by Nina LaCour
But then it happens.
Taylor’s body gets tense. He stops kissing me. I climb off of him. I sit. I cover my chest with my arm. I look at his sneakers, at the frays on the bottom of his jeans, anywhere but at his face. I look at his hand as it moves to where my tank top lies on the carpet and as he lifts it up for me to take. I put it back on.
We sit in silence.
Then Taylor says, “I should go.”
I close my eyes. I’m waiting for the world to end.
I nod, whisper, “Okay.”
There’s the sound of him putting his books back into his backpack, of him rolling up the map. The sound of a zipper zipping. The sound of him standing up. The silence of his not moving.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says.
I open my eyes and scan the ceiling. “Okay.”
He walks softly out of my room. I watch the back of him as he eases the door closed. Once it’s shut, I lean forward and put my head in my hands. Then the door swings open again, and Taylor comes back. He leans against my wall and says, “Just so you know, I do like you. That just felt weird.”
I guess I should say something, but I don’t. At this moment I am so far from thinking clearly, so far from making sense.
“Caitlin?” he asks.
I look into his face for the first time in minutes.
“I just want to make sure you know. It’s not like I didn’t want it or anything.”
He waits for me to say something. When I don’t, he walks in from the doorway and kneels on the carpet next to me. I get this terrible feeling that he’s going to kiss my cheek out of pity. I put my hand over my face so he can’t get to it.
“You know,” he says, “I had this huge crush on you in third grade.”
“Third grade?” I don’t even remember knowing him in third grade.
“Yeah, Mrs. Capelli’s class. Remember?”
I move my hand away from my face. I do remember. Mrs. Capelli wore colorful sweaters that smelled like mothballs and kept a hamster as the class pet.
“Your desk was one row ahead of mine and one row over, which was like the best setup imaginable because I could stare at you all day long without you seeing me.”
I glance at him and try to remember what he looked like as a little kid. I can remember him from middle school, practicing skating tricks in the front circle after the bell rang, but I can’t visualize him as an eight-year-old.
I open my mouth to ask him a question, then think better of it.
“What?” he asks.
So I say it anyway. “What did you like about me?”
“Lots of things.” He shifts his weight and ends up a little closer to me—still not touching, but closer. “But what I remember the most is this thing you used to do whenever we did art projects.”
“What was it?”
“Okay, well, you know how we had those boxes at our desks with our names on them? You kept a plastic bag in one—not a grocery bag, it was more like a sandwich bag. So, I’d glance over at you a lot during art projects and watch you gluing things. You always worked really slowly and carefully, and you hardly ever finished anything.”
I nod. It’s true—the art hour was always too short.
“So when Mrs. Capelli would tell us that our time was up, most of the kids just dumped the colored-paper scraps and glitter and cotton balls and stuff into the trash, but you would get out your plastic bag and put everything you didn’t use inside it.”
I haven’t thought about that for years, but as he says it, I remember. I can see myself, my little-kid fingers putting everything into that bag, saving it for later.
“Popsicle sticks and those pipe-cleaner things . . . I mean, it was junk, but you’d put it in your bag with glitter and suddenly it would look special. It used to drive me crazy.”
He grins, and even though my heart is lodged permanently in my throat, I smile back.
“I mean crazy in a good way,” he adds. He stands up. “Okay, I’m really going now. See you tomorrow.”
Once I hear him descend the stairs and shut the front door, I get up and look in my closet for my third-grade yearbook. It only takes a minute to find. I stick it in my backpack.
“I’ll be outside,” I yell, so my parents won’t panic if they can’t find me later.
In the garage, I find my dad’s huge flashlight that he uses on his search-and-rescue trips. I turn it on and head down the hill, out to my oak tree. So far, I’ve built a ladder ten feet up and secured six spokes to the trunk, one for each wall of the treehouse. I balance the flashlight on a branch above my head, stuff some bolts in my pocket, grab my hammer, and haul up a plank of wood. Once I’m up, I straddle a branch and prop one end of the plank onto a step, and attach the other end to the end of a spoke so that they form a forty-five-degree angle. This new plank will be the first brace, and I need to attach six of them to support the six spokes. I keep my mind clear, focus on the sound of my hammer and the weight of the planks.
Once I’ve secured half of them, my arms feel weak. I’m determined to get all six up tonight, though, so I’ll just give myself a short break.
I ease my way to the ladder and climb down. I take the yearbook out of my backpack. The flashlight casts a glow all around me—on the tree trunk, the grass, the leaves on the ground, the twigs and the pebbles. If I could, I would collect everything about right now. It’s not that I’m happy. I’m embarrassed and confused and so mad at myself about Dylan. But there’s something about right now that feels good despite everything. Each time a breeze starts, I feel the air all the way through me.
