She tries to scramble up and nearly hits her head on the bottom of the sink. “Oh my God. Did anyone see me?”
“Just me. But, um … you should probably go to the nurse. Or something.”
Heather shakes her head. “I’m fine.” But her voice is weaker than I’ve ever heard it.
We stare at each other and I wait for it. The thank-you. The apology. This is our made-for-TV moment. We’ll be braiding each other’s hair and having sleepovers by the next episode.
She narrows her eyes. “What are you looking at, freak?”
I shake my head. “Girl, you got all kinds of problems,” I say as I walk out the door without looking back.
Her words can’t get inside me anymore.
As the bathroom door slams behind me and I step outside, I feel the sun burning away my invisible scars, scorching me clean.
CHAPTER 36
Aaron drives me home after practice today like he usually does, but this time instead of dropping me off at the curb he pulls into my driveway.
“Everything OK?” I ask, unsure why he’s parked.
Aaron scratches his head. “I don’t really know how to say this.”
I swallow and try to keep my imagination from playing roulette with all the things he could say.
I’m madly in love with you.
I’ve got back together with Dionne and she doesn’t want me spending time with you.
You know we’re not really friends, right? I just wanted to be nice because of Marcus.
You really stink after practice and I don’t want to drive you home anymore.
“Can I come in for a bit? It’s just that … I really miss your house. And your mom. And your grannies. I used to see them every day, you know?” He runs his hand over his short hair. “That probably sounds kind of weird.”
I exhale. This is the best thing he could have said.
All right, fine. Other than telling me he’s in love with me.
“That isn’t weird at all. I’m sure they’d all love to see you. I mean, like to see you.” My tongue is getting all twisted. “I should have invited you in before. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.”
“You know you can come over whenever, right? You don’t have to ask me.”
He flashes me a smile that makes my heart do a somersault. “Thanks, Wing,” he says. “I really appreciate it.”
We walk into the living room to find Granny Dee and LaoLao facing each other in some kind of standoff. Granny Dee is shaking what looks like a child’s sweater in LaoLao’s face, and LaoLao looks both guilty and enraged at the same time. And I can tell you from experience, that is not a good combination.
“You shrunk my favorite sweater!” Granny Dee hollers. “Didn’t you read the wash instructions?”
I take a closer look at the sweater she’s holding. It’s green with yellow stripes, and I’ve never seen her wear it before. I’m certain it isn’t her “favorite sweater.”
There’s no denying it’s shrunk, though. It looks like it might fit a toddler.
“It is just a sweater! Here. Take mine.” LaoLao takes off her own blue sweater, huffing as she does, and pushes it at Granny Dee.
Granny Dee holds it with two fingers and wrinkles her nose. “And drown in it? You could fit about five of me in this big ol’ thing.”
LaoLao puffs up like a rooster before a cockfight. “What you saying? That I’m fat?”
“We all know you understand English, even if you can’t read the laundry label,” Granny Dee retorts. “You know exactly what I’m saying!”
“I am not fat!” roars LaoLao, which is a blatant lie, because LaoLao is fat. “You just too skinny! Look like starving person. Like starving…” She pauses, and I can tell she’s trying to come up with a really good comeback.
“Like starving duck!” she says, and Granny Dee’s mouth actually drops open. She knows that “duck” is one of LaoLao’s worst insults.
“You take that back!”
“What? It is true,” says LaoLao, looking smug.
Aaron makes this snorting sound that could be a laugh and turns it into a cough. It would be funny to me too, watching them go after each other like this, if it didn’t hurt my heart, and my head, so much.
“LaoLao.” I go to her and rest my hand on her back. “That wasn’t nice.”
“She wasn’t nice first!”
“You shrunk my sweater first!”
“You broke my jade bracelet!”
“That was an accident! And it was five years ago!”
“Yes, five years ago. Plenty of time to get me a new jade bracelet.” LaoLao crosses her arms.
Granny Dee throws her hands up in the air. “And tell me where I’m going to find a jade bracelet in Atlanta!”
“Exactly! Impossible! I cannot replace jade bracelet. You can replace ugly sweater.”
“It is not ugly! I’ve had that sweater for eighteen years!”
Aaron whistles and it makes both my grannies look up.
“What?” snaps Granny Dee.
“Yeah, what?” says LaoLao. She’s moved closer to Granny Dee, and the two of them are giving him matching glares.