Sumon

Sun rays blinded me when someone dragged my curtains open. I planned their death in my head, down to the tiniest detail. When I heard Fasa’s incessant humming, I groaned and tried to cover my head. But of course, she pulled the sheet off me. I cannot catch a break.

 “Do your parents love you?” I swung my feet to the ground and moved like a zombie into the bathroom. She followed me like a self-proclaimed ball of sunshine; her yellow blouse adding to the image.

“I think so. Why?” She kept bumping me with her hip as I tried to brush my teeth in front of the sink. She paused for a few seconds and fixed her hair in the mirror. I admired her clear skin; there was no pimple in sight. I was still struggling with those at weird times and she refused to give me her secret.

“They’re about to lose their only child.”

She just shrugged and turned the light off in the bathroom. “I led a good life. Besides, they’ll be happy to be rid of my hard time.”  She gave me a look over and crossed her arms. “You know it’s almost noon, right? Why were you sleeping this late?”

“Yep!” I raised my toothbrush in the air to enforce my point. “You know I don’t sleep early on Fridays.”

“Tell me again. I forgot.” 

She was doing it to annoy me but I said it anyway. “I have to do all of my assignments and my house work, if I don’t want Ma barging in my room at six a.m. She loves to do that.”

She left me in the bathroom and a few seconds later, I heard my drawers opening. “You do assignments on Friday? What are you, a genius?”

I followed her out and met chaos on my bed in all its glory. My clothes were strewn all over the room and she had a bag beside her—the clothes that met her approval were in it. The mess woke me up fully and I pushed her out of my room. “Out. I don’t even want to know what you’re doing.”

“You’re spending the weekend with me!” She said, her voice muffled through the door. 

“Says who?” 

She went quiet for a minute. “I don’t think you want me to answer that! You have fifteen minutes, hurry up.”

I packed my clothes grudgingly and made a decision to lock my door whenever I’m sleeping. Maybe I needed to remind my mom that Fasa didn’t live here so she didn’t have the right to come barging into my room at any time. I rebelled in my mind, but I took her unspoken threat very seriously. Fasa was crazy and I tried not to indulge her.

I bathed in a hurry and threw on a blue tee shirt and jeans. I could already hear her disapproval but I didn’t care. Sumon in a shirt and jeans, or no Sumon at all. Take it or leave it. I rummaged through the blue overnight bag quickly and frowned at its contents.  There are more bathing suits and towels than actual clothes! I took the two-piece out and replaced it with my favorite yellow one-piece suit. She knew that I didn’t wear it but she kept pushing her luck. After adding two dresses for church, one for each of us, I went downstairs.

It was an unspoken rule that we went by every time I slept over. Church going was a must. She knew it, I knew it and Jesus knew it. Amen. Fasa was seated at the kitchen table and Ma was happily feeding her coconut tart after coconut tart. 

“New flavor? What’s in this one? It’s the best coconut tart I’ve ever had.” Fasa gushed, stuffing the pastry in her mouth.

I rolled my eyes and reached downstairs with the bag on my arm. Mammie saw me and waved her spatula in a greeting. “Afternoon. Sit. Eat.”

“I’m not hungry.” I sat beside Fasa and eyed the scrambled eggs in the frying pan. My stomach was empty, but I avoided eating as much as I could.

“You’re not going to get fat. Eat child.” Ma laughed and placed a plate in front of me. I dug in right away and didn’t lift my head until the plate was cleared. Fluffy pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and Italian sausage. Yum-my. While I ate, I still worried about being fat. What if the exercise and the sports playing stopped working? I didn’t even want to imagine.

“I see a bag. You will be at Fasa’s, correct?” Ma questioned me. I nodded in response.

“Have you done your work?”

“Yes ma’am. My room, living room, and kitchen were cleaned last night.” I saw Fasa out of the corner of my eye, struggling not to laugh.

She eyed me for a minute then nodded. “Fine. You know the rules.”