I flip through the yearbook pages until I find Mrs. Capelli’s class. There, in the lower right corner, is Taylor’s picture—small, black-and-white, grainy, but still incredibly charming. He’s smiling this bright, open smile. Even then he looked like a kid from a movie, the kind who only has a couple lines and can’t even remotely act, but no one cares because he’s so cute. I find my own picture. I’m smiling shyly with my hair in barrettes, my face slightly tilted to one side. This was me before I knew about anything hard, when my whole life was packed lunches and art projects and spelling quizzes. When my biggest responsibility was the one weekend of the year when it was my turn to bring the class hamster to my house and make sure it had food and water.
I move the flashlight closer, and study my eight-year-old face again. I change my mind. I was such a quiet kid, so shy and calm and in my own head. Of course I knew about being sad. Maybe that’s the reason I saved all the things I thought were pretty.
After I’ve put up two more braces, I realize I’m stuck. There’s no way for me to attach the sixth brace to the sixth beam; the branches around it are either all too high or too low. It’s more than I can do tonight. Soon I’ll climb farther up and secure a rope to a high branch. I’ll make a swing so I can reach the places I can’t reach yet.
11
I know I should eat something, but my stomach is still messed up over what happened with Taylor last night. I fill a spoon with cereal, then lower it back into the bowl. My parents are reading the paper at the table in the kitchen, and when my dad gets up to get his briefcase from the other room, my mom clears her throat and turns to me.
“Caitlin,” she says in her school-principal voice, “I’m glad to see that you’re spending some time with new people. It’s important for you to make new friends. I do want to ask, though—and this isn’t a big deal, it’s just something your dad and I decided—that I’d like you to keep your door open when you have Taylor over. Or any boy. It doesn’t have to be wide open, just open a little.”
I stare at my cranberry-almond crunch getting soggy in the milk.
“Why?”
My mom’s newspaper rustles. “It’s just the appropriate thing to do. We trust you, we just also know what it’s like to be your age. It’s fine for you and Taylor to enjoy each other’s company.” She pauses. “It’s even fine to kiss, or make out, or whatever you want to call it. Just as long as you keep the
door open to keep you from getting carried away.”
I feel this pinch in my gut and, for a brief moment, I want to tell my mom what I did, but the feeling leaves immediately.
Instead I say, “My friend Dylan’s a lesbian, so do I have to leave the door open when she’s over, too?” It comes out all snappy, and I feel kind of bad, because my mom’s obviously trying to be nice about this.
She sighs. “Well, honey, are you a lesbian?”
“No.”
“Well, then I think you can leave the door closed.”
“Okay,” I say, trying to sound kinder. “Sounds fair.”
12
I can’t go to precalc. I’ve tried all morning to gather the courage, but there is no possible way I can face Taylor right now.
When second period ends I go up to my locker. A few minutes pass and then the bell for third period rings and everyone disappears from the hallways. I swing my locker door back and forth. I stare at Ingrid’s picture and wonder if I could find that hill again. I head down to the bathroom.
I push open the door and walk in, expecting it to be empty as usual. But it’s not. Dylan’s in there, standing right in front of me with her back turned, washing her hands at the sink. She startles when I walk in, and I feel like I’m seeing a ghost. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling make everything blue.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her.
There’s something about seeing her so unexpectedly that makes me look closer. Still standing behind her, by the door, I look into the mirror at the sharp line of her jaw, the way her collarbone juts out over her chest, a tiny scar on her forehead that I never noticed before.
She looks at my reflection, says, “I wasn’t aware that you owned the bathroom.”
In this light, her skin looks so pale against all her black clothes. The water rushes in the sink then stops. Dylan rips a paper towel off the roll. She turns, stuffs the towel in the trash, and thumps past me out the door. Even after she’s left, I don’t move. The school year is almost half over. I wonder if there is any way I can get her to forgive me.
That night, before I go to sleep, I open my window and lean with my camera into the night sky. I set the shutter speed fast so if there’s any trace of light the camera won’t see it. I snap the picture.
Our next assignment is about contrast. I will be turning in a perfectly black photograph.
13
On Saturday morning, I wake up remembering how Ingrid and I used to spend the weekends taking pictures. We’d go to all the same places, hardly talking, in search of perfect shots. Then we’d sneak into the darkroom together and develop everything.
There our day would be: my version drying on one line, Ingrid’s drying across the room. I’d look at all her images from my day and I wouldn’t recognize them. The mall lobby: I saw a meager bunch of balloons in the entrance of a new store; she saw an empty stroller. My room: I saw a pile of magazines on the carpet; she saw a note from my mom that said, Remember laundry. A park in San Francisco: me, seagulls in flight; her, a hill with grass and wildflowers.
I miss that feeling of dropping the exposed paper into the chemical bath, holding my breath for a moment, then seeing the image take shape. The dark parts darkening. Thinking, I made this.
I have a black photo to develop, but I also want that feeling back. I want to make something to hang on my wall after it dries. I dig through my drawer to find the roll of film I shot the night before junior year started. I don’t expect that the moon photographs will come out, but the one of my house might.
