One of the hardest things for anyone to do is to put themselves out there on a platter for the world to judge. I don't even know who will be reading this, but whoever would like, please help me make it better.
The meal hall is crowded, as always. The originally nondescript wall is covered with graffiti, the marks of students of years before. Names, pictures, scribbles. In the corner opposite from me, a group spray paints the wall in the biggest blank space left; slowly but surely, every meal hour, a dragon grows there. Now, he has teeth. I watch a skinny girl, who looks about fifteen, give the teeth grooves and shadows with sometimes small, sometimes larger swipes of her can. I marvel at the different shades of spray paint put in the exact right places, thinking, how on earth can someone make something so real out of a spray can?
I hear loud talking behind me. “Yea, Jay should be here soon, I don’t know why she’s not here yet.”
I turn quickly towards the sound of Kity’s voice, and spot her sitting with a boy our age, whom I recognize from the portrait on his registration papers.
Kity is on the opposite side of the table from him, her back turned to me. I sneak up behind her and poke her softly in the sides.
“Nice try, Jay. But honestly, how many times have I told you I’m not ticklish?”
“Your dad can tickle you. I’m just hoping that someday, so can I.” I sit down next to her.
“Jared, Jay. Jay, Jared.” Kity says, motioning between us.
“Hi, Jay.” His voice is smooth, suave; the type of voice that makes children giggle in admiration. I wonder how he is with kids.
“It’s actually Jaida. Kity’s just… like that.”
Kity laughs. “Jay. Duh. It’s like Ah dumb, but different.”
“Don’t make fun of Adam, Kity.” I say, sympathetic to the cause of her latest ex-boyfriend. They never did last.
Kity huffed. “You went out with him, too!”
“No, dear, that was a double date. You were with Adam; I was with… um… what’s-his-face.”
“Well, miss Jaida, I’m feeling conveniently ignorant of that fact at the moment.”
“It seems to me that you are often conveniently ignorant.” I say teasingly, as I feel my face contort into the silly expression that Kity so frequently reminds me I’d never want to see.
“It’s rather convenient.” She says, smirking. I give her a cheesy smile back.
“That smirk is so attractive,” I say sarcastically, and I watch as a pink flush appears in her dark-skinned cheeks.
She covers it smoothly. “I know,” she says wistfully, and mimes holding a mirror as she plays with her hair a little, smirking at the nonexistent glass. Jared sits across the table from her and tries to be the mirror, copying her every move and smirking comically back at her. She looks at him sharply and he immediately puts both hands in his lap and rolls his eyes around, pretending to study the meticulously graffitied wall. Kity suppresses a giggle.
“You guys…” I grin and shake my head.
Kity pretends to glare. “What?”
“You’re such flirts.” I stand to take my empty tray to the garbage at the end of the room, leaving Jared’s laughter and Kity’s ‘humph’s of protest fading behind me.
No comments:
Post a Comment