“No alcohol. If my plans change, I have to call you. Check in every night. I have to be at my designated home by nine. No boys. No alcohol. You make me say it twice to stress its importance.” I recited off the top of my head. I was used to it, but Fasa was never around for my interrogation so it was tickling her silly.

“Actually,” Fasa started, “can she go to a party tonight? We’ll be home by midnight. Pleeeaase?” Her begging made Ma look at me. I just shrugged and looked away. She probably thought I put her up to it.

“Eleven o'clock. No more than that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” we chorused. Fasa took my bag and said goodbye to Ma before going outside. She went over to the pantry, looked into her secret compartment of sorts and pulled out a wad of hundred Liberian dollars.

“I already have money, Ma. Enough, I promise.”

“Just in case,” she insisted, “if you don’t use it then you can bring it back.”

I didn’t bother to argue because I never won. And it’s also because I knew that she was being cautious. She had a little freak out session every time I left the house for more than a day.

“I’ll be careful,” I said before kissing her cheek, “I’ll see you on Sunday, okay?”

We said our goodbyes and I went outside and met Fasa in my car, in my seat. “What’s mine is yours, huh? How did you even get my key?”

“Long story. Will you please come and let’s go?”

I resigned to my fate and got in the car with her. Through the drive, my mind was occupied with different things as Fasa talked for a mile a minute. I made sure to grab the key words just in case she asked me a question later on. I wasn’t a bad friend, I just knew her inside out. It was all the same thing. Some boy, some gossip, some fight. 

“…looks much better than Terrence though. All he has is a black eye.”

That caught my attention. “Who has a black eye?”

Fasa smiled. “I knew you weren’t listening. Mikael does. They had a fight yesterday over Bridgette. I got the news last night.”

Somehow I wasn’t surprised. “Over Bridgette. Why would anybody fight over Bridgette, of all people?” I scoffed and Fasa laughed at me. 

“Don’t be petty. Do you want to hear the story or not?”

“Start talking.”

She went on about an assignment, and Mikael helping her, and Bridgette kissing him, and Terrence seeing them. My head was already hurting by the time she got through. “So, Terrence and Bridgette are actually a thing? Everybody’s girlfriend is Bridgette? What a wow.”

Fasa shook her head, laughing. It was funny but true. And now, for some reason, I wanted to hear from Mikael himself. The story sounded like it had been changed. It was too silly to fight about. I didn’t care if he had a black eye or not. I just wanted the whole gist. Half a gist was never good.

Fasa drove into Tropicana’s beach parking lot and parked. We left after she placed our bathing suits in a smaller bag to take along. Mine went along just in case I changed my mind about swimming. I wasn’t going to change my mind. The sound of the waves washed over me and I sighed in content. The loud music and a lot of people was not my scene, but if it was on a beach, I could make an exception. We crossed over to the pool side and I saw a lot of my classmates from school. I guess Saturday was beach day. 

I left Fasa speaking to every person she could see and found a place to sit for a while. The nonstop talking of everybody around me and the stage behind me which was producing the music gave me a throbbing headache. A couple of my teammates waved at me from the pool and I managed to send them a smile. Wasn’t five minutes enough time to mingle? I wanted to go home now.

“I didn’t think you were coming.” The cushion dipped beside me and I turned to see Mikael, sporting black jeans and a yellow tee shirt. He was wearing ray bans and because I knew why, I couldn’t help the laugh that spilled out of my mouth.

 “You look ridiculous. Are you really going to wear that all day?”

 He leaned back in the chair and I started to feel eyes on me. Most of the girls around the pool were looking at me, now that he was sitting beside me. All the attention made my skin crawl. “News travel fast. Who told you?”

“Does it matter? Why did you get into a fight? Over a girl! Didn’t I teach you better than that?”

He laughed and took off the shades for a moment. I gasped when I saw the swelling around his face. It was more than a black eye, it was a black and blue face. I reached out and touched a finger to the spot below his right eye gingerly, not thinking about it at all.

