“It’s not that I don’t get it—have you brushed against anyone else? In that case I’d understand the excitement.” I continued to tease her.
“He brushed against my hand, but willingly. He’d never done that before.”
“You have it so bad that now you’re making mental films about the English teacher?” I asked, lifting myself up on my elbow.
“I’m not imagining things. He was looking at me that way. Ahh!”
She squeezed a heart-shaped pillow into her face, embarrassed.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked, taking the pillow away from her.
“You’re the only one I trust,” she murmured. She pressed her cheek on the palm of her hand, and our faces drew near each other.
“And Poppy?”
“Poppy is my best friend in the whole world, but she has a big mouth.”
“Well, yeah, absolutely,” I said. “What about Ari?”
“And what if you told Brian?”
“I can already hear the news: Teacher found dead in a ditch.” We laughed but it didn’t last long. She looked at my lips insistently.
No, Amelia.
I stood up to go to a small glass table covered in Tiffany’s lipstick and other makeup with uses I wasn’t familiar with.
“James.” Amelia’s tone suddenly became worried as she saw me handle some white powder.
“There’s a party downstairs,” I explained.
“You should stop.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah,” she insisted, as she caressed my bare back with her cold fingers.
“I love you, but that crap makes you stop being yourself and stop thinking.”
“If you were me, you’d want to stop being yourself and thinking too.”
“James.” This time my name was a slight reprimand.
“Sorry,” I said without looking her in the eye.
She waited for me to finish then handed me my shirt to get dressed again, but I dropped it.
I grabbed her sides, startling her. “Are we gonna have fun or just stay here talking about Mr. Curly Hair all night?”
“Okay, let’s go.” She smiled when I kissed her on the forehead. We went downstairs, and I lost sight of her soon after. She was probably dancing. I went to drink and smoke with my friends, until I got a message.
It could’ve been Tiffany, Sammy, Taylor—any of them.
But I knew that it wasn’t any of them. Because I was always the one to call them. There was only one person I couldn’t call and who only sought me out when she felt like it. I got a picture. I moved aside from the group and opened it.
Ari was wearing a lacy red lingerie set, and looked doe-eyed in the room.
Is that what I liked about her? No, all of them teased me.
