As you could probably guess, I spent alot of time thinking about Joey. I couldn't wait till my mom would announce that we were going over to their house for dinner. I would even get excited when his mom would call my mom, thinking she would ask us over. Sometimes they would just talk on the phone without an invitation being extended. Finally after two weeks passed it happened. Mom came to my room to tell me to get ready to go to Shelly's. My heart raced like crazy as I scrambled to find my tennis shoes and windbreaker to go over. I tried my best to conceal my crush, and thought I had until my mom started talking about Joey in the car on the way over. "You and Joey are getting along pretty well aren't you?" she said as she drove. I thought I was busted. "Yeah I guess so?" I said looking out the window. "Well you guys disappear and I never see you, I thought that was because you are having so much fun." What does she mean by fun?! I didn't say anything. Soon we were pulling up in their parking lot an d knocking on their screen door. Shelly appeared and let us in. Dinner was on the table and Joey was already at the table waiting. We sat down and had spaghetti and meatballs, salad and garlic bread, and as usual were shooed off to play. Joey and I ran upstairs to his room, where he closed the door behind us. "I have to tell you something." he started. I didn't know what he would say next. "We're moving." My heart dropped. "What?" He walked over and sat on the bunk bed then motioned for me to sit next to him. "It's not what you think." he said clutching my hand. "My mom doesn't want to live here anymore because of the boat people. My parents broke up because my dad came back from the war all messed up. The boat people just remind her of that. She wants to move someplace that doesn't have any, or so many." he said locking our fingers together. The full story was that Tony had showed up one night to rant and scream to see his kids for the 100th time and the neighbors were sick of it. Because Shelly was well liked on the quad no one was that quick to call the police when Tony showed up. But this one night Tony was banging on the door as usual and their new neighbor Mrs. Kim came out too see what the noise was about at 3am. Mrs. Kim was from Laos and a sweet woman who often fed Joey dinner when Shelly was running late from work. "What is the matter here!" Mrs. Kim loudly whispered around her screen door to the already aggrivated man. Tony in his drunken stupor saw her and could only see that she was Laosian. Unfortunately Tony had a pistol with him in his coat that night and brandished it in front of Mrs. Kim. That was the last straw. Mrs. Kim couldn't risk being shot or live with herself if something happened to Shelly and Joey. The police were called and Tony was hauled away. Much to Mrs. Kim's dismay Shelly was served an eviction notice because of the incident, saying that 'Her personal life was creating an unsafe environment for all the residents.' She and Joey had to move.
I was still waiting for the bomb to drop on me, and he could see that. " So we're moving closer to you guys, and I will be going to your school too." A tsunami of joy came over me. "Really!" I sqealed. "Yeah, really." he said cooly. " I have to tell you something else too." he went on. The fear came back. "What." I braced. "I'm not going to kiss you anymore when you make me mad." he told me. I felt like the floor had fallen from beneath me. I looked over at him trying not to look disappointed. "I'm going to kiss you because I like you." he smiled. "Do you want me to kiss you?" he asked. I was embarassed yet excited and maybe a little worried that if someone knew trouble would be not far behind. "You like me too right?" He asked squeezing my hand tighter. "Yeah." I said shyly. "Good." he said as he leaned over to kiss me again. This time without force, or bindings. Just a soft sweet kiss on the lips. Racecars didn't seem like they had much appeal now that we had this new thing between us. "Hold on." he told me jumping up from the bed, to walk across the room and turn the TV on. "Let's watch TV." he said motioning to the floor. We sat on a couple of bean bags in front of the TV and watched What's Happening, and held hands. I wanted something exciting to happen. I wanted his whole body on me again. I wanted to feel his breath on my neck like before, but I just waited. We laughed at the show, and he went downstairs to get us some twinkies and juice. All I could think about was us rolling on the floor kissing. I thought about all the movies I had seen on TV with grown ups rolling around kissing, on beaches, in bed, on sofas and wanted to be like that with Joey. I was too shy to tell him. I just waited. We watched Chico and The Man and my mom stuck her head in the door to check on us. We were just sitting eating junk and watching TV. I was glad we weren't rolling around at that moment, and worried about kissing Joey since mom could pop up unannounced.
Before I knew it, it was time to go home. Joey walked me downstairs to see me off. There was no hug or kiss, he just said see you later as his mom opened the door for us, and waved from the stairs. I think this was my first experience with frustration, as I had no idea how to get what I wanted from him.
No comments:
Post a Comment