THREE
We were in our third hour of a Next Top Model binge watching session. It was not my first choice in entertainment, but when you had a friend, sometimes you watched what they wanted because seeing them happy made even the most catty conversations worth watching.
“You could be a model,” I told Jenny as I stuffed a pizza crust, dipped in ranch dressing, in my mouth.
“Shut up,” she said, poking me with one toe.
“You could, though,” I said. I meant it. Jenny was quite possibly the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Being sleek and tall and graceful was a big help, but more than that, Jenny had this awareness of self that I think would have looked perfect on some glossy pages or strutting down the runway. “You could take the world of fashion by storm.” It wasn't my best Tyra Banks impression, but I tried.
Jenny snorted. “Oh my god, you are such a dork.”
I shrugged. As far as I was concerned, being a dork was a compliment. “And the world broke with the truth of that statement.”
Jenny laughed. It was a good sound. Then, she went quiet and stretched out on my grandmother's couch, one foot, clad in a bunny slipper, bounced thoughtfully. “You think I could be a model?”
“Heck yes,” I said.
She shook her head. “They'd never let it happen. A black lesbian witch as a model?”
“Well, they don't have to know about the witch part.” I flopped back against the mountain of pillows I had crafted for myself. “In fact, it's probably better that they don't.”
She snorted. “It's probably best if they think I'm straight and white too, but that ain't gonna happen.”
“Get up then! Show me that walk.”
“No!” Jenny pulled a pillow over her face, smothering another laugh. “I can't do that.”
“Why not? Are you embarrassed? My Jenny? Queen of everything in this world and probably a few smaller universes.”
She threw the pillow at me, and I ducked. It slapped against the other pillows and tumbled into my lap. I wrapped my arms around it and tugged it close.
“You think I could?” she asked again.
“I wouldn't have said it if I didn't. I am a lot of things, but a kind liar isn't one of them.”
She laughed. “You do tell the truth. Tell me again what you told to Dmitri. What was it? You don't care if you smell like a whole football team?”
“I think I threw in some cheerleaders for variety, but yeah.” I plucked a forkful of Oreo fluff and popped it into my mouth. There was nothing like Oreo fluff after a crappy night.
She rolled over on her belly and kicked her feet into the air. “Tell me the truth. What was it like with Wei?”
I shook my head. “Oh no. No no no. You gotta do the walk first.”
“Hah! What? You wanna trade my runway walk for your dirty details?”
“Heck yes I do.”
Tyra Banks was talking about behavior and sensuality on the television. I could see Jenny thinking it over.
“Alright, fine. Let's do this.”
She jumped up and strutted down the short hallway between the front bedroom and the back bedroom. I don't know what I was expecting, but the incredible strut in a pair of fluffy bunny slippers and rubber ducky pajamas was not it. She runway walked in a way that made everything bounce and bobble and, by the end of it, I was sure that she could be America's next top model.
Then, she ruined it by stepping in the Oreo cream pie we'd gotten from the 24-7 mart.
“Aaack!” she cried out. “Not my bun-bun.”
I blinked. “Did...did you name your slipper?”
“Cold water!”
I went to the kitchen sink and started running cold water. She took the vegetable scrubber, shaped like a row of tomatoes, and began to clean off her slipper.
“It was great,” I said.
“Huh?”
“With Wei. It was great. Like, I've had make-out sessions before. I've enjoyed some people, but it's never been like that. That was something else entirely. That was...it was good.”
She smirked at me, and plopped her wet slipper in the sink. “So why didn't you just go for it? Why not just...enjoy him, maybe put the nail in the coffin of this prophecy?”
“I nearly did,” I admitted. “But he jumped away from me like he had touched something gross. As if I was a great big Oreo pie that he had stepped in. Like, one moment, his hands are all over my goodies, and the next, he is literally back across the room, using his super human speed to get the heck away from me. Like...I've had people say that they weren't into me, but I've never had someone dash away from me like friggen Spider Man.”
“Are you serious?”
“One hundred percent. I mean. What the hell? I was into it. Like, Jesus. He kisses like how I imagine Clark Kent would kiss.”
Jenny gave me a look. “You've imagined Superman kissing you?”
“Heck, yeah. Have you seen that farm boy smile? I'm all for that. And that protective boy scout attitude? All those Batman fangirls can keep their emo bad boy. I'll take the good guy any day.”
“I'll take Wonder Woman, thanks. And not just because she's basically the most badass female to ever be. She's got this whole...I dunno…princess thing going on. I dig that. Besides, she grew up on an island of women; don't' tell me she only digs on dudes.”
I giggled. “Fair.”
“So, what are you going to do about Wei?”
“Nothing,” I answered.
She looked unsure. “Nothing?”
I shrugged and plopped back down on my mountain of pillows, drawing my legging-clad knees up to my chin. “You know what? I'm not going to chase after him. He's got crap to work out; he can work it out. He wants to see me? He can come here.”
“You tell him.” Jenny offered me a high five. I took it.
She plopped herself back down on the couch. “It's like...six in the morning, and neither of us has gotten any sleep.”
I frowned. “Wait. Why the heck are you still up?”
She didn't answer at first. Instead, she pulled off her remaining bunny slipper and tossed it on the ground. “Reikah.”
Reikah was another witch. Maybe witch wasn't the right word. As far as I could tell, witchcraft was organic. It was about rituals, sure, but there was something flowing and intuitive about its practice. Reikah was far more rigid than that. There was something mathematical about the way she used magic. A mathe-magician.
I rolled over to give Jenny my full attention. “Wait, what about Reikah?”
“She's....really pretty.”
I thought about that. Reikah had that Indian beauty thing going on. Long black hair and darker eyes and a sort of effervescent elegance that I couldn't put my finger on. Yeah, she was beautiful, but she hadn't said more than two or three words to me since she had helped me escape the compound for the Cult that she had belonged to, which had been weird because until very, very recently she'd been living two doors down from me at the mansion.
“Do you two...talk?”
Jenny shrugged and looked away. I took that to mean that there was some talking.
“You little hussy!” I said, tossing the recently thrown pillow back at her. “Why haven't you told me anything?”
Jenny caught the pillow and pressed it over her face. “Ugh! Because there ain't a thing to tell. I mean, we have talked, but there ain't nothing like...flirty.” I wondered if she knew her rural Virginia accent became more audible when she was embarrassed. Probably. Jenny knew herself pretty well.
“Well then, what do you talk about?”
“Magic,” she said with a roll of her golden-brown eyes. “Don't get me wrong. I am all for talking about magic. But she has this strict way of looking at it, and she's just...you know...a li’l bit full of herself.”
“And you being the queen of modesty,” I teased.
She gave me the tiniest smirk. “Shut up. You act like you know who I am.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “I totally know who you are. We are best friends.”
She placed a dramatic hand over her heart. “Oh, now you are gonna make me tear up.”
“You aren't allowed to do that!” I said, surging to my knees. “Whatever will I do?”
We held our overly dramatic poses for a whole ten seconds before we toppled over and deteriorated into enthusiastic giggles. Or maybe they were just exhausted giggles. After all, the sun was starting to come up over the mountain, and neither one of us had gotten any sleep.
“Alright,” I said, flopping back on my pillow pile. “I should sleep.”
“What?” she asked as I pulled a blanket over my legs. “Out here?”
I frowned. “Where else would I sleep?”
She used her long leg and now bare toe to point towards my grandmother's room. “That's your place, Hon.”