Life, Love, & Lemons

by Vernon, Magan

  “Please,” he whispered as he pressed his lips to my ear and shut my chemistry book.

  “You’re very demanding.”

  The more time that I spent with Kai, the more I started to see past his emo looks. He really toned it down since we started dating. He didn’t paint his fingernails anymore and the guyliner also disappeared. I wasn’t out to change him. I mean, I was really starting to like the whole side-swept bangs and lip ring thing. It was actually kind of intriguing, and when he looked at me with those chocolate brown eyes all I wanted to do was kiss him. We were finally alone, so what was I waiting for?

  I put the book down and placed my hand to his cheek and tilted my head toward his and lightly kissed his lips. Kai didn’t waste any time as his lips trailed from mine and down to my neck and back up again. I was trying to stay in the moment and concentrate on the make-outage but all I could think of was the metal springs of the futon piercing into my lower back. I kept shifting my weight, hoping he didn’t notice, but obviously he did.

  “Is everything okay?” He pulled away and widened his eyes and held his hands up. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, its fine, I’m fine.” I leaned back up to kiss him, but he stopped me.

  “You kept shifting, and I could feel you making faces.” He sat up a bit. “It’s kind of hard to kiss you when you’re scowling.”

  I sighed. “It’s nothing, it’s just the bars of the futon are kind of hurting my back.” I absently rubbed my back as I talked.

  “Fine then sit on my lap.” He pulled my closer and a big smile crossed his face.

  “But then you’ll have bars poking into your back…”

  I crawled on top of him and moved my legs to either side of hips, straddling my inner thighs against him.

  “I honestly don’t think it matters when I have a view like this.” His eyes trailed down to my chest and back up to my face.

  I smiled and leaned in again. It was definitely a lot more comfortable not to have the bars pushing on my back. As we kissed, Kai’s mouth continued to move into a grimace and I hoped it was because of the metal bars and not because of my kissing. We ended up with him laying on his back and me on top of him, my body moldy against him. Supposedly it was because the bars didn’t bother him as much when he was laying down, but I kind of think he had ulterior motives.

  I could forget about everything else that was going on in my life when Kai was around. Somehow it seemed like when I was laying there in his arms that nothing else mattered. My parents, my lack of funds, everything just seemed to melt away as I was lost in his lips.

  “Kai?”

  I didn’t hear the door open. I didn’t actually hear anything until I heard his mom speak. I quickly jumped off of Kai and tried to pretend like I wasn’t just straddling her son in her living room.

  “Oh hey, Mom.” Kai sat straight up on the futon and waved. He was a little too excited to stand up and had immediately put a pillow on his lap.

  “What’s going on here?” She walked over slowly until she was standing in front of us. Kai definitely didn’t get his height from her. In her dress pants and button-up shirt she looked like a little kid playing dress up. She was that petite. But her eyes were definitely filled with fire and were even more accentuated since her dark hair was pulled back into a bun.

  “Nothing, Mom, we were just doing homework.”

  I nodded and tried to fix my hair while searching for where we had thrown our chemistry books. In the process of searching for the books I realized that Kai had unhooked my bra at some point. When did he do that? I quickly felt self-conscious and tightly cross my arms over my chest, hoping that she wouldn’t notice that the girls were kind of free. Good job a-hole.

  “Malakai, did you think that I was born yesterday?” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “I do not want to come home from working fourteen hours to see my son fornicating in my living room.”

  “Mom we weren’t doing anything, just kissing.” Kai held the pillow tight on his lap. It was the truth, but obviously Kai’s Mom either didn’t believe that or was just really upset.

  “I don’t appreciate you bringing girls over when I am not home, especially girls that I do not know, and then finding you in a very compromising position on your bed.”

  In his defense his bed was also the couch, but I definitely didn’t want to fight with this woman. Especially since I was kind of wondering if Kai had even mentioned me to her.

  “Well, Mom, this is my girlfriend, Bentley.” He nodded in my direction. “Bentley, this is Mom.”

