The Green (5 page)

“Seriously, Ariceli, do you realize what
you’re getting yourself into?” He studied me cautiously.

“Yes. But it’s the only way right now. I can
do this. Just show me how.”

I batted my eyes a little bit. Being a chick
could be useful at times. Javier looked conflicted. He sat back and
sipped his pop some more. After a few minutes of watching TV in
silence he turned towards me.

“I’ve got an idea that might work for
you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Alright, so here’s the thing. I’ve been
trying to move in on the high-end market. I’m doing pretty well
with the regulars in the shittier neighborhoods, but I haven’t been
able to make a move into the richer towns, like Cambridge. The rich
people will pay good money for the better shit. The poor folks just
want the basic recipe, ya know?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“Ariceli, you know what I sell right?”

“Yeah, pot.” I was hoping that was all. I
didn’t want to seem like a total dumb ass.

“Okay, that’s good, you know more than I
thought. Anyway, here’s the thing. The rich folk also don’t wanna
go to the shitty neighborhoods to pick up their product ‘cause they
don’t want to get jacked for their rides, which could definitely
happen. They want that shit delivered to the comfort of their
homes. And not delivered by some ignorant-ass thug with a piece in
his belt who doesn’t look like he belongs anywhere in that hood.
They want their green but they don’t wanna deal with the reality of
where it comes from.”

“So let me guess, I would be your delivery
girl,” I said.

“You got it! You go up there, looking all
clean and shit, with your nice clothes and fuckin’ red ribbon in
your hair and those fuckers will eat it up. Besides, I don’t really
feel comfortable having you do the regular street sales. It’s too
dangerous. But this shit, this could really make us a bundle!” His
eyes sparkled in excitement.

All right, well at least it didn’t sound
completely dangerous. Delivering pot to rich suburbanites seemed
easy enough.

“Okay, one problem. I don’t have a car. I can
sometimes pull my mom’s car on weekends, but I would assume this
would require me to work during the week as well.”

“I got that covered. How bout I give you a
company car?”

“What? A company car? Shit! Do I get health
insurance with this job too?” I laughed.

“You’re a real fuckin’ comedian, you know
that? It just so happens that I bought an extra car for a
girlfriend to use and now that she is no longer my girlfriend, it’s
just sitting there. And besides, it‘s the only way I can get this
to work. I can’t be driving you around all the time. There’s other
business to be done.”

He took a few more swigs of pop and set the
empty can down on the coffee table.

“I’ll come by this weekend and show you how
to put the packages together. We’ll do a couple deliveries and if
everything goes fine I’ll let you go on your own next week,” he
said.

“Okay.” Put the packages together. I was
going to be packaging weed in my house. So I guess the padlock had
to stay on my door after all. I couldn’t have Mom wandering into my
secret job.

“Uh, Javi, not to be greedy or whatever, but
what does it pay?” I asked, glancing over at him.

“The way prices are these days for the good
stuff, and trust me, I only grow the best, you’re looking at
between fifty to a hundred a delivery. Depends on how much they
order.”

My jaw dropped.

“Fifty to a hundred dollars per
delivery???”

“Yeah, what do you think I mean?” He
chuckled. “I have no doubt you’ll be able to help your mom out once
we get some customers established. It might be a little slow in the
beginning.”

Slow? Who the hell cared? One delivery a week
and we could stay here. After crunching the numbers on mom’s bills,
all I needed was four hundred bucks a month.

“The weekend sounds good. I’ve gotta cheer a
game on Friday night and I have a National Honor Society meeting
early Saturday, but other than that I’m free.” I ticked off things
on my fingers.

Javier just sat there staring at me, with his
jaw dropped.

“Cheer a game, National Honors whatever? Holy
shit, you’re such a prep!” He laughed.

“Just a prep that’s gonna make you big
money,” I said with a nervous smile.

“Damn right. See you this weekend. I’ll call
before to make sure your mom ain’t here.”

“Not to worry, she’s never here. Have you
ever seen her?”

“Uh, I think once, a year ago on Nando’s
birthday,” he said.

“That’s my point.”

I walked over to the door as he stood. He
followed me and grabbed my hand, shaking it.

