43
beth
Little Caesars pizza was empty save for us and the pregnant girl behind the counter. Only two slices of pizza sat under the warmer. I had known they were about to close and felt like a jerk for coming in last minute, but it was worse now that I was making a pregnant girl help us. Her name tag said Tawny, and she had big brown eyes and really curly hair. She looked so young.
“Hi.” My mom smiled at her. Mom was always a polite customer and taught us to be the same. She was a little less perky than she had been a few years ago, but everyone in the Spring house was just a little more tired now.
“Hi, how can I help you?”
My mom asked pregnant Tawny to please, please make fresh pizzas, promising her a tip worth her while, and apologized profusely. I didn’t know what was going to happen that night after the greasy pizza filled our happy stomachs, and the movie we choose to watch ended, and my mom and dad went to their room and we girls went to ours. I didn’t know which of my sisters would be around tonight, and I hoped at least one of them would be there for me to talk to when my parents closed their bedroom door and my mom had to tell my dad that, once again, we had no money.
“Only jalapeño and onion on that side,” my mom said, ordering Jo’s favorite pizza. I hoped Jo had cooled down enough to be under the same roof as Amy. I hoped the next day my mom could tell my dad that I’m not going to public school ever again and that he would take it well and I could focus on my assignments.
“At least we aren’t the only ones in here right before closing,” a girl’s voice said. It sounded familiar, and when I glanced behind me, I saw why.
Wearing fitted sweatpants and an olive-green T-shirt, leaning against the railing, was Nat, the girl who made the mood jewelry from the festival. Ugh, that festival. If we could just erase it from Spring family history, that would be great. Being at her stall was the only good part of that whole thing. She was so nice and even helped us hide Meg. Nat looked so chill in her street clothes. Her ears were showing beneath her ponytail, and I could see they were decorated. She was standing next to a man I assumed was her dad and pointing at the menu on the wall above us.
For a girl who I had only known for a weekend, I had sure run into her a lot. Well, the festival, she was working, so that was an easy explanation, but this? The chances of her and her dad being here . . . well, it was just weird. My cheeks were hot and I tried not to look in the mirrored wall behind the counter. Tried—and failed. I looked like I hadn’t slept in a week.
“What did your mother want again?” Nat’s presumed dad asked her.
With my fingers I tried to flatten the strays escaping from my ponytail, but it wasn’t working well.
“Cheese and ham,” she told him. He asked about her homework, and I was watching her when she looked over at me, catching my eyes.
She blinked three times quick and smiled. “Hey! I know you!”
“Hey.” I waved back just as my mom turned around.
“Hi! Who’s this?” She waved at Nat and her dad and introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Nat.” She smiled at my mom and thumb-pointed at her dad. “This is my dad.”
“Shin. Nice to meet you.” He reached out his hand to shake my mom’s.
Nat turned to me. “How are you? How random we’re the only people in town eating Little Caesars.” She laughed a little and tucked her dark hair behind her ear. Her ponytail was so soft looking, the true Tumblr definition of a messy bun. Mine never looked effortlessly cute-messy. Ever.
“Good,” I told her. I felt overly anxious for some reason. There was no line behind us or voices chattering over one another. Only pop music from a decade ago and the buzzing of the cooler in front of us. It was only the four of us . . . well, six including Tawny and her baby, but my heart was racing like I was standing in the middle of a Black Friday (now starting on Thanksgiving) sale at Walmart.
Nat was looking at me like I forgot to answer her, which I halfway did. “Right. We thought we were the only ones who still liked it.”
Nat’s face broke into a smile and she laughed a little. “Same.”
Our parents were talking about school districts or something. I didn’t know or care.
“What are you guys doing out? Fort Cyprus is so quiet tonight,” Nat said, looking around the empty Kmart. I knew then that she was an Army brat because she called the entire town here Fort Cyprus. The few people around posts who weren’t Army related called their town by its actual name.
“Running errands. We went to the PX.” The memory made my throat dry. “And now pizza for dinner, then nothing, just watching a scary movie. You?”
“I love scary movies!” Her voice rose a little. She was so animated when she talked, it reminded me of Jo. She came closer to me, and Tawny came out to take Nat’s order. She ordered for her family, and her dad stepped up to pay for it. “We went to the craft store and to get a tire-pump thing for some floaty thing.”
“For your sister or brother or something?” I asked.
“No, my mom. It’s for the yard for spring. It’s kind of weird how much she decorates.” Nat laughed. If only she saw my mom’s house on Halloween or my grandma’s house on Christmas. “I’m an only child.”
I almost choked. “An only child?”
She started laughing. “Your eyes are like . . .” She popped her eyes out, laughing harder.
“I have three sisters,” I told the pretty alien girl in front of me. An only child? What would that even be like?
“Three?” It was her turn to gape. “Wow. That’s a lot.”
“Yeah, it is.” I grinned.
“My mom’s birthday is tomorrow, so we were blowing all these yard decorations up for her and getting her pizza.” Nat licked her lips and looked back to check on her dad. She looked so much younger without makeup and glitter and henna etched all over her creamy skin. I couldn’t tell if she was my age or older.
“Cool. My aunt’s birthday is tomorrow at our house,” I said, for what reason I couldn’t tell you.
Nat kept her smile. “Fun,” she said, like she meant it. “I was trying to give my parents some alone time, but then my dad volunteered to come with me.” She slapped her hand gently against her forehead. She made me laugh—it was refreshing. “That sounds so weird that I wanted to give my parents alone time.”
My mom looked over at us, and I looked to Nat again, trying not to laugh. “A little. But I get it.” My parents never had alone time.
“You could come to my house?” I said, but the moment I offered, I wondered if it was too much. Would my mom even be okay with that? Would my mom wait to bring up the money stuff to my dad until we were all in bed? I stammered a little. “I’ll have to ask. I mean, if you even want to? I don’t know—”
“Yeah. Sure. If your mom doesn’t care. I mean it’s only, like, seven. I could go home at, like, nine thirty? It’s not like I have school tomorrow.”
She turned to her dad and asked him.
My mom said yes, looking at Nat, her dad, then me. “How do you know her?” she whispered to me.
“She made the jewelry I brought home. The dark ring I bought for you.” My mom hadn’t worn it yet, but promised that she would when she went somewhere special.
“Really? Wow. She’s only seventeen. Her dad said she wants to go to LSU next fall. But, yeah, she can come over, and you guys can stay in the living room and watch a movie.”
“Mom . . .”
“The same rules apply to you that were on your sisters, not until you’re sixteen.” Nat couldn’t hear her, thank goodness, but I wanted the conversation to end.
“Okay. Okay,” I agreed, and Nat’s dad nodded.
“I have this conversation with all my daughters. Meg and Jo, and now you.” My mom was still whispering.
We’d never had to have this conversation because I’d never had any friends over, boy or girl.
“Okay,” I said again.
My mom nodded and turned to Nat. “What kind of pizza did you get? We . . .”
It felt like everything around me was changing so fast since my dad got home, since Jo met Laurie, since Shia King came back, since Amy started her period, since me making my first friend in a really, really long time. I hoped that time would slow down in the coming summer—or was this what being a teenager was like? Everything came flying at you fast, and you just had to try to grab ahold of the good parts when you could?