That Was Then

11-Then

There was a thin layer of glittery snow already on the ground and it felt like it was going to start snowing again any minute. I stomped my feet as though that would warm me up. It didn't. Kya seemed unfazed by the cold. She hadn't changed out of her dance clothes and her coat was unzipped, flapping open in the wind. She stared off down the street.

"Where is she?!" Kya's voice was angry, impatient.

"I'm sure she'll be here any minute," I reassured her for what had to be the 10th time in as many minutes. I pushed my new glasses up on my nose self consciously. I wasn't quite used to wearing them yet. I didn't want to be used to them. I had been excited at first to wear the shiny pink frames until I got to school and Jackson Terdy called me "four eyes". Kya told him that with a last name like Terdy he shouldn't be making fun of anyone else. The next few days I had conveniently forgotten them at home until Mama had caught on and started bringing them to me at school.

"Your mama is never late," she said bitterly. It's true so I didn't bother responding. Finally, after another five to ten minutes had passed, Kya's mom pulled up. "C'mon four eyes." Kya teased and I scowled because I didn't like it when she called me that anymore than when Jackson did. Kya didn't notice, she was too busy telling her mom off for being late. I would never get away with talking to my mama the way Kya spoke to hers.

"I was getting my nails done," Tia reached into the backseat showing off deep red nails. "And I picked up dinner, Daddy's favorite!" I breathed in the garlicky smell of Italian food. My mouth watered, making the wait in the cold totally worth it. 

Much to our disappointment, we skipped getting hot chocolate because Tia wanted to get home before Kya's dad. When we got there we helped set the table nicely with candles and cloth napkins. We were starving but Tia wanted to wait for her husband to get home. So we waited and waited and waited. Tia checked her phone at least a hundred times, her freshly done nails clicked furiously across the keys as she sent text after text. Finally she let us eat cold spaghetti and meat balls. Kya didn't even complain. Tia excused herself to the bathroom and when she returned we could tell that she had been crying. Her heavily applied makeup was smudged and her eyes were blood shot. I looked at Kya but she just looked at the table.

"How about a tea party?" Tia asked after a long, awkward silence. "I think I owe you girls some hot chocolate!" This distracted us and we hurried to get out the tea set while Tia made hot chocolate and set out cookies.

Tia joined us for our tea party. She had coffee instead of hot chocolate and added something from a glass bottle with a name that was not in my second grade vocabulary. Kya kept reminding her to put her pinky up when she took a drink and she even played along, using an English accent with us. Hers was just as awful as ours. She continued to check her phone intermittently, Kya watched her and I watched Kya. We ate an entire package of Oreos and Tia let us stay up way past our bedtime.

Kya's dad still wasn't home when we were tucked into her trundle bed shortly after eleven. Tia looked like she wanted to cry again or maybe eat another package of Oreos. She probably did both after we went to bed. I slept on Kya's bed while she slept on the pullout part. Not because she was giving anything up and being a good hostess, but because her mom wouldn't let her pull out the trundle unless she had guests so it was special. And Kya always had to have the most special of anything. 

We were both tired when we went to bed, full of hot chocolate and cookies, but we tried really hard to stay up until midnight anyway, something we always tried and rarely accomplished. Of course, ten minutes after we laid our heads on the pillows we were both out. I was woken not much later by someone yelling. It startled me at first, I'd forgotten where I was and it took me a minute to remember that I was at Kya's. Then I was scared because Tia sounded hysterical. I strained to hear what was going on. I thought she must be talking on the phone because she would shout something and then be quiet for awhile, listening to some response that I couldn't hear. But then I heard Kya's dad's voice, low and steady to Tia's high pitched hysteria.

"Who is she, Mitch?" Tia cried. I could hear the low hum of his voice but couldn't make out the words. "Oh, bullshit!" Then I could hear something breaking, like a glass. I couldn't believe Kya could sleep through her parents fighting. But then I realized that she wasn't sleeping anymore, her breathing was hitched and I heard a quiet sniffle. I reached down to where Kya was laying, groped for her hand and grasped it tightly.