Hello August, Please Be Good To Me

Chapter 22: Meet the Moores

I'm such an idiot. I'm sure I'm plenty of other things, but idiot is top on the list. Like paranoid, or...we can leave it at that. In the middle of my Saturday morning cartoons, my phone rings loudly, but I don't make any effort to go answer it. For one my hands are covered in raw egg, and I don't want to be disappointed when I see the name or number flash across the screen. Danté comes in the room, still in his bed clothes, and saunters up to my phone as if he's going to hit the talk button. "Go ahead, answer it, I don't care," and I really don't. "Hellooo," Danté says, imitating my voice, and I wash my egg-hands thinking of ways to get him back, and one of them including flinging him with water.

"I don't sound like that."

"This is Danté, and I'm sure you don't wanna talk to her."

My brother gives me a mischievous glance. "Yeah Justin, I think you should just call back." I'm no Olympic runner, but I'm sure as hell I could have beat Usain Bolt's fastest record in the time it took me to chase down and snatch my phone away from Danté. I take a deep breath before answering. "Hey!" I say, truly happy. "You won't believe what happened! This isn't even my phone?" I giggle a little too hard, and Danté mimics my giggle. I give him a dealth glare before retreating to my room. "So I went to the water hole at Wakulla springs," I narrow my eyes and look at my phone before placing back to my ear, "and it was me and Lewis and Josh, and Ant, and Ant stole my phone, the next thing I know it's sixty feet under and he owes me a frickin' new phone," he finishes, and I am relieved. "I thought you were gonna break up with me," I blurt out honestly. "Break up? Why would I do that, I told you I love you," he exclaims and I sway back and forth uneasily.

"Even still after everything?"

"Everything, I'm more worried about you." I ignore this.

"So I'm guessing you're not mad?"

"Well not anymore. I'm sure you had a good reason." Right. Good reason. Hahaha.

"I don't know how long I'm going to be without a phone, by the way write this number down, it's the house phone." I manage to joke back, "You still use a house phone?" It's just like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. "Funny," he says dryly, but I know he's smiling into the phone too. I can picture his freckles in my head. Suddenly, I'm inspired to be brave (and to prove Sierra wrong). "Come over today." Justin doesn't miss a beat. "Where do you wanna go?" he ask, and I chuckle nervously. "No, like come over to my house come over. For dinner. We're having tacos I believe," I readjust the phone to my other ear. I wish we were having pizza. I almost could eat pizza every single day if it were possible. "Okay," Justin says, slowly, and I give myself a mental pat on the back. "Why not? What time?" Umm, see I did not think this through. My dad may have talked a big game about wanting to talk to Justin, but he's not a fan of outside guests joining us at meal time. Even if most of the time he's in his room, I'm at the dining room table alone, and my brother is grabbing a meal to go.

"Six is good," I say. I hope. When I get off the phone with Justin, I have to fight the urge to laugh like a maniac, I'm so happy. But the battle isn't over yet, because I have to warn my dad. He's out at the store buying food for tonight, and I dial his number, the only one I have memorized besides 911. "This is Joel," he answers, and I brace myself.

"Hey daddy!"

"Hey Lyric! I'm just about done, I'm heading to the checkout line now."

"Is it okay if we have another person tonight?"

"Huh...is Cassie coming?" Cassie is Danté's girlfriend. I never remember her name unless I'm actively thinking about her. Or someone says her name. Honestly, she's just in the background. There's nothing extraordinary about her, and she's very much on the clingy side. Danté doesn't hear a word when I talk about her. Which is once every twenty years it seems. "Noo...well I don't know actually, but that's not who I'm talking about." I say, and walk around in circles in my house to give my legs something to do. "Oh. Who?" I bob my head as if that will make the process easier. "Justin. I invited him over for tacos. And didn't you want to meet him?" I make sure to bring the conversational blame back to my dad so there's less of a chance of my dinner invite backfiring. "I'm at the front. I'll call you in ten minutes." We say bye, and the line clicks. I sit on the couch and wait for the ring. "Justin you say," he says when he calls me back and I nod into the phone like he can see my face. "The white boy who I've never seen before. This friend of yours has a lot of nerve." I hear the slap of the car trunk closing in the background and fight the urge to laugh. White boy? Leave it to my dad, although he's not as bad as my great-aunts and my great-grandma.

"Yeah, about that. He's not my friend exactly...." I'm doing so well!"He's not your friend," my dad repeats back, and I wonder how that might have gotten lost in translation. "Um yes he's...my boyfriend." I wait some more, and the whooshing sound I hear tells me my dad has the window's rolled down. "Mmmm,"my dad makes that noise, and I cross my fingers. Usually when he has no words to say, I'm in the clear or extremely close to it. "Well, alright. I'll see you when I get home then." We hang up again, and I do a quick fist bump in the air.Then to gloat I give a Sierra quick text. She doesn't respond, and I know she's sleeping. Wherever my cousin goes,so does her phone. Even the bathroom, and it's a wonder that thing has never become Superman and flew into the toilet. On top of that she never has it in a case. One of these days it's going to backfire on her and I will surely be there when it does. The doorbell rings, and thinking it's my dad I hop off the couch to go help bring in the bags. When I open the door, it's Justin dressed in checkered shirt and nice, dark wash jeans and looking nervous. I pull him in without a word, and he closes the door behind him.