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Chapter 58 - So Close, Yet Sofa-r
I received one last surprise as I was waiting over by the door and Tassinari showed off the last of the group-created deities. Ben walked by me with a calm face turned to neither a scowl nor a smile. He gave a little tilt of his head and remarked, “Have a good weekend, Kenzie.”
Then he went over to a group of boys with their words mingling, merging, and bouncing off one another. If Shelby had been watching, she probably would’ve wanted to sketch it. I leaned against the handouts bins at the back of the room and waited for the last moments of class to tick away.
Relief came when it finally did. I didn’t try to push my way out first. In fact, I was towards the back, around the teacher turning off the lights with some papers in his hands.
After the ramp, I followed a green patch with too much mud. I jogged along the classes, between the heaviest traffic, and to the quieter edge of campus, where Lea and I had practiced that failed Natalie conversation. Slipping past there and around the band area led me to a little island of classes adjacent to the front office and the welcome center, the 800s by the numbers on their sides. Lea was already out and waiting for me by the nearest opening in the gate. All the bikes were locked up on the other side.
Waving both hands, Lea beamed with an open smile and trudged towards me. I received another hug of comparable exuberance to the last. She held my right hand and exclaimed, “We made it! All done. Oh my gosh. That last class was…it was satisfactory and actually somewhat relaxing. Still, it was so galling to start over from scratch with each class but at least…done.”
She curled her arm around my right arm and leaned gently against me as I led her through a lull in the crowds and out into the parking lot.
After stepping over a group of turtarriers (credit not to Wes on that, but to some random person on the Internet in the mid-2000s), she covered a yawn with her free hand and asked, “Umm…sorry but how did yours go?”
Holding up my smile as much as I could, I told her, “Also satisfactory. We had to come up with modern versions of gods and goddesses in groups. And I talked to Shelby.”
Lea’s eyes widened slightly as she made sure I meant “that Shelby”. She kept a smile, stared at her feet, and mentioned, “I was…actually kinda ruminating on art like hers in class. She offered to draw me once, but I declined. She’s interesting but really demure sometimes.”
Not only her.
A breeze pushed around the brick wall separating the school lot from the empty one. Lea’s hair fluttered against her eyes as we finally made it to the crowded strip at the front.
Gladis had found a spot towards the center area. I mentally ran through how I would explain the situation, but all the words fluttered away when I opened the car door. Fortunately, Lea was there to support me. She chirped up with a few quick words in Spanish and a polite smile.
With a frown, Gladis asked, “You daddy know?” I wasn’t sure which of us that question was meant for, but I finally offered, “This is Lea and she stayed over last night. Is it okay if she comes with us?”
At first, Gladis appeared uncertain. She persisted, “But you papa know?” I assured her that my parents knew about Lea. I put my hands together and pleaded, “Just for today?”
With a sigh, Gladis finally nodded and pushed the chair forward to allow Lea to sit in the back. If there were more space then I would’ve joined her, but it was pretty cramped as it was. Lea said she didn’t mind. Gladis and Lea exchanged a few more words in Spanish before the door was closed. Once my belt was on, we took off.
Another ride with Gladis. Jerking between the spaces left by slowly-advancing cars. Bumping over a curb to get to the exit. Blasting ahead of other vehicles on the road and vaulting over dips. The windows half-open with a tempest flashing across our hair. Lea just got her belt on with a wide-eyed smile, clinging to the interior side of the car.
I asked Lea if she was alright. She admitted warmly, “I’m splendiferous.”
Gladis cocked her head to that and asked a few things in Spanish again. What Lea answered between bracing herself seemed to satisfy her curiosity. By the time we hit the train tracks, Gladis cautioned, “You choice. You tell papa and hope okay.” I could only hope he was in a decent mood. At least it was dad and not mom.
For the moment, I just clutched the armrest and held on.
Halfway through the trip, somehow, Lea managed to get some rest. I looked back to see her dipped head wobble with her hands in her lap. The roughness of the freeway eventually roused her, and she looked up at me with a kind smile.
Gladis dropped us off at the front of the college campus before she went to go look for a parking space. Once her car was away, Lea clung to my right arm again and asked, “Where now?”
I led her around the main building and near the drama area. With a yawn, I straightened my back and stretched to shake the schoolness from my mind.
A bit further on, Lea slowed to examine the mural painted on the back side of the cafeteria and noted, “I love sunflowers.”
