Val The Vessel

8 / The Cable Guy

Today is day two of my spring break. Dad left a couple hours ago for another day of work. It's just my sobered cousin Andrea and I in this huge empty house with nothing to do but rewatch netflix shows because the cable is still busted. Part of me wishes for excitement or at least something mildly distracting to occur. Last night with Andrea was brutal. That might be the last time I'm going to drink with her for a while.

The doorbell rings. It's a chime that always reminds me of wedding bells from how eerily melancholic the notes play out. The bell rings twice, and my cousin storms from the guest room out of irritation. Just before the stranger can mash the bell again, Andrea hastily swings open the heavy front door.

"Um, can I help yo—"

It's a kid. A kid I've never seen before in my life. She greets Andrea with big sapphire eyes and a wide cheshire smile. Her skin is a sickly olive, a peculiar match to the dirty-blonde hair she has scrunchied into a frizzy bun.

"Who're you?" Andrea asks with frank disinterest.

The girl flicks her eyes up at me briefly, then returns her mellow gaze to my cousin. "I'm Kayla. You have beautiful eyes," she says, tongue bulging against her inner cheek.

Andrea blows a bubble at a diameter larger than Kayla's head. It pops, uncovering her unfazed look of humor and intrigue. "You look a little young for me."

"Age is just a number, baby," Kayla answers back, lust teeming in her foreseeing eyes. Andrea looks back to shoot me a grin. I return the gesture.

"Cool down 'eazy-bake'. It's just that you look like you missed puberty. Whatcha want?"

Kayla reaches down into the sole of her black boot and removes a quadruple folded sheet of paper. She takes her time to undo the fold with Andrea watching. The paper turns out to be a sealed envelope, but Kayla still has her fun despite this. She slides an unhurried middle finger beneath the seal of the envelope, forming a tight pocket that she pokes her finger in and out of before my cousin's eyes. Kayla suddenly ceases her motion, raises her finger to her lips, then her tongue.

"Ooh, paper cut," she whispers with a full finger in her mouth.

I can sense Andrea's eyes abandon her skull. She rips the envelope from Kayla's hand and skims through the letter inside. Once she finishes reading, her eyes light up and search for me.

"Val, I think this small fry is supposed to fix yo tv!"

"What?" I fumble through my dresser for the first clean top I can find that isn't too raggedy even for a cable repairman. I settle for a white crewneck long enough to pass as a skirt. The cable company isn't supposed to send anybody for at least three more days but there is a girl at the front door right now offering to fix my dad's tv. It bothers me a great deal.

I trot down the stairs, grip firm on the railing with every descending step. Andrea and Kayla turn in my direction. I squeeze between them, full focus aimed towards the horny munchkin Andrea's been struggling to let off easy.

"Do I need to sign anything or—"

Kayla gives me a look, but it's nothing like the ones she'd given Andrea. Part of me feels offended, and another feels relieved to know that I'm not the target of Karla's crosshairs. At least not the ones she wanted me under. She runs a hand through her already tragic bun, which urks the hell out of Andrea and I. "No, y'all don't gotta sign nothin'. We're just s'posed to be in and out. Here, I'll call my boy."

Kayla stares past her shoulder and signals for somebody to come. Moments later, the driver's side door opens from Karla's truck and a long pair of legs step out. After the legs come the torso and its set of toned abs that flex above a brown leather belt. The stranger pulls the hem of his uniform down over his caramel body, totally unaware of the silent audience who is watching his every move. Andrea and I eagerly await this stranger, especially after witnessing the sinful marvel he's so woefully hiding from us. I'm well aware of the features that my cousin finds attractive in men and women, and this stranger has all of the above. Plus more.

"Yo, Ro. These chicks said their tv keeps freezing on them. Think you can check it out?"

A wicked grin spreads across the stranger's chiseled face as he makes his merry way towards us. I expect him to at least stop and greet us, more so because Andrea is present. No man can resist her. She had always been the swan because I was the ugly duckling in comparison to her.

"I'll take a look at it," the handsome man answers back, brushing right past Andrea and I. Andrea blinks twice, in complete shock of the stranger's rudeness, or rather, his lack of attention to her.

Kayla follows behind but not before bestowing a few final words to my cousin on her way in. "Guess I'm not the only one who's small."

Kayla turns away and practically bulldozes through the both of us. Andrea flinches, the suppressed anger clearly marked by the tightness of her jaw. I flashback to the stranger, specifically the part where he flicked his attention to me as he passed through the door. His eyes make me think of sherbet ice cream with too little chocolate syrup the way his eerie black pupils constrict from the rest of his pale green irises. His skin is mocha dark, something most people here in my town wouldn't expect to see with hazel eyes, and I like that.

Andrea blows a strand of hair from her face. "That's what I get for trynna be helpful. The next time somebody knocks on the door, your ass is answerin' it."

If the next person looks anything like the guy we just saw, I think I'll be answering every knock at the door.