Everything (8 page)

“First, we are not doing anything. Second, you are in my room. And third, don’t compare us to Mom and Dad—that’s just gross.” I sat up as she sat down on the futon.

“Hey, Aria,” Trevor sighed.

“I don’t know. I saw legs and a bed. I didn’t want to see any more,” said Aria.

“Whatever, you’re the one who barged in, you perv,” I said.

“True, but if I was a perv, I’d totally pick someone else to spy on other than my sister—
gross
.”

“I would pay you to,” I agreed.

Trevor’s hand had taken to rubbing my back now as I sat talking. “Have you talked to Mom today yet?” I asked Aria.

“Yeah, she said for you to call her and told me to ask you about Aunt Opal.”

I told them both about the fried toad this morning, and they reacted the same way Tina had, although Aria was more vocal about it.

“Ewww, ewww, ewww!” She jumped up and down as if the frying pan full of toad were there in my room. “Which frying pan was it, the red one? She made me pancakes from that frying pan before!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide. “What if she always cooks toad and in that pan and we have been eating toad pancakes!”

Leave it to Aria to take it there. I looked at her. “I’m sure she washed the pan over the years, A. Calm down.”

“Wow, theater fits you,” Trevor chuckled.

“Right? She’s taking those classes a little too seriously,” I added.

Aria just cut us a look and laughed. “Gotcha!”

Trevor and I exchanged looks.

“Guess I’m gonna totally pass my Intro to Acting class with an A-plus, ’cause I totally had you guys.” She kept laughing as I rolled my eyes.

“Anyways, what time do you have to be home? I was thinking we could grab dinner?” I looked at Trevor hopefully.

“Yeah, sounds good. I have a feeling you haven’t eaten anything all day,” he eyed me suspiciously.

“Guilty.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said, creasing his brow.

“Ohh, I’m telling,” Aria sang out.

“What are you, seven? Hush up,” I scolded.

“And what are you, fifty? Who says hush up?”

“Opal.” I said her name like a curse.

“That darn Aunt Opal, just messing up the language of the future generation,” teased Aria.

“Do you want free dinner or not?”

“What kind of teenager would I be if I passed up free dinner?” she stated plainly.

“The dumb kind.”

“I have been known to be that, but not tonight.”

“Good,” interrupted Trevor. “Now that that’s over, let’s get going.”

“A, text Mom and let her know so she won’t freak out when you don’t come home.”

“Okay.” She pulled out her phone and sent Mom a quick text.

We all decided to go to Sharkey’s, since that was the only decent local place with good food. Shaddy Groves had the normal fast-food joints, but we didn’t feel much like burgers and fries tonight. Sharkey’s was always packed with either families or booster clubs holding meetings or retirement parties. Tonight, it looked like there were two retirement parties going on at once, so it was extra-packed, but we still managed to get a table for three. Dinner went as it normally did, with the conversation flowing between me, Aria, and Trevor.

“Hey, Aria, Trevor. Dacey,” said an annoyingly familiar voice. Shannon Miller, Trevor’s “gal pal” from work. I always got the feeling she didn’t like me, and the feeling was mutual.

“Hey, Shannon, what’s up?” Trevor said as he leaned back and lazily put his arm around my shoulders.

“Just picking up a to-go order. Thought I’d come over while I wait.” Shannon had a reputation in town that was opposite of the town saint.

“Hey, Shannon,” I said sweetly. “How’s it going?”

She just smiled at me, then turned her attention back to Trevor. “So, that dog today with the broken leg? Crazy, huh, what
some
people will do to their dogs?”

“Well, you know they mean well,” he said diffidently, squeezing me closer to him. Clearly, he got what she was implying. So did Aria, and she was silently fuming.

“So Shannon, how’s Heather?” Aria cut in. She knew Shannon’s sister as they had gone to high school together.

“She’s good. She went to college in Orlando. You know, bigger town and all. Bigger is better,” she said, eyeing Trevor.

“What, is that your motto?” muttered Aria.

“What did you say to me, you little—”

“Watch it, Shannon,” I cut her off.
 

“Okay,” Trevor stretched out. “As much fun as this is to watch, Shannon, I think your order is up. I’ll see you at work.”
 

