Karen gave her a look. “You’re working too much again, baby.”
“I’m fine, just hot.” She waved a hand in the air, brushing away Karen’s worry. Mom did look tired, and I’d heard her walking around the apartment the night before. She wasn’t a good sleeper at the best of times, often getting up in the middle of the night to watch TV, but in the summer she barely slept and hated being in the apartment on hot days, was always trying to drag me out somewhere.
“Can I help with something?” she said.
“We’ve got it,” Dallas said.
I glanced up at them from my perch in the living room, two cats on my lap while I flipped through TV channels. Mom was leaning against the counter, laughing at something. I knew she thought Crystal was the beautiful one, but I thought Mom was just as pretty. We didn’t look alike, though. She had cute freckles, green eyes, and chocolate brown hair that was really shiny—my hair was crazy, long black curls that fell to the middle of my back and around my face. Her lips were a nice shape. I touched mine, hating my small mouth. She could get a tan in five minutes and I could spend all summer out in the sun and barely change color. We had the same nose, straight with a bit of a flare at the nostrils, but her face was rounder. Everything on my mom was curvier, same with my aunts, and they were a lot shorter. I was really tall—like, five-ten already.
Patrick came in from outside. “Hey, sugar, I’ve got a new movie for us tonight.”
“Let me guess, Rocky part three thousand?”
He laughed. “Shove over, kid.” I made room and he sat next to me, his big shoulders resting against mine. I leaned my head against him.
Mom and Dallas almost had the table set—Patrick and I were always on cleanup duty. Karen kept looking at the door. “Should we try calling her again?”
“Let’s just start,” Dallas said.
We sat at the table and dished ourselves out. Sounds of the front door opening, a voice calling out, “Hello, hello!”
Crystal came into the kitchen. “Sorry I’m late.”
Karen stood up. “Crystal, honey. I’m glad you could make it.”
Crystal gave Karen a kiss on the cheek and plopped down at the table beside me. She gave me a big smile.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Karen set another place at the table, dished out some salad.
Talk started up again but it was mostly Patrick and Dallas, discussing the gym and a boxing tournament that was coming up. Mom mentioned some of the boys at the gym, like Aaron, who she thought could win.
Crystal leaned closer, whispered, “How was the party?”
“We had to cancel it.” My two closest girlfriends, Emily and Taylor, lived at the other end of the city and both had jobs, so we didn’t see each other a lot in the summer, but we’d been planning a big party at Taylor’s while her parents were away for the weekend. I was going to DJ and I’d spent hours working on an awesome mix. Then her mom got sick and stayed home.
Mom had flipped out when I asked to play at a couple of grad parties last year—even though people were willing to pay. She said there’d be too much drugs and alcohol around. I told her she could chaperone but she still wouldn’t agree. She was hoping I’d go to university, and was always leaving course books around the house. She didn’t know I’d started to send sample tracks of my beats to some big producers in the States. I checked my e-mail constantly.
“We should go to the beach this week,” Crystal said.
“Sure, that’d be fun.”
I glanced at her plate. She’d only had a few mouthfuls and mostly just smeared her food around. She’d had three glasses of wine, though. Her laugh louder with each one, her face flushed, which made her blue eyes stand out even more with her tan. Dallas gave her a dirty look, but she just made a face at her.
“How are things going at the bar?” I said.
“Good. Next weekend we’ve got the Headkickers.”
“No way,” I said. The Headkickers were this cool indie band from Seattle that was just starting to get really popular.
Crystal smiled. “You should come see them—I could sneak you in.”
“Awesome! That would be so—”
“No way in hell,” Mom said.
“Why not?” Crystal said.
“She’s seventeen.”
“She doesn’t have to drink,” Crystal said. “Lighten up. We did way worse stuff when we were her age.” She laughed.
Mom looked furious now. “Crystal, shut up.”
“You’ll lose your job again,” Dallas said.
“The boss is away,” Crystal said. “And if he finds out, whatever.” She shrugged. “I’ll find another job.”
“Can I go, Mom?” I said. “You can come too.” I knew she’d be pissed I was asking in front of everyone, but that was kind of the point.
“I have to work,” she said.
“I won’t drink,” I said. “I promise.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she said, her mouth a tense line.