“Does it hurt?” 

It was meant to be sarcastic but my voice came out as soft and caring. So caring, he recoiled and gave me an are-you-kidding-me look. “What do you think?”

“I’m sorry.” Huh? I touched a hand to my throat to feel my body temperature. Why am I apologizing again?

Mikael hid a smile and wore the shades. “For what?”

“I’m sorry that I wasn’t the one who landed the blow. So unfair.” 

“You’re unbelievable,” he shook his head at me, “ready to eat?”

“I know. And no. I’m good.”

One of the girls from the other side of the pool walked, or rather, sashayed over to our table and sat on his lap. She looked familiar, but not from school. Somewhere.

“You are needed at our table. Are you done with…whatever this is?” She gave me a cold look over and plastered a smile on her face for him. Then I figured out where I knew her from. She was a model for anything that would pay her enough money. I’ve seen her face on more billboards than was allowed. It was too bad though. If she looked at me like that one more time, I’d punch the beauty right off.

“Not really. I’m talking to a friend. I’ll come over when I can. Okay?” He said and smiled politely. I could see how uncomfortable he was. She just nodded and glared at me, before walking away. 

“You should go. I’m tired of looking at you anyways.”

“I really don’t want to. So you’re the excuse.”

I hissed and leaned back. “I’m flattered.”

We were silent for a while, watching the people around us mingle and have conversations. I wasn’t sure whether he was sitting here to keep my anti-social self company or he had a lot on his mind.

“I can’t lose Terrence,” he said quietly. My question is answered. I didn’t say anything, but he knew I was listening. “He’s one of the best on the team. He’s my friend too. If I have to grovel then…” he trailed off and let out a huff. “I don’t even know why I got into the stupid fight anyway. It wasn’t worth it.”

“Same question I want to ask. It sounds like you did a dumb thing.”

He sat up to look at me. “I retaliated! Was I supposed to let him make me one with the gym floor?”

“You know it didn’t start from there. Take responsibility. You helped to anger him, Roberts. It’s all you. Don’t shift the blame on to somebody else.”

He shook his head and shifted on the chair. “All I did was try to help out a colleague. Is that so bad?”

I covered my laugh with a cough. It was very hard to think of her as a colleague so to speak. “Stop helping your friends’ girlfriends then. Problem solved.”

“That’s the whole classroom.”

“So be it. I’m excluded. But I don’t want your help, so basically, leave everybody alone.” I sucked at giving advices, but there was always a diamond in the dirt. He just needed to dig the right way.

“Fine. I’ll do it your way. Now I have to find a way to apologize for beating him up.”

I laughed loudly at his statement. “Don’t flatter yourself. Nobody won the fight. Both of you look like you got hit by a car.”

We looked at Terrence across the pool together and I winced at the marks on his face. It had to be one hell of an apology. He looked terrible.

“True. He looks worse though.”

I just rolled my eyes. Boys. “Buy him food and apologize to him. Not in a text or a call. Words. If it doesn’t work, he’s a guy-guy.”

He looked at me with a confused look and I laughed at him. “All of you are girls on the inside. Just do it. It’ll work, I promise,” I said.

He got up and extended a hand to me. Puzzled, I took it and get pulled into an unexpected hug. “Thank you,” he murmured against my forehead. Two words. Two very common words had me almost swooning like a fangirl. 

“You’re welcome. Now, let go of me.”

He laughed and stepped back, but he didn’t stop staring at me those blasted shades of his.

“Creepy much?” I tried to raise a brow at him, but both of them went up. 

“We gotta have a thing, right?” He winked at me and walked off, leaving me infuriated.

“We don’t need a thing, we’re not dating!” I yelled after him and everybody turned towards the sound of my voice. The music got turned off at the same time that I opened my mouth. I just sighed and covered my face. I kept making a fool of myself.