I'd been crying under my blankets in the fetal position since Mom confronted me and Regina.

At some point, I fell asleep. When I woke up and threw the blanket off my head, it was dark outside.

I hear cars pass and cicadas chirping, and then Regina opens my door. As I jolt upright, I want to yell for her to get out, but she has her finger on her dark brown lips.

"Squeak, chill out before I change my mind," she says in a low voice, slowly dropping her arm.

She's wearing a grey T-shirt that hugs her chest, denim jeans up to her belly button, and black chucks.

I match her volume, and ask, "Where're you going?"

"My boyfriend and his crew are having a kickback at his cousin's house. My homegirl is outside right now," she says and I quickly step out of bed to look through my blinds. Sure enough, a white car is parked across the street. "I'm wondering if you wanna kick it with us."

"It's a school night," I say but it sounds like a question. She rolls her eyes.

"God, I miss my old sister." She tosses her head back with a hand on her forehead. "This one is such a square."

"I don't wanna get in trouble again," I aggressively whisper. "Ever since I got here, I feel like you've been going out of your way to get me in trouble."

She doesn't say anything for a while and neither do I. Regina squints at me like I said something strange, but I can't figure it out until she asks, "What do you mean ever since you got here?"

My shoulders drop as I exhale and my mind goes blank. I can't even ask myself what Keenan would do.

Her pager chimes and she unfastens it from her hip while staring at me. She reads the screen, sighs, and then sets it against her belt loop again.

"They're getting impatient. I'm about to sneak out through my window." She points her thumb over her shoulder. I feel like I was saved by the bell until she says, "You don't gotta come with us, but just know I'm not done with this conversation."

She starts to shut the door but stops when I take a deep breath.

"I'll - go." I hesitate because, on the one hand, I don't wanna get caught, but on the other hand, I do wanna go out. I'm thirteen, but get treated like a child, so maybe breaking curfew will remind myself, if not my parents, that I'm a teenager.

***

Me and Regina are sitting in the backseat with a case of Modelo between us. I'm behind the driver and she's behind the passenger.

They're playing hip-hop music and the bass is spilling out of the car. I know because when we were at a stoplight, this elderly lady in the turning lane was eyeing Khadijah and shaking her head.

She was in the passenger seat and I think her husband was driving. I wanted to tell them to turn it down, but I couldn't even hear myself clear my throat, so I gave up.

The light turns green and she speeds off like a racecar driver. I grip the rubber handle above the crank that controls the window, as I hold my weight in the seat. She cuts corners and drives so fast that my seatbelt can't hold me in place.

"Hey, wait a minute," Regina says in a loud voice. She pushes her seatbelt off her chest and behind her back to lean forward. She sits one forearm on the driver's seat and points her other finger to a building a few feet away toward the left. "Look, they're still open."

"Oh, shit, Steve, Tyler, and Chris might be there." We look at Raven. "Let's see if they're coming to the party."

Khadijah pulls into the Domino's parking lot and drives around the building. We pass the menu and the first window because the lights are off. She stops at the second window, sets her car in park, and then spins the crank until her window is completely down.

The lights are on in the dining area, in some places in the kitchen, and behind the registers. There are a few guys and one girl in uniform—a white, red, and blue color block shirt with black jeans—some are wiping down counters, some are sweeping, and the girl is counting the register at our window.

Khadijah honks her horn and the girl stops mouthing to turn to us with a blank expression. She just stares at Khadijah until she gestures for her to open her window.

She rolls her eyes, returns the bills to the drawer, then pushes the window open.

"We closed," she says immediately and I know if it weren't rude to do so, she'd have slammed it back shut.

"I know that." Khadijah lets out a humored scoff.

"Then why you here?" The girl speaks with her hands and her coffin nails click against each other.

"Who the fuck," Raven says under her breath and the girl looks at her. "Look, where's Chris and them?"

"They in the back shuttin' off the oven and sweeping." She looks Raven up and down. "Like I said, we closed."

"Who are you talking to?" Regina sits her hand on Raven's shoulder to gently press her into her seat, but even she's glaring at the girl in the window.

"I'm not about to argue with you or you." She pointed to Khadijah and Raven in that order. "We had a long fucking night and I don't care what y'all got goin' on, so take that shit somewhere else so we can finish closing the store."

A tall, skinny high-school senior walks toward the window and stops behind her. He's so tall that she stops just below his shoulders, and she swings her black dreadlocks when she turns her head to him.

"Naomi, chill out," he tells her. "We can hear you buggin' from all the way back there."

"I'm buggin'?" She put her hand to her chest. "These broads pulled up like this is a park, talkin' about wantin' to talk to Chris."

"Then why not go get him?" He narrows his eyes at her and shakes his head.

"Because he's busy and so am I." She looks at the cash sitting in the register, then says, "At least I was until she stopped me."

"Bro, it takes like two seconds to call him up here, they can get what they need off their chests, then pull off." Raven and Khadijah let it be known that they agreed either verbally or with an occasional Mhm. "You over here making shit more difficult than it needs to be; they could've been gone already."

She walks off and he watches her head toward the kitchen before turning to us. He leans into the window, his thin chain dangling back and forth.

"Thank you for getting her together because I'm telling you Markese," Raven drags her words, and looking into her dark brown eyes, I can tell she wanted to fight.

