Roman and Jewel

by Dana L. Davis

  “Very good to know you’re not a figment of Zeppelin’s imagination.” Thomas hands me a beer. “I was starting to worry.”

  Thomas has a British accent, too? He really could play Jesus in the movies.

  “He’s been obsessed with you for a while now.” Thomas shakes his head. “A very unhealthy infatuation.”

  Zeppelin literally takes the beer out of my hand and laughs. “C’mon, dude. Don’t fucking rat me out.”

  I frown. Why did he take the beer away from me? Okay, sure. I don’t drink. But maybe I want to. It’s just a beer.

  Thomas sorta looks me up and down. “You’re much smaller in person. You’re practically miniscule.”

  “How’s Cinny?” Melissa is the polar opposite of Tanya. Dark hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. A T-shirt with an emoji sticking its tongue out that says Sit On My Face. Baggy jeans and dirty Chucks.

  “Cinny hasn’t changed.” Zeppelin flips the tab on the can of beer and downs a big gulp of the drink.

  Melissa places a hand on my shoulder. “I saw her on the Breakfast Show. How did you guys become best friends? How cool is that?”

  Zeppelin nearly chokes on his beer. He sets it down and wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Yes, Jerzie. How did you guys become besties?”

  “Boring story,” I say. “Family friends is all.”

  “That’s a terribly boring story, isn’t it?” Thomas whines.

  “Where were you guys headed before we derailed you?” Kenyon takes a long drag from something he’s smoking. It looks like a cigarette. It smells like something else.

  “We were gonna walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.” Zeppelin takes another swig of beer. “And then hang out by the water.”

  Kenyon laughs. “How incredibly cute. Were you guys gonna skip rocks afterward and then carve your names into a tree?”

  Tanya turns to face Kenyon and pinches him on the arm.

  He blows smoke in her face when he yelps. “Ow. The fuck?”

  “Don’t tease,” she scolds. “We want Jerzie to like us.”

  “It’s not my fault Zeppelin’s corny-ass date got canceled.” Kenyon takes another drag from his “cigarette.” “We saved Jerzie. Trust me. She should love us now.”

  “Ignore him.” Tanya’s brown eyes are warm and friendly. “We’re just happy to see what a Zeppelin girl looks like. We’ve not seen one for a long, long time.”

  “You’re so rude, Zeppelin.” Melissa reaches into a cooler they have and hands me another beer. “Jerzie has nothing to drink.”

  Zeppelin takes the drink out of Melissa’s hand. “Jerzie wouldn’t drink this cheap shit you guys buy anyway.”

  I sorta glare at Zeppelin. He turns to me, not aware of the scowl I have on my face as he leans to kiss me on the cheek.

  “I can kiss you, right?” he whispers in my ear.

  Still asking permission to touch me. Another kiss on the cheek. Won’t kiss me for real. Won’t let me drink. If I grab a bag of chips, will he snatch those out of my hands, too? Doesn’t want me to eat fried food?

  Now Tanya takes a hit from what I’ve deduced is weed in a cigarette roller. She reaches across Zeppelin’s lap to hand it off to Thomas, but I intercept, snatching it from her before Thomas can. Now that it’s in my hands, I realize how foreign it feels. What exactly do I think I’m doing here? “Sorry,” I say to Tanya. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Uh.” She looks nervously at Zeppelin. “I don’t.”

  I can feel everyone’s eyes on me. I can also sense Zeppelin’s overwhelming desire to take it from my hand and scold me like Aunt Karla would.

  “Like this.” Melissa scoots over to me to demonstrate. “Inhale. Hold in the smoke as long as you can and then exhale. It’s easy.”

  I feel Zeppelin’s whole body tense beside me, but I ignore him and do as Melissa instructs, bringing the “cigarette” to my lips and inhaling. Smoke fills my lungs.

  It hurts.

  “Hold it as long as you can, boo,” Tanya calls out.

  I can hold it no more. I exhale. A puff of smoke surrounds my face. I fan it away.

  “Good job!” Tanya claps excitedly.

  “What a rotten influence you are,” Thomas states. “You’re tainting Zepp’s little flower.”

  I’m coughing now. Zeppelin sets his beer down and places a hand on my back.

