Earl Sewell - Back to Me

I went back inside the house and headed toward Anna’s room. As I walked through the kitchen, Aunt Raven stopped me.

“Viviana, honey. Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

I swallowed down my feelings and held my chin up. “No. I’m cool.”

Seemingly satisfied with my brief answer, Aunt Raven said, “Okay.”

When I entered Anna’s room, she was sitting on the floor, painting her toenails green.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just waiting for the results of a lie detector test,” Anna said.

“Lie detector test?” The words rushed out of my mouth.

“Yeah, I’m not sure which show it is, but this guy who is nineteen has been cheating on his girlfriend who is seventeen,” Anna said as she focused on painting her pinkie toe. “Can you turn up the volume? The television remote is right there.” Anna pointed to the floor beside her. I picked up the remote and turned up the sound when the show came back on.

“What’s going on with this chick?” I asked, noticing this girl who was wearing an incredibly ugly dress and a bad wig.

“She’s pregnant for a second time by her boyfriend. She already has a six-month-old son,” Anna explained.

“Why would anyone want to date her? She isn’t even cute,” I said.

“I don’t know, but her boyfriend is hot. Anyway, she says that she loves him and wants him to be a father to their children,” Anna said.

“Oh, he is cute,” I said when I saw the ugly girl’s boyfriend come onto the stage. “Hopefully the babies will turn out looking like him,” I said, laughing. Anna found my comment just as humorous. The talk show host asked the boyfriend if he’d ever beaten up his girlfriend. He answered, “Yeah. She tries to put her hands on me, and I have to defend myself.” The boyfriend was making gestures with his hands.

“What a jerk,” Anna said, looking up at the screen.

“Yeah, but he is a fine one,” I said, checking him out more. “Do you know who he reminds me of?”

“No. Who?” Anna asked.

“Misalo. Maya’s ex-boyfriend,” I said.

“Oh, God, please don’t say that too loudly. She’s all whacked-out now that he’s dumped her,” Anna said.

“Well, that relationship wasn’t as ideal as she claimed it was,” I said, feeling absolutely no remorse for the role I’d played in ruining Maya’s perfect world.

“Hand me the remote. This guy is irritating me, trying to justify beating up his baby mama,” said Anna

“Don’t worry. I’ll switch the channel for you,” I said, aiming the remote at the television.

“Hey, I wanted to tell you that the thing with you not earning enough credits at school… Don’t sweat it. If you stay here and enroll in school with me, I’ll help you, okay?” Anna said.

I sighed. “Thank you. It looks like I’ll be here for a while. My mom just left and basically orphaned me,” I reluctantly admitted.

“She was here? Why didn’t you come get me? I would have loved to have talked to her,” Anna complained.

“Uh, it wasn’t the type of visit that was a pleasant one. She and your mom pretty much got into a nasty spat.”

“Really?” Anna asked, surprised.

“Yeah, really. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about that right now,” I said, pausing on the show called That’s So Raven.

“I think it would be so cool to be clairvoyant like Raven. Then I’d be able to see into the future,” Anna said.

“Yeah, I’d love to have that ability, as well,” I said as Anna screwed the cap back onto her nail polish.

“Why are you painting your toes that color?” I asked. “It doesn’t really work for your skin tone.”

“Because I like it,” Anna simply said.

“Speaking of liking things, do you still like Carlo as much as you did before?” I asked.

“I told you. I’m done with that. I don’t want anything to do with him,” Anna said convincingly.

“Can I ask a personal question?”

“Sure,” she said.

“What was it like? I mean, being sick from the crystal meth.”

“It was horrible. I just remember feeling very disoriented. The room started spinning around, and my body just did whatever it wanted to without my permission.”

“That’s when you had the seizure,” I said.

“I wouldn’t wish that feeling on my worst enemy,” Anna said.

“Well, I’m just happy that you’re okay,” I said.

“So am I.”

“So, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?” I asked.

“I was thinking about going to the Heritage Festival and hanging out. Other than that, I have no real plans,” Anna said.

“Will there be any guys there?” I asked.

“Yeah, there will be plenty. People from all around come to it. There are even a lot of local bands, singers and all types of artists who perform. I think you’d like it,” Anna said.

“I am so stressed-out right now. Seriously, I would enjoy going there just to help me forget about everything that’s been bothering me,” I said, moving across the room to glance out of Anna’s window. I saw Maya and Keysha walking away from the house.

“Okay, we could go together,” Anna suggested.

“Are you sure you want to go with me and not with one of your girlfriends?” I asked. After seeing Maya and Keysha together, I thought that I was becoming a nuisance and preventing Anna from hanging out with her friends.

“If we go, I plan on calling two of my girlfriends. We could meet them there, and I could introduce you to them,” Anna said.

“I’d like that a lot,” I said as I moved away from the window.

Four

MAYA

Keysha and I walked from my house toward Veterans Park, where the festival was being held. As we got closer, we saw throngs of people walking rhythmically into the park, many of them carrying lawn chairs and ice coolers, in search of the perfect spot to set up. There were little kids with painted butterflies on their faces and balloons tied to their wrists. I noticed several teen couples holding hands and kissing each other. That saddened me because it reminded me of how I felt when I was with Misalo. As Keysha and I made our way past a gathering of girls, we both noticed how they looked at us and started laughing for no apparent reason.

“What was that about?” Keysha asked.

“I have no idea,” I said as I kept moving forward.

“I heard that there is supposed to be a fireworks show tonight,” Keysha mentioned.

“I don’t know if I want to be out here that late. I didn’t bring any bug spray, and you know that we have mosquitoes the size of airplanes around here.”

“Oh, girl, the mosquitoes aren’t thinking about you. They have way too many people to chew on,” Keysha said jokingly.

I would’ve laughed, but I honestly just wasn’t in the mood.

“Do you want to grab something from the concession stand?” Keysha asked.

“I guess,” I said nonchalantly.

Keysha ordered cheese nachos and a Coke. I ordered a pretzel and a drink. Once we had our food, we located an empty picnic table and sat down to eat. As Keysha enjoyed her nachos, I casually glanced around to see who I knew. It didn’t take me long to spot Priscilla. She’d just stepped away from the concession stand with a hot dog. Our eyes made contact, and she walked toward me.

“Is it okay if I sit here with you guys for a minute?” she asked.

“Hey, Priscilla,” Keysha greeted her. It was cool to see that they’d let all the bad blood between them disappear. However, if Priscilla had ruined my prom dress and my evening the way she’d messed up Keysha’s, I’d still be ticked off. I guess Keysha was more forgiving than I was when it came to stuff like that.

“How’s the baby doing?” Keysha asked.