“This partnership might just turn out all
right.” He grinned at me warmly, with a smile that said something
more than business was on his mind. I pushed it out of my head.
However cute he thought I was, I wasn’t interested. I had a man,
well, one I wanted, but that was none of Javier’s business.

The rest of the week went by fast. I felt
like I had too much caffeine. Adrenaline kept my heart working over
time. I wondered if anyone could read my secret. Was I giving off
any signals? Was anyone thinking…
Gee, that girl MUST be hiding
something, just look at her!
But it was amazing—it’s like
people thought nothing had changed. Well nothing had yet. I was
still a virgin. A virgin drug dealer.

“Hey chica, what are you doing after the
game? Wanna go to Village with us?” James asked casually as we
strolled into the academy.

“Again with the Village Pizza? Weren’t you
guys just there the other night?”

He held the door to the classroom open for me
and bowed, allowing me to pass. Such a gentleman.

“What do you have against the Village? It’s
hot. Besides, it’s like ‘our’ place. I would say it’s cozy. It’s
like Cheers, where everybody knows your name.”

“Dude, that show is old, I’ll bet you haven’t
ever seen it.”

“I bet you I have. I like old TV shows. It
was such a simpler time then,” he said.

“What, in the eighties? That’s lame.” I
teased. We threw our bags down next to our desks. I slid into my
chair. I hated how the fluorescent lights reflected off the white
shiny desktop. I could only imagine how blah I looked. But James
looked good, even in here. Green eyes all sparkly. I bet he looked
good in the dark too. Hmm.

“You’re lame.” He attempted to squeeze his
tall body into his seat. He settled for sitting sideways. His knees
nearly touched my leg across the aisle.

“That is a terrible comeback. Really
terrible. In fact, I’m ashamed to even claim that I know you,” I
said.

“You are correct, I am indeed terrible at
comebacks. So are you coming for pizza or what? Seriously, you
never hang out.” He pouted, his face sinking into a frown.

“That’s because I don’t have a car. Someone
has to drive me home. And usually that someone is Naomi.” I
searched his face for a reaction to her name. Nada, so that was
good.

“What if I drive you home?” He rested his
large hand on my desk and leaned a little closer. His fingers
drummed lightly on the surface.

Oh god, was he really asking me out? He
wanted to drive me home! Wait, no, no, we’re just friends. I’m sure
he’s just offering as a friend. I tried not to be mesmerized by his
emerald eyes and chiseled chin. I looked away to break the spell,
taking the moment to grab a pen and notebook out of my bag. Our
classmates trickled into the room, filling the seats around us.

“Is Mandi Johansen coming?” I attempted to
sound casual.

“What? Mandi? Why would she be coming?”

“Well, I’d heard that you two might be going
out.” I raised an eyebrow.

“Where did you hear that?!” His eyes widened
in surprise, and did I happen to detect a little disgust…maybe,
just maybe?

“Oh, uh, around. People were talking.”

“This ‘people’ you speak of wasn’t Naomi, was
it?” He folded his arms and narrowed his eyes.

“All right, it was, but she was just telling
me that she’d heard it from someone else,” I confessed.

Would he ask what she said?

“Ugh, Mandi Johansen is such a creeper. She
totally cornered me the other day and asked me to go to a movie
with her and I said sure. But later I called her and cancelled. I
was a little nervous about saying no, I mean, creepers are scary!”
He pretended to hide behind his hands and peeked over the top of
his fingertips at me with wide eyes.

“You are so mean!” I slapped his arm
playfully across the aisle.

“Seriously, wait until Mandi Johansen comes
creepin’ on you. Oh, you’ll be scared and agree to go out with her
too!” He pointed his finger at me.

I snorted and collapsed into breathless
guffaws. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Ms. Pisa, is everything okay back there?”
asked Ms. Simmons.

“Fine Ms. Simmons, sorry,” I choked.

“So you’re in for Friday night?” James
whispered loudly from across the aisle and I attempted to compose
myself. The other kids tossed me dirty looks.