  I cleared my throat. “Um, it’s nice to meet you.”

  ” She looked at me with those cold brown eyes. “I wish that I wouldn’t have had to meet you this way, but I hope that we can all learn from this.” She uncrossed her arms. “And I think we should pray about it.”

  At first I thought she might be joking, but she wasn’t. She had put her hands together and bowed her head. Kai and I followed suit. I was just hoping that she would keep her head down long enough so that I could put my bra back on.

  Chapter 20

  Boy Band Look-A-Like

  “Your mom hates me,” I sighed.

  It was another Saturday at Burgers’R’Us. Kai usually didn’t work on Saturdays, but he decided to stop in and see me. We hadn’t really seen each other outside of school since his mom walked in on us and made us pray. We could have gone to my house, but with Dad being sick and constantly hacking and tapping at his computer, I didn’t really want to drag Kai into that.

  “Why would she invite you over for dinner if she hated you?” Kai leaned in on the counter. He looked like he had just woken up with his messy hair and thrown-together outfit.

  I, on the other hand, had been up since five a.m. and had less than four hours of sleep. My parents were fighting all night. I tried my hardest not to listen but living in a small two bedroom apartment, I couldn’t help but hear all of it. It was the same argument they had a million times. I really didn’t understand why they kept doing it. Mom would complain about money and Dad would say that he was trying and put a positive spin on it, but that just never worked.

  “I have to work till three and then I have to meet up with Gabby for a project.”

  Okay so that was a complete lie. I had put my car up for sale, and I was meeting with someone that wanted to buy it after work. If my parents were going to continue this fight about money, then maybe selling my car, like Mom wanted, would help out a little.

  “Okay, well she’s not off until five anyways, so you can come over at seven.” He looked at me with pleading brown eyes.

  “I guess I can do that,” I said, smiling. But of course that smile didn’t stay for long when Jason came out of the back.

  “Mr. Stone, I didn’t remember putting you on the schedule today,” he said as he tapped his clipboard.

  “No, Jason, I just came in to see Bentley.” He stood up straight, shoving his hands in his pockets.

  “As you can see, Miss Evans is working. She was just about to take out the garbage.” Jason flashed an all-too-smug smile.

  I looked over at Jason. I wanted to glare at him so badly. There was no one in the restaurant and all the guys were just standing in the back, but he had to pick the only girl working to empty out garbage. What an ass.

  ***

  Ketchup juice ran down the leg of my work pants as I drove to Palos Heights neighborhood, where I was meeting up with the potential car buyer. Palos Heights wasn’t too far from my old neighborhood, so it was kind of like a feeling of déjà vu as I drove through the tree-lined neighborhood. I missed having a yard and trees even more than I missed being the happy family with a house and neighborhood.

  I pulled my car into the driveway of a big white two-story house. A short, blonde girl with a pixie haircut was waiting on the front patio.

  “Hi, you must be Bentley, right?” She approached my car, admiring it with her big blue eyes.

  “Yup and you’re Tonya?”
I stepped out of the car.

  “Yeah, I remember you from St. Christopher’s. Okay, actually I remember this car from St. Christopher’s.” She ran her finger along the front fender, her eyes roaming it like it was a piece of meat and she was a tiger ready to pounce on it.

  I thought the girl’s name sounded familiar. She was a year older than me, and we used to go to school together. I really didn’t know her, but she seemed nice enough; just your typical tennis-playing private school girl.

  “You used to hang out with Taylor Hayes and that boy band look-a-like gay kid, right?” She looked right at me now, with her hand still pressed against the car.

  The only boy band look-a-like I could think of was Brett. People always said that he looked like he belonged on stage with his curly hair and jean jackets. But Brett wasn’t gay, he was dating Gabby.

  “Yeah, I used to hang out with Taylor, but I don’t know what guy you’re talking about.” I tried not to lean up against the car door. I didn’t want to accidently dent it or something.