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There certainly were a lot of them, all tall and bending up towards some sun out of sight. Green, sharp mountains filled the background. The most optimistic view of the area when we got drenched about once a decade.
Lea paused to take a closer look, and I waited beside her. It was a nice mural but seeing it reminded me of Cass’s bewildering words. Those were words better off forgotten. What had she said about flowers on a mural? Madness and hearts? The sweet and the bitter?
Standing where she was, Lea caught a glint of the late afternoon sun like one of those painted flowers. How real was she? A painted flower or a real one breathing in warm radiance? Bah. Just the weird and random words of a girl who probably snorted glue for fun.
I gave Lea some money for a Coke and she sipped that along the way to my dad’s class. We did our best to slip through the door quietly, but dad was right there, at the back of the classroom, with his arms folded.
No worries. Just give a casual wave. Lea did the same. Dad didn’t look pleased at all but then he tried to work on a stern face for classes. He didn’t say anything as we used a table off to the side and set our bags down.
Like last night, Lea sat a distance from me. Good idea. Eventually, Gladis joined us, and dad’s focus returned to finishing up the class. I helped out with some paperwork and cleared part of the board for him. He wore the same, stern poker face.
It was uncomfortable to just sit there and stew. Fortunately, Lea soon asked me about the restrooms, and I opted to show her. There were a few at the end of the row and towards the English classes, but I took the long route to the library because those were the nicest ones. There was even a sofa.
Lea marveled at that for a moment before we went inside. As we were washing up afterwards, she asked me, “I’ve kinda heard…legends of this kind of thing. What’s it for?”
I had to offer a shrug. I’d heard plenty of rumors. For frail and fainting women to recover. For breastfeeding babies. To stow children safely while moms did their business. As a powder and dressing room. I presented all this, but I was glad to have it. Most restrooms were like the majority at high school and better off condemned. Lea gave her own shrug and reiterated my unspoken sentiment, “Nice to have though.”
Naturally, we stopped in the little room and both sat down on the sofa. It had spindly, creaky legs and it sagged all over the place. Lea stretched out her Vans-clad feet and smiled to herself a minute before declaring, “Okay, my curiosity has been satiated. Let’s go.”
We took the long way around back to dad’s class. It gave us time to talk.
Lea gave a little stretch and a hop with her steps as she noted, “If I could just toss one class from today in an inferno, it would be Chemistry. Wow. And it’s usually nice because of Nats. But she pushed me into a corner. And I could feel everyone’s eyes on me about the whole thing. Mr. Wells did his best but…well, you saw how Nats was afterwards…”
Saw and felt with her rattling the railing like it was a cage she wanted to wrap around me. It made me question how much we had in common after all. Putting that aside, Lea smiled as she reflected, “English was great though, especially for the company. But huge reality check. I noticed there was, I guess, a…uhh…dispenser in that last bathroom…”
Yeah. No way around that really. We slowed, and I put an arm on her shoulder. I wanted to be better than how mom was for me when my day came. I pulled her into a hug and said, “It’ll be alright. Like everything so far, just take it one day at a time. One moment at a time. I’m here with you, and I’ll do everything I can to help.”
She pressed her head against me and repeated a soft, muffled, “Alright” before we continued casually walking.
When it came to a recap of third period, Lea explained her unexpected appearance, and I relayed the fun bits she'd missed about Summer and Natasha. I neglected Natasha's concerns or her somber story (same as I've neglected the details of Lea's history class with Val).
She smirked and noted, “I really liked meeting them. As Lea. I've vaguely met them before, but it’s a distinctly different experience like this. Everything is.”
Lea pointed out the color of the grass and trees in the back area of the library. I wasn’t sure what she meant, but she explained, “I’m not really sure but it just feels subtly…different. I was born with a slight color-blindness. Not the more egregious red/green color-blindness. My dad was born with that. But I have trouble seeing some hues.”
I remembered that. We’d been tested at a health fair put on by the medical academy, and I’d been there when Wes got tested. He only failed one of the cards.
Lea smiled and turned around to look at all the nature. She excitedly pointed out little details and reminded me of all the bright colors in the mural we’d seen. “It’s beautiful and, no matter what happens, I never would’ve even glimpsed all these things if it weren’t for you.”
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Art by Alexis Rillera/Anirhapsodist