Where I Wanna Be

by Vera Roberts

  Eli still pondered what he wanted to do. He wasn’t that interested in college but he didn’t want to go into the military, either. He just hoped he would figure something out soon. He was currently in his junior year of high school and pretty soon, his mother was going to start hounding him about college and military options.

  Time was quickly running out.

  Two

  It took some time but Simone Harris got used to St. George.

  She figured out a route to school and what buses to take. She knew what time she had to wake up in the morning and how much time it would give her to get ready. She knew exactly how minutes she had between classes and whether she would be able to make a bathroom run or stop by her locker.

  Most importantly, she figured which guys were the pervs and which ones were the nice, clean, and decent ones. So far, she hadn’t had much luck in that department. She smirked to herself as sat in her homeroom class. She should’ve known the best men were the grown-up kind and even then, it wasn’t a guarantee as evidenced by Alicia’s exploits. Simone was hesitant to call her sister a slut who had bad luck in men, though that description fit Alicia to a tee.

  Simone was a hopeless romantic who believed in Happily Ever After and waiting for Prince Charming. It may have been her naiveté combined with youth, but she was certain her Prince was out there waiting for her. She dreamt of hyphenating her last name, having 2.5 kids, with the picket fence. He would be a white collar worker and she would become a homemaker. A real one. Saturdays would be filled with Little League games, play dates, and birthday parties. Sundays would be church and family dinners.

  It would be perfect, Simone daydreamed. It would be even more perfect if those idiots a few feet away from her would stop tossing paper planes trying to get her attention and ruining her daydreaming.

  ****

  “Yo, check it out, man,” Eli’s friend, Michael, leaned over to him. “Check out that new chick sitting over there in the corner.” He nonchalantly pointed behind him.

  Eli glanced over and saw Simone. She was pretty—long, brunette hair, full lips, and a curvy body. Eli first noticed her, along with every other boy in his class, when she arrived. “Yeah, what about her?”

  “I’m going to get her attention.” Michael crumbled up a piece of paper. “I’m going to get her to come over here and talk to me.”

  “Um, you sure that’s the way you want to go about it, bro?” Eli asked. “I’m just saying…”

  “Trust me, it works!” Michael launched the paper ball over to the corner. He followed it with a few more until one bounced off Simone’s forehead and landed on the floor. The guys snickered and laughed amongst themselves while Simone wasn’t amused. She calmly walked over to Eli’s table and dropped off the plane. “I think this belongs to you.” She began to walk away.

  Simone’s reputation for being sweet and pretty on the outside and ruthless on the inside was growing by the minute. She was known to curse someone out without even using profanity and talking down to them like if they had no sense. Her reputation for being a bitch quickly grew amongst the guys, who were even more determined to get her. Meanwhile, the girls loved Simone and found someone who was one of them, once the cattiness died down.

  “Sorry about that,” Mike stifled a laugh, “I wasn’t aiming for your five-head.”

  Simone stopped walking and turned back to the table. “My five-head?”

  “Yeah, your five-head. Because your forehead is so big…”

  “Yes, I get it. That’s cute,” Simone nodded as she grabbed a ruler from a vacant desk. She began to measure Mike’s hands.

  “What? What are you doing?”

  “Oh, I’m just checking to see the length of your hands. You see, I heard that men who have big hands have big dicks and since your hands are awfully small, I see why you felt the need to give my forehead a pathetic insult like that. If I had a small penis, I would be a pissed-off little man like yourself, too.” Simone cut him down.

  Mike’s friends began howling and pointing at Mike, who was seething with embarrassment. “Yeah, well, fuck you!”

  “Sorry, I probably wouldn’t feel it.” Simone then walked back to her table.

  When Simone sat down at her table, she caught glances with Eli. The long-haired brunette beauty had brains to go along with her mouth. He was impressed.

  Later that day at lunch, Eli caught up with Simone. “Say, I’m sorry about earlier with my friends. Sometimes their mouths get the best of them.”

  “I’m a big girl. I can handle my own.” Simone smiled and pulled out a chair for Eli. “Sit down, please.”

  Eli sat beside Simone. “I’m Eli D’Amato.”

  “I’m Simone Harris.” She smiled.

  Eli would remember her name for as long as he lived. “Beautiful name.”

  “Simone is my middle name. My first name is Kaitlyn. My parents wanted to be unique and all exotic,” Simone rolled her eyes. “All they did was cause me grief. Constantly correcting people gets old real quick.”

  “I hear that,” Eli nodded. “Well, I just wanted to say sorry for the way my friends behaved. I promise you Mike won’t bother you anymore.”

