Chapter 7 Kai
Inevitably, it’s time for Jamie to start her shift at the cafe. I left my soccer bag with Parker to dump at my house on his way home. On our wheels, and equipped with our backpacks, Jamie and I glide down Main Street.
Halfway toward Morton’s Café, I tap Jamie’s shoulder when I clock the store sign for Gadgets & Tech. “Hey, wait up a sec. I gotta go in and pick up a part for my drone.”
Jamie’s lip upturns. “Why are you bothering to fix it? It won’t fly again after it nosedived into that tree.”
“Hush. My parents are being stubborn about buying me a new one when I’m getting my car. Besides, I watched a YouTube video. I can do it.”
She groans. “Can’t you get it later?”
“No.” I deadpan at her. “If I go to the café first, they’ll be shut by the time I leave.”
“And that’s my problem, how?”
“Ugh. Stop being a butthead and just wait for me, okay?”
She smirks. “Okay. Just don’t take forever about it.”
I hike my skateboard under my arm as I enter the store, and flag down the clerk. “Hey, man. I ordered a part from you guys, and I got a notification that it’d arrived.”
The clerk huffs and plonks behind the counter. “Name?”
“Kai Nelson.”
He grunts as he stabs at the buttons on his keyboard. “Oh, c’mon, you stupid thing. Work, would ya?”
I exhale, wincing, and turn toward the front windows. I don’t need this grouch ruining my mood.
“Oh, look who it is,” a snarky voice calls from the sidewalk.
My back immediately cramps. Through the store’s window, Camila Garcia and her two airhead followers saunter into view. The three of them circle like hyenas, glaring at Jamie.
“Oh, eww.“ Camila cackles. “Look at the get-up. Is your little diner doing rollerblade service?”
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.” I snap my fingers at the store clerk. “I gotta get out there.”
“How did you spell that name?” he drawls.
I throw my head back in annoyance. “K-A-I Nelson. N-E-L-S-O-N. Dude, c’mon.”
“K-A-what?”
“Ugh. It’s a drone part. You don’t stock it. There’s gotta be only one floating around. Can’t you just ring it up?”
His eyes slit, and he waddles away from the counter, disappearing into a back room.
I sincerely hope he’s looking for the part and he’s not just pissed off with me.
“She isn’t working in that dodgy café with knee and elbow padding, is she?” Yvette Anderson sarcastically asks, screwing her nose up at the sight of my best friend. “I hope she washes up before serving the public. I mean, a graffitied skatepark doesn’t exactly scream sanitary to me.”
Jamie squirms against the storefront, trying to sink into the pavement below.
“Yeah, there’s such a thing as hygiene management,” Camila continues, holding her hips. “Like, eww. Why would she want to spread disease around?”
Disease?
As the word echoes around my head, a fire grows inside me. I’m about to run out of the store and prop Jamie up, when the clerk comes back with a box.
“This it?” he asks.
I don’t even give it a second glance. “Yeah, I’ll take it.”
I’ve never swiped my bank card faster. I snatch the box, stuff it in my backpack, and hightail it out of the store.
As I rush through the doorway, Tabitha Jones flicks her brunette curls off her shoulder and gazes off to the side. “Girls, there’s a reason we don’t go into that cafe. Remember?”
The sight of her being so flippant about my friend and her livelihood has me livid. I perch a hand on Jamie’s arm and her goosebumps are like braille.
“Oh, I’m looking right at the reason,” Camila says, puffing her chest like she’s ready to spout even worse venom.
In a shot, I lift a pointed finger in her direction. “One more word out of your mouth, and I’ll make sure you can’t speak for a week.”
It takes the wind out of Camila, who reluctantly deflates. However, Yvette stands taller, squinting at me like I just appeared. “Oh my gosh, was that a threat? Like you’re gonna whack her with that skateboard or something?”
An indignant gasp shoots out of her and Tabitha. I lock onto Tabitha, who, true to form, is checking out my outfit. She judges me for my beat up old beanie, open flannel shirt over my overworn T-shirt, and my ripped jeans that sit over my favorite sneakers.
“Umm, hello?” Yvette continues squawking. “Violence against women is not okay.”
I broaden my frame. “Did those words really just vomit out of your mouth?”
The girls recoil in repulsion. As I keep my stare pointed at them, they no longer focus on Jamie and awkwardly bunch together on the pavement.
“Why don’t you buzz off and ruin somebody else’s day?” I bark at them.
There’s a lot of hair tossing and tongue clucking, like I haven’t spooked them out of being absolute witches.
They mutter together, scrambling to reach the high ground, but I couldn’t care less.
I’m only happy when they leave in the opposite direction of Jamie’s café and I finally drop my skateboard onto the sidewalk.