I hoist myself through the photo-lab window and head straight into the darkroom. As soon as I round the corner to where the sinks are, I can feel that something is different: I am not alone.
I wait for my eyes to adjust.
At first I don’t recognize her. She’s in jeans and a hoodie, her hair swept back in a ponytail. She stands with her back to me, hanging a photograph.
“Hello, Caitlin,” Ms. Delani says.
“Hey,” I mutter, and brace myself to be thrown out.
But she doesn’t lecture me on breaking and entering or threaten to call my parents. Instead, she says, “The enlarger in the corner is free.”
“Okay.”
Hesitantly, I feel my way to the enlarger. Her safety light is on, though, so I can’t pop open my film canister yet. Even the dimmest light could expose it too soon. I don’t want to ask her to turn off her light for me, but it would seem rude if I just left after she told me I could stay. I wait, motionless, trying to figure out what to do.
“Are you developing?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I say.
She flips off her light.
“Thanks.”
I hurry to loop my film around the reel and twist on the top so no light will seep through.
“Finished,” I say, and her light clicks back on. I try to catch a glimpse of her developed photographs, soaking in water. They are all of motels illuminated by “Vacancy” signs.
For a little while it’s like nothing is wrong between us. We work in silence, side by side. I’m testing my exposure on a contact sheet; she’s making print after print, so confidently.
When she packs up to go, I assume I won’t be able to stay here without her. I gather my negatives. I haven’t even gotten to see what my house photograph will look like.
But then she says, “Shut the window tightly when you leave. It’s supposed to rain tonight.”
14
Sunday, 8 A.M.
I wake up, stomach sinking. Still half asleep, I reach under my bed for Ingrid’s journal. I put it next to me on the pillow, rest my hand on the smooth, cool cover, and fall back to sleep.
8:27.
I open my eyes and open to the first page. Ingrid’s drawing of herself stares up at me. I fall into a silent dream of her swinging in the park, head thrown back in laughter. What was it we were laughing about?
9 A.M.
I pull back the covers and get out of bed.
At ten, I get out of the shower and wrap myself in a towel. After rummaging through my desk drawer, I finally find my school directory. I find Jayson’s number, pick up the phone, and dial.
My heart feels like a hummingbird.
“ ’ Lo?” says a guy’s voice.
“Hi, is this Jayson?”
“Yeah, who’s this?”
“This is Caitlin,” I say. I consider saying my last name, since I’m not exactly the first person Jayson would expect to call him at ten-fifteen on a weekend morning.
But before I can decide, he says, “Hey, Caitlin. What’s up?” He says it nicely, like it’s a surprise that I’m calling, but not an unpleasant one.
“I’m wondering if you might want to grab a cup of coffee,” I say.
“Sure,” he says. “When?”
“Like, in an hour?”
“An hour?”
“Is that too soon?”
He pauses. “No,” he says. “I could probably swing that.”
I get dressed and brush my teeth and leave a note for my parents, who are nowhere to be seen. I find my mom’s bike in the garage and hop on it; I put on her helmet even though it looks nerdy. I am not the most confident rider.
The streets are quiet this morning. I ride past the park and the fire station. When I turn the corner, I see Jayson leaning against the front of the café. He lifts a hand in my direction. I ride up to him and climb off the bike.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” he says.
We smile.
“You want coffee?” I ask.
“Coffee stunts your growth.”
“You should tell Dylan that.” I laugh.
“She’s seriously addicted, isn’t she? I mean, I don’t really know her, but it’s like she has a coffee cup permanently attached to her hand.”
“Very true. But she’s tall enough already,” I say, relieved that we’re having a conversation instead of an awkward silence while he wonders why he’s here. “Hot chocolate?”
I try.
He makes a face. “I’ll find something.”
I lock my bike to a parking meter and we walk through the café door. It chimes as we go in. I order a mocha with whipped cream and Jayson ends up getting green tea.
“For here or to go?” the woman at the cash register asks.
Jayson looks at me for the answer.
“To go,” I say.
When we get back outside, Jayson finally asks what this is about. “Not to be rude,” he says. “I’m just curious.”
“Today is Ingrid’s birthday.” I stop breathing for a moment, fully aware that this is the first time that we’ve ever talked about Ingrid as being something between us. “I needed someone to celebrate with, and I don’t know if you knew or not, but she was pretty in love with you.”
His smile vanishes, and without thinking at all, I reach out and put my finger on the line that forms between his eyebrows.
He doesn’t flinch when I touch him, but the line stays there even after I take my hand away. Finally, he says, “I kept waiting for something to happen with us. It was just weird, you know, ’cause she wasn’t in my group of friends or anything. And things were kind of going on with another girl who liked me, and everyone knew and expected me to like her, too. So I was just kind of . . . I was just waiting for things to figure themselves out, you know? And then Ingrid was just gone one day. I mean, it was horrible, everyone thought it was horrible, but for me it was like . . .”
