Page 7 of Grace

Nikky walked toward me, swaying her hips provocatively.

“In a few years, you’ll feel the same, Grace. You might be Mommy’s and Daddy’s little girl now, but I’m curious how you’ll be in three years. Remember this conversation then,” she said, smiling derisively, and shoulder-bumped me as she walked past.

Whore. But I didn’t voice the thought. Instead, I bit my tongue. I took a deep breath and ran upstairs for my bag.

On the last day of school, Billy Ray asked me out on a date.

I was standing next to the bike rack, and when I heard him, I stumbled and almost fell over it, while Billy’s friends—watching from nearby—kept whistling throughout the scene, which was already uncomfortable for me without that.

I flailed my arms in the air, trying to regain my balance, and thought I must have misheard him.

“A date?” I asked, surprised. Billy nodded in a charming, childlike way.

We stood in silence for a long while. I was dizzy, sorting through a whirlwind of possible excuses—and the new possibilities that had just opened up—in my head. The silence started to grow uncomfortable. Billy scratched the back of his head, his face giving away how awkward he felt as his friends kept commenting from afar, trying to make him feel even worse than he already did.

I said yes—not because I wanted to save him, nor because he was the most handsome boy in our year without any shameful gossip circulating about him. I said yes because I thought that, at the end of the day, a date wasn’t a big deal. If others could survive a date, so could I.

“Okay”, I agreed, in a somewhat brusque, robotic voice.

Billy let out a sigh of relief, and placed his hand on his chest.

“You saved me,” he groaned, then quickly hopped over to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek—as if we were in kindergarten.

He made me laugh.

Just how Dad can make Mom laugh. The image of their initials inside a heart, carved into a bench, popped up in my head. I thought about how they’d been high school sweethearts.

Maybe it was too premature and corny, but my thoughts followed the white puff of cloud I saw drifting through the endless, bright blue sky. Ridiculous images of my future circled in my head, and I remembered what Mom used to say: “Every girl daydreams—that’s what girls are supposed to do.”

Billy walked back to his gang, and jumped into the air happily. I was still standing next to my bike, smiling. I couldn’t wait to tell Daisy the news on the phone—she was still home sick.

As I turned toward the park, my smile froze. Chase Baker was leaning against the thick trunk of the tree he had kissed me under, smoking a cigarette. It was a sight I couldn’t get enough of. He wore worn-out blue jeans and a black T-shirt, and the wind was tugging at his messy dark brown hair, pulling locks down over his eyes.

My heart started beating faster, and I didn’t know why. My brain instantly did away with my daydreaming about Billy, and reality slapped me in the face. Yes, that was the tree he’d kissed me under.

I sternly warned myself to avoid him. I thought about how nice it would be if I could avoid Mr. Miller just as easily as I could Chase Baker. Still, I wasn’t worried about Mr. Miller for a second—if he tried to corner me again or did anything fishy, I would tell my parents immediately.

While I was watching Chase’s annoying figure, I was irritated to realize that I owed him—he’d saved and warned me. I had to thank him for his outrageous behavior—he had saved me from a very uncomfortable conversation, and God knows what else…

That sense of debt was much more annoying than Chase’s mere existence. As I walked back to my next class, I decided to find him after school—and then forget about him forever.

And… I needed all my courage to enter the lion’s den. I had to be careful not to provoke it. As I peeked into his van, I saw my sister’s blond, Cleopatra-style hair. She was hunched in an unnatural pose as if she’d just stood up from the front seat she’d been sitting in.

“What are you doing here, Grace?” she asked as she turned to me and blew smoke into my face. She pulled her red nails provocatively across her bare thigh, then sat in Chase’s lap, playing with his dark hair teasingly.

I looked away—it was awkward to see my sister unashamedly turn into a whore for a drug dealer.

Her disgusting behavior made my stomach turn—she was so much more than the friends she had always hung out with. Even though she was smart and pretty, she felt this was the only way people would notice her. I felt sorry for her.

I sighed loudly, rolling my eyes—I was more disgusted than envious.

I crossed my arms and prepared to leave them without a word when I heard a low thump. Chase had shoved Nikky off him aggressively. His face darkened, a frightening glint appeared in his eyes, and his lips twisted into a snarl.

“I don’t take blowjobs as payment,” he growled.

Nikky regained her composure and rearranged her clothes.

“Go fuck yourself,” she said in a squeaky voice, then pulled money out of her bra and threw it into his lap with a defiant smile.