Kelly
“I can’t believe you don’t see it.” Julia’s mouth opens and closes a few times while she stares at me in shock. Honestly, she looks more like a fish gasping for air.
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Kell, you are friends with two of the hottest guys in our grade. No! In the whole middle school.” Her arms wave around while she shoots up to her knees on top of my bed.
Here we go again. We’re almost to winter break and all I’ve heard for the past couple months of school is how hot Matt and Jason are. Every girl I know has turned completely dumbstruck by them all of a sudden. It’s weird, and at times, I wish I could make it all stop. Random girls have started trying to talk to me, and all the new female targets work to get closer to me, hoping to use their situation as a way to sit at our lunch table.
Julia has brought this up to me more than once since school started and I always shrug her off. Anytime I try to picture Matt using the word hot or cute, I puke a little in my mouth. I know he’s not unattractive. He does have piercing hazel eyes and thick dirty blonde, almost brown hair, as well as a classic mischievous glint in his eye. Maybe it’s because I’ve known him since he tried eating glue or I’ve seen one too many pictures of us naked in the bathtub together when we were babies, I don’t know. When I think of Matt, all I think of is my best friend or the brother I never had.
“Whatever,” I laugh it off and keep flipping through my Bop magazine.
“Okay,” Julia hops off my bed and walks toward me, popping her hip so it leans against my desk, “I get Matt is like your brother but what about Jason? You’ve never really hung out with him until this year. All the girls from the other school say he’s a flirt.”
“He is,” I respond, flipping another page and trying to appear bored. I don’t know why there is a twinge in my chest anytime I think about Jason and him flirting with another girl. For weeks I’ve been trying to get over it and push myself to think of him in the same way I do Matt. Only each time I do, I end up thinking of his crooked grin, the spark of fire I swear I see in the dark depths of his eyes, and the way his dark hair tickles the tops of his ears sometimes.
“Dang,” Julia huffs, her arms crossing. “I still can’t believe he turned down Stacy Griffin of all girls. She’s the most popular girl and looks exactly like a younger version of Britney Spears. All the guys in our grade think so.”
My gaze falls back down to the magazine in my hands, even though now I can’t concentrate. The last thing I want to hear about is Stacy asking out Jason. Or anyone for that matter. I know it’s bound to happen, same with Matt, only it hurts more when I think of Jason wanting to spend time with other girls. It’s always been just the three of us, unstoppable and making plans for our futures in the family business. Stacy isn’t in Matt’s family business and neither is her family. My involvement with Matt’s family business is something I thought set me apart from the others, but maybe I’m wrong.
“Can we talk about something else?” I giggle nervously.
Julia flips her shoulder length, black hair behind her ear and gives me a knowing look. “Sure. Are we still planning to watch the winter finale of Sabrina the Teenage Witch this Friday? I can’t wait to see what happens.”
I nod my head. “I can’t wait either.”
Right before we can go into planning our Friday night sleep over, my mom yells up the stairs that it’s dinner time, and Julia needs to head home. Her mom called our house looking for her already. I follow Julia down and wave goodbye as she heads outside and jumps on her bike. Julia only lives a few blocks down from me, but she’d rather die than walk the whole way, her words not mine.
“Smells good,” I tell my mom, stepping into the kitchen and grabbing some plates out of the cupboard.
“Can you set the table please?” she asks, stirring the hotdish over the stove, oblivious to what I’m already doing.
“On it,” I tell her and hold up the plates.
She doesn’t respond, just keeps stirring. Frowning, I head to the table and lay our three plates out. I set out a fork, a knife, and a glass at each place, before grabbing the milk from the fridge.
“Mom,” I quirk my brow, “are you okay?”
“Fine, Sweetie,” she says, then realizing what she’s done, she moves the pan off the stove, swearing under her breath. “Have a seat Kelly.”
I clamp my lips closed and sit at the table. She joins me soon after, setting down the pot of goulash and a tray of Crescent Rolls. I help myself while she watches the door, as if she’s anxious for my dad to get home. The silence in the room grows thicker. The noodles feel like they are lodged in my throat and I keep taking drinks of milk. Her weariness bleeds into me until we’re both silent balls of anxious energy.
“I’m back.” My dad’s voice booms from the front door. My mom jumps to her feet and rushes into our front room to greet him. My chair scrapes against the floor in my haste to get there too. My mom is wrapped around my dad, tears falling down her cheeks. My dad holds her in a hug when our eyes meet.
Mine are instantly swimming in tears. “Dad?”
“It’s okay, Kelly.” My dad holds out an arm for me to join them and I do. My mom’s shaking arm wraps around me tightly.
“Ah, my girls.” My dad chuckles and sways us back and forth. I have no idea how long we stand like this, mostly until my mom stops crying.
When she finally pulls back, she wipes her cheeks with the back of her hand and looks embarrassed. “You had me so worried, Tim.”
“I told you things were going to be okay.” He laughs again, using his thumbs to swipe her tears as well. “The kids we found were unharmed. Mike only sounded the alarm because we heard gunfire before we got there. But everything was cleared before we went in.”
My brain finally catches up to the fact that they’re talking about the run my dad left on a few days ago. Aside from running a safe house, my dad occasionally helps on out-of-state runs, if Matt’s dad or the other guys need help. Judging by the looks on their faces, this job turned into an even bigger one than they expected. I watch them both, aware of their silent communication with the raising of their eyebrows and tilting of their heads.
“You remember I’m aware of what Matt’s family business is right?” I laugh.
My mom sighs, her gaze shooting to me. “Yes. And don’t think for a second I plan to speed up your initiation to being involved anytime soon. It’s bad enough Mike asked you to help talk to new targets this year.”
“Charlie,” my dad argues, using her nickname, his arm slings around my shoulders. “We talked about this already. Our numbers are at an all-time high. Mike asking the kids to start earlier eases some of the work from us adults, and honestly, I’ve never seen a small group of teenagers more than ready to take on these tasks. You should hear how Matt and his buddy Jason talk around us at the farm.”
Mom frowns and heads back into the dining room; we follow her in and resume eating our dinner. “So the kids are okay?”
“Yup,” Dad says, before swallowing a bite of his roll. “Ended up being five of them, four girls and one boy. I’m glad I thought ahead to grab the van,” he tells us.