Freshman year excerpt

chick friends should be fat and/or ugly My friend Remi and I started slowly riding out of the construction area into the established part of the subdivision. We sped down the smooth pavement with the warm wind blowing against our faces. This is the feeling I’ve been waiting for all summer. I guess my parents were right about me needing to get out and meet friends. “Hey, Remi!” I heard a girl’s voice behind us. There was a voluptuous girl with straight brown hair and streaks of blond highlights riding behind us. In her company was a caramel colored girl who was a little overweight; maybe twenty or thirty pounds. We all pulled over to the side of the street. The white girl was a flirt. She jumped off her bike and hugged Remi. The caramel colored girl stood back with an envious smile, I think she wanted to be the one hugging Remi. Although, she wasn’t obese, it was apparent that someone convinced her that her extra pounds weren’t acceptable because she crossed her arms in front of her stomach to try and hide her flabby belly. Her only make-up was lip gloss and she wore a pony tail holder which held back her thick, long, wavy, black hair. “I haven’t seen you all summer!” The white girl screamed. “This is my girl, Marta, she lives in Notting Ridge, the subdivision by the golf course,” she introduced Marta by simply gesturing with her hand and not even looking at her. Remi barely noticed her either. The white girl looked at me and smiled. “My name is Jenna.” The pink blush on the apples of her cheeks wasn’t blended properly and her black eyeliner began to melt from the humidity causing a raccoon effect. “I’m Grant. Hey,” I gave her a nod but she ignored me like Remi ignored Marta. So, I nodded to Marta. “Hey.” “Hi,” she smiled and then looked down at the ground. When Marta finally looked up we stared at each other for a moment. Remi and Jenna were like the cheerleader and the quarterback and we were their geeky sidekicks. The four of us decided to ride our bikes over to the golf course. A row of newly planted Lilac bushes separated us from the greens and behind the bushes was a flimsy four-foot fence made of nothing more than chicken wire. Remi was the first over the fence, pushing it down with his weight and climbing over one foot at a time. He held the fence down with his hands and assisted Jenna over. I followed and helped Marta over. “Ouch!” Marta screamed as she scraped her leg on a sharp rusty wire. “YOU KIDS GET OUTTA’ MY YARD, I’M GONNA CALL THE POLICE!!!” A voice yelled at us from the window of the house where we heard the television. “Hurry up man!” Remi yelled. We got over the fence and began running full speed, we had no idea where we were going. We crossed a rickety wooden plank which led us to a continuous field of perfectly manicured greens. I never visited a golf course before, the grass didn’t feel like a lawn but more like turf but it was beautiful anyway. There were peaks and valleys and at every hill we rolled our bodies into the sand pit. In the pit, Jenna navigated her foot as if it were a giant pen and drew in the sand a large penis and wrote “TIGER WOODS WAS HERE,” we laughed. We continued to explore the course, Remi and Jenna stood under a large tree where he kissed her in the mouth. Me and Marta began felt weird watching them make out. “Let’s go,” I told her. “Where?” “Not here.” We began to walk away from Remi and Jenna so they could have some privacy. “Is your leg okay?” I asked. “Yeah, it just hurts a little, she said rubbing her wound.“There’s a pond over here, I can put some cold water on it to get the sand out,” Marta suggested as she limped towards the pond, I trailed behind her. I took in the exquisiteness of the golf course. Once we reached the pond, she took off her blue plastic flip flops, rolled up her blue jean capris and immersed her legs in the pond as she sat on the grassy edge. “Isn’t it dirty in there?” I asked. “No, it’s okay, won’t you rinse off your elbows, it feels good,” Marta suggested. “You mixed or something?” I blatantly asked. I was curious of her lineage because she had brown skin and full lips like a black girl, but long hair and a large obnoxious nose that was crooked at the end. “Maybe,” she replied. “Maybe? You don’t know if you’re mixed or not?” “I’m Dominican. All Dominican’s are mixed with something or another. We’re all mutts,” she explained. “Oh, what’s Dominican, like black and Mexican or something?” I must have said something wrong because Marta rolled her eyes and laughed. “What’s so funny?” “I can see you passed your geography class,” she sarcastically said. “Mexico and the Dominican Republic are two different countries. The Dominican is a Caribbean island and Mexico is a country south of the United States.” She resolved the issue but made me feel stupid in the process. “Not that much different, you all speak Mexican don’t you?” I snapped. “Oh, my god! We speak Spanish not Mexican,” she argued. “And the correct terminology is La-tin-a, not Mexican,” she corrected me. She said Latina all slow like I was in special-ed or something. “Why you gettin’ all mad?” “Cause I don’t want to be confused with Mexicans just because I speak Spanish.” “Is something wrong with being a Mexican?” “No, but I’m not Mexican, I’m Do-min-i-can,” she explained once again, this time she enunciated Dominican. “Same shit,” I said. “Ayyy, you sound like GRRRINGO,” she complained with a very slight accent. It was so cool the way she rolled her r’s when she said GRRRINGO. “What’s a grrrringo?” I began to laugh, pissing her off even more. “Gringo, white man or white people,” she explained joining me in the laughter. "Stop making fun of me." "Stop making fun of me," I repeated what she said in a mock Latina dialect. I was having so much fun getting a rise out of her. I think I'm going to start going up to random La-tin-as’ and