Everything (7 page)

“I caught him myself, out back,” she stated self-importantly, not letting me take the frying pan from her.

“Haven’t cha eva had toad befo’, chile?”

 
I swallowed back bile before I replied, “No, that was never on the menu at my house.”

“Figured. Y’all young people don’t know good food.” She leaned over and inhaled the aroma I’d mistaken for fish.

“I’ll stick to not knowing. Let me help you with that,” I said, trying a different tactic to get the frying pan, which worked, as she relented and let me take over. I immediately turned off the stove and moved the pan over to a different burner, without Opal even noticing.

“Lookha’ here,” she smacked her teeth, “I got somethin’ stuck in my tooth. Come see if you can get it out with your fingernail.”

“What?
No
,” I said, glancing around the kitchen half-expecting a camera crew to burst through the door and Ashton Kutcher to yell, “You just got punk’d.”

“Well, how else am I s’pose to get this out?” she asked snappily.

“Let me go find some floss,” I said. As I passed the kitchen sink, I saw that she had at some point made catfish and grits, as the dishes were still in the sink. Her spurts of lucidity were coming less and less often, and soon it would be apparent that she could not be left alone. That would be problematic. I couldn’t be here 24/7, and she wouldn’t go into assisted living, even as crazy as she was. She was sure about
that
.
 

I came back from the bathroom with the floss, and because she was insistent and I was born and raised Southern, I relented and helped her floss, but my fingers went nowhere near her mouth. I more or less guided her hands while she flossed. I helped her clean up the kitchen and discreetly got rid of the toad, gave her an update on Rufus, and told her that he should be home in a couple of days if she promised not to give him any more chocolate milk, which she promised.
 

As I was about to leave, my phone rang with Tina’s ringtone, some upbeat Latin song asking someone to kiss them that she had programmed into my phone. She never called.

“What’s wrong,” I answered apprehensively, my stomach already dropping.

“Day, my dad got transferred to a bigger hospital,” she said gravely.

“Okay?” I stretched out like I didn’t get it, but I did.

“Day, we are moving,” she practically screamed into the phone.

I knew it. I mean, I knew that people didn’t live in Shaddy Groves forever. I knew that they moved away and got better jobs and better lives and left this small, sleepy town, but why my best friend? “Do you have to go?” I asked stupidly.

“What do you mean?”

“We could get a place together. I could give up my dorm, and we could get an apartment. That way you wouldn’t have to start school all over again and move.” And leave me.

“You would do that?” she asked, surprised.

“Of course. You’re my sandbox. I would do anything for you. Why do you even have to ask?”

“
No me entiendan mal
,” she said, asking me in Spanish not to misunderstand her. “I just thought you and Trevor would be moving in together pretty soon, that’s all.”

It hadn’t dawned on me until just now how it would look to Trevor if I moved in with Tina when he had been hounding me for the past two months for the same thing. Fuck it, she was my sandbox. I couldn’t just let her leave. I would talk to Trevor to make him understand that moving in with your best friend is not the same thing as U-Hauling it with your boyfriend. “I guess, sure, someday, but not until after I finish with school, Trevor understands that,” I said.
 

“
Yo no se.
I don’t think Maria would let me stay in a different city than her. You know how she is,” she muttered.

I did know how her mother was. I had blurted out the idea, but deep down I knew it wouldn’t work. “When?”

“Next week, and I have to withdraw today. We are going to register me at my new school tomorrow,” she said somberly.

“Where?”

“Miami.”

Of course. Latin capital of Florida and two hours away from small-town Shaddy Groves.
 

“I’ll be there in ten,” I said and hung up.

On my way over, all I could think about was that I was losing my best friend. Sure, Miami wasn’t that far away and I would still text her every day, but it’s not the same when you are used to seeing someone every day for eighteen years. I know how it is when you move out of town. You say that you’ll keep in touch and that things will stay the same, but they never really do. I mean, how can they? There would be no one to help me with
Opal: The Untold Story
and no one for me to bounce ideas off of. I had other people in my life, true, but no one could take the place of Justina. She was my sandbox.