  “You know the one that’s the gyno’s kid.” She put her hands on the hips of her very trendy designer jeans.

  Brett’s dad was a gynecologist, but he wasn’t gay. “I think you’re mistaken. Brett isn’t gay; he has a girlfriend.”

  “Oh honey. You have a very nice car and all, but you’re gaydar is way off,” she snorted.

  Then I really thought about it. Brett did dress better and have better hair than any girl or boy I had never known. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that he and Gabby hadn’t exactly ever been alone together or even kissed when they were in public.

  I had a feeling that I may have some questions for Gabby. Then I heard something come from a few houses down that sounded like Mom’s laugh. I turned my head and saw, what looked like, Mom’s car. And there it was, as plain as day, Mom walking out of another man’s house with her hair in a mess and laughing like she was having the time of her life. I tried to ignore it, thinking maybe he was just a friend. Then he kissed her, and not just a ‘oh hey we’re friends thanks for coming by’ but more of a ‘we just did something naughty and now I want more’ kiss. Then it all started to make sense. Why Mom was always gone and why she was always fighting with Dad. It took everything I had to not scream right there in the driveway, but then I would never sell the car and never have the money to tell Mom to screw off.

  Chapter 21

  Family Dinner

  I was in such a terrible mood by the time Tonya dropped me off at home, I didn’t want to do anything but curl up in bed and cry. Dad wasn’t anywhere in sight, and I didn’t know how I would be able to face him without telling him everything about Mom.

  I stuffed the money from selling my car into the top drawer of my dresser. I figured I needed to come up with a way to tell Dad that I had sold the car and try and keep that bit of information from Mom.

  I threw my smelly work clothes into a pile near the shower. I just needed to get in and rinse away everything. I wish Dad never had gotten laid off so we wouldn’t be going through this whole stupid mess. My family was falling apart, and I felt like there was nothing I could do about it.

  I trudged through my clothes wondering what to wear to my boyfriend’s happy family dinner. The only reason I was still going was because Kai was the only good thing that came out of all the other chaos in my life. I guess all I could do was put on a nice smile and hope that maybe his mom didn’t notice that the last time she saw me, I was sans bra.

  I showed up at exactly seven o’clock dressed in a pair of khakis and a white cap sleeved top. I didn’t want to be over dressed, but I didn’t want his mom to see me covered in grime and whatever else was on my clothes that I hadn’t dragged down to the laundry room yet.

  Kai answered the door right after the first knock and was flanked on either side by his little sisters.

  “Hi Bentley!” Damaris had the biggest smile on her face and gave me a huge hug as soon as she saw me.

  Abby clung to Kai’s leg and had her hand in her mouth.

  “Hi Abby.” I knelt down in front of her and smiled.

  She took her hand off of Kai’s leg and waved. I stood back up, Kai’s mom walked out of the kitchen as I made my way into the living room.

  “I’m glad that you could make it, Bentley,” Kai’s mom said. She looked very tired with huge bags under her eyes and a stained blouse. I had no idea where Kai’s dad was ,and I’m sure it had to be hard raising three kids on her own.

  “Thank you for inviting me, Mrs. Stone.” I smiled.

  She just nodded and headed into the tiny kitchen. Yep, the woman hated me.

  The family’s small kitchen table had six different miss-matched chairs with ripped seat cushions and scratches covering almost every surface. The food was at least better than anything Dad had ever cooked. Kai’s mom’s family was originally from Korea, or somewhere not near the United States. Wherever her family was from, they definitely taught her how to spice a bowl of pasta. The noodles weren’t too hard or too slippery and the sauce was so thick and robust that it reminded me of tomato paste. I wanted to savor every bite.

  “So Kai tells me that you used to go to St. Christopher’s?” his Mom asked between bites of food.

  “Yes ma’am, before we moved out here,” I said, trying to be as polite as possible, but I think she totally knew what Kai and I were doing the other night and didn’t trust me because of it.

