Lola
I slammed the door behind me, not caring that Kevin was still outside. Everything had been good till that moment in the locker room with Bee. The way she had asked about the rumor and the feeling she tried to hide had made me curious and a little amused to be honest.
When the rumor had spread like wild fire, I had been mad. It wasn't that I didn't like Chrissie, I do; but the rumor had made her distant with me. Every little thing I did like grab her hand or ruffle her hair had people giving us disgusted looks and others would smile as if they had known all along. No, I did not like Chrissie for more than a friend and I had thought she knew that. It had taken me about three days to get her to understand that it was nothing but a rumor, that I liked someone else and that despite the rumors I'd wish we could still be friends. Afterwards we would just laugh about the whole matter.
When Bee asked about the rumor and I told her I didn't mind much had been a lie, but the way she had reacted had me curious. I should have kept my mouth shut, though, because after that Bee seemed to change towards me. We had been having a good time joking around and laughing, even making Tammy chase Bee and I around. After our talk Bee was a bit distant but I thought I was just reading too much into it.
And then it happened...
She said she was going to go look for Memo and before I could say anything she was gone. What the hell? I stood there just looking at her retreating back confused as fuck. She had told me that she didn't want to see or talk to Memo for a while, something that had happened between them. And then all of the sudden she goes off and looks for him...
What the fuck?!
At lunch time I was waiting for her in our usual spot but she never came so by the time I walked into the cafeteria I was seeing red. I don't quite understand why I felt such feelings towards Bee, I was pissed! My mind wasn't reasoning with me and before I knew it I had been standing in front of their lunch table. Tammy looked at me with a disgusted look but I ignored her. There were some of the soccer players around the table, looking at me with a raised brow and an amused look in their eyes, but I ignored them too. I glared at Memo, who was glaring back at me. And then my eyes fell onto Bee's and I felt myself calm down a bit.
"Who invited the dyke?" I heard one of the girls sitting next to Tammy say but I tuned her out.
"Is everything alright?" I asked Bee, looking into her eyes. Those mocha color eyes drawing me in that I felt my heart beat twice as fast.
Bee's eyes never left mine and I saw a hint of a smile on her lips, "Yeah." Even though she said that we were cool, I could still see that look in her eyes she had back in the locker room.
"Why is the dyke talking to your girlfriend, Memo?" One of the guys around the table said and I rolled my eyes.
Memo stood up from where he was sitting and walked in front of Bee and me, glaring down at me. "That's a good question, Miguel. Why are you talking to my girlfriend?"
I rolled my eyes again and took a step back, "Say it, but don't spray it, Guillermo." I saw him clench and unclench his fists as some of his friends snickered.
"You better go back to your dyke friends before-"
"Before what, Guillermo... Before you send your goons after me instead of dealing with your own shit? Yep, I know a coward when I see one. Now, if you excuse me, I will take my leave because the longer I stay here the quicker I feel my IQ drop." I winked at Guillermo and looked around him to smile at Bee, who was trying hard to hide her own snickering.
I left their table sure that Bee and I were cool, but damn it if things didn't change as soon as lunch time finished. I had waited for Memo to head to his class and once Bee was alone I rushed over and tried to talk to her but she just looked at me and walked away as if she was being chased by someone. In our last class, I tried to talk to her but she had sat up front and at the end of class she was one of the first ones to leave the classroom. It didn't help much that the teacher had asked me to stay after class so I hadn't had the chance to talk to her.
When Kevin picked me up, I was furious.
What the hell was she playing at? I thought we had left the not-talking-to-me childish behavior behind but I see that I was wrong. What ticked me off the most was that I was mad. Usually I didn't care if someone stopped talking to me because I wasn't interested in being friends with those kinds of people. But it felt different with Bee; it felt like I couldn't calm down long enough to think of anything but the fact that she wasn't talking to me. When she walked away like that I felt like chasing her and tackling her until she caved in and told me what was going on.
I slammed my room's door and plopped on the bed, screaming into my pillow. I could hear my dad knocking on the door but after a while of me not responding he gave up and went away. I rolled on my side and looked out the window, the sun was warm yet I felt so cold. Why was I feeling this way? So what if Beatriz doesn't want to talk to me, it's not as if we stopped being friends. She had told me a while back that we would be psychos together so I didn't feel as if I was losing my friend; it felt as if I was losing someone much more important.
