“The salt in your ear, dried tears on your cheek, rain in your hair.”
Her green eyes locked onto his steel gray ones and she wondered, “What next?”
His mouth captured hers again.
Later, as he nuzzled her hair, she said, “That leaves just the rain in my hair.”
“I look forward to that,” he murmured.
* * * *
“Oh, my God! You didn’t!” said Denise, waving the slice of pizza.
“I didn’t say anything.” Aloha looked defiant.
“My father!” The slice of pizza hung suspended in front of Denise’s mouth, the tip sagging.
Aloha did not respond.
“Look into my eyes,” Denise commanded. “Promise me you didn’t touch him.” Denise was an attractive brunette.
Aloha shrugged and took a bite of pizza.
“He’s been so vulnerable since Mother and him split up.” A mushroom dropped onto the kitchen table and Denise sat the piece of pizza down. “You’re gorgeous, and you radiate sex. You’re dangerous.”
Aloha sat back and looked at her friend. “I am not.”
“You used him.” Rudd’s daughter’s voice was accusing.
“I did not.”
“Then how do you explain that cat-that-just-ate-the-mouse and very satisfied picture on your face?”
“I don’t have to explain anything.”
“You do so.”
“Nu uh, I’m a grown girl.” Aloha felt her face redden.
“Are you?” Ice dripped from Denise.
“We didn’t do anything neither one of us didn’t want to do.” She bit into pizza but it didn’t help sidetrack Denise.
“Just exactly how old are you?” demanded Denise.
They were across from each other in the kitchen. It was two in the morning. Rudd was asleep in his bedroom. Denise had come home with pizza. Aloha was dressed, her hair fixed and makeup repaired.
“Old enough.”
“Proverbs 17:17. ‘A friend loveth at all times.’ You were my friend.”
“I still am, goddamnit.” Anger was replacing her embarrassment.
“Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.” Denise was a born-again fundamentalist Christian.
Aloha had known Denise before her recent conversion and still liked the girl. “Stop yelling at me then.”
“I am not yelling! And you set it all up. You schemed to have me out of the house at the most likely time.”
Aloha was uncomfortable. It had taken three attempts before circumstances worked to her advantage. On this, her fourth attempt, Denise had left the house at the right time and Rudd had come home soon thereafter. Not to mention she, Aloha, had been in the right mood. Of course, she usually was in the right mood.
“You set up that study date for me and got me to have you order a pizza for that exact time so you’d know when I was gonna come home.”
“I thought you liked that boy?” Aloha asked.
“Don’t change the subject.” Speculation ripped across Denise’s features. “Lemme see. How old are you?”
Aloha did not answer.
“Jail-bait. Do you understand? You could put my father in jail!”
“Not if nobody tells the law.”
“Jeez. Not to mention violating some of the Ten Commandments. That was a morally reprehensible thing.”
“Nope,” Aloha said doggedly. She was infatuated with Rudd. Having sex was not wrong...was it?
“Thou shalt not—”
“What?”
“Commit adultery.”
“Rudd’s divorced and I’m not married.”
“It’s adultery anyway, darn it. In Galatians, it says, ‘The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.’ Don’t you understand?”
“It was beautiful—”
“There. Admitting—”
“I admit nothing.”
“You’re so darkly intelligent; you’re going to get away with it.”
“There’s nothing to get away with, Denise.” Aloha tried to make her voice reflect patience.
“I always figgered you were old for your grade level.” Triumph lighted in Denise’s eyes.
Aloha thought, Sometimes I’m too old for myself. But she treasured what had happened tonight. There was a spark, a light, a hope, an enthusiasm she’d never, ever thought would happen to her. Certainly not as a result of getting laid. She used to think that sex was just a feel-good time. She knew she had little control over her craving for sex. It had certainly been satiated tonight.
“Reprehensible,” Denise repeated.
“No. It was beautiful and natural.”
“So you admit your reprehensible actions?”
“Denise, I admit nothing. And stop showing off by using those big college words.”
Denise was eighteen and a sophomore at Florida State across town.
Denise pulled one finger off her fist at a time. “I always thought you were a year or two behind everybody in our age group. But that doesn’t explain why you’re so bright. If a street smart girl like you were academically inclined....”
“I leave that to you intellectuals,” Aloha lied. Aloha could read something one time and remember it. She did not have to study. She always got straight A’s in school, but did not broadcast that fact.
Denise didn’t notice her sarcasm. “Like I said, suppose I’ve got it backwards. Suppose you’re not eighteen in the eleventh grade, a bit behind kids your age—”
“What are you trying to say?” Aloha’s voice became low and dangerous. This goodygoddamntwoshoes was accusing her of being too young. This got Aloha’s dander up.
“Suppose, like we really know, that you are very smart, but just don’t show it. Suppose you were bright enough to skip a couple of grades—”
My God! Denise thinks I’m keeping a secret. That I’m fourteen or fifteen.
Aloha had been born in July, just beating the Florida August first cutoff for the next grade year. One thing her parents had done was to let her go through schools, more than a few, at her own pace, and end up wherever the she felt comfortable.
This ongoing situation made her very lonely.
Aloha carefully pulled another slice from the pizza and took a large bite, avoiding Denise’s glaring eyes. “You’re full of shit, Miss Six.” It came out mumbled through pizza.
Denise continued to glare at her. She shook her head emphatically. “You’re probably right. Because if what I was thinking is true—”
“It isn’t,” Aloha lied.
“You would be maybe fifteen? In eleventh grade.”
“I am a junior, but you’re wrong about my age.” And she was.
Denise shook her head. “Maybe I’m dreaming. It can’t be true.