  “Breathe deep, Jerzie.” He sounds upset. Really upset.

  But I suppose I’m in full-on Slytherin rebellion, because rather than listen to Zeppelin, I take another hit. It actually hurts worse the second time and makes me cough even harder. A water bottle is offered to me. I look up to see Jesus, or Thomas, extending me the lifeline, a goofy grin spread across his face.

  “Drink, little flower.”

  I happily accept the bottle of water and down about half of it. It calms the burn in my chest. When I move the bottle away from my mouth and the cough subsides, all of Zeppelin’s friends start cheering. It makes me laugh.

  Melissa takes the “cigarette” out of my hands. “Remember. Puff, puff, pass.”

  They all look so happy and free. Well, everyone except Zeppelin. He doesn’t speak at first. He downs the rest of the beer, sets the empty can beside him, and sits there, seething. Finally he turns to me. “Please don’t do that again, Jerzie,” he whispers so that only I can hear. “What were you thinking?”

  I roll my eyes and whisper back, “You forgot to ask me if you could whisper in my ear.”

  Now Tanya and Melissa stand, move off the blanket, and dance to the music, which has kicked into high gear with the Jackson 5.

  I take a moment to stare down at the blanket, gathering my thoughts. Or maybe just one thought. Something along the lines of:

  What the hell was I thinking?!

  I don’t exactly feel any different though. I don’t feel “high.” Whatever that means. But what does that mean? What’s going to happen to me? What if the smoke destroyed my vocal cords? What if I’m allergic to weed? Did I ever think that I could be allergic? Stupid Jerzie! Idiot, imbecilic move! Smoking weed to prove some sort of point, to create some stupid skeleton, and now I’m on the brink of an allergic reaction.

  When I look up, Zeppelin is chatting with Kenyon about something, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. Mostly because my heart is beating so fast. Is that the first sign of a weed allergy? Shit.

  I grab Zeppelin’s leg and attempt to sound as calm as possible. “Hey.”

  He looks at me, his blue eyes narrowed.

  “My aunt Karla called. I’m gonna call her back superquick.”

  Before he can reply, I hop off the blanket and walk a few hundred feet to the fountain. I sit slowly on the ledge. My heart is beating so fast. God. I look around me. There are so many people. All oblivious to the terror about to unfold. Anaphylactic weed shock. I look at my hands, doing that thing where I’m trying to twist off my fingers. But they are not budging. Why are my fingers screwed on so tight? Why am I so stupid? I try to take another deep breath to slow my heart rate. I might be the very first girl ever to be allergic to weed. How do you say what terrible luck in Italian? I lower my head into my hands.

  A few seconds later I feel someone sit beside me. Close. Too close. I look over, about to bark at them to move the hell away from me, when I realize it’s Zeppelin.

  “How do you say bad luck in Italian?” I ask.

  “Are you okay?”

  I shake my head. “No,” I reply honestly. “I think I’m allergic to weed.”

  “Jerzie, that’s not a thing.”

  “How do you know?” I wail.

  He rests a hand on my shoulder. “You’re panicking. It probably hasn’t hit you yet. But if you’re flipping the fuck out when it does, you’re gonna stay like that for the next hour.”

  “Oh my God, Zeppelin!” I whisper. “I
am flipping the fuck out. I’m so scared. I want out of my body. Help me.” I lower my head into my hands again. “Help me, help me, help me.”

  “I’m here.” He rests his hand on my back. “You’re fine. I promise.”

  “I shouldn’t have done that. I didn’t mean to. But you were treating me like a kid.”

  “I was what?”

  “Not letting me drink.”

  “You’re sixteen.”

  “So what? I’ll be seventeen soon.”

  “Jerzie.”

  I look up at him now. “And why do you keep kissing me on the cheek?” Oh, God. It’s getting hard to breathe. “If I die from weed overdose. Please remember me well.”

  Zeppelin’s eyes go from worried to amused real quick. “Jerzie, give me your hands.” He takes my hands in his. “What calms you? We gotta get you calm.”

