Model Ricans

Water Skiing

"What? I just...why are you accusing me of being in love with Bobby?"

"Weren't you in love with him before you met me?"

I say nothing. And then I deny it. Because it's a little bit true.

"Maybe the new popularity is getting to your head," says Sky.

I laugh. "What? I'm not popular."

"You're hanging out with us now."

I say nothing. Because it's a little bit true. I wanted to invite Marga to Bobby's pool party, but she isn't returning my calls, and Sky Bowman is making out with me in a kitchen in a lake house, so it doesn't matter.

Later in the day, when more kids arrive for the pool party, Sky Bowman hugs me to show me he forgives me for flirting with his best friend and leads me to a hot tub on the side of the mansion. "Prove to me you're mine," he whispers in my ear while slipping his fingers into the bottom of my bikini. I want to prove I am his, so I let him continue. I am not invisible. Everyone is watching us.

They don't know what Sky Bowman's fingers are doing underwater.

A bunch of guys are standing nearby yelling, "Go Sky! Go Sky!" Some people are passing by taking pictures. Some are teasing us. I am breathing hard, in present time, kissing Sky Bowman until a man – Bobby's father, I think – is just standing there, watching us. Sky Bowman's back is facing him, so I try to get his attention without screaming. And then I sink under water in embarrassment. When I resurface, the man is gone.

Sky Bowman yells. "Why didn't you guys warn us?"

"We were trying to get your attention!" Bobby laughs, but you guys were pretty hot and heavy.

I am mortified. I don't remember getting out of the hot tub in front of all those people.

But I know, for sure, I am not invisible for the first time since I moved to Orlando.

I'm shriveled. And tired. We've been spending so much time in the water, half naked, I want to go home and sleep, so Sky Bowman takes me to Bobby's kitchen to call home. Big Sister answers, thank God, she is visiting home from college.

When I hang up, Sky crosses his arms over his chest. "Are you trying to get away from me?"

"Uhh, I just have to be home in time for dinner," I say.

"Come to my house tonight," he says. "After your parents go to bed."

"What?" My heart is thumping out of my chest as I see Big Sister's silver car pull into the driveway. She inherited it from one of our cousins, and I can't wait to see her after all this time she has been at college, but Sky Bowman pulls my hand and stares into my soul with his green sparkly eyeballs. He kisses me. I melt. His mouth is next to my ear. "You can take a taxi to my mom's house. Just call 999-9999."

It's not difficult to remember. Nor is his mom's address. I tell him I'll think about it as I rush out the door and into Big Sister's cool college car. She is with her Cool College Friend (CCF) who smells like a sweet perfume I want to eat. It's like cotton candy and her lips are a florescent pink to match. As we bump up and down on the cobblestone road canopied by the characteristic oak trees and the hanging Spanish moss that always makes me feel like this neighborhood is for special people who like trees, Big Sister's CCF turns toward the backseat and speaks to me with a smirk on her face like she is a detective about to solve the mystery on my face.  "What were you doing over there?"

Big Sister is looking in the rearview window and it's weird because I'm so used to Mom or Dad being in that position, but there she is. A grown-up. An adult looking at me sitting in the back seat like a little kid. "Nothing," I say.

The CCF laughs. "Ha. Nothing. That's what I always used to tell my parents. Are you still a virgin?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"You just have a weird look."

"I like a boy named Sky Bowman," I confess. "We were water skiing."

Big Sister perks up. "Mom and Dad let you go to his house?"

"They don't know," I say, feeling hot. And then I remember he came over for dinner, so I add, in a hoity toity voice, "He came over for dinner, Mom and Dad met him."

"Whattttt?" Big Sister's tone is indignant while CCF laughs and slaps her knee like it's the funniest thing she's ever heard but Big Sister ignores her and looks in the rearview mirror. "Mom and Dad let you have a boy over?" 

"Not really. They thought Sky was a girl's name."

I can see Big Sister's eyes rolling. "So? Are you a virgin or not, it's an easy question."

I don't answer because I'm not sure if I am a virgin after everything I just did with Sky Bowman in the hot tub. Instead I say, "Do you believe time travel is possible?"

Now both these college girls are laughing at me. "Back to the Future is just a movie, Desiree."

"But aren't you studying aeronautical engineering? Space? Tesseracts?"

Big Sister laughs again. "Yeah, and flux capacitors."

"Why do you always make fun of me?"

"Because you're asking ridiculous questions," she scoffs, as she drives really fast down University Boulevard. "When you grow up, you'll realize life isn't like any of the movies or TV shows we watch all the time."

CCF laughs and says, "Speak for yourself, my life is like a movie."

Even though I want to ask CCF all about that, I can't shake Big Sister's words. She makes me feel so stupid. I'm so stupid. As she drives me home from the party, my eyes blur with tears and suddenly we are going 88 miles per hour until I'm watching Poltergeist with Tio just before the hurricane came and uprooted the tree at the end of our street in New York. Why do I keep re-living this moment?

Big Sister's voice snaps me back to present time. "Desiree! Wake up, get out of the car, geez, you're such a flake."

"I'm not a flake," I yell and storm into the house. I need to call Marga, but as soon as I'm about to pick up the phone to call her, The Parents come in from the back patio. Mom tells me I look sunburned. Dad tells me to get off the phone, it's time to eat.

As we shove rice and beans and drumsticks in our mouths, all I can think about is 999-9999. It's in my head. The thought of leaving home in the middle of the night thrills me. I can't wait to escape this place where no one understands me.

Big Sister yells at me to stop smacking my mouth. "Sorrrrrrrry!!!!!!!!" I say, continuing to plot my escape. It's time for me to take my Pink Panthering skills to the next level.