16. YesNo
Tamara leads me to a large tree just outside her house. “This is Mister Tree,” she informs me. “I’d sit here and read Catcher in the Rye for hours. It’s got a perfect human-sized nook.”
I step closer and see that she’s right. If I weren’t so paranoid about bugs, I’d probably love it. The trunk itself must be sixty feet long, offering decent shade on a hot southern California day. It’s one of the few non-palm trees I’ve seen here, and it’s beautiful.
“Did you have a special reading hideout?” She beams at me.
“My room.”
Tamara laughs, and we head inside. “Shall we finish our project?” Novak assigned us the task of creating a poster. It’s basically just an extension of our earlier quote assignment. Blah blah, very boring.
“I suppose so.”
We sit at her table which is covered in posterboard, glue, paper, and two pairs of scissors.
Tamara starts cutting from a white sheet of paper. “Maybe for some motivation we can catch a movie. That new Marvel movie, whatzit-called, is out.”
“Oh yeah. I’d be down,” I tell her.
“And maybe takeout?”
I smile. “Sushi.”
“You freaking read my mind.” She holds up her hand, and I raise mine to meet hers in a high five. “Now, let’s knock this out in the next hour.”
We are both quiet for a moment and then Tamara speaks again. “Thanks for agreeing to come over. I felt if I stayed at school, Brazely would have hunted me down and pestered me. Plus, I miss my parents.”
I wave off her comment. “It’s nice here. I could use some time away from Brandy. I’m so pissed at her.”
Tamara runs a glue stick across the back of her cutout and pastes it to her side of our poster. My hands free, I start picking at my cuticles. “What happened?” she asks.
“Julian’s party.”
Tamara’s eyes widen. “You went? His parties are crazy. His parents encourage him too. Buy the booze, buy the weed, everyone goes ’cause his are always the best. Yet, no one can even tell me what he looks like.”
“It sucked,” I deadpan. “Garbage fire.”
Tamara’s mouth opens to question me, but her phone rings. She checks and declines it. It rings again. She answers it in a huff, and her friendly attitude switches into great annoyance. “Brazely, stop calling. I’m busy.” She is quiet while Brazely speaks in her ear. “Not that it’s anything to you, but I’m with Lainey—I’m home. We have plans for the rest of the day, sorry.” A beat. “Please, we broke up. You need to give me some air, good night.” She hangs up and slams her phone on the table. She takes a second and returns to her happy self.
“Good night?”
She pulls her hair back into a loose bun and returns to her scissors and paper. “Yeah. I needed to shut her down quickly. She’s been very clingy.”
Tamara has no idea the trouble she’s caused for me.
“I’m gonna feel her wrath later,” I say calmly. Tamara meets my eyes. “She already hates me.”
“Oh, God. I didn’t mean to bring you up. Kinda defeats the purpose—she’s just too much.”
It’s my phone’s turn to go off with a text from Cameron. Cameron? Since when do I have his number again? I deleted it after everything with Kylie happened.
Cameron
Brandy says you’re not talking to her…
Me
I am. Just not a lot. How did you get my number?
Cameron
Why not? And…you put it in my phone, Crazy Lady
Me
Don’t recall. Oops
Cameron
That’s an ego booster. You remember anything?
Me
IDK some things. Some I’d like to forget
Cameron
oh ?
Me
You weren’t involved in the latter
Cameron
oh :) Elaborate?
Me
No.
We bust out the poster within an hour and thirty minutes, and when I return to my phone again, I am greeted with another text.
Cameron
Brandy’s annoying me
Me
RIP sorry, buddy
Cameron
Where you at? I wanna see you
Me
At Tamara’s
Cameron
Doing what?
Me
Having a naked pillow fight.
Cameron
I know you’re lying, but can I come over just in case you’re not?
Me
Perv.
Cameron
Liar
Tamara and I do exactly what we planned. We see a movie and eat delightful sushi. Then we take an impromptu trip to get mint Oreo milkshakes. Hell yes. Cannot go wrong with one of those.
When we arrive back at school in the evening, I stop at my room to drop off my stuff and see Brandy isn’t there. That’s probably best.
Cameron
Come to the game room on the first floor
Me
Ugh
Cameron
Aren’t you just the sweetest
Me
Coming
Cameron
TMI
Me
STFU
I head to the game room. When I get to the glass doors, there he is. Cameron playing pool with David. With them are a bunch of other dudes I can’t identify. I awkwardly stand in front of the transparent doors until Cameron glances my way. It doesn’t take long, so he must feel my eyes on him. He excuses himself, and I catch a glare from David. Eat me.
Cameron takes my arm and pulls me into the rarely-used stairwell where it smells like fresh paint. He lightly presses me against the cold wall and leans into me, his hands at neck level on either side of me.
“Wanna play pool?” he asks.
“You didn’t pull me in here to ask me that,” I tell him.
“I did not,” he responds. A muscle in his jaw twitches, and it tells me he might be too nervous to say whatever it is that he snuck me away for.
I turn my head to the side, and Cameron backs away, seeing that our positions are as awkward as I do. “What are we doing?” I ask him. As a person who has never dated anyone before, I am in great need of some labels.
“I mean I—” He swallows hard. “—I thought we were doing this.”
I nod. Really clears things up for me. Thanks for being so helpful, not. “Do you like me?”
He grins and sniffs. “A little.” He scratches the back of his neck. “Do you like me?”
I mimic him with a grin and a sniff and “A little.”
I think I see him blush a bit. “Then that’s what we’re doing.”
Huh? “Okay, good.”
He heaves a sigh. “Good.” Then he leans in to kiss me. He brings my hands up against the wall and intertwines his fingers with mine. Now, I can feel his body up against mine, and I wish he’d let my hands free so I can wrap them around him.
When we pull apart, he asks me again, “Do you want to play pool?” This time he’s a bit out of breath.
“I gave you that?” I ask, sliding my hand free so I can trace the pink area on his neck. It’s fading but still noticeable.
“Indeed,” he answers. He kisses me again.
“Before you, I’ve never done that.” Talking to him is getting so much easier.
A sweet smile tugs at his lips. “I’m so glad to be your first.”
My heart sinks.
He pecks my lips and speaks. “Yes or no? Are you playing?”
I look at his arm and notice something I never have before because I was never in a position to see it. Inside his arm near the crease of his elbow is a thick, yet small black marking. It’s about three inches long and consists of a single line. There are multiple peaks that each resemble the crashing of a tremendous ocean wave during a typhoon. For a moment, I debate on asking about it, but I keep my mouth shut.
Instead I say, “I don’t know the rules. I don’t want to look stupid in front of a bunch of people who do this on the daily.”
He takes a step away. “Well, I’d teach you. None of us are naturals—we learned. I taught your brother, and I can teach you. I can be your first for this too.”
I could have gone without that last part. It makes me feel about one hundred times worse about losing my virginity to Mikey. It’s not the same, but it makes me think he’s hoping to be my first something else. Something else he knew I still had a couple of days ago.
He winks and takes my hand. “You’ll be an expert by the time I’m done with you.”