table. As I made my way back upstairs, I saw Aunt Raven pick up her cell phone. I paused for a moment to see who she was calling. I eavesdropped on the conversation.
“Hello, Mom. It’s me, Raven. Salena has surfaced,” I heard her say.
Two
MAYA
After watching Viviana rush out of the house like a two-year-old having a temper tantrum, I went up to my bedroom. I couldn’t believe she had missed most of her junior year of high school and had to repeat it. I know it wasn’t totally her fault, but it still didn’t stop me from thinking she wasn’t all that bright of a student. I also wasn’t feeling the idea of my mom wanting to let her stay. I wanted Viviana to leave. The longer she stayed around, the more I got a bad feeling something crazy was going to jump off.
I closed my door and grabbed my cell phone from the nightstand, where it was recharging. I saw that I’d received several text messages, and hoped at least one of them was from Misalo. When I checked, I found that there were several photos of shirtless male friends I knew. I shouldn’t really call them friends, since they were just guys from the neighborhood that both Misalo and I hung out with. One shirtless photo had a message that read, Maya, I didn’t know you were so freaky. Heard you broke up with Misalo. Hit me back, Bobby.
There was also a photo of Hector, wearing only his boxer shorts. In the photo he was trying to flex his scrawny biceps muscle, which had a tattoo of a skull. His message read, I can give you all of this and a lot more. Misalo was stupid for letting a super freak like you go. Come see what it feels like to be with a real man, baby. The final one was from a boy named Bailey, who was on the soccer team with Misalo. He forwarded a photo of his pierced tongue. His message read, I have front row tickets to the Lil Wayne concert. What are you willing to do for them? Frustrated and ticked off that they were doing this, I shot them all text messages back that read, Oh, hell to the no! I wouldn’t date you if you were the last idiot on the planet! Now leave me alone!
I heard a knock at my door. “Go away!” I said. Whoever was there clearly didn’t understand English, because I saw the door creep open. “Hey, I said get the hell—” I didn’t finish, because I saw that it was my best friend, Keysha. She was wearing blue jean shorts, a white tank top and some cute sandals. She also had a cute pink scarf covering her damp hair. Keysha worked part-time as a lifeguard at the pool, and liked to cover her hair at the end of her shift.
“I didn’t tell you to enter,” I said condescendingly.
“Whoa, where is this hostility coming from? I came over here to see how you were doing,” Keysha said defensively.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’m just in a really funky mood.”
Keysha came in and closed the door. “I think your mom is talking to her sister. And did you know that Viviana is blocking the steps, looking like she has to send a late text to her boyfriend?” she asked.
“Huh?” I was completely confused by what Keysha was saying.
Chuckling, Keysha said, “It’s something I overheard. Some guys were at the pool, boasting about how many girls they’d slept with. One of them said, ‘I love having sex, so I use latex so that my girl won’t send me a late text.’ It was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard, but Viviana has a look on her face like she needs to send a late text.”
“Please! That chick couldn’t get the ugliest boy on the planet to even look in her direction. Her attitude is nastier than a baboon’s behind.”
“Wow,” Keysha said, surprised by my total dislike of Viviana.
“I’ll run down and see my aunt Salena later,” I said as I sat down at the foot of my bed. I released a long, depressing sigh. Keysha came and sat next to me. She draped her arm around me and gave me a big hug. I leaned forward and placed my face in the palms of my hands. I gave myself permission to cry while Keysha rocked me.
“Come on, girl. If you start crying, then I’ll start, too,” Keysha said.
I got a lasso around my emotions before getting up to pull a few Kleenex tissues from a box on top of my dresser.
“Have you heard from him?” Keysha asked.
“No. He won’t return my phone calls,” I said.
“Maybe he’ll answer if I call,” Keysha said.
“Would you?” I asked, feeling as if Misalo might answer her phone call.
“Yeah,” Keysha said. She removed her cell phone from her pocket and called him. She then handed me the phone. After several rings, Misalo answered the phone.
“Hey, honey,” I said as sweetly as I could.
“Keysha? I know you’re not trying to hook up with me,” Misalo said.
“This isn’t Keysha,” I said innocently. “It’s me, Maya. Can we talk?” I asked.
“Maya, I’m not going to play these games with you. Obviously you’ve been secretly dealing with Carlo behind my back. I just wish you could have owned up to the fact that you wanted someone else. You didn’t have to string me along, as if we had something special that couldn’t be broken.”
“We do have something special. This is all just a big misunderstanding, baby,” I said, hoping my honey-coated words would reach his heart.
“Maya, you were slow dancing with another guy at a party. I’m done with you,” he said with absolute certainty.
“But I’m not ready for you to be done with me,” I said, feeling my tears swell.
“You should’ve thought about that before you started creeping with Carlo,” Misalo replied, raising his voice at me.
Raising my voice back, I asked, “Will you at least give me a chance to explain my side of the story?”
“Maya, I don’t…” He paused. “You know what? You’re not the woman I thought you were. Just stop bothering me,” he said and hung up. I felt as numb as a rock as I sat there with the phone to my ear, as if he would return and say he was sorry. I felt as if the world had stopped time. I couldn’t bring myself to believe that it was over between Misalo and me.
“What did he say?” asked Keysha.
“He hates me,” I whispered as more tears fell from my eyes.
Keysha attempted to make me feel better. “He doesn’t hate you. Misalo loves you.”
“I have to do something. I’m not going to let this happen,” I said, suddenly feeling angry.
“What are you going to do?” Keysha asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m not giving up. I’ll fight for him if I have to,” I said with absolute resolve.
“Well, you know I’m here for you,” Keysha said, offering her support.
Smearing away my tears of sadness, I turned to her and said, “I love him, Keysha. If his heart is broken, then so is mine. If he feels sad, then so do I. When his soul is wounded, so is mine. He knows in his heart that I wasn’t trying to hurt him.”
“Okay, let’s go back a little. Tell me again what happened,” Keysha said.
“I’m telling you, it was nothing. I snuck out of the house,” I explained.
“I still can’t believe you did that,” Keysha remarked.
“I know. I’m so perfect, right? I never do anything wild or crazy. I’m always the responsible one,” I said mockingly.
“But that’s who you are. As long as I’ve known you, you’ve never pulled the sneak-out-of-the-house stunt.” Keysha reminded me of my untarnished record.
“Have you forgotten about the party I went to where I got my leg broken?” I reminded her.
“No,