“Well, I was going to put it more nicely than that, but yeah, Alex, I want to break up.”
“Do I get to know why, or is this just one of those mystery things? Is it like your dad doesn’t want you dating a white guy or something?”
“No, dummy I can date whoever I want. Just not you.” Ouch. Alex was trying to get the upper hand here, and instead he got his butt handed to him. “I mean, no, that sounds awful, I mean, I like you, Alex, I really do, but I’m mad busy with work and stuff, and I have to keep my grades up, and they have been slipping lately.”
“So what? My grades never really had anywhere to slip to.”
“Yeah, but your parents don’t work fourteen hours a day, Alex. I am not about staying in that restaurant my whole life, and if I am going to go to college and have my parents be proud of me and everything, I have to focus on school.”
“But why can’t you …” Uh-oh. Alex stopped himself in mid-sentence because he realized he might have been about to beg, which was not happening.
“I mean, I could probably have a boyfriend, Alex, but, you know, no offense, not you. I mean, you ain’t serious, and it’s mad hard for me to do everything I do, keeping up on my work, helping out at the restaurant, and I can’t be spending my time with somebody who makes me want to slack off. I want to be lazy, I really do, I want to not go home some nights, I want to go out and have fun, but I can’t. And I can’t spend my time with somebody who’s living that way, because if I go that way, it’s gonna have serious consequences for me.”
Mom, Dad, Harrison, Lewis, Eddie, and now Hanh. Alex is selfish and lazy. He was tired of hearing it, but nobody seemed to be tired of saying it. “Okay, then. Are we done here?”
“Please don’t be like that, Alex.”
“Well, you know me, I’m lazy and selfish and I don’t want to spend any time doing something I don’t want to do, and listening to you I guess falls into that category right now.” Maybe that was too mean, but the hell with it. Who was she to tell him he was lazy? He’d busted his butt on Blue Hill Ave. the other day, doing all the talking while Kenisha just stood there, not like somebody that shy could talk to these guys who ran the shops, no, that was all Alex, putting his charm and his intelligence to work, and so what if he liked having fun? On what planet was that a bad thing?
“Fine,” she said, and gathered up her stuff and left without saying goodbye.
Alex put his feet up on the little table in front of the comfy chair and sipped his latte. “Hey, kid, you can’t do that,” the tattooed barista said from behind the counter.
“I just got dumped here. You wanna give me a break?”
“Tell you what,” she said, reaching behind the counter and grabbing a biscotti, which she tossed at him. He grabbed it as she continued, “Free biscotti for anybody who gets dumped on the premises. Now put your feet down.”
He smiled. Free baked goods from a sexy older woman! “Deal!” he said.
When he got home that afternoon, Dad was waiting at the elevator. “Hey.” Alex greeted him without much enthusiasm. He was trying to focus on the future and all the other girls he could still go out with, but he couldn’t help being mad at Hanh. Not so much because she broke up with him, but because she got all high-and-mighty on him. Yeah, God forbid you should have some fun and make out in the stairwell once in a while. Alex just wanted to enjoy life, and he couldn’t understand why everybody had a problem with that.
“Listen, Alex. I think maybe you should talk to Eddie. He … uh, he had a bad day.”
“Yeah, well, my day wasn’t so hot either, Dad, thanks for asking, though.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass, Alex. Eddie’s mom called him today Mom was pretty upset, too, and she tried to talk to him, but he won’t talk to her.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it! Did that occur to any of you geniuses? Do you ever see him on Wednesday nights? Maybe talking about it isn’t always such a great idea!”
“I see you’re obviously feeling too selfish right now to think about anybody else, so forget I asked, okay?”
Alex was so angry he wanted to punch something. He did care about Eddie, but he knew enough to know that when Eddie was feeling bad, he didn’t want fourteen adults coming up to him all “How are you feeling, let’s talk about it.” Alex was upset, too, and he didn’t want to talk to his mom about it either.
In their bedroom, Alex found Eddie sitting on his bed, staring at the wall.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” Eddie answered.
Alex lay down on his own bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. “So,” he finally said.
