“What’s the matter?” She turned the screen my way with a look of death on her face.
“Who’s Didi?”
“Who?” She tapped the screen and held it up closer to my face. I read it for a few seconds and was about to laugh until I saw the look on her face.
“Babe, look at the date on that thing. I was fourteen years old.”
Didi was my old middle school crush, or one of them, I should say. “I haven’t played that game in years.”
“Divorce her.”
“Di… babe. You’re not serious.” The tears in her eyes told me that she was. Now some guys might run hard in the opposite direction if they saw something like this, a grown… well, she’s not that grown at eighteen, but whatever.
They’d think she should be more mature and see warning signs; me, I saw the woman I love, the woman I need to protect from the Susies of the world because she’s this freaking innocent. “Okay, baby, let me have it here.” She perked right up at the divorce, vicious little thing that she is and I dared not laugh because who knows what she’d do to me in this mood.
Thinking of Didi, a girl I could barely remember, though I was sure I’d never forget one facet of my Lisa if I lived to be a hundred, brought my thoughts to home. Mom had put the brakes on our trip there because she and dad were busy getting ready for his medical trials and wouldn’t have time for us. I didn’t mind so much, though, since it looked like Lisa’s dad was serious about his work. He’d decided not to go with the prior diagnosis and start all over with dad.
So far, there weren’t any of the same ringing alarm bells going off like we’d lived in fear of for the past year, and he seemed more positive than the others before him, which is more than I’d hoped for. “There, she’s been erased.” Miss. Prim went back to her game, and I saw minutes later that I hadn’t been single long. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I no longer play the game, but then again, if she asked me to, my simp ass would do it in a heartbeat no matter what the hell my boys had to say about it.
LISA
Geez, Lisa, get a grip. I legit was about to bawl my eyes out because Cody had married some girl in a game a million years ago. And here I was thinking I was all grown up. I don’t care. Cody’s not allowed to marry anyone else but me, not even in pretend. I got busy building a whole new world in the game and got sucked in, and before I knew it, a few hours had gone by.
I like this, us sitting next to each other doing our own thing, but still together in a way. I could easily see how people get caught up in these things, though, and vowed not to become a statistic. Cody’s a good example since he only plays when he’s got downtime, and everything else has already been taken care of, like studying and practicing for the game.
I looked at my watch and noticed the time just as my phone dinged with an incoming text from Alexis. “Oh shoot, I have to go; I have that thing at the sorority house this evening.” I’m not gonna lie, it’s kind of growing on me, and I can see why someone like mom was so for it. There’s a lot more to it than parties and cliques; some of the women, like Melissa, are into some serious social issues, like after-school programs for less fortunate kids and organizing fundraisers for those in need.
It's been fun getting the hang of things the last few days, and tonight we’re supposed to be meeting about setting up a drive to raise money to open a basketball court in the inner city which was a little more than an hour away. I’ve been close to this sort of thing before because of mom’s many interests but have never really played a hands-on part before, not on this end anyway.
I noticed the look on Cody’s face when I mentioned the sorority, but he didn’t say anything, so I left it alone. I know his only gripe is with the fact that Susie’s there, and I go out of my way never to mention her in any way, shape, or form. I think he still thinks that I don’t know who she is, I mean, there are more than a few people on campus with that name, and he’s never brought her up in conversation.
Since the day he asked me if anyone was bothering me, I’ve made it a point not to let on that I even know she exists. If this was some personal vendetta I had against her for my own purposes, I’d leave it alone out of guilt, I guess. But the fact of the matter is that I’m doing this for him, for us.