moi You sure you’re not busy?
mac ???
moi Hanging with Ailey, maybe?
My Doc fell silent as Mac figured out how to word his response. I’d finally made it home. I let myself in and went straight to the freezer and got a bag of peas to put on my eye.
mac Are you talking about me walking with her this morning? She had a math question.
moi So you weren’t trying to make me jealous?
mac What am I, ten? She had a math question.
moi Was she trying to multiply you times her?
I grinned, perfectly envisioning his exasperated expression.
Faintly, I heard the front door open.
“Mom?”
I waited for my mom to come into the kitchen. How in the world was I going to explain my puffy face to her? I thought about just going straight to my room, but I’d have to dash right past her. Mac’s txt thread spooled as he wrote and deleted the perfect comeback.
But then all he sent was:
mac She had a math question.
moi I hope you gave her a satisfying answer.
Ever so softly I heard the front door close. It wasn’t my mom or she would have said something. I crept to the kitchen door, listening. I could have sworn I locked the front door. To get to the front hall, I’d have to walk through the dining room. It felt like someone was standing just on the other side of the dining room doorway, listening right back.
“Dad?” I waited, and when there was no answer: “Kyle? Is that you?”
Silence. But not an empty silence.
“I hope it’s all right,” I called out. “Mac and his cousins are coming over. They’ll be here any second.”
The floorboards in the front hall creaked. I wasn’t imagining things. Someone was in my house.
“Oh my gosh.”
I was so upset over the fight, I must not have locked the door. What if it was the “don’t talk to strangers” guy? I’d been so focused on my Doc, he could have been sitting on the stoop next door and I’d have missed him completely. Or what if it was just about anyone else who now knew me, even though I didn’t know them?
There was nowhere for me to go. The kitchen led into the basement—no way, uh-uh—or the backyard. The yard was minuscule, with a ten-foot-high fence around it, but at least out there, people could hear me scream. I grabbed a chopstick from the jar on the counter in case I needed to stab my assailant in the eye. Then as quickly and quietly as possible I went to the back door. The lock was old, rusted, and usually required an iron grip and a lot of willpower to turn. Dad was always talking about needing to replace it.
Struggling with the lock, I looked over my shoulder only to see a big guy in a black hoodie coming at me. I flung my chopstick at him. It struck him harmlessly in the stomach, then clattered on the kitchen tiles. I tugged at the lock. A hand gripped my shoulder. I screamed and sank to the floor.
“Geez Louise, you are not having a good day, are you?”
It was Kyle. Dumb, stupid, wonderful, non-rapey Kyle.
“Where did you come in from?”
“Nowhere. I was upstairs.”
“But I heard the front door open and close.”
“Must be a ghost,” Kyle said, his upper body already halfway buried in the fridge. “I’ve been upstairs for the last two hours. Didn’t see any murderers on my way down, either. I did see the fight, though.”
He waved his Doc at me.
“How awesome will it be if you have a shiner for the Christmas pic?” he said. “I can’t believe I once had a crush on Ellie. I’m totally unconnecting her on everything.”
“Thanks, Kylie.” I was still trying to catch my breath.
I couldn’t stop staring at the useless chopstick lying in the middle of the floor. Audra always said every woman needed to arm herself with confidence and a bottle of pepper spray.
My Doc dinged with a txt tone I hadn’t heard in forever. Ailey.
ailey Hey Kyle, Ellie told me what happened between you two. I made the mistake of telling my mom. She told me to tell you, if you come to our house or approach me anywhere outside of school, she’s going to file a restraining order against you.
“Oh my God. That little brat never could fight her own fights.”
“What is it?” Kyle asked, but I was too angry to respond.
moi Ailey, this wasn’t even about you. And ELLIE slapped ME!
ailey Sorry. I’m actually a little mortified, but she = serious. I just thought you should know.
“Ailey’s mom wants to take out a restraining order against you?”
I held my Doc to my chest, but it was too late. Damn holoscreen txting. When would I learn? Kyle’s jaw dropped open. His Doc was immediately in his hands. I grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t you dare txt Mom.”
“What, ow. Why not?”
“Because it’s all bluster and I don’t want it to be one more exhibit that her daughter’s turned into a terrible person. She’d disown me for sure.”
“No, she’d call up Mrs. Amundsen and rip her a new one. When will you stop acting like Mom hates you?”
“When she actually stops hating me.”
It was different for Kyle. This past summer he’d finally cut the shag of black hair that had hung around his face since he was ten. Now that you could see his cheeks, neck, eyes, it was obvious that very soon he’d be devastatingly handsome. (I’d throw my Doc in the e-recycling bin before I told him that.) Kyle had to get extra storage on his Doc to hold all his contacts. His inner circle called themselves the LMs, for Lordly Misfits. Yet when Mom gave Kyle SHT it was lovingly. It was abundantly clear she wasn’t worried he’d turn into a giant a-hole.
Kyle’s face had gone all red. I’d been living under the supposition that we all knew Mom didn’t like me. I decided to change the subject.
“Okay, Kylie. Sure. Whatever you say, buddy.” I felt like Audra trying to convince me that she believed me about the video. “Up for playing Wooded Escape?”
He was about to agree when my Doc emitted a familiar jingle. Audra was FaceAlerting me.
Kyle groaned. “Say hello to Aryan Audra for me. See you in three hours.”
He’d stolen the name from Mac. Audra had once bragged in front of Mac that of all us girls she was the most exotic because both her parents were white—a rarity in NYC nowadays. Mac had tacked Aryan onto the front of her name ever since. It hadn’t taken long for Kyle to follow suit. When Audra had asked if Mac was “for rent,” she’d just been trying to get at me, right? I mean, there was no way he’d ever go for her, right?