"It's his entire fault! That son of a bitch, who does he think he is, huh?" I punched my pillow over and over, "He thinks that he can just walk into the fucking room and people are going to worship him? The fuck he playing at, asshole!"
I threw the pillow across the room and grabbed the long pillow and began punching it too, "Everyone does what he says as if he had any right over them. It fucking sickens me to see those imbeciles following his bitch ass."
"I hope he gets syphilis from that Tammy bitch and his dick falls off. I hope he chokes on a noodle! No, I hope he steps on a Lego! Yes!" I crawled off of my bed and opened my closet, taking out the big box filled with Lego pieces and scattered them on the floor; throwing them around the room.
"I hope he steps on a thousand Legos and that his small ass dick falls off with a 'poof' and then as he is eating ramen for him to choke on damn noodle!"
"Lola!" I stopped what I was doing and looked up to see Eric glaring down at me. His hands were at his hips and I could feel the hostility emanating off of him. Damn I was in trouble. I saw Kevin move behind him, worry etched into his face.
"Hi, dad, want to play Legos with me?" I bit my lip as I tried to look like all this had been planned. The room was a mess. The sheets on my bed were a mess, my many pillows littered the floor, and my Legos were all around the room's floor. I knew this looked bad but I had been so pissed off I hadn't been thinking about keeping everything neat and tidy.
Eric's jaw was set and I lowered my head as I got up from where I was kneeling on the floor and began picking up the Lego pieces. I stepped on one and almost cried out in pain but bit my tongue seeing as Eric was still standing by the door with an evil look in his eyes. Once my mess was cleaned up, I sat on the edge of my bed with my head hanged low. Kevin came over to sit beside me and rubbed my back in soothing circles. I could only see Eric's trainers in front of me which meant he was standing there.
"Now, how about you tell me what happened that got you wishing a guy's dick to fall off?"
I cringed at the tone of voice he had, "it was nothing."
"Bullshit, Lola," I looked up to meet Eric's gaze. He and I had the same temper at times I could almost say that he was my biological father.
"Bee's acting weird again," I mumbled as I looked away.
"What? Why?" It was Kevin's time to ask. I shrugged and mumbled that it was her boyfriend's damn fault.
"That Guillermo kid you told me about?" Eric asked and I nodded, feeling like a tattletale. "Do you want me to talk to your principal about it?"
I stared at Eric as if he had grown a second head, "I'm not in second grade anymore, dad, and that only happened once. If you had let me just cut her damn hair everything would have been good." I mumbled, remembering when I was in second grade and a girl had been making fun of me. She had put gum in my hair and I had almost cut her pig tails off if it hadn't been for Eric and the teacher intervening.
"If you don't want me to intervene, then don't go destroying your room." He grumbled and left the room.
Kevin was still rubbing circles on my back and was quiet for a good while before he sighed and spoke up, "what is it that pisses you off so much, Lola?"
I shrugged, not knowing that myself.
"Is it that she does what her boyfriend says or that she doesn't hang out as much with you anymore?"
I shrugged again, "I don't know, I guess it's just that I feel lonely when she shuts me out like that."
"Hmmm," Kevin grinned as he looked at me with a raised brow, "Could it be that you like Bee more than you say you do?"
I felt my heart stop, my breath got caught in my throat, and my palms felt sweaty. I do like Bee, she's my friend, but did I love her more than just friends? When the rumors flew about Chrissie and me, it hadn't bothered me because I knew it wasn't true. But what if the rumors had been about Bee and I, would I have reacted the same way? I know that at first it would have taken me by surprise but something deep inside told me that I would have liked the idea. I shook my head, feeling my cheeks burn up, and took a deep breath.
I shook my head, "We're just friends, dad."
Kevin chuckled and nodded, "I know but sometimes we fall for our friends, Lola."
I scoffed and stood up, feeling the need for some fresh air all of the sudden. "That's so cliché, dad! Plus, even if I felt something for Bee- which I don't," I added quickly but the look in my dad's eyes told me he didn't buy it, "it would never happen because she's straighter than pasta."
Kevin grinned, "She's as straight as pasta, huh? Perhaps she needs a little warming up? Remember pasta is straight until it turns into spaghetti." He winked at me and my jaw dropped.
