Chapter 12 Saylor
Saylor
As soon as I can get away from my mom.
“So, you two figure out your plan of attack, and let me know if there are gonna be any more changes to the board,” Mom says.
“ ’Kay.” I’m not saying anything else, because she’s recording her Monday Mom Life content.
Every Monday she makes a video laying out her week.
Her phone is mounted so it’s turned toward the driver’s side so I’m not in the frame, but if I say anything content worthy, she’ll skip the voice-over and include what I said in the video and I am not in the mood.
“Also, not that you need to make a thing out of it, but Heaven’s a lesbian, right? Maybe you can talk to her about being queer.”
I whip my head in her direction so fast. “Mom.”
“What?! It’s another thing you two can bond over. You’re both biracial. You’re both lesbians. It’s a friendship made in heaven. Haha. Get it?”
“First of all, whaaaaat? Second of all, we’ve already talked about me coming out and she’s been gay since, like, birth. It’s not a big deal.”
“I don’t mean like that.”
“And another thing, it’s not like I don’t have queer friends. Tates and Emily are right there, and so are the Moms. Teresa already told me I can talk to her anytime I want. Same with Melissa.”
“Aww, good. I’m glad you have them in your life.
” Melissa Greene deserves an award for putting up with Mom, especially after she basically asked her and her wife to be the positive Black female influences in my life since my dad’s family is back in Maryland.
Still, I love the Greenes and I love my Bethy-boo.
Even if my mom made things weird at first. I’m glad I have them in my life too.
Finally, we pull up in front of the Goo-Campbells’ massive three-story farmhouse on the park. I can’t believe I walked all the way over here the other day.
“Here we are,” Mom says as she puts the car in park and then she undoes her seat belt. Then she pauses her recording.
“You don’t need to come in,” I say a little too quickly.
“I’m not coming in. I’m just going to walk up and say hello. Do you need help with the door?”
“No, I got it. Just don’t bring your phone. You didn’t ask Heaven if she’s okay being filmed.”
“Oh right. Let’s go.”
I grab my sling bag, hop out of the car, and follow my mom up the walkway.
Mom rings the doorbell, and I can just imagine Heaven watching the doorbell camera trying to decide whether she’s gonna let us in.
I messaged her last night to let her know I’d be over around lunchtime, but she could have changed her mind.
A few moments later the door opens and there’s Heaven.
Her hair is pulled back in its usual tight low bun.
She’s wearing baggy jeans and an oversized T-shirt that has a queen of hearts card on it, but the queens’ faces are skulls.
The whole look is on brand and I kinda love it.
My crush? Still going very strong. Just seeing her face makes my heart do a little backflip.
“Hi, Saylor. Hi, Mrs. Ford.” She’s trying to be polite, but she doesn’t smile. My very problematic obsession betrays my self-control and I smile at her.
“Hey.”
“Hi, honey.” Mom says. “I’m gonna let you two get to it, but I just wanted to say thank you for including Saylor.
I know it wasn’t a part of your plan, but she’s been really sad since basketball camp got cut short, even if she doesn’t want to tell you that.
Her sisters and her friends are all away, which is a total bummer.
And she ditched the boyfriend, though that was the right decision.
I know you two aren’t close, but I think that’s how all great friendships start. ”
Heaven’s eyes widen just a bit and I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought that was the worst thing my mom could say right now. I glance up at the window on the third floor, the one Heaven is definitely going to push me out of.
“That’s our goal for the summer, Mom. The friendship to end all friendships,” I say. Heaven doesn’t smile, but her lip twitches a little.
“Uh, my mom said to let you know that we’ll bring Saylor home,” Heaven says.
“Great!” I say. “Mom, I think we got it from here.”
“ ’Kay. I’m gonna head back home and get started on the T-shirts.”
“What?” Heaven asks, clearly stunned.
“You’ll see.” Mom jogs her eyebrows and then heads back down the front steps.
“Should I be worried?” Heaven asks once Mom is back in the car.
“Only a little. She said she wanted to make something to commemorate our summer adventure. I told her we would wear them for one picture and you get to decide if she posts it. We have a few days before she finishes them.”
“Oh, okay. You wanna come in?”
“Yeah, I have so much to show you.” I can’t help but grin.
I’ve been waiting all morning to show Heaven the results of all my research.
She moves so I can ease by her and head inside.
I step out of my Converse by the bench near the front door and ditch them next to Heaven’s worn Vans.
I realize after a second the bench is made out of a long skateboard, which is pretty cool.
I didn’t notice that the first time, but I keep that enthusiasm over the cool piece of furniture to myself and follow Heaven deeper into her house.
“Did you have fun at the skate park yesterday?” I ask.
“Yeah. It was pretty cool. There was a good breeze, so we were sweating but not dying. After, we were all wishing one of us had a pool, though.”