She huffed away, muttering under her breath.

“What was that about?” Trevor asked, looking at me. But it was Aria who spoke up first.

“Did you hear what that heifer said?” she shrieked. “What she was implying? She can’t say that about my family, and we all know she was mostly implying it about Dac.” The last part she said with even breaths.
 

As I sat back and studied her, my chest filled with pride over the way she reacted to the play-on-words attack. I idly thought that I probably shouldn’t encourage this kind of behavior from her, but oh well.

“I’ll talk to her. I’m sure that’s not what she was getting at about Dac. Although I’m sure she meant to imply it about Opal,” he said, looking at me apologetically. He then looked at Aria. “Man, you get touchy about your sister. How did I not know this?” He seemed amused now.

“Easy. You’ve never done anything to purposely hurt my sister,” she said, back to her normal self. “If you do, you better not run into me, buddy. You’ve been warned.” She pointed her fork at him for emphasis.

“I don’t plan on hurting her, but duly noted.” He leaned over and kissed me on my forehead, saying, “And you, I thought I was going see WWE live if I didn’t shoo her away.”

“She was about to say something to Aria my fist wouldn’t have liked,” I said simply.

He laughed harder.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“You two. You both would do bodily harm to someone over implications and words?”

“Yeah,” said Aria. “So?”

“You don’t think that’s overreacting just a tad bit?” He had stopped laughing.

“No,” we both said in unison.

“Whoa! Your mom was right—that is weird,” he muttered.

“She’s my sister. Why not protect her to the best of my ability?” I said.

“Yeah, what she said,” said Aria.

“Okay, okay,” he conceded. “I don’t have any siblings, so I don’t know the special bond you two share. I won’t pretend to understand.”

“Oooh, what if you had a sister? We could be best friends, then sisters when you two get married!” Aria clapped her hands excitedly.

“Now you sound like Mom.” I rolled my eyes. “And I think the ship has sailed on that one, little sister.”

“I know, right?” She laughed.

Trevor just shook his head.
 

We finished our dinner with no more interruptions. We parted ways with Aria and made our way back to my dorm room.

“Are you staying the night?” I asked as I grabbed my shower caddy so that I could take a shower.

“Do you want me to?”

“I always want you to, but can I make a request?” I stopped at the door.

“Anything,” he said, as he started to get comfortable for the night.

“Can you not be asleep before I come back from my shower? You have that ‘I’m tired’ look.” I winked at him and went to shower. I knew he would be asleep when I got back. Twenty minutes later, when I went back in, he was lying on his back with his arm draped across his stomach and the other under his head, asleep. It never failed. I smiled to myself and went and curled up next to him. He immediately put his arm around me and tucked me to his side, and I fell asleep quickly.

* * *

The rest of the week went by quickly, filled with as much time spent with Justina as possible. Since she didn’t have school any longer and her parents hired movers, she had free time. But between Opal duties and school and spending time with Trevor, I had only a few hours a day to spare. Rufus came home, and Opal didn’t have any other major incidents, to my relief and Tina’s dismay, as she was hoping to leave with a nice
Opal: The Untold Story
story. By the time Friday came around, it was time for Tina to leave so that she could get settled before starting her first day of school on Monday. Aria and I went over to her house to say our good-byes. Trevor opted out, for obvious reasons. Tina didn’t want a going-away party. As she said, this was always going to be her home and this was just a temporary move, as she would be back one day.

It was a somber atmosphere at the Delgado house when we walked in. The walls were bare and boxes were stacked haphazardly in corners waiting for the movers to start packing them into the trucks. Dr. and Mrs. D were running around doing various things, but each stopped to greet and say good-bye to us. Dr. D was first, hanging up his phone call and coming over to Aria and me with a fatherly smile. He always made me aware he was there if I needed him, but not in an overbearing way. I guess he didn’t want it to seem like he was trying to take the place of my father, which I appreciated.

“Aria, Dacey, you’ve been great friends to Justina and like second and third daughters to me and the wife. You have to come for a visit once we get settled.” He gave us both hugs, then went back to making more calls.
 

