Ah, that would be a, “Hell yes.”
Mine is getting all melty.
You can’t have mine. Just eat yours faster.
Forget the ice cream! Let’s scare the crap out of the Jenson Droids.
Yeah! But you still can’t eat my ice cream.
It took all of twenty minutes, and then three of the girls ran out of the tree house, screeching. Rebecca fell halfway in her mad dash across my backyard, and Joey climbed down to help her up. That left Rachel, Jase, and I alone.
Pursing her still glossed up lips, she stood up and planted her hands on her hips. “Well,thatwas interesting. I don’t know how you did it, but that was scary-cool. Anyway, Charlotte, I was wondering if I could ask you a question,alone,” She looked at Jase, smiled, and batted her eyes like something was stuck in them. Jase’s cheeks turned all red, and I wondered if he thought she might be pretty.
“Alone?” I asked.
Her dark eyes glanced at me and then back to Jase. His stupid face got even redder. “Yeah, well it’s like, a private—girls only question.”
Jase held up his hand and walked to the door, “I’ll wait outside.”
Rachel stared at the door even after Jase left. “He’s really cute, isn’t he?”
“And he can burp the whole alphabet after drinking soda. He’s the best. Now what’s this girl thing you want to ask me?”
She looked at my chest then at my face, and my stomach flipped. “Are they real, or do you stuff?”
“Is. What. Real?” Oh, God, I just wanted to crawl in a hole and die.
She leaned heavily on one leg and jutted her hip out awkwardly. I wondered if it was painful to contort her body in all the unnatural poses she kept moving it into. “Your chest, Charlotte! Is it real?”
Then, theb-wordpoked me with her finger, because I guess maybe I took too long to answer her or something.
Her eyes bulged when her finger touched my chest.
I smacked her hand away. “You touch me again I will beat the ever-loving crap out of you. Yes, they are real. Why, doyouhave to stuff?”
Her face turned bright pink, “No. I have boobs. I’m just not as FAT-chested as you. Slate was right!” She stormed out of my tree house, which was the perfect time, because then she couldn’t see my stupid tears.
I heard her gasp right outside the door and the murmur of Jase’s voice. Jase probably stood there and heard the whole thing. That just made my tears come faster. I swiped at my eyes and turned to face the back window, watching Rachel stalk through my yard. Jase’s arms were around me before my next thought; his blueberry bubble gum breath fanning hot against my cheeks, “You’re perfect, Charlotte. Don’t listen to what anybody else says.”
Later that night, way after Jase and Joey went to their own houses, I tiptoed into mine. It was ten o’clock and every single light in my house was on. Strangely, my mother and father sat at opposite sides of the living room; a weird, tense air between them.
My father stood up from where he sat, and my mother, with her tear-streaked face, suddenly grabbed her precious crystal vase from the middle of the coffee table and hurled it across the room where my father stood. It crashed into the wall—two inches from his head.
“You are one crazy bitch,” my father said, like he was telling her the time.
“Charlotte,” my mother said, ignoring my father, “your father is leaving the both of us for his slutty, little whore. The one he’s been sleeping with every night for the last year. Say goodbye to him, because he won’t have any time for you anymore.”
Without looking at me, she got up from her seat and ran into her bedroom. She didn’t come out for days after that, and when she finally did, she didn’t speak to me at all unless it was to tell me that it wasall my faultfor being born.What? Like I asked for that?It was like the hole my father left behind when he walked out on us had swallowed her whole, and the mother that I had always known was gone. I had two parents who left me that day.
My father shook his head and sighed, “Don’t listen to her, Charlotte. Of course I’ll have time for you. She’s just upset and saying hurtful things.”
“But, you’re still leaving and I’m staying here, right?” Without waiting for an answer, I walked right into my room and slammed my bedroom door as hard as I could. My father didn’t bother to chase after me; I guess he didn’t think it was important to let me know why he was destroying my life. I locked my door and pretended it would be my fault for locking it that he didn’t come in, but I would always know the truth was, because he just didn’t bother.
When you’re ten and both your parents abandon you, physically like my dad or mentally like my mom, it changes you. It becomesyou. Within those ten short minutes of my life, standing in the living room with my parents, I was completely altered. I no longer felt loved. I no longer had the answers to all the world’s questions. And I no longer believed that I was worth explaining something to or had any value. But like I said, I was only ten, and I couldn’t formulate those logical thoughts in my head. I was confused and angrier than I had ever felt in my life.
My walkie-talkie buzzed around fifteen minutes later, and Jase’s voice echoed through the speakers. “Can’t sleep?”
I swept the curtains aside and waved to him as he sat on his windowsill; he must have seen my light still on. I brought the walkie-talkie up to my lips and tried to explain without crying, “My dad just left us.”