“If you’ll give me a ride home, fine, I’ll
come.” I was excited, but on the other hand, what would Naomi say?
I would just tell her to come, I didn’t want it to seem like
anything was going on. Because really, nothing was. Right? I mean,
so he asked me to go out with a bunch of other people for pizza.
It’s not like that’s a date or anything. And yeah, we flirt all the
time, but he did that when he dated Naomi too, so if it was just
friendly banter then, chances are it was the same now. I was
reading WAY too much into this stuff. Like I didn’t have enough to
think about this weekend. Like learning how to package and deliver
pot.

“Ugh, I HATE Village Pizza!” Naomi whined as
we waited after school for the game to start. We wore our home
uniforms tonight, white and red sleeveless tops with short red
skirts. Both of our ponytails were perfectly perky and topped with
a red bow. “Their pizza is SO greasy. How can you eat that
crap?”

“It’s not that bad. Just go and have a pop! A
bunch of people are going, so I figured it might be fun.” My
stomach churned nervously.

I don’t know why I was trying so hard to get
her to go. I really didn’t mind spending time with James by myself,
but I think I had some serious guilt issues. If she would just go,
at least I wouldn’t feel like I was doing anything behind her back.
Besides, he was almost as much my friend as she was.

In fact, I had actually known James before
Naomi did and I introduced them. I liked Keith Mason at the time,
so I wasn’t interested in James, but I did think he was hilarious,
nice and sweet. Keith Mason was (and still is) a douche. I only
wish I had noticed that two years ago before I wasted three months
on him. But hey, I really think things happen for a reason. Maybe
now was the time for us. Or maybe I had just lost my damn mind.

“How are you going to get home anyways?”
Naomi asked, knowing that no car usually equaled no social life,
unless she drove us in her cute Mercedes SUV.

“James said he or somebody there would drop
me off if you couldn’t come.” Well, that was PARTLY the truth.
James didn’t even know I was trying to make Naomi come. And it
wasn’t too far off to think some other person there would drive me
home if, for some reason, James was incapacitated and couldn’t do
it himself.

“I don’t know, Claire was talking about
having a party, are you sure you don’t want to go to that?” she
asked.

Ick, no. I hated Claire. Smug and nasty, she
ruled the school. She wasn’t particularly talented at anything but
being a bitch. I never understood why Naomi hung out with her.
Claire was mean to everyone, including Naomi, but she never seemed
to mind. Claire made it very clear that she didn’t approve of Naomi
slumming it with the Slate Park girl. Every time I was around she
would be sure to talk loudly about the “Mexicans” Daddy had hired
to clean the house and take care of the landscaping. I doubt she
ever bothered to find out if they were really Mexican or something
else. She was just always so freaking smarmy and I wanted to punch
her.

“There is no way in hell I am going to that
bitch’s house.” I made no attempt to disguise my thoughts this
time.

“Oh, come on Ari, you know she has the best
parties! Why do you hate her so much?” Naomi whined.

“Oh, other than the fact that she’s a dirty
bitch and a snob, I can’t imagine WHY I wouldn’t like her!” I
raised my hands in disgust.

“You just don’t understand her. If you guys
got to know each other I’m sure you’d love each other!” She threw
her arm around my shoulder and shook me.

I rubbed my temples. Loved each other like a
shark loves chum. Poor, naïve Naomi.

“Look, if you really want to go to her party,
feel free,” I said.

“Really?” she squealed. “You’re sure you
won’t be mad?”

I don’t know how that just happened, but
apparently someone else was feeling guilty as well.

“I promise I won’t be mad. So, what’s his
name?” I could read this girl like a book.

“Busted. Dean Trento is going to be there. He
asked me earlier if I was going and of course I said I was. I mean,
he’s dreamy.”

“Dreamy is such a lame word. But I will
agree, he’s hottie hot hot. Good for you. It looks like you’re
moving on then?” Dean was tall and muscular, more cut than most of
the guys in school. Funny, he always looked tan even in winter, but
it complemented his blond hair and blue eyes. He could have walked
out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. The girls loved him; even
Claire had dated him last year.

“Yeah, I really haven’t thought much about
James and it hasn’t even been that long. I just feel like he’s a
friend or whatever. Is he bringing Mandi Johansen to Village
Pizza?” She picked at her perfect fingernails.