“Thanks so much for that visual, aguh,” I said as I swallowed back bile for the second time this morning.
“I’m going to miss vieja loca. She was my daily entertainment in this sleepy-ass town.”
“I’m glad my aunt could be around for your entertainment pleasure,” I said sarcastically.
“Honey, she is everyone’s entertainment pleasure as of late,” she stated with a raised eyebrow.
“True, but now who’s going to point that out to me?” I smiled at her.
“Oh, I’ll still point it out. It’ll just be a long-distance point-out.” She held up her cellphone. “These puppies still work two hours away, you know.”
“Really,” I feigned surprise. “What will they think of next?”
We laughed. But then Tina stopped and looked at me seriously for a minute. She had propped herself up on her elbows while listening to my Opal story but now was facing me cross-legged on the bed. She took my hand in hers. “Look, I know how you feel about change and you think this will change things with us, but I promise you, Dacey—it won’t. I’m still going to be here for you. Two hours is not that far, and you can always call me and I will be here. You can visit if you need to get away from Opal or your dad and his shit or whatever. My house, wherever I am, is still su casa, okay?”
That did it. I had held it together this entire time up until she said that. Once I let one tear fall, they all came down. Tina soon joined in, and we just sat there like that and cried.
“Okay, we need to stop. It’s not like we will never see each other again,” I said, getting up and fetching some tissues from the bathroom.
“I would cry too if I wasn’t going to see my face every day. It’s understandable,” she said, and then loudly blew her nose into the tissue I handed her.
“Yeah, didn’t say that.”
“You were thinking it. You didn’t have to say it.”
We made our way back downstairs, and her mom hugged me, noticing our red eyes.
“Girls, this is not the end of the world. It’s only Miami. And Dacey, you’re welcome anytime.”
“I already told her, Mom,” said Tina, clearly still upset with her.
“Well, I’m telling her too,” said Mrs. D, smiling at me in a motherly manner.
I hugged Tina again and left noticing the time. Shit! I was going to be late for class, again.
I slid into the back of the classroom again as the professor gave me another look for interrupting the class with my lateness. But today, I didn’t care. I pulled out my cellphone and sent a text to Trevor.
Babe
What’s up?
Ugh, Tina’s dad got transferred, they r moving to Miami.
Wow really?!
Don’t sound so happy
Sorry?
She’s my BF babe
I am sorry baby, really
R u ok?
Sigh
Is that a NO?
It’s a sigh
A sigh?
A sigh
?
I’ll B fine
Call me l8r?
OK
I tried to focus on the rest of my class and what the professor was saying, but my mind wasn’t there. I kept replaying me and Justina’s greatest moments in my head like a movie montage. She was the only girlfriend I had befriended, or rather the only one who wanted to become my friend. It wasn’t that I wasn’t likable, but people thought crazy was a disease that could rub off, and since I was related to Opal, I was crazy by relation and anyone who dared be friends with me would be crazy by association. Justina never cared, though; that was why she and I clicked. Deep down, I cared too much about what people thought about me and my family, and she didn’t. We balanced each other out. Without her here to balance me, I didn’t know what I would do to keep my equilibrium.
Class let out, and I made my way to my next class. I passed Riley in the hall with the other students, and he made a U-turn and caught up with me.
“Hey. Uh-oh.” Riley frowned, noticing the sullen look on my face. “Was there another muumuu incident I wasn’t aware of?” he joked.
“No,” I sighed heavily. “Justina’s father got transferred to Miami, so she is moving, as of next week.”
“Oooh,” he said with raised eyebrows.
“Yeah, I’m just a little...I don’t know.” I shrugged.
“Hey, man, I get it. You two were like Bert and Ernie. Sesame Street friendship.”
“In your scenario, I’m Ernie right?” I asked, cracking my first real smile since I got to school.
“Sure.” He leaned in closer to fake-whisper. “But you should know they were both boys.”
