Moose and Goose

Chapter Sixty-two

"Every month," Vera yells her question and jumps to her feet. Her eyes are as wide as saucers and filled with the terror of someone who's seen a ghost. "I have to do this every month?"

"Until you're older, but most girls won't know when that'll be until their mom no longer has hers," Judith explains, and Vera blinks forward.

"Mom still has hers? She's like fifty!" She chuckles at her and shakes her head.

"Judy, come downstairs!" They turn to the door, and Vera watches Judith stand to her feet. She walks into the hall with her little sister close behind, and they stop at the top of the stairs. "That boy up the street is outside right now. Go talk to him so he can leave."

Jerome?

Judith scampers down the rest of the steps and toward the door where her mother is standing. She has it held open a crack just wide enough for him to hear her disdain but not enough to see into her living room.

As her daughter approaches, she releases the knob and returns to the sofa. Judith steps onto the porch and shuts the door behind her, greeted by the back of his sweatshirt.

"Jerome," she calls him with uncertainty, and he turns to her. She scans his simple, usual appearance then twists her mouth at him. "I suppose you just got off work?"

"Yeah." She nods her head as it lowers. "Is it true?"

"Is what true," Judith asks, and as he forces out a sigh of annoyance, she shuts her eyes. She knows he's referring to David, and she feels his frustration, but she doesn't want to tell him what happened.

"Judy, please stop playing games with me." His stern tone brings tears to her eyes, and she keeps her head hung to avoid him seeing. "Everyone I know is talking about it, and whether you realize it or not, I don't care who you date. All I want is honesty and to not be dragged into drama."

"I didn't have sex with David," she tells him, choking over her words. He narrows his eyes.

"Then why're you crying?" She quickly wipes her face before her sadness falls from her lashes.

"Because you're mad at me, and I just want – I don't want you to be mad at me," she blubbers, and he closes his eyes with a sharp inhale to relax. "I promise I didn't have sex with him. He's lying to everyone."

They avert their gazes to her right when they hear whistling. David strolls toward her yard with a smile. His arms are swinging at his sides, and the paper in his hand is rustling with the breeze.

"Well, here he comes. I guess we'll see what he says." Jerome drops his arms and turns his body to watch him approach.

"If it isn't The Land of the Giants' biggest star," David teases, stopping at the bottom of the steps with a smirk. Judith wipes away her tears as more accumulate on her eyelashes. "No pun intended."

"Is it true that you and Judith had sex?" David looks at her, and she drops her gaze without shifting her head.

"What's it to you?" He ascends the first step and folds his arms. "Last I heard, she was up for grabs."

"She's not loose change," Jerome reminds him, looking him from his head to his suede shoes. David chuckles, and Judith looks at them.

"You're right. She's just loose." Judith draws her fist back, and as it nears his face, he looks at her. She punches his nose, and it crunches against her firm knuckles. Her face is scrunched as she sends him to the ground with the page he was holding, and Jerome's eyes widen.

Stevie cruises toward his yard from the cul-de-sac's dead end, the wheels of his black bike unhurriedly spinning and his arms dangling at his sides.

Behind him on blue and pink bicycles are a freckly pale boy with a sandy red bowl-cut and chestnut eyes, and a dark-skinned girl with waist-length Fulani braids.