Jamie lets out an exhausted and frustrated groan. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She hunches forward, grabbing the sides of her head. “If they were boys, I would’ve had them in a headlock and forced them to take back every word. But, these girls…”
“Hey, hey,” I coo, prying her hands out of her tangled blonde curls. “They’re complete hags. They’re getting what’s coming to them.”
Jamie retches like she’s about to puke on my T-shirt. “At school, it’s one thing. But, out here on Main Street…”
I tilt my head, watching the green tinge spread over her pale complexion. “Does it happen often outside of school?”
She frowns at her beat up sneakers. “No. I can take occasional comments at school. That’s life. But this last week, it’s really ramped up. Ugh. I don’t want Maddy to find out. I don’t want it leaching into our cafe.”
“It won’t happen. I promise.” I swallow hard, unsure how I’ll make it a certainty, but I mean the promise. “Why didn’t you tell me when the comments started at school?”
“It wasn’t your problem.”
“Them messing with you is absolutely my problem.”
She lifts her gaze and I’m taken aback by the icy sadness. “I didn’t want you to think I’m weak. I wanna be like you and the rest of the guys. No one else gets picked on.”
I throw an arm around her. “Because we all stick together. They get you when you’re alone. Case in point, I left you to pick up this stupid thing.”
Jamie brightens with a smirk. “It wasn’t so stupid a few minutes ago.”
I give her my most serious look. “You know what I mean. Man, how long have you been hiding this from us?”
Jamie’s eyes widen. “Don’t tell the other guys.”
“They’ll have your back.”
“No, it’s embarrassing. I don’t want you guys fighting my battles.” She rubs the heel of her palm against her forehead. “I feel like such a loser.”
I crane her chin up with my thumb. “Hey, those girls are all talk and no action. They don’t deserve space in your brain.”
“I’m trying to forget them. Believe me.”
“They’re not very ladylike. Maybe you can think of them as guys so you can take them down.”
She snorts. “Guys don’t talk the way they do.”
“True.” I sigh. “You good, James?”
She nods with a small smile. “I’m good, bro.”
“Come on.” I nod ahead of us. “Let’s get you to the café where it’s safe.”
She grimaces at me. “Eww. I’m not some freaking damsel in distress. Don’t talk to me like that.”
I shoot my hands up in defense. “Sorry, bud. I didn’t mean to say anything nice. You’re totally tough as nails.”
Jamie pushes on ahead. “Yeah. I am.”
I board past the storefronts, behind Jamie, until we get to Morton’s Café.
This place is owned by Jamie and her aunt.
For real, at sixteen, Jamie owns half a business.
Their pseudo-grandmother left it to them.
Right now, Jamie doesn’t have any financial or decision-making responsibility.
That’ll come once she’s legally an adult.
For now, she plays waitress, helping her aunt pay for their bills.
“Hey guys,” Laura, one of the servers, greets us. “Kai, you want a burger?”
“When have I ever said no?” I say half-jokingly.
Laura grins. “Coming right up.”
I follow Jamie toward the counter. Laura disappears into the kitchen, and Maddy is behind the counter, telling Jamie which section she’s working.
My fingers itch to reach for my bankcard, but I know it’s a lost cause. Mom would argue with me all the time about ‘paying anyway.’ But once she actually saw Maddy’s hurt face about her niece’s best friend wanting to pay for a burger and a shake, Mom backed off.
I think it’s a family thing. Jamie and her aunt only have each other now, and I guess they like to think of me as family, too.
They give the other guys discounts, but giving everyone freebies would really send them broke.
It’s for the best because, I swear, Parker and Lewis come in here and have their own unofficial eating competitions.
I feel bad about Maddy feeding me for free because I know how much she and Jamie have struggled to live in this town.
Their house is tiny and on the outskirts.
Every year, Jamie has to reapply for her scholarship to attend our school.
But Maddy won’t take my money. When our family comes in on weekends, Mom and Dad usually leave overly generous tips to make up for it.
In the meantime, I help clean up because I figure working for food is at least something.
“Thanks, buddy,” the cook, Jake, says when I plonk a load of dishes on the stainless steel bench by the deep sink.
“You want me to wash them?” I ask. “I don’t mind.”
“Nah, all good,” Jake says. “Laura will be back in a sec to do that. How’s soccer going? You’re a striker, right?”
My chest inflates with the same warm tingles it gets anytime someone asks me about soccer. I can’t help smiling when I reply, “Yeah, man, I am. The season’s been going great so far.”
“Would only be better if I were on your team,” Jamie says, walking into the kitchen in her all-black uniform and a cheesy grin.
“No doubt, James,” I reply. “Our team does need you. It sucks that the school doesn’t do co-ed.”