"Dad, ewww!" I covered my ears and shook my head. Kevin laughed and stood up, walked over to me, and kissed me on the forehead.
"Go talk to your friend, Lola, and see if you can work things out."
I bit my lower lip and looked out the window. Would it be alright to go talk to Lola? What if she didn't want to see me? The thought made my heart thump painfully and I sat on my bed. If only I could go and see her right now and ask her why she was acting like that. It would give me some piece of mind and it would calm me down too. Argh! Why did she have such a pull over me?!
I rolled onto my stomach and sighed into the pillow. Would she be okay with me going over? I had never been inside her house but I had gone with Kevin to drop her off the times she had come over. Hmm, would Guillermo be there acting like the mighty asshole he is?
"Gaaah, okay I shall go... no but what if she doesn't wanna see me... but I wanna know what happened... but what if she gets mad at me... but why would she... but I don't even know if she's home... aaah!" I stood up from my bed and grabbed my backpack and ran down the stairs.
"I'll be back later, dad!" I yelled as I pried the door open and rushed out, running towards Bee's house. If she got mad because I came over without telling her, then so be it. I needed to know what the hell had happened today.
My heart was beating fast as I neared Bee's house. The walk, well more like the run, to her house helped me think more clearly. I came to the conclusion that if Guillermo had anything to do with Bee's weird behavior then I would do something about it, but if it was all on Bee then there was nothing I could do. All this was new to me and it left me feeling vulnerable somehow. When I had lived in San Francisco, things had been different when it came to my friends. We had all been in the same class since kindergarten, so growing up as best friends had always been a given. Now that I was in a whole new environment, I was finding it hard to make friends.
I was chewing my lip all to hell when I saw Bee's house half a block away. I had never entered her home so I didn't know which room was hers. I wonder if her mom would be a nice lady, unlike Chrissies' mother who thought she could 'cure' me from being gay. I took a deep breath and stood outside her house. It was a normal two story house with the small porch and the garage down the driveway. There was no sound coming from the inside and there was no car in the driveway. Damn, don't tell me no one's home; I thought and felt sad.
That's when I heard Bee's voice coming from the side of the house. She seemed to be talking on the phone and I walked towards the sound of her voice. She wasn't yelling into the phone or anything but she sounded upset. That must be why I was able to hear her, I said to myself and stood beneath the small balcony just outside her window up in the second floor.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me, Memo. I'm not going to do shit, so calm down... No I don't need you to come over... I'm not mad or upset, okay? My mom went to the market and will be back in a bit; I don't need you to come... Bye." She threw her phone into her room and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Stupid," she grumbled and leaned against the balcony rail. I came out from behind the small shrub, hadn't even noticed I had jumped behind it, and stood where I knew she'd be able to see me.
"What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!"
Bee turned around so fast she almost lost her footing and looked down at me with wide eyes, "Lola, what are you doing here?"
"She speaks. O, speak again, bright angel, for thou art as glorious to this night, being o'er my head," I laughed at the look on her face.
Bee smiled and shook her head, "I thought you didn't know your lines."
I shrugged, "Remember I told you I was a sucker for romance and pretty girls?"
Bee crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. The more I looked at her the more I seem to notice little details about her. Like the way she always seemed to have a raised brow when she would talk to me or how she would tilt her head slightly making her hair fall forward or how she would lick her bottom lip slowly...
"So are you going to let me in or not?" I said quickly trying to hide the huskiness in my voice. Damn you, Kevin, damn you to hell!
Bee giggled and shook her head, "In the play, Romeo climbs up to Juliet's balcony, you know?"
I smirked, "Yes and in the play Juliet rewards him with a night of sweet lovemaking." I raised a brow and do the pelvic thrust.
Bee's eyes widen and a small blush covers her cheeks, "I'll come down and open the door for you." I walked around the house towards the front door almost holding my sides from laughing at Bee's reaction. It seemed that I wasn't the only affected one.
She opened the door and I walked in, looking around. Her house was like a normal house; living room, dining room, kitchen, and other rooms hiding behind doors. She walked up the stairs and told me to follow her. Bee opened the door to her room I guessed and we walked in. I liked it the moment I stepped a foot in it, it seemed so... Bee.
