Upper East Side IV

“Oi! Where’s my breakfast?”

I tried to ignore Steve’s annoying remarks and hid my face deeper in the pillows. This morning started too early off anyway. Or so it felt.

“Yo, get up, I’m friggin hungry!”

Kicking the side of the bed in anger, I took the pillow and placed it over my head, hoping to get rid of the high pitched tone of a hungry fourteen year old boy. And my night went so well, considering that I had a pleasantly freakish dream which included Michelle and Liz having an oil wrestle to win a free trip to Rio De Janeiro.

“Gaah, just put some milk in a bowl, you fucking moron…” I mumbled and buried my head completely beneath the pillows.

“Fuck you, you’re the only mom I’ve got so get your ass up and fix me something to eat before I go to school!”

Judging by the loud volume of his increasingly annoying voice, I figured he was in my room already, probably sitting on the floor and holding on to his tummy, in a well conceived act for grabbing the necessary attention to get fed. My mind started making up thousands of ideas on how to kill him without actually having to move out of bed. A gun would be great right about now. I’d just stretch out my arm, and shoot a couple of times. He’s stupid enough to forget to duck, I’d get him for sure.

“Alright, alright, I’m up, you fuckard.” I growled and started crawling out of bed with the speed of a dead dog on an empty highway.

“Kay I’ll go get dressed. Hurry up.”

I slowly got up and took the alarm clock in my right hand, trying to open my eyes in order to see how much time I have left before leaving to school. A blurry image appeared in front of me once my eyelashes managed to move and allow me to see. All I wished for that very moment is that those numbers would just stand still for one god damn second. 10… it was 10 a.m… and classes start at…

“FUCK!!”

“Shit, you don’t have to yell like that you know… I mean I’m hungry too, but I don’t brag about it” Steve said and yawned, stretching his arms as calmly as possible.

“You shitbag, why didn’t you wake me up? My classes start at 8, I’m two hours late!” I replied and stomped my foot onto the red carpet, which was full of chips and soda stains.

“Um –“

He stopped in the middle of his sentence and managed to avoid me in the last second, as I rushed towards the bathroom door. The toothbrush was still in its place, next to the paste, which was missing its cap. I looked at those two items for a couple of seconds and then took them both in my hands, stuffing them in the mountain backpack laying on the floor. After finishing my engaging task, I sneaked a peak into the mirror to check out the damage the past night has caused.
Two green eyes stared back at me.

“I don’t like you so much, you know that?” I whispered slowly to the girl in the mirror.

Apart from the fact that she had a apathetic expression all over her face, my reflection’s sand brown hair was sticking out in every possible direction, in spite of its medium length, which wouldn’t normally allow it to be so damn rebel. I grabbed a brush and tried to work with what I had there, though, ironically, there wasn’t much to work with.

“Oh fuck it.” I sighed and ran back to my room in order to get some clothes, then returned to the bathroom, remembering that I actually have to take a shower every morning. “Better clean than sorry”, mom always said. Sometimes I just wish she were here to take care of us…

“Oi, how about my breakfast?” I heard Steve scream from the other room.

“Oi, how about a nice foot up the ass, would that help you?”

“For the Nth time, sis. I’m NOT gay.”

I burst into laughter and closed the bathroom door. “whatever you say, bro” I whispered and a smile appeared on my face. You never know, do you..


                                                                ***


Trying to rush the traffic in Manhattan is simply impossible. Nineteen years living here should have taught me that. But today was too much. It’s as if the entire universe had aligned to stop me.

I started stomping my foot nervously while looking at the Indian cab driver in front of me.

“Sir, is it possible for you to actually move the car? We’re just four blocks away…”

“Oh, madam, no wai, no wai, traffic, you know. Have to stay still with car” He replied, turning to me with a smile which was intended to be friendly.

I rolled my eyes and opened the door, placing a five dollar bill on his windshield on my way to the sidewalk. What’s the use of living here without being just a little out of your mind anyway? These are the entire politics of our country. Doing shit we might regret tomorrow.

Taking a deep breath, I stopped, turned around to the cab driver and slipped another five dollar bill on his windshield.

“This is for what I’m about to do” I said and climbed on top of his car.

There we go. A disturbed girl in a disturbed town full of disturbed people. Why should anyone be surprised?
Taking another deep breath, I started walking on the cab until I reached the front and jumped on the next car, continuing my walk as if nothing extraordinary was happening. I heard people honking and swearing at each other, and smiled to myself while my feet were treading on every car in front of me. The most efficient way of getting to your destination and having a hell of a time meanwhile.

As soon as I saw the tall building of my high school rise up amongst the others, I started running as fast as I could, as if waking up from a dream and realizing that I actually have to get to classes as fast as possible.

“Kat..?” someone shouted out and made me stop a bit too abruptly, knocking down an innocent passer by.

“Shit, shit. Shit. Shit. Sorry. Really sorry bout that.” I said, trying as hard as I could not to burst into laughter. “Let me help you out.. there we go..”

