In the past couple of months he's switched schools and gone from parking garages, corner stores and traffic on the 405 to a cleaner, crisper kind of life. He's taken himself here of his own pure willfulness and hot headed temper and he has yet to regret the choice. There are things he misses undoubtedly but he is finding a home here. The streets aren't so unfamiliar from so many visits in childhood and adolescence. And while sometimes he feels he sticks out like a rude tall thumb with his bloom of tattoos and loud laughter he does not lack for friends. He finds his blend in the mixture, embeds to fit in the make-up of things. He sits and chills with people who talk like him and have an interest in the same things as him. He's discovered that the occassional tease -- "Yeah, okay, whitebread" -- is not harmless when coupled with a pound of dap. He's discovered something else as well. Girls.
When he's old enough to make a baby but too young to raise one he discovers he doesn't only like White girls or Black girls or Latin girls. He realizes he's a sucker for the soft slope of a neck and the sway of hips and genuinely undeterred by skin two shades darker than his or one shade lighter. When he's old enough to take girls for rides in his cars and young enough to feel small under their fathers' knowing frowns he meets Daesha. Sometimes she drags her fingers over his dimple and challenges him with a look. More often he finds some excuse to sit beside her in World History and texts her when really they should be immersed in the Cold War. That they capital L Like one another is not a fact missed by their friends. Yet she hesitates when he asks her to Winter formal.
"You told me you'd think about and it's down to the wire now. I mean if you wanna tell me no, you can. My feeling's not gonna be hurt but I'm gonna ask you questions. Like do I need lifts in my shoes? I smile too much? Is my breath too hot? No, really, I can do a sniff test right now."
She laughs and he likes that. How the sound rolls right out of her belly and she tilts her head back with it. When she places her head against the locker he does the same in mirror. His eyebrows lifted her. Her lips trying to frown and failing miserably. Her laugh keeps giving her away. "Boy, you are so crazy."
"Crazy enough to ask you to formal three times already," he points out.
It's her turn to raise her eyebrows. She laughs again. "Crazy and persistent, stalking ass."
"Only for you."
"Any-way." But she's laughing again before she yields up the sigh. "I don't know, Joey. Do you want to know the truth?"
"Yep, lay it on me. I want to know the truth."
"My daddy'd kill you if I brought a White boy home."
"Well, first of all. Who's White? You and literally everybody else knows I'm just light skinned."
He has to speak over another burst of her laughter and that's okay.
"Second of all. Isn't your daddy a dentist? Who's scared of dentists?"
"People with bad teeth," she smiles.
"And my shit is right and tight. I still wear my retainers at night and everything."
Daesha's laughter is the best thing. An amazing thing. But he supposes they really do have something of a problem. In a perfect world people patterned in stripes would go to school dances with people patterned in dots. There'd be hand-holding between red and blue people and burnt orange people and the crayon box would never be peppered with slurs or animosity. In a perfect color-blended world they'd exist in harmony and they wouldn't be having heavy conversations during second lunch. But they don't live in a perfect world and he has to adjust.
"Okay, okay. I'm gonna be serious. How about this? I come through and I meet your dentist daddy before the dance even comes up. I let him interrogate me maybe with a drill in hand and face certain death. Then when he gives the go ahead we go to the dance and it's no big deal. And if he says no..." He twists his mouth into the most solemn frown he can. "If he says no then you ride with the girls and we still couple up at the restaurant and we sneak to the dance anyway. But we do try first. How about that?"
"Okay, it's a deal. But you better not embarrass me in front of my parents or I'm gonna kick your ass too." He's grinning so hard at the sound of her laughter that he doesn't realize she means to kiss him until she's done so. Light and hot the brand of her lips lingers on his cheek long after she trills him a goodbye wave.
NEXT
|