“Yeah?” Eddie answered.
“I had a crappy day. What about you?”
“Yeah. Crappy.”
“Let’s go to the movies.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll call everybody. What do you wanna see?”
“I don’t care. No, something where a lot of people die, where stuff blows up, where there’s blood and big guns and death.”
“That sounds good to me, too.” Alex called Savon, who asked if he could bring Deshawn, and then Kelvin, and then went and told his parents that he was taking Eddie to the movies.
As they sat on the bus heading downtown, Eddie said quietly, “She wants me back. When she gets out. She wants us to start over.”
“Uh … oh. Sorry, I guess.”
“Yeah, I want to tell her I already started over without her, but I guess you can’t say that to your mom. I mean, I don’t know, your mom did tell me I could stay with you guys as long as I needed to, but I don’t think she meant even if my mom wants me back.”
“I don’t know. Mom’s … I think she’d fight with Aunt Dinah if she felt like that was best for you.” And then, before he could stop to think how embarrassing it would sound, Alex added, “I hope you get to stay.” Which was his way of saying “I care about you, and I even like hanging out with you, and it’s actually fun having another kid in the house,” but of course he couldn’t say any of that stuff.
“Thanks,” Eddie said. “Me too.” And Alex knew he meant that he heard everything Alex didn’t say, and that he had some stuff he wasn’t saying, too.
“Well,” Alex said brightly, “in other news, I got dumped today.”
“Sorry.”
“Yeah, but it frees me up for all the other ladies who are always sweatin’ me.” Alex smiled, trying to make himself forget how mad and hurt he was.
Eddie laughed. “Yeah, time to open up the waiting list, huh?”
They met Savon and Deshawn and Kelvin at the movies and bought tickets for something rated PG and then snuck into some action movie where people got their limbs hacked off and girls took their shirts off for no reason. Everybody agreed it was pretty good.
“Yo, that movie was off the chains!” Kelvin said as they emerged.
“Yes,” Eddie said in his new extra-white voice he used in these kinds of situations, which Alex had to admit was better than trying to pull off some slang he just couldn’t do. “The film certainly was not on any chains, or, indeed, hooks.”
“Shut up, Left Eye,” Kelvin said, and then said, “Oh, snap! Check out Tanya! And check out the other two!”
Yes, there in the lobby stood Tanya, who was most certainly pushing the boundaries of professional attire, and two girls who were even hotter than her.
“Whoa …” Savon said quietly, and all five boys stood there stunned for a moment.
Kelvin regained his composure first and called out, “Yo, 212!”
Tanya saw them and grimaced. Alex noticed that Eddie was looking all over the lobby, trying but failing to act casual. “Oh no!” Tanya said. “It’s those fools. And my boy Left Eye, of course. Can’t dis my project partner.” Yeah, Alex thought, especially when he’s going to do all the work for you.
Tanya and her two friends whispered, smiled, and walked over. “This is my cousin Stephanie and my friend Kendra,” Tanya said.
There was a moment
of silence, and Alex realized that they were all just standing there drooling, so he had to step in. “So, we’re about to head down to Faneuil Hall, get some ice cream, make fun of the tourists, that kind of thing. You ladies care to join us?”
There was more whispering, peeking (was Stephanie peeking at him?), and smiling, at least by Stephanie and Kendra. Tanya, Alex noticed, was pretty much rolling her eyes and shaking her head. She bent over to hear something Kendra was saying to her, then turned to the boys and said, “Okay. But you fools start crackin’ on us, we’re gonna steal on all of y’all, and you know three of us can take five of you without even breaking a sweat.”
“I don’t know,” Kelvin said, “look to me like y’all are sweatin’ me already”
Tanya raised a fist and swung halfheartedly at Kelvin, who was running away, and they started walking toward Faneuil Hall.
At first they walked in two groups, but as they walked, the groups started merging into one. After about five minutes, Alex found himself walking next to Tanya, who was walking next to Eddie.
“So,” Tanya said, “what movie did y’all see?”
“Court of Blood,” Alex answered. “What about you?”
