Just One and Done

This Thing We Have

San Jose, California 2:34 p.m.

     It was bright outside. The sun was directly overhead and there was a slight breeze to cool everything down below it. I was standing on the porch. It was the third time today he had gone through the slamming door, disappearing down the street on his skateboard. I was watching him this time. The first two times he had slammed the door I had turned up the volume on the television. It was the third time that was impossible to ignore, and I knew it was him. He was the only one who would be home at this time of day.

     "Jaimie I'm going out with Laura okay call me if you need anything." my mother called out and I watched her search around the kitchen for her keys. Upon finding them she slipped the metal ring around her finger, right over the spot where her wedding ring used to be. None of us had our fathers anymore.

     "Okay Mom." She left and after driving off in her car, that was when I heard him. I dropped the blankets from around my shoulders and let the air roll over my uncovered legs and down the front of my t-shirt. The planks of wood creaked beneath my socks as I made my way onto the balcony. He was wearing a pair of cargo shorts and the kicks that Thessaly got him for his birthday. She never told him I spotted her fifteen bucks, I never said anything either.

     It was really hot outside, hot enough that he wasn't wearing a shirt, hot enough that I was watching. He knew that after everything, after all the walls I put up, after all the lies I told him, I still had feelings for him. He also knew I was watching him as he turned his hat around and stepped onto his skateboard. The sun was blazing down on the top of my head, lighting the strands of auburn in my hair. The breeze threw them in ribbons around my face, and they licked my cheeks before falling into wavy locks down my back.

     He was half way up the street now with a black t-shirt hanging out of his back pocket and a coat of sweat shining down his tan back. I should have stopped looking then, but I didn't, and then he turned around slightly. He was looking for me, checking to make sure that I was watching, and my face turned into a glare before I sighed and stepped back inside my house.

     "Thess are we going out tonight?" I dialed the number the number that was first on my speed dial and listened as my best friend yawned over the phone.

     "Yea the boardwalk opened yesterday and I already talked to Adrian and Trev about it. But you know that everyone from Heights is basically going to be there, which includes like Andy and her crew." As I listened to Thess talk I slipped my kicks on over my feet and wiped my hands down over my shorts.

     "Okay well I'm coming over now." I hung up on Thess and slipped my shoulder bag over my head. I closed the front door behind me and walked the five houses down and around the corner. I walked up the cobble stone walkway to the front door of the blue beach house and entered. The first thing I was greeted by was a half naked baby running around with a pair of underwear on his head, and then Thess chasing after him with a curly afro bouncing about her face.

     "Hey. I'm not ready yet." she took in a breath of air and puffed it out, squeezing the tube of baby lotion until a glob of white paste appeared. I simply watched as she disappeared into another room and stepped over to her fridge.

     "Pass me the coke." Thessaly's cousin Trevor entered the room and I tossed him the last coke in the fridge. He had a skin tone a shade darker than Thessaly's caramel color with short hair and dark brown eyes that matched his cousin's. It wasn't long after that when Adrian entered behind him. He was wearing the black t-shirt now and didn't spare me a single glance with his brown eyes as he passed through to the television room. I stared at the Ecuadorian with his dark brown hair a mop on his head, and his tan skin sun kissed and glistening. Well that was the downside to being in love with your best friend's cousin's best friend, especially when we basically spent every moment together.