“So, I see you do this with basically everyone.. and to think I was under the impression that it was special with me..”   I turned around and saw Michelle smiling softly, suddenly feeling lost for a moment.

“Michelle.. what.. what’re you doing here?”

“Just went out to get some coffee… we have a fifteen minute break, remember?” She chuckled and glanced at the dog tag hanging around my neck. “why did you skip Math?”

“Um.. well it’s a long story” I mumbled and hit a can of coke.

“Kay then, let’s talk about it over a cup of coffee” She replied and took my hand in hers, dragging me across the street, just like Liz did a day before. It all felt a bit too familiar.

I didn’t even notice how we got into Larry’s, my gaze studying her intensely, observing every piece of her body like some kind of an expensive sculpture. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t stop. This girl was a bit too interesting to be left out of anyone’s fantasies. Michelle Paquette was the perfect girl to hate, just to hide the fact that you actually secretly love her.

“So.” She said while taking a seat and waving at some random waiter. “What’s the long story about?”

I took a seat and tried as much as possible to avoid looking at her cleavage.

“Nah, just.. got up too late and.. yeah. Had to make some breakfast for Stevie, but I didn’t cause.. duh, I was late.”

I do realize I was mostly blabbering but that didn’t stop me from posting a wide smile after finishing my sentence, as if I deserved a prize for that. Michelle’s blue eyes pierced me and I tried to stay calm and conscious.

“Who’s Stevie? And couldn’t your mom or dad make breakfast?”

Suddenly the room seemed to be spinning. Why the hell did Michelle Paquette care about any friggin detail about my life? Wasn’t she supposed to be a bit too important for that? I frowned and started playing with the napkin in front of me.

“Um.. Stevie’s my brother… and mom and dad.. well they died in a car accident a few years ago… they wanted to put us in a foster home but I refused to go, I mean it’s useless to go there since mom and dad left us some money and we are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves..”

My gaze darted across the room and then stopped at Michelle’s face, noticing that she was looking back at me in a very strange way. Was it.. pity?

“You .. don’t have any parents?”

Great. Now she’s either going to run away or simply not give a fuck. I actually preferred the latter.

“yeah, that’s the main idea. But I was able to go to U.E.S.H. cause I told you, our parents left some money for our education and.. shit like that so yeah.. it’s an expensive school but mom had always wanted me to go there.”

“Wow, that’s…” she stopped and started tearing her napkin into small little pieces. “that’s amazing… I wouldn’t know what to do without my parents, you know.. that’s.. you’re simply amazing…”

“No, c’mon, it’s not easy, I admit. But it’s not THAT hard either. You just have to think that life goes on, no matter what. I think the hardest part is accepting that you have nobody to rely on…”

I sighed and tried not to think of the day that strange man knocked at our door, telling me that I should be strong for me and my brother, that things are going to be just a bit harder from now on, that I would have to fight and move on, and that he’ll try to make things easy for us… it took me two days to actually realize what he was talking about. And then, nothing would compare to the pain of losing the only two people who would really give their life for you. I didn’t know why to fight, why to move on. I thought it was over. But life taught me it’s never over when you want it to. And so I learned my lesson.
And so I became the person I am today.
And so I turned into a complete, absolute, total…freak.

“You okay?” Michelle said and took my hand in hers from across the table. That empty feeling in my stomach was back again.

“Yeah I’m.. I’m fine.”

“You’re just something else, you know that? ..i really admire you. And I’m glad you’re my friend. There aren’t many people like you, you know..” she whispered and slid her long fingers over my wrist.

“Is it hot in here or what?” I spat and unbuttoned my shirt with my free hand.

“Um.. no actually I’m quite cold.” She frowned and started playing with the black leather bracelet on my wrist. “I like these, they’re so.. you.”

“Yeah.. yeah they’re nice.” I gulped and took a sip from the coffee which had just arrived.

“I like your style. It’s crazy, just like you.” Michelle continued as if she didn’t hear me, and then pulled my hand towards her. “How about you pass by my place after school? Do you know how to play guitar? I wanna learn.. can you teach me?”

Okay this was a bit too much, too fast. The most popular girl in school asking ME for guitar lessons? Taking me out for coffee? Holding my hand? Inviting me to her house?… was it just me, or was this girl actually flirting? How ironic, I usually knew exactly what a girl intends with me and always knew what to do about it. But this time..

“Yeah I know how to play, but not too well.. I could teach you the basics, though…”

“Yeah, I’d love that.” She smiled and looked at the screen of her expensive LG mobile phone. “oh, I’m late… I better get going. So.. tomorrow, after school?”

Would this room JUST stop spinning?
“Tomorrow after school?”

“Yeah. My place.” She smiled softly and her ocean blue eyes smiled along with her.

I sat up and smiled back, as naturally as I possibly could in that moment. Jackpot, baby.

“Miss Paquette… you’ve got yourself a deal.”