“I know, which makes me wonder why you chose them to associate with me and Tina,” I asked, with raised eyebrows.
“Totally for comedic purposes,” he said with a smile. “Not insinuating anything.”
“Umm huumm. Be careful, buddy. If Tina heard you comparing her to a puppet-man, she’d turn you into a puppet-man,” I warned.
“Well, it’s a good thing she’s moving then, right?” he said gingerly.
“Riley...” I laughed. “Thanks, I needed that.”
“Anytime,” he said, and he turned around and headed back the way he’d been going.
I got a text from Aria telling me she heard about Justina moving away. Remember what I said about news getting around? Aria asked if I wanted to talk. I told her I was fine, but if she wanted to, she could come by my dorm later. I also got a text from Tina telling me she was officially a transfer student, as she’d just gotten her student records transferred to a college in Miami. This was all happening so fast. Her parents moved like a flash flood. Shit! But with the semester just starting, I could understand them not wanting her to fall too far behind. I was surprised when I got to my dorm hall and saw Trevor’s truck in the parking lot and him sitting in it. When he saw me, he got out and came over to my car.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him, stunned.
“Okay, not the welcome I was expecting,” he said, his smile faltering.
“No, I mean, I thought you didn’t get off work until later,” I corrected.
“I got off early. I thought you might need me.”
“I always need you.”
“That’s what I love to hear,” he said as he engulfed me in a hug.
He took my book bag from my shoulder, and we made our way up to my dorm room. My floor was in party mode with doors open and people hanging out in the hallways. A few people Trevor knew invited him to hang out, and he declined.
Once inside my room, I collapsed on the bed. I was drained from the day. Trevor put my book bag in my closet and climbed in beside me in bed.
“Come here,” he said, and dragged me to lie on his chest. He undid my hair tie and began to run his fingers through my hair like he did when he knew I needed to unwind. Before long, I would be asleep if he kept at it.
“Hum,” I exhaled deeply. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For this.”
“It’s part of my duty as a great boyfriend.”
“Well, you’re good at your job.”
“I know,” he said smugly as he leaned down and kissed my forehead.
There was a knock at my door, then two seconds later, it opened and Aria came in.
“Ugh, you guys are worse than Mom and Dad. Get a room. Hey, Trev,” she said as she covered her eyes.
“First, we are not doing anything. Second, you are in my room. And third, don’t compare us to Mom and Dad—that’s just gross.” I sat up as she sat down on the futon.
“Hey, Aria,” Trevor sighed.
“I don’t know. I saw legs and a bed. I didn’t want to see any more,” said Aria.
“Whatever, you’re the one who barged in, you perv,” I said.
“True, but if I was a perv, I’d totally pick someone else to spy on other than my sister—gross.”
“I would pay you to,” I agreed.
Trevor’s
hand had taken to rubbing my back now as I sat talking. “Have you talked to Mom today yet?” I asked Aria.
“Yeah, she said for you to call her and told me to ask you about Aunt Opal.”
I told them both about the fried toad this morning, and they reacted the same way Tina had, although Aria was more vocal about it.
“Ewww, ewww, ewww!” She jumped up and down as if the frying pan full of toad were there in my room. “Which frying pan was it, the red one? She made me pancakes from that frying pan before!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide. “What if she always cooks toad and in that pan and we have been eating toad pancakes!”
Leave it to Aria to take it there. I looked at her. “I’m sure she washed the pan over the years, A. Calm down.”
“Wow, theater fits you,” Trevor chuckled.
“Right? She’s taking those classes a little too seriously,” I added.
Aria just cut us a look and laughed. “Gotcha!”
Trevor and I exchanged looks.
“Guess I’m gonna totally pass my Intro to Acting class with an A-plus, ’cause I totally had you guys.” She kept laughing as I rolled my eyes.
“Anyways, what time do you have to be home? I was thinking we could grab dinner?” I looked at Trevor hopefully.
