Not long after 4:30, Genevieve joins the Family Day festivities. The guys all cheer and whistle as she approaches. I half expect her to play-choke me like she did before we had sex last night, except for real. But as we hug she whispers, “I told my friends too.” Then she punches me. When my friends begin asking probing questions about how good I was, she and I ditch them for an unoccupied bench.
“How you doing?” I ask.
“Pretty happy, I guess.”
I stare at her bare neck until my eyes fall a bit. Normally I’m better at not staring at her cleavage whenever she wears these baggy-cut shirts, but my post-sex hormones are at a high. I’m weak to it all. She raises my chin until our eyes reconnect. “I’ve created a monster, haven’t I?”
“I swear I like you as a person too.”
She’s not smiling, though. “I’m going to miss you, Aaron,” she says.
She grabs my hand. I’m so fucking confused.
Then I see it in her face. It feels like someone has knocked the air out of me. She’s breaking up with me. She only wanted me for sex. Maybe the sex was bad. I was bad at sex because we rushed this. Maybe we should’ve never had sex, ever. It would be a hard life but an even harder life is one without Genevieve who never gives me shit whenever I run out of things to say at the end of a long day.
“What did I do?” I ask.
She places a hand on my cheek, a pity palm. “I enrolled to the art camp, dumb-idiot. I was a really late admission obviously, but I called and someone dropped out. But I don’t leave until after my birthday, so this doesn’t ruin whatever big plans you have.”
Yeah, I am indeed the biggest dumb-idiot this world has ever seen. But I’m also the luckiest dumb-idiot, because I have a girlfriend who gives so many flying fucks about her future. And she’s definitely not leaving because the sex was so-so.
Probably not.
“I think I’ll miss you too,” I say back, and it sounds really cool, like when Han Solo told Princess Leia “I know” after she said she loved him.
The pity palm clenches into a fist and punches my shoulder. If I told her I didn’t have any plans for her birthday yet, she’d probably punch me in the face. Whatever I decide on can’t be too expensive because I have to give my mom some rent money before the month is up. “You probably want to spend your birthday at the park waiting for stars to come out, don’t you?”
“That sounds pretty perfect, actually, yeah.”
“Nah. Too boring. Let’s go to NASA and try to fool around in a zero-gravity room.”
“Sounds impossible and messy.”
“I think it sounds outrageously fun.”
“You’re not winning this, Aaron.” She gets up, smiling, and walks away.
I chase after her. “I’m sure they have stars at NASA somewhere . . .”
The Great Argument of NASA vs. Park ended when Genevieve threw a “because I say so” my way. So, you know, it was never going to happen but it still sucks.
It’s darker out now, maybe after 8:00. Colorful ribbons surround us from our water-balloon fight as fireflies flicker gold around the barbecue grill we’re using to roast marshmallows. Genevieve has never had a roasted marshmallow before so I capture the moment on my phone’s shitty camera. Her face sours, and she gives me a thumbs-down. “Too burnt,” she mumbles, spitting it out.
“Real ladylike,” Nolan says.
Genevieve flips him off. “How about this?”
All the other guys burst into a chorus of “Ooooooooooh!”
I eat the rest of the marshmallow for her and we sit back. My brother is still playing cards with his friends underneath a streetlamp; my mother is trying to socialize over the pounding salsa; some dads are playing horse with beer cans, a trash bin as their basketball net . . . and that Thomas kid is here, lost and looking around.
I unwrap my arm from around Genevieve’s shoulders and run to catch Thomas. “Yo!”
“Stretch, thank God!” Thomas gives me a fist bump. “I couldn’t find you. What’s going on out here, someone’s birthday?”
I point to the shirt, which I guess he didn’t register earlier. “Family Day. It’s an annual celebration for us Leonardo Housing residents. You guys have something like this over at Joey Rosa?”
“Nope. Is it okay that I’m here? I can leave if it’s just a community party.” He looks around with this face that screams, I know I don’t belong.
“You’re chill. Come meet my friends.”
We make our way back to the crew. “Yo, this is Thomas.” Genevieve looks back and forth between us. “And this is my girlfriend, Genevieve.”
“Hey,” Thomas says. “Happy Family Day, everyone.”
They all give halfhearted waves and head nods.
“How do you know each other?” Baby Freddy asks.
“Bumped into him earlier. He just broke up with his girlfriend and I thought some games could cheer him up.”
“Wait.” Deon sits up. “Didn’t I see you outside the gate this afternoon?” He nudges Brendan with his elbow. “This is the dude that sent us to Dead Man’s Corner?”
“That what you call it?” Thomas places a hand over his heart and raises the other. “Guilty, by the way. I gave Stretch here a much-needed assist.”
“Where you from?” Fat-Dave asks.
“Down the block. Joey Rosa’s.”