  “Uh, raindrops on roses? No. Wait. Oh, I don’t know!” I’m about to burst into tears when suddenly Zeppelin leans forward and presses his lips to mine. It starts off sorta like the way he kissed me during the dance. But this time, he doesn’t pull away. I sort of gasp when he rests one hand on my knee and his tongue slips into my mouth.

  “Holy shit.” Somehow I manage to pull away. I stare into his eyes.

  But he only draws me closer to him, pressing his lips on top of mine again. I realize what he’s trying to do. Because this—this is calming me. Zeppelin must sense it’s working, because his lips stay connected to mine. His mouth is soft and warm. His kisses gentle, tender. And since I’ve never really been kissed before and don’t know what the hell to actually do, I decide to speak and say something really dumb:

  “I’ve never kissed anyone before you.”

  He pulls away, his forehead resting against mine. “No. Our YouTube kiss was your first kiss? Seriously?” He sighs.

  “It’s okay,” I say. “I didn’t mind it.”

  “I never imagined it would feel so real,” he whispers. “That we’d feel so connected. I hope I didn’t embarrass you.”

  “You didn’t embarrass me. Is that why you’ve been kissing me on the cheek?”

  “I’m trying to be respectful is all. I’ve never dated a girl like you before.”

  “What’s a girl like me?”

  “Hmm.” He leans back and stares up at the sky, like he’s searching for just the right words. “Voice like an angel. Insanely talented and yet...so sweet. And humble.” He laughs. “And funny. Mostly on accident.”

  “I’m accidentally funny?”

  “You’re accidentally hilarious.” He turns to me now. “And then I watch when you get teary eyed at rehearsal. You get so moved by everyone’s performances and you don’t want anyone to notice, so you pretend to look for something in your bag.”

  “You notice that?” I cover my cheeks with my hands. “I can’t help it. Everyone is so good.”

  “But most importantly, you wear Slytherin socks.” He laughs. “And care so much about the meaning of an old piece of literature, that you would take the time to read it fifteen times.”

  “So that’s a girl like me, huh?” I smile.

  “Jerzie, a girl like you is the one you meet maybe once in a lifetime. Where everything you ever wanted fits into the prettiest person you ever saw.”

  He leans forward to kiss me again. First on the lips. Then his mouth moves slowly down to kiss me gently on the neck. My eyes open enough to realize I am one half of that couple I despise. Kissing in public like they’ve no decorum. But who knew those couples were having so much fun! And suddenly it feels like I’m floating. I look up at the sky. It’s moving. Slightly. Like, I can tell the Earth is spinning through space. I can literally see it moving. This is a giant spaceship. Whoa.

  “We’re on a spaceship!” I laugh. Now Zeppelin’s appeared. Out of nowhere. His blue eyes looking especially freaky. Alien eyes. “Dude. You magically appeared and your alien eyes are terrifying.” I reach out to touch his face. “Don’t scare me like that.”

  I place my hands over my ears. There is something revving like a motor. A very loud motor. What is that? I look up at the sky again. Searching for the strange sound. Why isn’t everyone else freaking out about this?

  “It’s a helicopter.” Zeppelin’s doing that mind-reading thing. “You’re high, Jerzie. Sounds are gonna seem louder than normal.”

  “I’m high?” I burst into laughter. Why is everything so funny?

  Zeppelin smiles. “Let’s head back over. We can sit and relax.”

  I wrap my arms around Zeppelin’s neck and pull him closer to me. “Why? Am I boring you?”

  “Jerzie...” he whispers. “There’s this thing that happens when you’re high. Your filter gets sort of shut down. I’m kind of curious to see how this is gonna play out.” He runs a hand through his hair. “But there’re a lot of kids around. And I’m not gonna lie, you seem a bit on the verge.”

  On the verge of what? And talk about filter being shut down. I move my hands into Zeppelin’s hair. Push it off his face the way he does all the time. It’s like feathers! I love the way it feels on my fingers. He closes his eyes and sighs heavily. “Will you teach me things, Zeppelin?”

  “Careful, Jerzie.”

  Careful? “What do you mean?”

  “It’s just...that part of me has been shut down for a long time. I don’t wanna turn it back on until I know you’re ready.”

  “But I am ready. I do want you to teach me.”

  He takes my wrists and pulls my hands out of his hair, staring into my eyes. “What shall I teach you?”