“We seen My Prince Charming. It was mad corny.”
“Yeah, Eddie wanted us to see that, but we had to say no way,” Alex said, trying to steer the conversation over to Eddie, who was walking over there looking like some kind of fish, opening his mouth and then closing it, trying so hard not to be shy it kind of made Alex sad and uncomfortable to watch it. Anyway, he noticed that Kelvin was monopolizing Stephanie, while Savon and Deshawn were all over Kendra, and Alex was thinking that Stephanie might be an ideal replacement for Hanh and was pretty sure that he could outtalk Kelvin, though Kelvin did have the height and looks over him.
“I did not want to see that. I had to pull you out of line for Love and Menopause,” Eddie said, and Alex had to give it to him, he was getting much better at this.
“Well, I heard Kelvin’s mom was in that, and you know how I like them older women,” Alex replied.
As he predicted, this remark pulled Kelvin’s attention away from Stephanie, and he was able to join that little group by insisting that yes, he did have beef, and yes, he would be happy to go right here if Kelvin thought he was man enough. This was a double win, because it got him over to Stephanie and left Tanya and Eddie alone to talk about whatever they might talk about.
He still wasn’t sure if the match was a good idea, but he figured he hadn’t really expected to like Eddie that much at first, but there was something about the kid that definitely grew on you, and maybe he’d grow on Tanya the same way.
As they got their ice cream, Alex found himself next to Tanya in line, but he made sure he got the seat next to Stephanie that Kelvin wanted. Tanya sat on the other side of him, and Eddie sat on the other side of her. Alex made Stephanie laugh three times, which was a good start, and eventually he got her to give up her phone number, which he hoped he had gotten into his phone right, but he wasn’t sure because Tanya bumped into him while he was putting the number in.
Finally Eddie leaned over Tanya, stealing a quick glance down at her chest as he did so (my boy! Alex thought), and said, “Uh, hey, Alex, what time did you tell your folks we’d be home?”
“Ten—oh, snap!” It was nearly nine-forty. “Time to bounce! Bye, everybody!” Alex called out. He and Eddie walked until they got out of everyone else’s sight, then ran for five minutes to the bus stop, then stood there for two minutes cursing (well, Alex did most of the cursing, while Eddie just kind of stood there) until the bus came.
The bus came at 9:47, and Alex knew they’d be home on time. As they flopped down in the seats, Alex said, “Okay, we’re gonna make it. And I got digits. A good night. How about you?”
Eddie was silent for a minute, then said, “I already have Tanya’s digits. We had a really nice talk, but I don’t know if it means anything.” He paused. “She looks even better when she’s not in her professional attire, huh?”
“You got that right.”
“Yeah.”
Tired and content, they both smiled.
19
Eddie had a very hard time falling asleep that night, and he spent Wednesday in a kind of daze with three thoughts cycling through his mind over and over. One, of course, was Mom. He wished he could get her voice out of his head, but he just kept hearing it: “We’re going to be a family again, Eddie, I promise.” He had had no idea what to say to that. “I’ve heard your promises before”? “Great, when do you get here”? “It’s too late”? That was what he’d wanted to say, but instead he’d settled for “I’m glad.”
When he’d come to stay here, her rehab stint seemed like it would last forever, but now it had been two months and she was almost out, and maybe she’d gotten better and maybe she hadn’t. Eddie had looked on the Internet and found that even the very best programs have at least half of their participants relapse. Eddie did not want to be around the first time Mom got fired, or dumped, or whatever, and decided that she needed a little something to take the edge off. He’d seen that movie too many times. And even if she was better, how could he go back to Oldham now? He felt like he’d left that guy—the lonely scared overachiever—back in Oldham, and he was afraid he’d become that guy again if he went back. He hated that guy.
And then there was Tanya. It was just impossible to figure her out. She didn’t exactly make it obvious if she liked him. But what about all that stuff she said? “My brother’s in the Marines and I’m mad scared for him.” “I think maybe my dad drinks too much.” Girls didn’t just tell that kind of stuff to anybody, did they? If a girl, especially one as tough as Tanya, was telling you she was mad scared about anything, didn’t that mean she liked you? If she trusted you that much, wouldn’t she want to be your girlfriend?