“Yeah, sounds good. I have a feeling you haven’t eaten anything all day,” he eyed me suspiciously.
“Guilty.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said, creasing his brow.
“Ohh, I’m telling,” Aria sang out.
“What are you, seven? Hush up,” I scolded.
“And what are you, fifty? Who says hush up?”
“Opal.” I said her name like a curse.
“That darn Aunt Opal, just messing up the language of the future generation,” teased Aria.
“Do you want free dinner or not?”
“What kind of teenager would I be if I passed up free dinner?” she stated plainly.
“The dumb kind.”
“I have been known to be that, but not tonight.”
“Good,” interrupted Trevor. “Now that that’s over, let’s get going.”
“A, text Mom and let her know so she won’t freak out when you don’t come home.”
“Okay.” She pulled out her phone and sent Mom a quick text.
We all decided to go to Sharkey’s, since that was the only decent local place with good food. Shaddy Groves had the normal fast-food joints, but we didn’t feel much like burgers and fries tonight. Sharkey’s was always packed with either families or booster clubs holding meetings or retirement parties. Tonight, it looked like there were two retirement parties going on at once, so it was extra-packed, but we still managed to get a table for three. Dinner went as it normally did, with the conversation flowing between me, Aria, and Trevor.
“Hey, Aria, Trevor. Dacey,” said an annoyingly familiar voice. Shannon Miller, Trevor’s “gal pal” from work. I always got the feeling she didn’t like me, and the feeling was mutual.
“Hey, Shannon, what’s up?” Trevor said as he leaned back and lazily put his arm around my shoulders.
“Just picking up a to-go order. Thought I’d come over while I wait.” Shannon had a reputation in town that was opposite of the town saint.
“Hey, Shannon,” I said sweetly. “How’s it going?”
She just smiled at me, then turned her attention back to Trevor. “So, that dog today with the broken leg? Crazy, huh, what some people will do to their dogs?”
“Well, you know they mean well,” he said diffidently, squeezing me closer to him. Clearly, he got what she was implying. So did Aria, and she was silently fuming.
“So Shannon, how’s Heather?” Aria cut in. She knew Shannon’s sister as they had gone to high school together.
“She’s good. She went to college in Orlando. You know, bigger town and all. Bigger is better,” she said, eyeing Trevor.
“What, is that your motto?” muttered Aria.
“What did you say to me, you little—”
“Watch it, Shannon,” I cut her off.
“Okay,” Trevor stretched out. “As much fun as this is to watch, Shannon, I think your order is up. I’ll see you at work.”
She huffed away, muttering under her breath.
“What was that about?” Trevor asked, looking at me. But it was Aria who spoke up first.
“Did you hear what that heifer said?” she shrieked. “What she was implying? She can’t say that about my family, and we all know she was mostly implying it about Dac.” The last part she said with even breaths.
As I sat back and studied her, my chest filled with pride over the way she reacted to the play-on-words attack. I idly thought that I probably shouldn’t encourage this kind of behavior from her, but oh well.
“I’ll talk to her. I’m sure that’s not what she was getting at about Dac. Although I’m sure she meant to imply it about Opal,” he said, looking at me apologetically. He then looked at Aria. “Man, you get touchy about your sister. How did I not know this?” He seemed amused now.
“Easy. You’ve never done anything to purposely hurt my sister,” she said, back to her normal self. “If you do, you better not run into me, buddy. You’ve been warned.” She pointed her fork at him for emphasis.
“I don’t plan on hurting her, but duly noted.” He leaned over and kissed me on my forehead, saying, “And you, I thought I was going see WWE live if I didn’t shoo her away.”
“She was about to say something to Aria my fist wouldn’t have liked,” I said simply.
He laughed harder.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“You two. You both would do bodily harm to someone over implications and words?”
“Yeah,” said Aria. “So?”
