Julia Karr - XVI

“What?” I glared right back at her. “Later, guys.” Sandy charged off down the sidewalk.

Derek looked from me to Sal and back again. “Yeah, later, Nina,” he echoed.

By the time I caught up to Sandy, she wasn’t speaking to me. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long.

She stopped in the center island on State Street, planted her hands on her hips, and lit into me. “What do you think you’re doing, giving Sal your number? You knew I thought he was cute and wanted to hang out. We could’ve taken the later express. Do you want him for yourself? I didn’t think you wanted a boyfriend.”

It seemed like a million transits whizzed by us while she went on—berating and blaming me. Finally, I grabbed her sleeve. “Sandy, stop!”

She yanked her arm away and stared at me. “Well?”

“Well what? I didn’t give Sal my number, Mike did. I don’t care whether he’s cute or not, or whether he likes you or not. And you’re right, I don’t want a boyfriend. Between you and Derek… hellzit… one minute you’re my best friend and the next you’re treating me like a traitor. Is some guy we just met more important than the fact that we’ve been best friends practically forever? Huh?”

Sandy dropped her gaze and didn’t answer.

“Friends are supposed to talk stuff over, not jump to crazy conclusions,” I said. “What’s the matter with you anyway? Is this what sixteen is going to do to you? I thought you knew me better.” I marched past her across the street. Then I had to turn around and holler, “Are you coming?”

Because of Sandy’s tirade, we ended up on the later express and barely got back to Cementville on time. We didn’t talk much on the way home. Sandy apologized at least five times, promising that I was more important than any guy. I knew she meant it—at least she meant it the moment she said it.

At that point, I didn’t much care about what would happen when Sandy turned sixteen, or when I turned sixteen. I was more concerned about being late. Ginnie didn’t often ask me to watch Dee. And here I was, letting some guy and sixteen make me break my promise.

“Sorry I’m late.” I tossed my sweater on the sofa. “Where’s Dee?”

“She’s in her room.” Ginnie came out of the bathroom and gave me a quick kiss. Her makeup hardly covered the yellowing remains of a nasty bruise on her cheekbone. I didn’t say anything. We had an unwritten rule: no discussing Ed-inflicted injuries, period.

I was surprised to see papers strewn on the couch; Ginnie was a total neat freak. “What’s this?” I picked up an envelope from the cushion that had Rita scribbled on it. “Who’s Rita?”

“No one special. She’s a friend.” Ginnie took it from me and stuffed it into her purse.

“Are you seeing Ed tonight?”

“No.” She pulled on a pair of retro Galaxy boots and slipped an imitation sheepskin vest over her sweater. “I’ve got a meeting. I shouldn’t be home too late. Gran and Pops okay? Did you have fun?”

“It was all right. Gran and Pops are fine. There was a foray in their building, Johnny Pace was arrested. Supposedly, he had a transmitter in his room. The cops stopped us when we were leaving, checked our IDs. And Sandy and I had a fight.”

“Johnny? Damn.” She sighed. “No problem with the police, was there?”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been scanned. It freaked me out a little.”

Ginnie threw her arms around me. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.” She shook her head.

“You really need to teach me that breath-control thing. I thought they’d ED me for sure and then…”

“You’re finally ready to learn.” She beamed at me. “We’ll start first thing in the morning.” I followed her into her room, where she put some last minute touches on her outfit. “Anything else happen?” she asked.

“Yeah, one of the cops gave me a weird look when I told him my name.”

“Really? That’s just your imagination.” I thought for a moment that I detected a note of concern in her voice, but she changed the subject. “So what happened with Sandy? You want to talk about it?” She checked the clock. “I’ve got a few minutes before I need to leave.”

I did want to talk. But it would take more than a few minutes to sort out everything. “Oh, and I met this guy today, Sal Davis.” I thought better of telling her how I met Sal.

“Sal Davis? That name sounds familiar.” She tapped her lips. “Hmm… not coming to me… maybe later. Let me guess about Sandy. She thought this guy was cute, but he liked you instead.”

It always amazed me how Ginnie knew exactly what was going on without even being told. “Yeah, and there’s more, too, about Derek. But it can wait. I don’t want you to be late.”

“You sure?” She put her arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze.

I hugged her back. “I’m sure. I bet Sandy will call later tonight and we’ll work it out. It’s not like anything’s going to change in the next few hours.”

On the way back down the hall, Ginnie called out, “DeeDee, honey, I’m leaving. Mind your sister.”

Dee came racing from her room and threw herself into Ginnie’s arms. My little sister had more energy than ten genrons. “Can Nina make fried toes? Can we watch movies? When will you be home?”

“Yes, yes, and I don’t know.” Ginnie laughed, swinging Dee around in circles.

“Not too late, Mom, I want to show you a dance routine Corrine and I were just working on.” Dee planted a big kiss on Ginnie’s cheek and squirmed loose. “I’ll pick out the vid, Neens.” She dashed across the room to select her favorite from the AV list.

“I love you, DeeDee.” Ginnie turned her attention to me. “And, Nina, remember… if anything—”

“Stop,” I said. “Nothing is going to happen. Quit being silly. Now go, or you’ll be late. I love you.”

“I know, sweetie.” She cupped my cheek in her hand and kissed me, then rubbed her lipstick print off. “I love you, too. We’ll talk later.”

“Be careful.” I watched her silhouette disappear into the darkness.

Dee’d picked her favorite series, Arriane Lightfoot, Moon Academy. It was a comedy about a girl at boarding school on the moon. I slipped the chip into our FAV. When we moved to Cementville so Ginnie could be near Ed, he’d actually bought us a brand-new Family Audio/Video. I figured it was because he felt bad that he’d broken Ginnie’s arm. She said it was so he could watch Athletics whenever he came over.

That wasn’t all he watched. I’d accidentally clicked on playback once after he’d left. It was disgusting—worse than anything they’d shown us in Sex Ed. Just the thought of those images made me want to run and hide. I was never going to have sex if it was anything like those movies: men forcing themselves on girls, some who were much younger than sixteen. I never told Ginnie what I’d seen. Partly because I was too embarrassed, but mostly I was afraid that she watched that stuff with him. I didn’t want to think about that, or Ed, so I focused on what needed doing in the present.

“You hungry, Dee?”

“Yeah,” she said, without looking away from the screen. “Don’t forget the fried toes.”

In the kitchen, I punched a few buttons on the cook center. Ten minutes later Dee and I were snarfing down seitan burgers with the works and tofu fries, all caught up in Arriane’s adventures. Sometimes I really liked watching kid shows. It was like a vacation from real life.

We were on episode two, Arriane was organizing a talent show for her school, when my PAV beeped.

“Keep watching. It’s probably just Sandy. I’ll be right back.” I went into the kitchen with my plate of food. “Hey.” It wasn’t Sandy, it was Derek.