Alex called Stephanie and talked to her for forty-five minutes on Wednesday night, and Eddie, worn out from therapy, wanted an excuse to call Tanya. He also wished this could be as easy for him as it was for Alex. Eddie had joked about the waiting list, but he had to hand it to Alex: he didn’t sit around moping about the girl who didn’t like him—he got out there and started talking to girls who might like him. It was just easy for Alex to talk to girls. Eddie always found it easy to listen to girls, but somehow he knew it wasn’t the same thing.
When he wasn’t worrying about his mom or Tanya, Eddie tried to think about what they were going to create at Jamison Creative tomorrow. He figured they should keep it simple, and have the bus ads be the same as the stickers. But what should they say? Eddie was so distracted by Tanya that he didn’t seem to have any good ideas.
He finally gave in and called Tanya with the flimsy excuse of reminding her about their appointment at Jamison Creative. His heart thudded in his chest as the phone rang, and he wanted to hang up but found his hand wouldn’t let him, so he just prayed he’d get voice mail, but then she picked up on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
“Uh, hi, Tanya, it’s Eddie.”
“Left Eye! What’s up?”
“I wanted to remind you about tomorrow, I mean not that I think you’d forget, but I kind of have to make doubly sure because you know Lewis would freak out if anything went wrong.”
“I see, gotta keep me in check, huh? Make sure I do some work?”
“No, I just—”
“That’s cool, I know I need it. I got you for tomorrow, though. I took time off work and everything.”
“Great!” What now? Was there anyway to keep this conversation going? Should he ask about her brother? Would that be annoying? He knew damn well he shouldn’t ask about her dad: that would violate the Addicts’ Kids Code. Two seconds that felt like about twenty years ticked by as Eddie fumbled for something to say. Finally he came up with “Okay, then, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Bring all your best ideas!” Ugh. Lame lame lame.
“Yeah, well, I bet my best ideas won’t be as good as your worst ones, but okay, I’ll
see you tomorrow” They said goodbye and hung up, and Eddie smiled.
Thursday was another foggy day. Everybody was still making fun of Tanya in advisory—“Yo, how somebody as ugly as you got a cousin so fine?” and “Yo, Kendra was mad nice—why she hang with you?”—and Eddie figured he could either make fun of Tanya, too, which would be playing it cool, or else turn it around and make fun of how everybody had been standing there with their tongues hanging out, which Tanya might appreciate. Then again, he’d had his tongue hanging out, and he didn’t need Kelvin pointing that out. So he pretended to study and hoped to stay out of it. Of course, this was impossible, and Kelvin started quizzing Tanya about how she’d been sitting and walking next to Eddie all night. Fortunately, Kenisha interrupted Kelvin with “Could you just stop talking for five minutes so I can do this equation? Damn!”
Everybody looked at her and then got quiet. Kenisha never talked in advisory, she certainly never swore, and she had never seemed to be bothered by people talking before. Eddie guessed that, like everybody else, she was stressed out from eating, breathing, and sleeping the marketing project. He was glad, because it saved him from Kelvin and everybody else messing with him when he was already nervous about working with Tanya this afternoon.
Four o’clock finally came. Eddie walked into another high-rise tower and looked around the lobby for Tanya. He didn’t see her, so he signed in with the security guard and took the elevator to the offices of Jamison Creative on the eighteenth floor. He hadn’t seen Tanya’s name on the sign-in log, and he wondered if he should wait for her, but then they’d both be late, and Lewis would go on about unprofessional behavior and my former colleagues blah blah blah. Of course, he might do that anyway if they didn’t arrive together, but Eddie liked his chances better this way.
He spoke to the receptionist, who informed him that Mr. Wu would be with him shortly. Tanya arrived before he could even have a seat on the dark red leather couch with shiny metal arms and legs.
“Yo, Left Eye, sorry I’m late! I hope Lewis don’t kill us!”
How Ya Like Me Now Page 12