  “I’m pretty sure he won’t,” Simone laughed. She looked over at Eli and notice how cute he was. He had a tight, slicked-back ponytail and wore baggy clothing to cover his thin frame. She could tell he was thin just by how the clothing was practically falling off him. She wondered what he was hiding underneath those clothes… “Say, are you doing anything after school? I usually go to the mall to eat there and I wanted to see if you would like to come with?”

  “Sure, I’ll meet you at the mall.” Eli warmly smiled again. “Should I meet you at the food court?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be there.” Simone winked as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. “Well, I gotta jet to my next class. I’ll see you later, Eli.” She walked away.

  Eli watched Simone walk away. Her butt swerved left to right as if she was purposely taunting him with her figure. “Yeah, catch you later, Simone.”

  Later, after school, Eli caught up with Simone at the food court as promised. She was patiently waiting for him at a corner table. “I hope I didn’t keep you very long,” he sat across from her.

  Simone smiled warmly. Eli noticed her eyes danced whenever she did that. “No, not at all. Did you want to get something to eat and bring it back here? I can wait while you go get something.”

  “Well, I am a little hungry. What do you want? I’ll get you something.” He offered.

  “You don’t have to do that, Eli.”

  “I insist,” Eli knew he didn’t have money for both of them but he couldn’t let Simone know that. “What do you want?”

  “How about this?” Simone got up and walked to a restaurant with Eli. “I’ll get something and then you can get something.”

  “Are you sure?” He asked.

  “Yes because I don’t want you to confuse this with being a date,” she replied.

  Eli was taken aback by Simone’s aggressiveness. He liked it. “I didn’t think it was a date. Can’t a guy be nice to a pretty girl?”

  “You can be,” Simone pulled out her wallet, “you can get me something next time if you want.”

  “That works.” They arrived at a hamburger joint and placed their orders. When they were done, they headed back to their table. “So tell me about you. You’re new here.”

  “Born and raised in Houston,” Simone’s eyes grew sad. She wondered what her old friends were doing back there. She wondered what Seth was doing. She missed everyone terribly.

  “Simone?” Eli read her face. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah,” she shook her head to relieve the memories, “I’m just a little sad. It seems like I left my life back there. I had a lot of friends and family I left behind.”

  “Maybe you can make more friends here to create a new life,” Eli grabbed Simone’s hand.

  A slow grin spread on Simone’s face. She had a feeling Eli migh
t be what she needed to get excited about Staten Island. “Maybe.”

  At the mall, the pair conversed about each other, interests, and hobbies. They found out they had a lot of things in common and Eli became more drawn to her. The way her eyes would light up when she talked about her favorite music artists. The way she would tilt her head to the side as she thought about something. The way her light brown eyes sparkled as she smiled.

  Simone was a goddess and she was talking to Eli. Out of all the guys at the high school, she was talking to him. It wasn’t something Eli took lightly. She was a year younger than he, but he didn’t care. She was more than a pretty face and he wanted to get to know her more.

  “Anyway,” Simone glanced down at her watch, “I need to get going. My parents are probably wondering what’s taking me so long at the mall.”

  “I’ll walk you home,” Eli got up and gathered their trays to put them away, “I don’t want you walking home by yourself.”

  “I usually take the bus so you can walk me to the bus stop.” Eli offered.

  “What about I take the bus with you and walk you to your front porch and then I’ll go back home?” Eli countered.

  Simone gathered her backpack and folded her arms. “You really want to go home with me, don’t you?”

  “You said it, not me.” Eli smiled.

  Simone shook her head at her faux-pas. “Only to the front porch and that’s it. My dad will kill you if he saw you.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Eli put on his backpack. “I like to live.”

  Three

  Every morning it was the same routine. Every night it was the same routine. Eli didn’t mind it at all. He got used to it very quickly.

  Every morning, he called Simone to see if she was ready to leave for the bus stop. Then he would walk and meet her at the bus stop directly across from the high school. He would walk with her to class and have lunch with her. Every afternoon, they would go to the mall and have a snack, sometimes sharing a plate when Eli didn’t have enough money to buy something. Then he would walk her to the bus stop and see her off. He would call her an hour later to make sure she got home and she would call him to wish him good-night.

  They would repeat it the next morning.

  They would go to the park, a local arcade, see a movie, and just hang out with each other on Saturdays. The only day they didn’t see each other was on Sunday, because Eli and Simone would be stuck in their respective churches, helping out. But come Monday morning, they would begin the same schedule from the prior week.

  Their relationship was platonic even though it was obvious to everyone who could see that Eli and Simone liked each other. But Simone was forbidden to have a boyfriend and Eli valued his life too much to convince her otherwise.

  Still, they acted very much like boyfriend-girlfriend, and those close to them knew they were practically promised to each other without either one saying such a thing. They were protective, jealous, comfortable, and if they dared to admit it, in love with one another. A few times they almost held hands but they both were too shy to pursue.