“You don’t think that’s overreacting just a tad bit?” He had stopped laughing.
“No,” we both said in unison.
“Whoa! Your mom was right—that is weird,” he muttered.
“She’s my sister. Why not protect her to the best of my ability?” I said.
“Yeah, what she said,” said Aria.
“Okay, okay,” he conceded. “I don’t have any siblings, so I don’t know the special bond you two share. I won’t pretend to understand.”
“Oooh, what if you had a sister? We could be best friends, then sisters when you two get married!” Aria clapped her hands excitedly.
“Now you sound like Mom.” I rolled my eyes. “And I think the ship has sailed on that one, little sister.”
“I know, right?” She laughed.
Trevor just shook his head.
We finished our dinner with no more interruptions. We parted ways with Aria and made our way back to my dorm room.
“Are you staying the night?” I asked as I grabbed my shower caddy so that I could take a shower.
“Do you want me to?”
“I always want you to, but can I make a request?” I stopped at the door.
“Anything,” he said, as he started to get comfortable for the night.
“Can you not be asleep before I come back from my shower? You have that ‘I’m tired’ look.” I winked at him and went to shower. I knew he would be asleep when I got back. Twenty minutes later, when I went back in, he was lying on his back with his arm draped across his stomach and the other under his head, asleep. It never failed. I smiled to myself and went and curled up next to him. He immediately put his arm around me and tucked me to his side, and I fell asleep quickly.
* * *
The rest of the week went by quickly, filled with as much time spent with Justina as possible. Since she didn’t have school any longer and her parents hired movers, she had free time. But between Opal duties and school and spending time with Trevor, I had only a few hours a day to spare. Rufus came home, and Opal didn’t have any other major incidents, to my relief and Tina’s dismay, as she was hoping to leave with a nice Opal: The Untold Story story. By the time Friday came around, it was time for Tina to leave so that
she could get settled before starting her first day of school on Monday. Aria and I went over to her house to say our good-byes. Trevor opted out, for obvious reasons. Tina didn’t want a going-away party. As she said, this was always going to be her home and this was just a temporary move, as she would be back one day.
It was a somber atmosphere at the Delgado house when we walked in. The walls were bare and boxes were stacked haphazardly in corners waiting for the movers to start packing them into the trucks. Dr. and Mrs. D were running around doing various things, but each stopped to greet and say good-bye to us. Dr. D was first, hanging up his phone call and coming over to Aria and me with a fatherly smile. He always made me aware he was there if I needed him, but not in an overbearing way. I guess he didn’t want it to seem like he was trying to take the place of my father, which I appreciated.
“Aria, Dacey, you’ve been great friends to Justina and like second and third daughters to me and the wife. You have to come for a visit once we get settled.” He gave us both hugs, then went back to making more calls.
We found Mrs. D in the kitchen packing up the last of the food to take with her in the car in a large cooler. When she saw us, she stood up from what she was doing and came to say her good-byes as well.
“Girls, dios mío,” she said, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “It’s hard leaving your home, and on such short notice too—but it’s also fun! New adventures to be had and new things to explore. I know this is hard for you and Justina to take, Dacey, but you girls will see each other again. You two have a lasting friendship. And I’m sure my husband has extended our offer for you to come and visit once we are settled, yes?”
“Yes, Mrs. D, he has,” I said somberly.
“Aye, pobrecita.” She frowned. “It will be okay. I will let her come to visit. I promise.”
“That would be great,” I said, managing a small smile.
“Go, she’s waiting for you.” She gestured up to Tina’s room.
We found Tina sitting on her bed looking at an old middle-school yearbook.
“God, what was I thinking wearing that outfit back then?” She looked up and cringed.
I walked over and looked at the old black-and-white photo of a not-too-long-ago Tina. Same face, only a little younger with a Boy George hat, her bangs sticking out the front, and some outfit only she could pull off. What was she thinking?
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