Two walls were a deep red color on either side of the room. Butterflies and flowers littered the walls; white butterflies and flowers on the red walls and red ones on the white walls. Her bed was against the wall near the door and her desk was near the window that went out to the balcony. She had books on top of many other books on her desk, dresser, and counter. Yep, everything seemed to fit Bee perfectly.
I took off my backpack and sat on the bed, looking around still, "I like your room, Bee."
"I do too; now tell me what you're doing here." She crossed her arms over her chest again and I sighed in defeat. I had wanted to just chat a bit and then leave seeing as the mood was good, but now? Damn it.
Here goes nothing, "You were acting weird in school today and I just wanted to know what had happened."
Bee sat next to me and patted my head, ruffling it a bit, "Just PMS-ing, Lola, don't worry about it."
I nodded, "Don't lie to me, Bee, your nose scrunches up when you lie."
She did her famous eye roll, "it's nothing, really, just that I needed time to think about something."
"Boyfriend related." Bee nodded and I left it at that. We sat on her bed for a while in silence. Had all this really been related to her ass of a boyfriend? Something was telling me that Bee was lying; I just didn't know how to get her to tell me the truth.
The silence was starting to bother me, "How about you help me with my lines? The play's coming up soon and Silva will kill me if I don't know them."
Bee smiled and I couldn't help but smile back, "alright, let me get my book." We began from the first Scene and had a good laugh when neither of us could pronounce some of the words. Shakespeare had been one hell of a romantic man, but if only he had written this in plain English!
An hour and some laughs later we were finally in the part where Romeo meets Juliet for the first time. We had moved some of the books off of her desk and had moved it to the middle of the room to play into the idea that it was the fish tank where Romeo first sees Juliet. Bee had argued that she doubted the fish tank was in the original play but I had argued that Leonardo DiCaprio had made it look awesome therefore we were using it too. Alas I won and we were looking at each other, giggling like idiots.
"Okay, okay, be serious!" She said after another giggle fit. I was rolling on the floor and had tears running down my cheeks.
I stood up and took a deep breath, "Okay, take a deep breath and hold it... hold it, hold it, and hold it!" Once we seemed to have calmed down we read from the book once again.
We had finally calmed down and I continued reading, "Have not saints' lips and holy palmers too?"
"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."
I whispered 'but I am an atheist' and she giggled all over again, "O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."
Bee cleared her throat, "Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."
"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged."
Bee smiled, "Then have my lips the sin that they have took."
I was smirking, "Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again." We hadn't noticed that as we read the lines we had gotten closer until we were inches from each other; the desk knocked to the side apparently.
"You kiss by the book," Bee looked up and our eyes met. The last word was lost in her lips and the smile on my face vanished as we noticed the mere inches between us. Our breaths mingled with one another and I felt my chest expand almost painfully.
A car honking outside brought us back to reality and we took a huge step from each other. I busied myself with the books that were on top of her dresser while she seemed to busy herself with something on her bed. We glanced at each other and a small giggle escaped our lips. I sat on her desk chair and she sat on the bed; the dresser was blocking our view from each other at an angle.
So many things were running through my head and I needed air. My mind kept going back to that moment when we had been so close I could feel her breath on my lips. The need to have her that close to me again shook me to the core and I stood up fast, looking around for my backpack.
"I've got to go," I said as I shoved the play book in my backpack.
Bee frowned and stood up too, "I can ask my mom if she can give you a ride to your house, Lola."
I shook my head; the way I had felt when Kevin had been talking to me came rushing down on me and I needed to get out. What the fuck was going on?
"I need to stop by the store for some things, thanks anyway." Bee shrugged and opened the room's door and we left her room and went down the stairs. She waved goodbye and I did too and once I was out of view I took off running. The air that rushed into my lungs seemed to clear my head and I was thankful. I came to a stop by the park about three blocks from my house and plopped down on the grass, my chest rising up and down due to my heavy breathing, my brow was sweaty, and I could feel my legs ache from the running.
"This cannot be happening again," I whispered to myself and rolled around on the grass. When the sun began to go down I decided it was time to head home. Kevin would be worried about me and Eric would be mad because I had made Kevin worried. Even though I tried not to think about what had happened and what would happen tomorrow, I could deny it no longer.
Although the excitement wasn't all there, I was sure that I had found my Juliet.