Читать книгу Way Too Much Drama - Earl Sewell - Страница 9

three

MAYA

I was resting on my stomach when I was awakened by the sound of my cell phone. I wanted to ignore it, but I knew it was Keysha by the sound of the ring tone. Without looking, I reached for the nightstand where my cell phone was situated. Once I had it, I placed it to my ear.

“Hello?” I answered groggily.

“Wake up,” Keysha said in a chipper voice. I closed my eyes tighter.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“It’s time for us to get up and face the day,” Keysha said energetically.

“Seriously?” I asked, annoyed.

“Stop acting like an old lady and wake up.” It was obvious to me at that point that Keysha wanted me to do something with her.

“My knee still hurts. I’m not going to be out of bed anytime soon,” I griped as I moved my injured leg.

“What if I told you that I got up first thing this morning and my dad took me to driving school?”

I perked up. “What?” I readjusted the phone. “Stop playing.”

“I’m not playing,” Keysha answered.

I turned over and looked at my alarm clock positioned on my dresser across the room. It was 12:45 p.m. “Wow! I didn’t realize that I’d slept so late,” I said, stretching out my body.

“You always sleep late when you’re depressed,” Keysha reminded me.

“I’m not depressed,” I disagreed as I glared at the ceiling. I swallowed hard, noticing how dry my mouth was. “Are you really taking private driving lessons now?”

“Yep. I’m learning the rules of the road!” Keysha answered gleefully.

“Why didn’t you tell me today was your first day? See, you’re a crummy BFF. How could you keep something that major from me?” I asked.

“News flash! I was busy helping you deal with Viviana,” Keysha answered sarcastically.

“That whore.” I tossed my feet over the edge of my bed and sat upright.

“Did you get a chance to confront her about what she did?” Keysha asked.

“Oh, yeah. We had a big blowup yesterday after I got back home.”

“And?” I could tell by the tone of Keysha’s voice that she was hanging on my next words.

“She hates me, Keysha, and that’s all there is.”

“Does she hate you because of what went down with her father?” Keysha asked a question she already knew the answer to.

“Yep. She believes I ruined her life when I spoke up, and now all she wants to do is get even with me.”

“Damn! How are you going to live under the same roof with someone who has that much hatred for you?” Keysha asked.

“I have no idea,” I admitted.

“You should probably tell your mom about it. Maybe she can help Viviana work through her issues,” Keysha suggested.

“I care more about a baboon’s smelly behind than I do about Viviana. All she has to do is stay out of my way and leave Misalo alone.” My resentment toward Viviana was absolute.

“Speaking of feelings, boys and all that stuff, guess who I saw this morning?” Keysha asked.

“Wesley? Was he standing in the yard below your window reciting poetry?” I asked mockingly.

“No, silly, although that would be very romantic if he ever found the courage to do it.” Keysha giggled.

“Oh, God,” I responded as if I were about to puke.

“Whatever, Maya.” Keysha chuckled. “I saw Carlo this morning.”

“Carlo?” I spoke louder than I intended to.

“Yep.”

“What was he doing?”

“I saw him walking into the community center. I assume he was heading to the gym. Have you spoken to him since the fight?”

“No. I haven’t called him and he hasn’t called me. He’s probably ticked off at me for pulling him off Misalo when he was beating him down,” I admitted.

“So does that mean you guys aren’t an item anymore?” Keysha asked.

“I guess so. I’m not missing him at all, and he’s certainly not chasing after me, so it is what it is,” I answered as thoughts of Misalo filled my mind.

“Okay,” Keysha said and then paused.

“What do you have planned for the day?” I asked.

“Right now I’m heading over to the library to return some books,” Keysha said.

“The pool should be about to close for the season, shouldn’t it?” I asked.

“Yep. I only have to work two more days and that’s it,” Keysha said.

“Well, at least you’ll have plenty of money to do your back-to-school shopping with,” I said, envious of the fact she had been able to work all summer.

“No, I have better plans for the money that I’ve been saving,” Keysha said.

“What?” I asked.

“A car,” said Keysha.

“You’re going to spend all your money on a car? I thought you said your dad was going to buy you one?” I asked.

“That’s what he said, but I don’t want him to buy me some noisy jalopy. I’ve been able to save two thousand dollars. If he matches what I’ve saved, then I could get a decent vehicle for four thousand, don’t you think?”

