Lizzie grimaced. She refused to be that openly infatuated with anyone, even Todd. Although, more than once, in the middle of one of their fifteen-minute make-out marathons, Todd’s arms wrapped around her, her body pressed against his hard chest, she’d definitely thought how envious those girls would be if they could see that.
Take that, Volleyball Girl! Lizzie thought, secretly disliking the brunette chatting up her boyfriend.
She almost wished he’d let the full walnut brown-colored hair grow back and stop working out until his abs showed good ol’ rib, like it used to. Maybe it would cut down on chicks like Volleyball Girl here stopping to…to what, exactly?
She listened in to the conversation for the first time.
Todd talked easily, as if this weren’t their first encounter. He brushed hair out of his face, a nervous habit of his, and joked with the girl about how her long legs would equal a sick vertical leap if she played basketball. And, of course, Volleyball Girl laughed.
Lizzie rolled her eyes, marveling at how Todd made witty banter with anyone.
Conscious that Todd still had his arm around her and that she probably looked like a pod person, standing there gape-mouthed, Lizzie cleared her throat. Catching the hint, Todd brushed his hair out of his face and wrapped up the conversation. “Cool. Look, Cassie, I’ll talk to you later.”
“See you, Todd,” Cassie said, wiggling her fingers slowly in the world’s flirtiest wave. She turned and swayed her way down the hall.
Sure that Todd was watching Cassie’s long model-volleyball legs in that ultra miniskirt, Lizzie slyly ping-ponged from Cassie to him. But Todd was looking her in the face.
“Alright, so you gonna blow me off later, too?” Todd asked, his face an exaggerated wince. “Maybe you have some Russian to study or something?”
“You know I don’t take Russian,” Lizzie said, happy that Todd hadn’t watched Cassie’s smooth, leggy exit. Her grin practically wrapped around her head.
“Well, French then? Spanish? Physics?” Todd threw up his hands in surrender. “What else is gonna come before your dude?”
Lizzie took his hand in hers. “Chillax, dude.”
She laughed up into Todd’s smiling face.
“Seriously. Wanna meet at the Ria?” Lizzie asked.
“Well, my stahs, Miss Lizzie, ah yew asking lil’ ol’ me on a date?” Todd said in a poor Scarlett O’Hara southern accent.
The first bell rang. “Right after school,” Lizzie said, firming up the plans.
“Cool.” Todd pulled Lizzie to him and gave her a full kiss on the lips. “I’ll wait for you by the flagpole.”
Lizzie watched him saunter down the hall. He was obviously in no hurry to beat the second bell. A few people fell into step beside him. Before she turned to head into her classroom, Lizzie heard Todd’s voice—she couldn’t make out what he said, but she waited a few seconds and sure enough, the expected eruption of laughter from his audience followed.
S*#% Happens…
All the Time
“These sleeping dogs won’t lie.”
—All-American Rejects, “Dirty Little Secret”
If Mina had any lingering day after regrets or jitters, Jacinta couldn’t tell. The ride to school was same as always: Jacinta walked to Mina’s house. Brian drove up in his Explorer and blew the horn once. Jacinta hopped in the back, mumbled a “how y’all doing?” to the guys; Michael, still waking up, gave his usual nod while JZ hollered, “hey, girl,” louder than necessary at six-thirty AM as Mina waited impatiently for him to relinquish his hold on the front seat. The two exchanged a few obligatory barbs, “Move, big head,” followed by, “Why can’t you sit in the back?” even as JZ obliged. Then Mina stepped in, bent over the middle console, and planted her sweetie kiss on Brian’s lips.
End scene.
It was the same morning every school day—had been for fifteen months.
For all of Mina’s confusion and uncertainty yesterday, today was just today, same as last Monday and every Monday before it.
Jacinta toyed with that thought as the clique joked around her, amazed at how the world kept going even when something huge was happening to people. Watching Mina nag at JZ and tease Michael, all while keeping her arm just near enough to Brian’s on the console that they touched, Jacinta had to remind herself that just twelve hours ago, Mina had been a total wreck.
A bitter envy stung Jacinta at the way Mina went wherever her emotions carried her. She thought she was used to Mina’s very public highs and lows. Whether she was being embarrassed in front of half the student body on a beach or rambling in the hallway excitedly, Mina wore how she felt on her sleeve and dared anyone to give her grief for it—which Jacinta did.
At first, Jacinta teased Mina’s brimming emotions because it irked her. She wasn’t used to being around girls so open with their feelings, and sometimes, being around Mina was like having a single fly swarm your head. You could swat and swat, but the fly kept flitting about.
Jacinta poked fun at Mina simply because it was easier than admitting that she wished she could be so free with her emotions, at least every now and then. But crying in public or gushing about how much she loved Raheem just wasn’t her.
She wished it was because then, maybe at some point the other day, she could have found a way to bring up her own minicrisis.
Mini was putting it mildly. But she was sticking to that adjective to hold off the panic lurking at the corners of her mind.
The clique’s clucking grew louder as Michael joined in, his early morning freeze thawing at the same exact spot as always—as the SUV glided slowly out of The Woods and onto the main strip, where it would take ten minutes to get to DRB High. Always ten minutes. Twenty if Brian stopped at the Blarney Bean, an early morning hangout that served the hottest (and in Jacinta’s opinion, nastiest) coffee ever.
Her disdain for the Blarney was the minority opinion. The shop was routinely packed with students and commuters alike in the morning. The only equivalent was Rio’s Ria in the afternoon, after the high and middle schools let out. If Jacinta didn’t know better, she’d swear both places laced their food with crack to keep the streams of people spilling out of their doors. She loved the Ria. But slurping up Blarney iced or hot coffee was one ’burb habit Jacinta passed on.
She silently willed Brian to bypass the coffeehouse this morning and cheered inside when the truck crawled along in the dense traffic instead of joining the left turn lane. No espresso today, she thought relieved. Just the thought of the strong coffee’s thick scent tugged at her empty stomach, making it cramp. The involuntary contraction stopped her swirling thoughts. She held her breath for a beat, waiting and getting what she wanted—another lurching clench.
Yes!
Jacinta relaxed in the leather seats and waited for the cramps to grow from a whisper to a squall in her belly and for the first time in days, allowed her mind to go to the other reason she was glad her period was coming.
It was late. Three days late, to be exact.
She shuddered at the four-letter word.
JZ nudged her. “Want me put the window up?”
Jacinta shook her head. It was an unseasonably warm morning, and the cool spring air floating into the truck actually calmed her. Still, she absently hugged her arms closer to her body, as if warding off the chill coursing down her spine from the thought of L-A-T-E.
JZ gave her one last confused frown before answering Brian about their weekly pickup game. Mina loudly reminded Michael that he would