that nothing would change what we were to each other. But she sat there, now silently staring forward at my house after we parked in the driveway.
“Please Dana. Are we not allowed to have other friends?”
She didn’t answer.
“Why don’t we hang out on Saturday? I’m going to be off work and don’t have any plans all day.”
“Okay.” She nodded and threw a quick grin in my direction before I opened the door. “Hey. Hold on,” I heard as I opened the gate. I turned to see Dana’s car still parked in my driveway. She was biting her upper lip. She started to say something, then stopped. “Never mind. See you Saturday.”
“Thanks for the ride.” I waved as she pulled away. “Good. We can get past this,”I said to myself as I opened the door.
Before dinner that night, my grandma brought my sister home. She didn’t want Riley staying there after they’d gotten into an argument about her boyfriend. I guess my grandma sided with my mom, which made things awkward at the dinner table. The only people who spoke were my two brothers. They decided to give us a detailed description of everything they had done that day in school. They recounted the photoshoot with my mom and me at the beginning of the day and then went on to tell us that they didn’t have to do any work in class except watch movies and hang out. They were even given both a longer recess and lunch. My grandma asked them to pause while she ran to the bathroom; she was more interested in their story than the rest of us were.
“After lunch, we got to meet the sixth-grade teacher we’re gonna have next year,” said Niall.
“Yeah. And she’s really pretty,” Callum added. That’s how I knew I was definitely gay—I was too afraid to say girls were pretty at their age.
The middle school closed the same day mine did, so the sixth-grade teachers decided to use their time off to visit the elementary schools and meet the new students they’d be teaching the next year. My brothers explained the little graduation ceremony at the end of the day, which most parents attended. The reason why my mom was late.
“You could have told me there was a ceremony at the end of the day, Ma.” I pointed my fork in her direction.
“I didn’t think you’d want to come,” she said, pulling her blonde locks away from her face.
“You could’ve at least told me so I could call someone.”
“But I called Dana for you,” she responded innocently.
Yeah okay, Ma. You probably called her to get some scoop.I put my fork and knife to the side, no longer wanting to eat.
Riley, awkwardly silent the entire time, was the first to leave the table, descending the steps behind the kitchen wall into the basement as I started to collect the empty plates.
“So. Why were you fighting with Mom? And now Grandma?” I cornered my sister in the laundry room after I loaded the dishwasher. I didn’t understand why she was there, though. I was the one who did most of the laundry in the house.
She gave me a dirty look and pushed me out of the way, the corner of her phone striking my chest. It hurt more than I thought it would. Then again, she was stronger than she looked. She had three brothers to put up with.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on with me, if you tell me why you’re in such a mood,” I said before she reached the top of the steps, which made her stop and think.
“You first.” She started back down the steps.
Riley turned on the dryer so no one could hear us, and we both perched ourselves on the folding table. I started from the beginning. How Thad approached me in the parking lot. I admitted that I was a bit apprehensive and cautious when we first hung out, but that he turned out to be a great guy. She thought it was cool that he took me to a house party and was surprised Mom hadn’t found out about me getting drunk. I did, however, leave out the part in the pool, and when we almost kissed. That would’ve been too much information.
“So you like him, right?” She raised her eyebrow, leaning back against the dryer.
I shrugged and grinned at the same time, too nervous to vocally confirm her assumption of my sexuality.
“All right. You next.” I was determined to reposition the attention onto her.