Her front door was unlocked when I got there, and she was in the kitchen with her mom, but as soon as I walked in, she told her mom we were going upstairs to her room. Her mom didn’t protest, as she knew we needed to talk.

“I actually asked my mom about staying,” she began, “and she shot me down like one of those things people use for target practice.”

“You mean skeets?”

“Whatever,” she said irritably. “The point is she said no.”

“Well, we knew that.”

“Yeah, but I was hoping since I am an adult and all she would at least listen to me before shooting me down.”

“Well, you get an A for amazingly nice try,” I said as I gave her two thumbs up and a halfhearted smile.

“Whatever. Your life is gonna suck without me in it every day, heifer,” she said vehemently. “I mean, I’m awesome, so I’ll do fine, but you will wither and die without me.”

I knew that underneath all that overconfidence, she was just as upset by this sudden move as I was. “You’re my sandbox and always will be,” I said, hugging her. “And you are awesome,” I added, ignoring the “wither and die” crack.

“And you better not forget it, bitch,” she said haughtily.

“Oh, I don’t think you’d let me.” I smiled. We could still make this work.

“I want an Opal update every day. You know I needs my fix,” she rubbed her hands together. “Speaking of which, I know you were there when I called, so what tale do you have for me today?”

I sat down on her bed and folded my legs underneath me, while Justina laid out sideways on the bed. I began to tell her the fried toad story.

“Wait, so she actually had it just frying away?” she interrupted.

“Yup.”

“What did it smell like?” she asked, making a face.

“I don’t know, actually. At some point she had actually cooked catfish, so all I smelled was that and I assumed that’s what she was cooking.”

“
Dios mío
. I think I would have blown my chunks right there in the frying pan next to the toad.”

“Thanks so much for that visual, aguh,” I said as I swallowed back bile for the second time this morning.

“I’m going to miss
vieja loca
. She was my daily entertainment in this sleepy-ass town.”

“I’m glad my aunt could be around for your entertainment pleasure,” I said sarcastically.

“Honey, she is everyone’s entertainment pleasure as of late,” she stated with a raised eyebrow.
 

“True, but now who’s going to point that out to me?” I smiled at her.

“Oh, I’ll still point it out. It’ll just be a long-distance point-out.” She held up her cellphone. “These puppies still work two hours away, you know.”

“Really,” I feigned surprise. “What will they think of next?”

We laughed. But then Tina stopped and looked at me seriously for a minute. She had propped herself up on her elbows while listening to my Opal story but now was facing me cross-legged on the bed. She took my hand in hers. “Look, I know how you feel about change and you think this will change things with us, but I promise you, Dacey—it won’t. I’m still going to be here for you. Two hours is not that far, and you can always call me and I will be here. You can visit if you need to get away from Opal or your dad and his shit or whatever. My house, wherever I am, is still
su casa
, okay?”

That did it. I had held it together this entire time up until she said that. Once I let one tear fall, they all came down. Tina soon joined in, and we just sat there like that and cried.

“Okay, we need to stop. It’s not like we will never see each other again,” I said, getting up and fetching some tissues from the bathroom.

“I would cry too if I wasn’t going to see my face every day. It’s understandable,” she said, and then loudly blew her nose into the tissue I handed her.

“Yeah, didn’t say that.”

“You were thinking it. You didn’t have to say it.”

We made our way back downstairs, and her mom hugged me, noticing our red eyes.

“Girls, this is not the end of the world. It’s only Miami. And Dacey, you’re welcome anytime.”

“I already told her, Mom,” said Tina, clearly still upset with her.

“Well, I’m telling her too,” said Mrs. D, smiling at me in a motherly manner.

I hugged Tina again and left noticing the time. Shit! I was going to be late for class, again.
 

I slid into the back of the classroom again as the professor gave me another look for interrupting the class with my lateness. But today, I didn’t care. I pulled out my cellphone and sent a text to Trevor.

Babe

What’s up?

