Looking At Us

67. megan

Summer climbed quickly into the beginning of June, and so did the stress and happiness of the end of the school year. Finals were approaching. Cori’s fifteenth birthday party started off with bowling but ended up with a lot of us drunk and making out. I got used to the feeling of Cris’s hand shaped in mine again, as well as sunny evenings spent on the grass with Jari laughing between us. 

     On the eve of our first exams, I sat with Cris, Shain, Erick, Cori, and Cody outside, all of us supporting Biology textbooks on our laps and trying to study but laughing and telling jokes instead. Cris’s shoulder was pressed into mine. He smelt like peppermint. 

     ‘‘You should have seen Erick’s goal last night,’’ Cody said. 

     Shain said, ‘’I did.’’ 

     ‘’Me, too,’’ said Cori.

     ‘’Me, three,’’ said Cris.

     ‘’Me, four,’’ I said, and all of us laughed. It kind of felt childish, all this, but we were all connected now: brother to brother, friend to friend, boyfriend to girlfriend. A big family tree. 

     It was mainly just the six of us now. With Hadley gone, Cori and Cody were free to kiss and make lovey-dovey comments around us (mostly just to bug us, but I think they were enjoying it); Darrin and Sasha were still separated, but Darrin stood calm and confident, like he’d gotten rid of his Sasha-disease. I’d seen Sasha making out with a curly-haired guy last week, but Darrin just smiled like he was putting his old curse on this new guy. 

     ‘’Oh my gosh!’’ said Shain, sitting up and knocking her textbook from her lap.  She pulled out her notepad. ‘‘Megan, I gotta read you the first chapter of my book.’’ 

     Erick frowned. ‘‘You’re writing a book? Am I in it?’’

     ‘’As a matter of fact, you are. So is everyone else.’’

     Cody said, laughing, ‘‘Sick. Am I, like, attractive?’’

     Cori kissed him. ‘‘Yes, you are.’’

     I felt Cris’s chest vibrate against my shoulder as he laughed, and I leaned into him. His hand strayed at my waist. I felt his lips on my ear, soft as a whisper. 

     Shain said, ‘’So this is the first line. Cris, your name is Jessi.’’

     ‘’My name is Jessi.’’

     ‘‘Yes. Get used to it.’’ 

     Cody laughed. ‘‘Jessi . . . what’s my name?’’ 

     ‘‘Kody,’’ said Shain. 

     ‘‘What the hell. Why does he get a different name?’’

     She laughed and went through the process of explaining whose name was whose: Erick as Nicholas, Cori as Brianne, me as Judy. Then she cleared her throat and began to read to us; this group, in this place, with the sun on our skin and laughter on our tongues. 

     ‘‘The day I met Jessi was the day my phone almost got run over by his truck.’’ 

               END