“Hell, yeah. You should be able to ride in style for that kind of money,” I chimed.

“Do you want to head over to the library with me?” Keysha asked.

“Not right now. I need to stay off my knee for a little while longer. What are you doing later?” I asked, thinking we could do something then.

“I’ll be at work,” said Keysha.

“Then I’ll come by the pool and keep you company later this afternoon,” I said.

“Okay, I’ll see you then,” Keysha said before hanging up the phone.

* * *

Later that afternoon I put on my bathing suit, grabbed a pool bag, which I always kept packed and ready, and headed out the door. When I arrived at the swimming pool, Keysha was snapping off on some junior high school boys for playing too roughly. There was a mother with her toddler splashing around at the shallow end of the pool and a few other folks who were wading from one side of the pool to the other. I placed my things on an empty seat next to where Keysha’s belongings were. I got myself situated, put on my dark sunglasses and relaxed. A few minutes later I felt someone shaking my shoulder.

“What?” I asked, annoyed by the interruption of my quiet time.

“Misalo just arrived,” Keysha said, taking her seat beside me. I sat upright, and sure enough, Misalo had taken a seat at the other end of the pool.

“What are you going to do?” Keysha asked.

“I think I’m going to get in the water,” I said. I rose to my feet and carefully walked to the edge of the pool. My knee was still bothering me a little, but not to the point that I had to hobble. I sat down on my butt, draped my legs over the edge and into the warm water. I splashed some water on my thighs and arms so my skin would adjust more easily to the temperature of the water. I then submerged myself. By the time I came from beneath the water, I noticed that Misalo wasn’t in his seat. I glanced around, wondering where he’d gone. I looked below the surface of the water and saw that he was swimming toward me. I did a few strokes until my back rested against the edge of the pool. When Misalo surfaced, he cleared away the cascading water from around his eyes and approached me.

“Are you looking for me?” he asked, smiling innocently.

“I don’t know. Should I be?” I asked, not willing to allow the charm of his smile to soften my disappointment in him, for not talking to me, not believing in me and instead listening to that liar Viviana.

“Where is your boyfriend?” he asked derisively.

“Where is your girlfriend?” I fired right back with an equal amount of sarcasm for his former boo thang, Viviana.

“Maya, I don’t want to fight,” Misalo said earnestly as his tone shifted.

“Ha! You should have thought about that before you started dating my cousin,” I said.

“Oh, it’s like that. I thought we could have a real conversation, but I see that I was wrong,” he said and was about to swim away.

“I’ve been trying to have a real conversation with you for the longest time, but you’ve had your head up your butt.” I didn’t bother filtering my words.

“Okay, I’ll give you that. I’ll admit that I wasn’t the easiest guy to talk to, but I’m certain you can see why I reacted the way that I did.” Misalo gave me an innocent look.

“Misalo, you wouldn’t even give me a chance to tell my side of the story,” I said to him.

“I was angry, Maya,” he admitted. “Sometimes when a person is angry, they can’t see or think straight.”

“And an angry person can be pretty stupid,” I said, unwilling to soften my words or feelings.

“Whatever,” Misalo said with lack of concern. It irritated me that he wasn’t more apologetic.

“So do you want to hear the truth now? Or do you want to keep jumping to conclusions?”

“I don’t think I jumped to conclusions. I believe the evidence I saw spoke for itself, at least in the beginning. Now I’m not really sure what to think. I’m confused,” he admitted.

“You should’ve come to me for the truth instead of letting other people tell you their interpretation of what went down,” I said.

“Okay, Maya. I get it. I should not have been so stubborn. Do you have time to tell me the truth now? What’s really going on with you and Carlo?” he asked as he folded his arms across his chest and waited for me to explain my version of events. I paused momentarily and took notice of his muscles, which were much more defined. I exhaled before I began.

“Viviana and I snuck out of the house one night,” I said.

“You snuck out of the house?” Misalo blurted out the words.

“I know, it’s hard to believe, but, yes, I did. I was trying to prove to Viviana that I wasn’t a Goody Two-shoes. Anyway, she knew about this party that was taking place in the city, so we hopped into my grandmother’s car and went.”

“You don’t have a driver’s license and neither does Viviana.” Misalo immediately began questioning the credibility of my story.

“I know.”

“That doesn’t even sound like something you’d do, Maya. Besides, why would your grandmother give either one of you the keys to her car?” he asked.