  “You are so different from the other guys, Eli.” Simone commented over lunch.

  Eli shrugged. “How am I different?”

  “You just are,” Simone took a bite of a French fry. “You’re always so respectful. You don’t make crude jokes or unnecessary comments. You’re just a dreamboat.”

  “It’s because you haven’t been around me with my friends and my brothers,” Eli replied back, “I’m Nice Eli when I’m with you.”

  “Do all guys do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Change their personality when they’re with a girl?” Simone asked.

  “Of course, we do.” Eli shrugged. “I’m not going to be with my friends talking about ‘Hey dude, you wanna go kick it with me tonight?” He said in a lowered voice, to which Simone laughed. “No, I’m gonna be like, ‘Hey, let’s hang out by the park and see what happens.’”

  “I like Nice Eli,” Simone nodded. “I like him a lot.” She placed a hand on top of Eli’s.

  Eli looked down at Simone’s hand above his and back at her. She looked so beautiful, with the sun hitting her face at just the right angle. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve assumed the heavens were shining down on her. “He likes you a lot, too.” He replied back.

  Simone felt her heart swell. Did Eli just admit something to her? “Do you like me or do you like like me?”

  Eli laughed and softly licked his lips. “I like like you.”

  Simone smiled big. “I like like you, too.”

  Eli adjusted his hand so they were interlocked with Simone’s. “I want you to be my girl, Moni. I can’t promise you all the fancy things because I don’t got that kind of money. But I can promise you the world if you want to be in mine.”

  Simone leaned in closer to Eli and looked into his eyes. “I want to be in your world.”

  Staring at Simone’s lips left Eli pondering how badly her dad would kill him if he found out. He decided to chance it. He leaned in closer to Simone and gently kissed her, sucking her top lip with his bottom one. Her lips felt exactly as he pictured them: soft, and like little pillows he wanted to get lost in. He kissed her some more, not wanting to play tonsil hockey with her, but not wanting to break free.

  Simone was floating. Eli’s lips were softer than she had imagined and felt wonderful on her. She knew she wanted to feel them everywhere—on her neck, on her body… every single inch of her. He smelled wonderful, he felt even better. He wasn’t her first kiss but she already knew he was going to be her last.

  The sound of the bell signaling lunch was over ended their make out session. Eli reluctantly pulled away and placed his forehead against his girlfriend’s. “I’ll see you after school, okay, Moni?”

  “Okay, Eliodoro.” She smiled.

  Eli kissed her again and then grabbed his backpack and headed to class. Simone watched her boyfriend walk away. She bounced in her chair a little. Her boyfriend!

  ****

  “I want you to come over on Sunday and meet my mom,” Eli said over the phone.

  “Your mother?” Simone already knew what that meant. Not only was Eli claiming her but it was serious between them.

  “Yeah, I want you to meet everyone.” Eli twirled the phone cord in the kitchen. “They’re anxious to meet you.”

  “Why do they want to meet me?” Simone inquired.

  The real truth was Eli’s brothers weren’t convinced Simone wasn’t an imaginary blow-up doll or another name he called his right hand. “Well, they want to see if you exist,” he admitted.

  The question was on the tip of Simone’s tongue and she decided to chance it. “Am I your first girlfriend, Eli?”

  “Shhh…” He quieted her down and looked around his home, hoping no one heard what she said.

  “So I am your first girlfriend?” Simone teased.

  “Yes,” Eli hastily said. “Now quiet with that.”

  “It’s okay if I’m your first girlfriend, Eli.” Simone replied back.

  “Oh, yeah? Am I your first boyfriend?” He asked.

  “No,” Simone stated.

  “No? No?” Eli felt jealous of a guy he didn’t even know. “Who was before me?”

  “An old boyfriend back in Houston,” Simone stated.

  “Yeah, do you still talk to that old boyfriend?” He wondered.

  “No, I’m don’t, Jealous Guy.” She teased.

  “I’m not jealous.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “I’m not jealous,” Eli brushed off, “I just don’t want to go to jail, that’s all.”

  “Yeah, you’re not jealous.” Simone rolled her eyes.

  Eli saw his mother come through the front door, carrying some groceries with Tony right behind her. “Listen, I gotta go, Moni. I’ll call you later.”

  “Okay, baby. Bye!” She hung up the phone.

  Eli rushed over to his mother and helped her unload the groceries. “Grazie, El
iodoro.” Nicola pulled out a dining room chair and sat down. Between her waitressing day job and her janitorial night job, she rarely had time to think. She turned forty just a year prior and she already knew she was getting too old to be doing both jobs. How she wished she was a young and vibrant twenty-year-old woman again. “Can you get dinner tonight, Eli?”

  “Sure, ma.” Eli wondered what he could possibly make. He wasn’t known as the cook between the brothers. “What do you want?”