We found Mrs. D in the kitchen packing up the last of the food to take with her in the car in a large cooler. When she saw us, she stood up from what she was doing and came to say her good-byes as well.

“Girls,
dios mío
,” she said, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “It’s hard leaving your home, and on such short notice too—but it’s also fun! New adventures to be had and new things to explore. I know this is hard for you and Justina to take, Dacey, but you girls will see each other again. You two have a lasting friendship. And I’m sure my husband has extended our offer for you to come and visit once we are settled, yes?”

“Yes, Mrs. D, he has,” I said somberly.

“
Aye,
pobrecita
.” She frowned. “It will be okay. I will let her come to visit. I promise.”

“That would be great,” I said, managing a small smile.

“Go, she’s waiting for you.” She gestured up to Tina’s room.

We found Tina sitting on her bed looking at an old middle-school yearbook.

“
God
, what was I thinking wearing that outfit back then?” She looked up and cringed.

I walked over and looked at the old black-and-white photo of a not-too-long-ago Tina. Same face, only a little younger with a Boy George hat, her bangs sticking out the front, and some outfit only she could pull off. What was she thinking?

“You were thinking that since you saw
Clarissa Explains It All
the night before that you could pull off the same look.” I looked pointedly at her.

“Oh, yeah,” she mused.

“Hey, Jussy.” Aria never seemed to call anyone she cared about by his or her real name. It was her thing.

“Hey, kid.”

Aria went over and gave Tina a hug so hard that they both fell back on the bed.

“I’m going to miss you, Jussy,” said Aria in a small voice before giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“Ugh!” Justina said, laughing and pushing her off playfully, “I
won’t
miss those hugs. But I will miss you, kid. Take care of your sister while I’m gone. You know how she can get sometimes.”

“Pfft, I totally got this,” Aria said.

 
I just rolled my eyes.

“Okay, well, I’ll go wait in the car. I don’t want to witness two old people cry—talk about
awkward
.” She barely made it to the door before the yearbook was tossed at her.

“Old,” muttered Tina mockingly.

“You know how she is,” I said by way of explanation. I went and sat down next to her on the bed, and she handed me a box. “What’s this?” I asked. With raised eyebrows, I opened the box and saw that it was a silver chain with a small shovel attached to it. The shovel was like the kind found in a preschool sandbox...I looked up at her and smiled. Leave it to Tina to do something annoyingly caring.

“Whatever. I was feeling epic. I have one too. Don’t make a big deal about it.” She waved her hand in the air to play it off.

“Does this mean you’re my pimp now?” I joked. “Do pimps get their hos jewelry?”

“Only if they want them to bring in the big-time money, so I better start seeing some big-time money soon!”

“I’ll get right on that,” I stated mockingly as I rolled my eyes and put on my necklace.

“So I hope I meet some cute Miami bo—”

I slammed into her with a fierce hug and held on tight. This was how I wanted to leave things: us laughing and making stupid jokes—no crying, no sad good-byes. She seemed to understand as she hugged me back tightly and didn’t say a word. We sat like that for about three minutes. Then, like nothing, I got up and went to the door.

“Love you, bitch.” It came out like I wasn’t saying good-bye to my best friend for what would be the last time in this room.

“Later,” she said, like her voice wasn’t thick with emotion.
 

I went downstairs and passed the empty hallway and out the door without really looking. I didn’t want to remember this house that I practically lived in over the years, being as empty as it was now. I wanted to remember everything as it once was.

“Are you okay, sissy?” Aria asked in a small voice as I got in the car.

“Yeah.” I let out a loud sigh. “I will be.”

“It’ll be okay,” Aria said, tilting her head to the side and giving me a sad look.
 

I gave her a smile back. It would be okay. After all, it was just a move. I could handle a move.

Chapter 4

I found that adjusting to life without Tina was just that—adjusting. Now, instead of me seeing her every day, it was me texting her every day.
A
lot
. Thank god for unlimited text messaging. It made life without her more bearable.
 

Her new life in Miami was going well. Turns out, there were tons of Adam Rodriguezes in her classes, and she already had a study session lined up to get “caught up” on what she missed. When I asked her what she could have possibly missed the whole first week of school besides the syllabus notes, I got a smiley face reply back.