17 Meatball Bomber
Meatball Bomber
There we were at the airport, all looking almost unbelievably sad. Naya had come prepared with a box of tissues. Just before security, I turned and looked at everyone and reminded them, “It’s only two days.”
“Two and a half days!” Naya shouted, bear-hugging me. I felt amused, but also a little perplexed. I don’t think anyone had ever been so open with me about how much they’d miss me. Apart from my mom, I mean.
“Have fun,” Will said, clapping me on the back.
Sue was…well, Sue. Uncomfortable, weird, probably sweet deep down. She nodded to me. That was a lot for her.
I hesitated when I looked at Ross. He seemed to be waiting to see what I would do.
A little voice inside me told me he wasn’t willing to take the first step because he wasn’t sure how I’d react.
I’d never kissed him in public before. But maybe now was the time.
I stepped forward, but then I stopped—I chickened out—and gave him a hug around the waist. If he was disappointed, he didn’t show it.
He just smiled and wished me a pleasant trip.
Oh, Ross. You’re too good , I thought.
I had a knot in my stomach as I descended from the airplane. When I made it to arrivals, my heart froze as I saw my parents and Spencer, who was holding a sign that said Welcome Home . I smiled and teared up.
Dad looked same as ever: short, white goatee, golf shirt.
Mom had pulled her brown hair back in a bun and was wiping her eyes with her kerchief, which reminded me of Naya.
My brother towered over me. I noticed he’d gotten a tattoo of a lady pirate, but before I could mention it, my mother shouted so loudly that half the airport turned to look at us.
“Oh, honey!” She planted kisses on every inch of my cheeks. “You can’t imagine how much I missed you! You’re here! Did you miss me? You better have!”
“Mom, you know I did.”
I couldn’t help but start giggling as she squeezed and cuddled me.
Dad just smiled. He wasn’t one for physical contact.
He asked if I’d lost some weight, and that was enough to throw Mom into a panic: “Are you not eating enough?” she shrieked, and when I told her I was just running a lot, Spencer said, “I’ll bet you’re still slow as a turtle,” hugging me and lifting me off the ground.
“Man,” he continued, “you look like an actual grown-up.”
“Don’t you dare touch my hair!” I shouted as he reached toward it malevolently, getting ready to give me a noogie.
“I swear you’re getting shorter,” he said.
“I swear you’re getting older,” I replied.
As we shoved each other, Mom told us not to start, and Dad, getting uncomfortable with the scene we were making, recommended we head home.
It was much colder at home than at school. I held Mom as we walked behind the two men. Spencer put my suitcase in the trunk of his car, and I got into the back seat with Mom. She couldn’t stop asking me the whole drive about college, my new friends, and of course, Ross.
“Don’t stress her out,” Dad said.
“I’m her mother. I’m not stressing her out; I’m showing her that I care.”
When we reached our street, I looked out the window, noticing our house in the cul-de-sac, facing the ocean.
I shivered as I thought how cold it must be now.
Where we lived, the beach was always littered with bottles from the teenagers who went down there to get drunk at night.
The nicer area was to the north, where all the hotels were.
Spencer parked by the garage and helped me with my backpack. Inside, the scent of home invaded my nostrils. I had forgotten that home had a smell, but now I realized it and I loved it. I walked into the kitchen and crouched down as a huge ball of fur barreled toward me.
“Biscuit!” I shouted, letting my dog lick my face.
I patted his head and back for a long time, then walked to the living room, where Steve and Sonny were arguing about a game they were watching. “Hey!” I shouted. They looked at me and frowned.
“She’s back,” Steve murmured.
“Didn’t take her long,” Sonny said, nodding. “How long did we bet?”
“I said a month, you said two weeks, Spencer said three months, and Shannon said she was gone forever.”
“I guess everyone loses, then,” I said, crossing my arms. “You know, you guys could at least pretend you missed me a little.”
“We’ve got our own bathroom now,” Sonny said. “You can’t really compare with that.”
“Yeah,” Steve said, scowling at me as if I were the source of all their problems. “This house is going to become a war zone.”
“I love you, too, idiots!” I replied, jumping in the twins’ laps and laughing as I listened to them grumble.