make them mad at me just so they’ll yell at me in their cool accents. * It was interesting living in a growing community; a road that was smooth with a coat of black asphalt could lead to a rocky, unpaved mess within a matter of blocks. On the weekends we would trespass the houses under construction because the area was a ghost town after the workers left on Friday. In a matter of seconds a roaring thunder shook the earth and the clouds burst pouring violent rain on us. We all ran inside of the partially built home for cover. “Oh, my god I’m soaked.” Jenna complained while ringing out her hair. “Me too,” Marta joined in. “It’s just rain. Girls get all dramatic over everything, I don’t even know why we hang out with them,” I grumbled to Remi. “Hey, Jenna I can see your bra.” Remi smiled as he looked at her bra through her wet T-shirt. She looked down and immediately covered herself with her arms. “Jerk!” she said with nervous laughter. “Come here,” Remi stood behind her and kissed her neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist and they left to find privacy away from me and Marta. Marta sat down on the stairs and I joined her. “They always do that?” I asked. “Yep, they can‘t keep their hands off each other.” I watched Marta as she tied her long hair in a knot to secure it. “You got some long, thick hair.” “It’s a pain sometimes,” she admitted. “You gotta boyfriend?” I don’t know why I asked. “Nope.” “Why not?” “What do I need a boyfriend for? So, I can act stupid like them. Besides, I don’t like people touching me,” Marta said with a disgusted look on her face. “Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked. “No, I just moved out here, where am I going to find a girlfriend?” I snapped. “Well, excuse me!” Marta quipped. “Do you want a girlfriend?” “No,” I lied. We both sat quietly as we listened to Remi and Jenna enjoying each other’s company during the clamor of a summer storm. “Are they doing it?” I couldn’t help laughing. “Sounds like it,” Marta began to laugh with me. “Let’s watch!” I suggested. “Ewww, they’re not dogs. That’s gross!” Marta tried to pull me back by grabbing my shirt. I quietly walked away to spy on Jenna and Remi. “Grant no,” she whispered as she pulled on my shirt again. I escaped her grasp and tiptoed towards Jenna and Remi. I peeked from behind a wooden post and saw them together having sex. I have no comment. I softly walked back to where Marta was still sitting on the stairs. My mouth hung wide open. “You need to burn your eyes out with a hot poker don’t you?” Marta laughed. “Ewww, yeah.” I shuddered. “That’s what you get. I told you to leave them alone.” “How can they…while we…gross?” I was speechless. “I know, I could never do that with people so close by,” Marta finished my thought. “Have you ever had sex?” I asked “Yeah,” Marta replied without any expression as she looked out into the rain. “Did you like it?’ “No,” she said simply. “What about you, have ever had sex?” “None of your business!” I snapped. “It’s okay if you’re a virgin, dude.” “Shut up!” “Whatever.” Jenna and Remi finally emerged as if nothing happened. “I got splinters on my hands,” Jenna whined as she tried to remove it. Marta and I burst into laughter. “It’s not funny,” Jenna barked. “Yeah it is,” I said. “Y’all, nasty!” Marta added. “Did you even bother to use protection?” Marta said being sensible. “Shut up, you’re just jealous. You’re too fat and ugly for any guy to want to fuck you!” Remi was malicious. “Lose some weight and get a nose job!” “I hate you Remi, you ain’t shit!” Marta barked back as she angrily lunged at Remi trying to hit him but I held her back. As I was restraining her from Remi I got a whiff of her, she smelled like fabric softener. “Hey, you two stop it!” I shouted. “Remi, why do you have to be mean?” “Yeah, don’t talk about my girl like that!” Jenna was slow to defend Marta. “Whatever, the rain is letting up, let’s go.” Remi ordered us around as if we were his soldiers and he was the sergeant. It took a while for the dust to settle between Remi and Marta but after a few cola flavored shushies from the quickie mart all was forgiven. That night, we decided to ride two miles to a bonfire party hosted by Matt, a friend of Jenna’s that I hadn’t met yet. Remi and Jenna left and faded into each other’s passionate kisses and three other couples were either making-out or gazing into the fire while embracing. I closely watched Marta as she walked away from the crowd and disappeared into the shadows of the glowing fire. She sat on the bank of the creek. There was just enough light from the fire and the moonlight to illuminate her path. I walked behind her and sat down next to her. “Couldn’t find anyone to hook up with?” Marta asked. “I don’t know these people, besides everyone seems paired up anyway. I don’t want to sit there watching them make-out.” “I know,” she smiled and was silent for a moment. "Remember earlier today when you asked me if I’ve ever sex?” “Yeah,” I listened. She took a deep breath and then released, “Sometimes my stepfather has sex with me. I told my mom but she didn’t believe me. He started touching me when I was twelve. Sometimes I want to kill myself but I’m afraid it’ll hurt,” she confessed while looking into the pitch black creek. I was speechless, I was taking in all of the information and confused as to what I should say or do. I could still hear the chatter of the other kids in the background. “Damn!” is all I could say. I felt like I wanted to take care of her but I didn’t know how, this was a different kind of bully. “I want to kill him, my fantasy is to castrate him,” she took a deep breath. “ I was thinking, maybe you could kill him for me or something,” her emotions were raw. “You want me to kill your stepfather?” I repeated her question. “If you don’t mind.”

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