Ugh, Tina’s dad got transferred, they r moving to Miami.

Wow really?!

Don’t sound so happy

Sorry?

She’s my BF babe

I am sorry baby, really

R u ok?

Sigh

Is that a NO?

It’s a sigh

A sigh?

A sigh

?

I’ll B fine

Call me l8r?

OK

I tried to focus on the rest of my class and what the professor was saying, but my mind wasn’t there. I kept replaying me and Justina’s greatest moments in my head like a movie montage. She was the only girlfriend I had befriended, or rather the only one who wanted to become my friend. It wasn’t that I wasn’t likable, but people thought crazy was a disease that could rub off, and since I was related to Opal, I was crazy by relation and anyone who dared be friends with me would be crazy by association. Justina never cared, though; that was why she and I clicked. Deep down, I cared too much about what people thought about me and my family, and she didn’t. We balanced each other out. Without her here to balance me, I didn’t know what I would do to keep my equilibrium.

Class let out, and I made my way to my next class. I passed Riley in the hall with the other students, and he made a U-turn and caught up with me.

“Hey. Uh-oh.” Riley frowned, noticing the sullen look on my face. “Was there another muumuu incident I wasn’t aware of?” he joked.

“No,” I sighed heavily. “Justina’s father got transferred to Miami, so she is moving, as of next week.”

“Oooh,” he said with raised eyebrows.

“Yeah, I’m just a little...I don’t know.” I shrugged.

“Hey, man, I get it. You two were like Bert and Ernie. Sesame Street friendship.”

“In your scenario, I’m Ernie right?” I asked, cracking my first real smile since I got to school.

“Sure.” He leaned in closer to fake-whisper. “But you should know they were both boys.”

“I know, which makes me wonder why you chose them to associate with me and Tina,” I asked, with raised eyebrows.

“Totally for comedic purposes,” he said with a smile. “Not insinuating anything.”

“Umm huumm. Be careful, buddy. If Tina heard you comparing her to a puppet-man, she’d turn you into a puppet-man,” I warned.

“Well, it’s a good thing she’s moving then, right?” he said gingerly.

“Riley...” I laughed. “Thanks, I needed that.”

“Anytime,” he said, and he turned around and headed back the way he’d been going.
 

I got a text from Aria telling me she heard about Justina moving away. Remember what I said about news getting around? Aria asked if I wanted to talk. I told her I was fine, but if she wanted to, she could come by my dorm later. I also got a text from Tina telling me she was officially a transfer student, as she’d just gotten her student records transferred to a college in Miami. This was all happening so fast. Her parents moved like a flash flood. Shit! But with the semester just starting, I could understand them not wanting her to fall too far behind. I was surprised when I got to my dorm hall and saw Trevor’s truck in the parking lot and him sitting in it. When he saw me, he got out and came over to my car.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, stunned.

“Okay, not the welcome I was expecting,” he said, his smile faltering.

“No, I mean, I thought you didn’t get off work until later,” I corrected.

“I got off early. I thought you might need me.”

“I always need you.”

“That’s what I love to hear,” he said as he engulfed me in a hug.

He took my book bag from my shoulder, and we made our way up to my dorm room. My floor was in party mode with doors open and people hanging out in the hallways. A few people Trevor knew invited him to hang out, and he declined.
 

Once inside my room, I collapsed on the bed. I was drained from the day. Trevor put my book bag in my closet and climbed in beside me in bed.

“Come here,” he said, and dragged me to lie on his chest. He undid my hair tie and began to run his fingers through my hair like he did when he knew I needed to unwind. Before long, I would be asleep if he kept at it.

“Hum,” I exhaled deeply. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For this.”

“It’s part of my duty as a great boyfriend.”

“Well, you’re good at your job.”

“I know,” he said smugly as he leaned down and kissed my forehead.

There was a knock at my door, then two seconds later, it opened and Aria came in.

“Ugh, you guys are worse than Mom and Dad. Get a room. Hey, Trev,” she said as she covered her eyes.