Don't Be Disrespecting Me

The Dance ( p.2 )

E felt sick.

"Glass flies like tiny airplanes, you know?" Noodles looked at the ceiling like he could see planes overhead. "I mean, that stuff was in the yard, the kitchen, the family room--everywhere!"

E blinked and rubbed his eyes like he was seeing somebody else standing in front of him, not Noodles.

"Then I took my boots and spread peanut butter on the bottoms and walked on that dude's white rugs, and his white couch, and his pretty white bedspreads. That one was for you," Noodles said.

E hated Ona's dad, but he clocked Noodles in the chest  anyhow. It was dark and the teachers were busy complimenting kids on their clothes and talking to each other , so they didn't notice.

Noodles always could take a hit, so he kept talking. Telling E how he poured hot syrup on Ona's bedroom furniture and jerked her curtains off the rods and stuffed 'em into sinks that he filled up with water.

E watched the girls in their low-cut gowns laugh and shake and smile. " Ona," he said.

"Man forget her," Noodles told him. "She home pulling glass out her bed and washing pee off the walls."

E wanted a knife or a gun. I should cut him, he thought. Or shoot him right in his big mouth.

Noodles knew when to stay clear of E, so he took off. He ran over to a girl and pulled her onto the dance floor even though she didn't wanna go.

" It won't matter ," E said. Ona's never gonna be mine nohow, he thought. So he left Noodles alone.

When the police showed up, Noodles started running before the cops even said who they were looking for. They bent his arms way behind his back and elbowed him when he split and cussed at them.

E didn't move. He sipped sparkling pink punch. Broke open a piece of chocolate and smacked the cherry out. He listened for Noodles to yell his name. He didn't even give the police a hard time when they came for him.

"I told you, don't be disrespecting me. Not for no stinking girl," Noodles said to E. Then he laughed.

E didn't ask the cop why he was hauling him off to jail. And he didn't say one word to Noodles on the long ride, either. He closed his eyes and imagined himself and Ona dancing --holding tight to each other. Ignoring all those people who wondered what she ever saw in him.

--Zee End