"Don't sweat it. It's been a long day; everyone's tired around here." He waves her off and shakes his head. "Anyways, what y'all got goin' on?"

"Gina's boyfriend is throwing a party," Khadijah says. He glances at Regina leaning between the front seats. "We wanted to know if Chris, Steve, and Tyler would be there."

The music makes the speakers vibrate my chair and my shin, yet no one else seems to mind it. My throbbing head feels like it's wrapped in thousands of rubber bands but all that I can do is toss my leg over the other.

I look at the decal in the window: Avoid The Noid.

It's this red and white creature that looks like a gremlin in a red latex bunny suit with only its eyes and mouth visible.

Three men walk toward the glass. One is dark-skinned, one is white, and the other is brown-skinned, but they look like they're family somehow.

"'Ay, Diji, I haven't seen you in a hot minute," The dark-skinned one tells her, flashing his pearly whites. He has dimples and hazel eyes like Regina. Even from the backseat, I can smell his cologne and aftershave, and he smells like a scratch-and-sniff magazine.

"We literally spoke last week, Chris," Markese steps aside so he can lean out of the window.

"Feels like years, though," he whines. Raven turns the dial and my body relaxes like all the stress I had was massaged out of my muscles.

"Anyways," she drags it and playfully rolls her eyes. "We wanted to see if y'all was comin' to Mike's kickback."

"Yeah, Tyler's drivin'." He nudges his head toward the lanky white kid who flicks his chin upward to greet her. His blond surfer hair sweeps off his forehead.

"Cool, that's all we wanted to know." She gives Markese a knowing glance. I know she has Naomi on her mind and he knows it too, because he chuckles at the floor. She puts the car in drive and says, "See you there."

***

I've never been to a senior party before, but from the movies, I imagined a lot of drunk people, violence, and drugs. I'll admit, I'm influenced by the show Euphoria.

This is completely different, though.

First off, the house isn't massive, but it's not small either. It's one of those brick houses with the chipped garage door and one broken window. There aren't cups outside—probably because the party started a while ago—and there isn't a guy being held up by his feet to drink from a keg.

The music isn't booming like at a concert. In fact, it's low enough to sound like a whisper no matter how close or far I walk from the stereo.

Regina is sitting at the breakfast nook in the arms of some light-skinned boy in a white tank top. He has his color block jacket on her and his matching bucket hat on the table.

"So, Leila, what grade are you in," Khadijah asks from the long end of the sectional. I watch my sister giggling and him adjusting the jacket's collar.

I turn to Khadijah and mumble, "Eighth."

I'm not ashamed of it, but being around older kids makes me wish that I'd have at least changed grades when I time-traveled here.

"Oh, shit, pretty soon you'll be in high school with us," Raven says, and I force a smile before letting my eyes wander to her combat boots.

Yeah, pretty soon...

I admire their outfits. Khadijah seems to follow trends similar to cult classic black movies like Friday or Menace to Society, but Raven dresses like she shops at Hot Topic.

One is in high-waisted denims and a striped tube top, the other is wearing a pleated flannel skirt and a black crop top over black fishnets.

Chris, Tyler, Steve, Markese, and three other guys walk through the narrow hall toward us.

The downstairs area has an open floor plan.

When you step in, the door to the garage is to your left and a dark office is to your right. There's a nook to take off your shoes, and the staircase a few inches away from that space. The kitchen has a half-wall enclosing it, and the breakfast nook is between the kitchen and the living room.

Markese has a box of beer in each hand, Chris has a box of tapes, and Tyler is carrying a notebook and pencil.

"Oh, shit, y'all finally showed up!" Raven stands and walks to them. She takes a case from Markese and they step into the kitchen to fill the cooler.

"What's up, Tommy," Steve asks with a sharp tone, then he crosses his slightly muscular arms at Regina's boyfriend.

They all look between sixteen and nineteen. Markese has a goatee and Chris has thin hairs above his lip, but only Tyler has acne.

"Nothing much," he drags his words like he's either confused about his attitude or because he doesn't know who invited him. Judging by how he furrows his eyebrows at Regina and mumbles something, I think he wasn't invited.

Regardless, they find their way throughout the house. Khadijah and Markese head upstairs, Raven and Steve hit the dance floor—a small patch of space from pushing the coffee table and recliner into the garage—and the other guys step into the garage.

I look down at my baggy denim shorts and my tube socks. They look like seniors or college students, but here I am, a middle schooler, who even dresses the part.

An Alf graphic tee and sneakers. All that's missing is a propeller hat.

"I'll be right back." Tommy kisses her cheek, then walks away from the table. She watches him head to the garage before looking at me.

"You good," she asks, and I nod even though I'm not okay. Somehow, she knows that I'm lying because she stands up and approaches me. "Yeah, right," she says, then sits beside me. "What's wrong?"

I don't say anything. I stare at her with no words in my head, but this feeling deep in my stomach and chest like I did something wrong.

I'm leaving soon.

I want to tell her about us time-traveling. She knows everything else, so how is this any different?

"If it's about our talk earlier, don't sweat it, Squeak." My chest and stomach tighten in knots.

"Why do you call me Squeak?" Regina narrows her eyes at me for a second before staring at the large box TV and taking a deep breath.

"It's a long story." I don't say anything and neither does she.