“Ugh, I’d love to go swimming. The best I can do is sit in the shallow end with a garbage bag around my arm.”
“Maybe when you get your cast off you can ask Bethany to throw a pool party at her house.”
“That’s a great idea.”
“I’m full of ’em,” Heaven says with a shrug.
“I’ll tell you what I did do yesterday. I spent hours looking up different tattoo artists and artists’ accounts. I even found three girls who are apprenticing right now.”
“Do you wanna go up to my room?” she says, and then it’s like she immediately regrets it. That wide-eyed look of regret hits her face and I can tell that she’s blushing.
“Heaven. You flirt.”
“No—no. I mean, all of my portfolio stuff is up in my room. We can go up there and figure out what to post first and then we can figure out what bingo item we want to do first.”
“Let’s do it. Are the dogs here?” I ask. That makes Heaven smile.
“Yeah. The only furniture they’re allowed on is my bed. Come, girls,” she says a little louder, and then like magic I hear that jingling sound again. Fergie and Di come trotting into the room. They both come right over to me and let me scratch their soft doggy heads.
“They are so cute.”
“They know it too. Come on.”
I happily follow Heaven through the kitchen, not at all prepared for what is waiting when we reach the stairs.
There are dozens, and I mean dozens, of pictures of Heaven since kindergarten lining the wall going up the stairs.
Like the most adorable pictures I’ve ever seen.
Heaven with pigtails. Heaven smiling so big you can see her missing front teeth.
Heaven wearing pink! She glances back at me, and it takes the collective effort of every molecule in my body not to ask her a million questions.
Like when she traded in her clear love for pink and purple and unicorns for this all-black style.
We go all the way up to the third floor.
There’s an open door to a bathroom straight ahead, but Heaven stops in front of a door on the left.
I pause a few feet behind her, absently patting one of the dogs on the head.
Heaven turns to me, but before she says anything, I see the sign that’s hanging on her door.
It’s one of those street parking signs. It’s pink.
Princess Parking Only. All Others Will Be Toad.
Toad.
I look back at her and she glares at me, her eyes narrowing. “Be. Cool.”
“We’re good. I’m cool. I promise.”
She opens her door to her bedroom and lets the dogs in.
I step in behind them and it’s like I’m transported to another dimension where it rains color and fun every day.
I look around at her massive bed covered in a fluffy purple duvet and a mountain of different Squishmallows.
She has white carpet like the rest of the upstairs, but there is a big rainbow area rug taking up most of the floor.
Star lights are draped around her window that overlooks the park.
The window’s smaller than it looks from the street, but she can still push me out of it, so I keep my mouth shut about the magical wonderland she calls a bedroom.
There are a few toy cars still in the box on her desk.
Her bright pink desk. On the other side of the room, she has a TV set up between bookshelves filled with books and a PS5 with some controllers.
She has one of those big teal sac chairs on the floor in front of the TV.
I resist the urge to be nosy and look closely at every single piece of art on her walls.
I watch one of the dogs hop on the bed as the other one makes herself comfortable in the sac chair, letting out this adorable doggy sigh.
It is the cutest thing I have ever experienced in my whole life.
I look at Heaven just to make sure she is truly witnessing this display of cuteness, but she’s already moved on. She’s messing with a tablet on her desk. She finds whatever she’s looking for then slides the desk chair over for me to sit in—the same one my mom got me for my vanity.
“This is a cool room,” I say, still in awe, a weird fluttering lighting off in my stomach.
This is the real Heaven, I realize. She’s secretly nice, buying people gay cake and stuff, but she’s also a low-key pretty princess living up in her brightly colored tower room.
How am I supposed to get over my crush? How am I supposed to stop myself from daydreaming about kissing Heaven on top of that purple duvet cover?
We could get married in this room. It would be a small ceremony, but it would be so perfect.
“Thanks. Can we—I don’t want to tell my parents that you’re helping me with this,” Heaven says.
“What—oh yeah. Sure,” I say brightly. “I mean, you’re saving me from an almost guaranteed psychotic break that would be caused directly by my own mother. Also, it was my idea.”
“They just want me to put my big girl pants on and they just don’t understand how freaked out I am. I liked drawing because it was something quiet I could do alone, something I can do for myself.”
“But now you have to show everyone, and it feels like you have to prove how good you are,” I reply.
“That’s it exactly. I don’t—I don’t like attention. I don’t like being perceived, but I have to be comfortable putting myself out there or it’s going to be really hard to do the one job I actually want.”
“That is such a raw and honest thing to say and very good to know,” I tell her. “I think I’m the perfect person to help you. I hate my mom’s mode of embarrassing the absolute hell out of me, but I am too cute not to be perceived. I don’t mind it at all. You wanna see what I’ve come up with so far?”
“Yeah, lay it on me.”
I bite my tongue and keep all thoughts about kissing and being teenage lesbian wives to myself. Instead, I pull out my phone.