  “Everything.”

  “Shit.” He shakes his head. “Don’t say that to me.”

  “Why?” I ask sadly. “You don’t wanna teach me?”

  “I do. I just want you to mean it is all. Right now you’re out of your mind. Literally.”

  “No. I’ve liked you since you clobbered me over the head.” Now it’s my turn to bare my soul. The way he did in Bay Ridge. “Luciano Lucio Zeppolini Sticky Fingers Reid Ricci.”

  He laughs.

  “I do like you,” I whisper. “I’ve liked you from the moment I first saw you. I’ve been waiting for you to show up, too. Like, my whole life. I missed you, too. Silly, huh? How can you miss someone you hardly know?”

  “I want you to say all of this to me when you’re not high. Then maybe it’ll fully sink in and I won’t think I’m dreaming.”

  “Okay. When will this fade? I’ll say it again then.”

  “You took two hits? Never smoked before?” He shrugs. “An hour maybe?”

  “Yay!” I wrap my arms around his neck again and rest my lips on his ear. “I love having no filter.”

  “Is she okay?”

  We both look up. Jesus is standing in front of us. Barefoot. Or wait. Never mind. It’s just Thomas.

  “Eww!” I point to his bare feet. “You’re barefoot in New York City. Disgusting!” I burst into laughter.

  Thomas laughs, too. “She’s high, man.”

  Zeppelin nods. “She’s fine. We’ll join you guys in a second. Taking a few minutes so she can get her bearings.”

  “Better hurry. The girls are requesting a dance with Jerzie. We all saw the video. We know she can dance.” He moves off.

  “His feet are gonna fall off.”

  Zeppelin laughs. “I love high Jerzie. But I’m never letting you get high again. You know that, right? Better enjoy the next hour.”

  “You’re not the boss of me. I do what I want. I’m a Slytherin!” I press my lips to his. “Teach me how to kiss,” I murmur. “Teach me everything.”

  “Oh, God.” He moans. “Somewhere Aunt Karla is calling the police on me. Please stop. I wanna live.”

  The sound of the water fountain behind us is like Niagara Falls, it’s so loud. But it’s also soft. Which is weird. The people beside us. The co
nversations. Their laughter. It’s filling up all the space in my ears. But it’s also so deathly quiet, I can hear my own heart beating. I can hear the blood gushing through my veins. I can hear everything.

  “All right.” Zeppelin’s whispering in my ear again. His deep voice is so soothing, it quiets the rest of the noise. “The lips have one of the thinnest layers of skin on the body. Which is why they’re so sensitive.” He moves to gently kiss my lips, and I shiver. “One million nerve endings in your lips.” He kisses me again. “So I just touched one million parts of you. How does it feel to have one million parts of you touched at the same time?”

  I want to answer him. But it’s like my brain has lost control. Somehow signals aren’t reaching their destination. Wires are crossed. Brain waves completely shut down. Thankfully Zeppelin must not need an answer, because he continues.

  “Now most of the time, less is more.” He kisses the corners of my mouth. “And sometimes.” He kisses my lips again, tilting my chin up so my mouth parts. I feel him gently bite down on my bottom lip. My eyes pop open. “Sometimes you can do that. Soft at first. But it can also be nice when things aren’t so soft.”

  “Why don’t you guys get a fucking room?”

  We turn to see a disgusted teen girl on her phone, sitting beside us.

  “He’s really good at this,” I say. “You wanna have a turn? You’ll see I’m not lying.”

  “God, I hate this city.” She stands and storms away.

  I turn back to Zeppelin and he’s laughing so hard. He grabs my hand. “Come on, Jerzie.”

  I stand and whoa...too fast. My knees buckle, and Zeppelin wraps an arm around my waist.

  “I got you, Jerzie.”

  He’s holding me so tightly. Everything really is better when you’re in love. Even almost passing out. I rest my head on his chest. “Zeppelin.” He gently massages my shoulders. “I think maybe you’re Romeo and I’m Juliet and we really are back on Earth. Trying to get it right this time.”

  “How do we get it right this time, Jerzie?” he asks, still gently massaging my shoulders.

  “This time?” I pause. “I guess we make sure nothing comes between us.”