Life, Love, & Lemons

This isn't Malibu

I thought laying out on the stupid small patio I could pretend like I was somewhere far away. I was just lucky that it was summertime and hopefully after starting this stupid job I would have some extra money to keep my tan up for Homecoming. There wasn't a pool or even much more than just a cement slab outside of our broken patio door, but it would have to do. Without a country club membership it looked like I'd be staring out at State street instead of green grass.

"Um you know this is Illinois and not Malibu, right?"

I looked up to see a tall, pasty boy with jet black side swept hair covering one of his guyliner circled eyes.

"Ugh, how about you mind your own business perv?" I grabbed a towel from the back of my lawn chair and draped it over my chest.

"I don't know where you're from, but in the city most people don't lay on a patio half naked." He leaned against the small, rusted railing that separated our two patios.

What did this guy know about tanning? He was not only white as a ghost, but probably could have been a ghost of 1980's punk rock past.

"I'm wearing a bikini! What? Don't your vampire girlfriends wear them?" I wrapped the towel tightly around my waist and folded my arms across my chest.

"Ouch, that was a bit harsh."

"Well you're the one who started it." I poked at the inside of my cheek with my tongue.

"You're right." He reached his black painted finger nails over the railing. "I'm Malakai, but my friends call me Kai."

I limply shook his hand, hoping that he didn't have some kind of weird germs that I'd never heard of, crawling on his fingers. "What kind of a name is Malakai?"

"It's from the Bible. Didn't you ever study religion in school?" He stuffed his hands into the front pocket of his skinny jeans.

If only he knew that I just spent most of my life in a catholic school only to end up spending my senior year at one of the worst public schools in town.

"Now usually people say their name after someone introduces themselves." He leaned in, his eyebrows lifting ever so slightly.

"Alright, well I guess since you'll figure it somehow anyway... I'm Bentley." I stood up, my bare feet hitting the hot pavement.

"Bentley? Like the car?" He covered his mouth trying to stifle a laugh.

Who did this guy think he was? "Yes Bentley, like the car! One that you will probably never even see Mr. Bible named goth boy!"

"Ouch, a little angry aren't we?" He had this smirk pasted across his face like nothing could faze him and it was really annoying.

"You...you..." I had no idea what to say, so I said that only thing that I could think of. "SUCK."

I stormed through the flimsy screen door and into the overly bright living room.

"Hey honey everything alright?" Dad looked up from behind the entertainment center.

"I hate this stupid apartment!" I screamed and stomped into my tiny bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

Now Dad, pre-layoff, would have come storming in and yelling at me for raising my voice and slamming the door, but post-lay off Dad did none of that. He didn't even knock on the door to see if I was okay. He just stayed in the living room. I could hear him working on the TV through the thing walls, but that was it.

I had to hurry up and stop the impeding tears. I may have lost everything, but I still had to work. At least that was one way to get out of the apartment.