  “Are you still going there for church, or are you going somewhere closer to here?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “Um I, uh, well I usually work on Sundays, so I haven’t been able to get back to church.” Good answer Bentley, good answer.

  We sat silent for what seemed like forever. I felt like Kai’s mom was judging everything that I did: from the way I ate to the way I answered the bits of small talk she threw at me. At the same time, though, I was actually glad that she cared. Pre Dad’s lay-off, I don’t even remember the last time that we sat down for dinner together. All through high school Dad was always working late and Mom would be off working on some committee, so I would either microwave dinner myself or do the whole drive-thru thing.

  But even though Kai’s mom cared about her kids, her feelings toward me weren’t the best. Not only did I accidently drop an F-bomb when I spilled my glass of water, but Kai’s mom’s face never left a scowl no matter how hard I tried to be nice.

  After dinner Kai told his mom that we were meeting up with some of his friends at Perkins. It was better than sitting around and watching his mom glare at me, so I went with it. As soon as we got in the car he didn’t even start it, just stopped and turned toward me.

  “Sorry about my mom…”

  “No, she’s fine.” I stared at the floorboard, not taking my eyes off of it.

  “I can see that you’re upset. I’m really sorry. She doesn’t really mean any harm.” He put his hand on mine.

  Then I just completely lost it as big, black mascara-ridden tears fell down my cheeks.

  “I can’t do this!” I screamed and threw my arms out.

  “Um, can’t do what?” Kai leaned forward in his seat a bit.

  “I’m tired of acting like everything is fine. It’s not freaking fine! I had to leave my home, my private school and for what? To move into a small apartment, work in a burger joint, and sell my car?” I sniffled and wiped my nose with the back of my arm.

  “And for what? So that Dad can mope around the house and complain about not having a job? Or so that Mom can go out and sleep with some random guy while I’m suffering. It’s just not fair!” I buried my head into Kai’s chest and sobbed.

  Kai obviously didn’t know what to do with my outburst. For about thirty seconds he actually just sat there and didn’t move. I don’t think he even breathed. Then he slowly put his hand on my back and started making circles with his fingernails.

  “It’ll be okay, Bentley,” he whispered.

  “No it won’t,” I sniffled. “There is no way that things could g
et any worse unless I were to get run over or something.”

  Kai never said a word, never even tried. He just sat there, holding me as I cried. We never actually did make it to Perkins and that was obviously the least of my worries.

  Chapter 22

  Not Too keen

  I was afraid that Kai was never going to want to talk to me after my outburst. I was even more afraid of what my parents would say when I told them that I sold my car.

  “Hey, Bent, I didn’t even hear you come in last night. Did you have a good time?” Dad smiled over the Sunday morning paper. My mother was, of course, already gone. I didn’t know that cheating on your husband could start so early.

  “Yeah, Kai’s mom is really nice.” I nodded and sat down. “Hey, Dad, there is something I need to tell you.” I shifted my weight in the chair.

  Dad took off his glasses and looked straight at me with one eyebrow raised, leaning in. “You’re not pregnant are you?”

  I couldn’t help but giggle. “No, Dad, I’m not pregnant, not at all.”

  He let out a huge sigh of relief as he put his glasses back on. “Oh, thank God. I honestly had no idea what I would have done if you told me you were. We don’t have an extra bedroom, and I’ve seen Kai’s mom around before. I think her and her giant cross necklace might not be too keen on that sort of thing.”

  “How do you come up with these things?”

  “I’m just a creative person I guess.” He put down the newspaper. “But really, Bent, what’s going on?”

  “Well…” I bit my bottom lip and tried not to look at him. “I kinda, sorta sold my car.”

  “You did what now?” He leaned in, his eyes wide. I knew he heard me, but I think he just wanted me to say it again.

  “I sold my car yesterday. I figured that I could use some of the money to save for college and then you could use some to, you know, get by while you work on your book or whatever.” In the back of my head I was thinking to use it for a divorce, but I didn’t say that out loud.