“She didn’t,” I said, not wanting to admit that Viviana and I had pretty much taken the car for a joyride.

“You stole your grandmother’s car?” Misalo’s eyes widened as if he’d just been poked.

“Yes and no. Yes we took it, but we didn’t steal it. Viviana said that she’d taken our grandmother’s car lots of times.”

“I don’t believe a thing you’re telling me, but go on,” he insisted.

“It’s the truth, Misalo.”

“Maya, I’ve known you for a long time, and you’ve never done anything remotely close to what you’re describing to me,” he said as he repositioned himself next to me.

“It’s the truth. You can even ask Keysha if you want,” I suggested.

“Like she’d tell me everything. Keysha is your best friend and isn’t going to admit to anything that would make you look bad.”

“Keysha has no reason to lie, Misalo,” I said as I scanned the pool deck. Keysha had climbed in the lifeguard chair. She’d put on her sunglasses and was keeping a close eye on everyone.

“Whatever,” he said, dismissing my comment.

“So we get to this party and I don’t know anyone there. I thought Viviana and I would use the time to bond, but she left me as soon as we arrived. I was nervous and afraid. As the night dragged on, I began searching for Viviana, but couldn’t find her. It was then that I realized she’d set me up and left me. Her plan was for me to get busted for sneaking out of the house. Luckily, Carlo was there and offered to give me a ride home, but he wouldn’t do it unless I slow danced with him first.”

“Maya, your story sounds so lame.” Misalo was skeptical. “If that’s the case, how did Viviana tape you if she’d already left?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t see her and she decided to record me,” I said.

“Or, Carlo picked you guys up in his car and drove you there himself because you were creeping around with him behind my back all of the time.” Misalo gave his own spin to the story.

“Misalo, stop making up stuff in your head that isn’t true. I swear, that is not what happened.” I attempted to put him back on the right track.

“You expect me to think that you actually snuck out of the house? I’ve asked you to do that for me countless times and you never would, Maya.”

“I did it that one time, okay. It happened,” I said more forcefully.

“Whatever,” he said. I could tell that he didn’t believe me.

“Now my turn,” I said, turning the tables.

“Your turn?” Misalo seemed surprised that I had an issue with him.

“Yes. I have questions of my own for you,” I said.

“I didn’t do anything,” he said.

“Ah, yes, you did. The photos that I sent to you. Why didn’t you delete them? Why did you lie to me like you had? You’ve humiliated me, Misalo. So many guys have tried to have sex with me because of those photos.”

“Okay, that technically wasn’t my fault. I didn’t really know that Viviana had gotten ahold of my phone and did that.”

“Dude! You should have deleted the pictures. She would not have had anything to forward had you done what you were supposed to do,” I raised my voice at him.

“I was stupid, okay. I never thought they’d ever leave my phone.”

I shook my head disapprovingly at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know I messed up.”

His apology didn’t seem sincere to me. I felt tears swelling. “Then you stooped so low by dating my cousin, Viviana. How could you even think that was cool?”

“It happened by accident,” he said.

“By accident! Are you joking! Do you understand what you’ve done to me?” I angrily barked at him.

“You guys are getting a little too loud over here,” Keysha spoke in a loud whisper as she walked past us. I had not noticed that she had come down from her perch.

“What was I supposed to think, Maya? Everything that I saw indicated to me that you and Carlo were an item. I even heard rumors that you and him had gone all the way.”

“What! I can’t believe you just said that to me. You should know me and know that rumor was a lie!” His words hurt me.

“I don’t know, Maya. I thought you’d never sneak out of the house, but you did. I never thought you’d date another guy, but you have. It’s hard for me to believe that you did not go all the way with him,” Misalo said as he began backing away from me.

“And what about you and Viviana? What does dating my cousin say about you as a person?” I fired back at him.

“So it is true. You did go all the way with him.” Misalo seemed transfixed on how far I’d gone with Carlo.

“Why do you even care? You were so busy running behind Viviana like she was the best thing that ever happened to you. How did you feel when you found out how she had played you for a fool?” I bluntly asked. My question left Misalo speechless and his ego bruised.

“I’ve got to go,” Misalo said and swam away to the other end of the swimming pool. He got out of the water, dried himself off and then left. I tried to hold on to my tears, but it was of no use. I buried my face in my hands and cried. I wanted Misalo back. I wanted the love we had to restore itself, but I didn’t know if we could forgive each other.