Why was it always so much fun to bother them?
Biscuit joined in, and the two of us slumped on top of them like a couple of sacks of potatoes.
But they deserved it. The two of them had decided to open a garage, which meant it was their fault I had to move out of the dorms. Maybe I should thank them for it, though?
After all, if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be living with Will, Sue, and Ross.
My father walked in and ordered them to give me a hug while they struggled to shove me off of them. Sonny protested, “We’re busy!” With that whiny tone in their voices, you could tell they were the youngest in the family, except for me, who got to be the butt of all their jokes.
I turned Sonny’s ball cap backward. That used to always drive him crazy.
Mom came out of the kitchen and said, “Look at you three, just like in the old days. Honey, are you sure you can’t just stay?”
“Mom, don’t start again,” Spencer said. When I asked about my room, Mom said it hadn’t been touched, and Steve groaned, “Yeah, I tried to move in, but she wouldn’t let me.”
Sonny asked, “Why do you care? I heard you were living with your new boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” I said. But I was already blushing.
That had been a bad mistake. Now the real torture would begin.
All three of my brothers pounced, repeating, “Jenna’s got a boyfriend” in a dumb, singsong voice, asking me what I did to make him not want to come with me, speculating on what was wrong with him that would make him go out with me, and so on, chasing all the way up to the third door on the left, which I opened with a smile on my face, my whole body a bundle of nerves, entering a place it felt like I hadn’t been in for a thousand years.
It was true: everything was exactly as it had been when I was last there. My little bed between the two windows, the desk I had made Steve paint an ugly shade of pink that I now hated, my closet almost empty, the white carpet where I used to stretch out and study with Nelle.
I looked at my record collection, a gift from my aunt when I was young. She must have thought those albums would mean so much to me, but I’d never listened to them. If only Ross could look through them. He’d probably know each and every single band.
That afternoon, I hung out at home, helping my father—the house chef—prepare a birthday cake for Mom for the next day: chocolate with sugar cookies frosted to the outside.
Perfect for my so-called diet. I tossed one of the cookies to Biscuit thinking of the panic Naya would fly into if she found herself surrounded by all these calories.
I had told myself I’d go out when night came, but there wasn’t really time, and I didn’t care, I didn’t want to see anyone else anyway.
We watched a football game together, and I cheered for the team everyone hated just to piss them off.
Mom joined me. I could see she’d missed me really bad.
And I got it. It couldn’t have been easy being the only woman in the house with those four guys.
After dinner, my brothers said I had to do the dishes because they’d shouldered the burden ever since I left. I shrugged and set to work, and soon Spencer returned to the kitchen to pour himself a bowl of chocolate cereal. Just what a gym teacher should be eating.
“I thought gym teachers were supposed to have a healthy diet,” I said, blowing my hair out of my face.
“Do as I say, not as I do, that’s what I always tell the kids.” He scarfed his cereal down and dropped the bowl and spoon in the sink among the other dirty dishes before sitting on the counter to talk.
“So,” he began, “I heard you dropped the basketball player guy…”
“Did Mom tell you?”
“No, Shannon. She told me to pretend I didn’t know if you brought it up.”
“Well, I guess you get an F there.”
“I didn’t feel like faking,” he said.
“I can’t believe you two are the oldest and you’re so gossipy.”
“Is that a yes?”
I thought it over a moment. “It’s a yes,” I said.
I wondered whether I should tell Spencer what had happened between me and Monty.
If I said too much, he’d probably go over there and knock Monty’s lights out.
Or worse. And all I wanted was never to think about him again.
So when he asked again, I said, “Nothing, it was just stupid stuff. The usual. It’s over now. ”
“Jenna, be careful. You know what he’s like. I wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up at your apartment one day.”
“That’s why I’ve been running so much, so I can get away,” I joked.
When Spencer stared at me, I tried to reassure him that Monty wouldn’t dare, and if he did, Ross, Will, Sue, and Naya would show him the door.
“Is Ross your boyfriend?”
He caught me by surprise, and I dropped a plate in the soapy water, splashing my shirt. Spencer laughed and said, “Never mind, that’s the only answer I need.”
“I didn’t say yes!”
“You don’t need to.”