October 22nd, 2016

Kinsky, California, USA

The Breakup

The phone on Rose’s nightstand vibrated with its alarm. Rose, slowly waking up, groaned as she grabbed for the phone, pulling it out of its charger and turning off the repeated beeping.

She wore a pair of gray sweatpants and a plain white undershirt to bed. When she moved into her bathroom to take a shower, she traded these clothes out for a maroon tea blouse and a pair of jeans. She did her makeup, put on a pair of gold earrings, and went down stairs.

Her house was the same layout as Sadja’s — it was in the same neighborhood. In a corner of the first floor there was a dining room. She went through the living room that the group had partied in some weeks before and reached the dinner table. An older man sat at the head — Rose took a seat closeby. A meal was already waiting for her there.

The man turned towards Rose, eyeing her suspiciously. While she ate her miso soup, he spoke to her in Japanese.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

Rose looked up. “Nani?”

“Your dress. It’s rather promiscuous, don’t you think?” The man switched to English. 

“You mean, my clothes?” She scooted back, looking down at herself. “How’s this any different than what I usually wear?”

“You’re going to school, are you not?”

Rose looked around, not sure how to take things. “I mean… yeah?”

The man looked down. He shook his head, returning to Japanese. “The boys are going to look at you, dressed like that. It won’t be good.”

“Papa!”

He continued drinking his soup. “I’ve learned better than to convince you to wear something else.”

The remainder of the time the two ate in silence. Rose quickly finished her plate, then headed back into the hallway to grab her backpack and fix up her bun. As she did so, another person — an older woman — came down the steps. She looked at the younger girl, and smiled. 

“Good morning, my dear.” She spoke in Japanese.

Rose smiled at her. “Good morning, Mama.”

The teen put on her jacket and walked out down the steps, towards a used sedan in the driveway. She got in the car and drove off.

…

Emily walked into the classroom. She eyed the whiteboard with distaste.

“Is that… did you draw… a penis?”

Rodrigo and Aaron chuckled in the corner. Lukas turned around.

“Wh-what? No, it’s a spaceship!”

Emily turned her head to the side. She read the text written to the side of the suggestible object.

LAUNCH into High School — Welcome, future Eagles!

She turned back to Lukas. “Well, maybe make it look a little less phallic. These kids are middle schoolers, after all.”

Rodrigo tapped his temple. “You know my man, Em. Always got dick on the mind.”

Aaron bursted out laughing. Lukas turned embarrassed. “Shut up!” 

Emily smiled. “Glad you three are having fun, at least. We’re done with the other classroom, so you guys are off the hook after this.”

The Bryant sister walked back out of the room. Lukas looked back at the two. 

“Well, which one of you chucklefucks want to try making the ship, then?”

“Here, here. Hand it to me.” Lukas tossed the Expo marker over to Rodrigo, who got up. Lukas took his spot.

“Hey, you guys up for ditching class this morning?” Aaron spoke as he watched Rodrigo draw on the board. “I got a pretty nothing schedule today. Thinking of a couple of things I can do that are more worthy of my time than listening to Mr. Hersch’s nasally voice.”

Lukas shrugged. “Can’t. Got my English test today.”

“Whoa there, cowboy. I said skipping class, not skipping school.

Lukas reconsidered the proposal. “I can do the first two periods.”

Aaron nodded, then turned back to the other boy. “What about you, Rod?”

Rodrigo finished up his artwork. It was a simple triangle with a few cylinders added to the end. “See? Look, not a penis.”

Lukas shook his head. “That doesn’t look like anything.”

“Better than a penis.”

“Rod, you up?” Aaron interjected. 

“Oh, yeah, I am.” Rodrigo tossed the marker back onto the whiteboard tray. “Let’s hit it.” 

As the three walked out of the classroom and down the hall, they passed by Isaac. Whether the boy looked at Lukas with any degree of recognition, Lukas didn’t know — the mere second he saw the quarterback walking down the hall he turned his head down and tried not to think about it. When he looked back up, Isaac was gone. 

At the intersection of hallways they saw Cole on his phone. Lukas tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, I’m headed out with the boys for a bit. Can you give Merriweather an excuse for why I’m gone, case she asks?”

Cole nodded. “Sure. I’ll tell her you got syphilis.”

Lukas waved his hands in indifference. “Any excuse is good enough for me.”

The boys left. Rose came up not that far behind. She smiled at Cole.

“Well, aren’t you popular?”

Cole looked up at her, putting his phone away. “If you’re talking to me, then I must be.”

Rose giggled. “Do you know where Ash is?”

“I think she’s helping Emily and all them with setting up the tour for the middle schoolers.”

Rose nodded. “Got it, got it.” She looked around for a few moments, before turning back and leaning on the wall next to Cole. “If you don’t mind me asking… what did Isaac tell you, anyway?”

Cole looked at her curiously. “What, you spying on me now?”

“Call me a curious girl.”

Cole shrugged. “Oh, just… some party, he wanted to invite me to. Not much.”

“The party on the 30th?”

“Guess I wasn’t the only one invited, then.”

“Yeah, Aaron and I got invited through a friend of ours. We probably won’t go, though. It’s supposed to be mostly football guys, and besides I don’t think I have the alcohol tolerance to drink for both the party and Halloween.”

Cole nodded, but didn’t respond much beyond that. Rose kept looking at him.

“Well? You think you’ll go?”

“We’ll see.”

Rose smiled. “Alright then. I should go find Ash, see if she needs any help. Seeya on the flip side.”

“Yup.”

Rose walked off, and Cole was left back alone. The morning bell rang a few moments later.

…

Time had passed. It was now lunch. Sadja walked down the school’s inner halls until her eyes caught something down in the open-dooreded library. She smiled, walking down the steps and sitting at a nearby table.

“You know, out of all the places I expected you to be,” Sadja whispered, “This was pretty low on the list.”

Kat looked up from her book. “Oh, yeah. Just wanted to get some last minute stuff in for the English test.”

Sadja adjusted the choker on her neck while she watched her friend highlight notes. “Rose and I are going to Potbelly after school today. You wanna come?”

“Oh, no… I got a date with Isaac.”

This piqued Sadja’s interest. “Oh, really? What are you guys gonna do?”

“Just go to the park. Have some nice fresh air, talk together – the two of us. That sort of thing.”

Kat spoke monotonically. Sadja began to catch on. She leaned in.

“Hey, things between you two good?”

Kat sighed. “Yeah, I just… ever since the whole concert thing, I feel like I’ve just been biased against him. Every little thing he does just annoys me. And I think he’s starting to get annoyed by me too, and… I just wanna calm things down a bit. Go back to normal.”

Sadja looked at the girl pitifully, and nodded. “I get that. Sorry things have been rough.”

Kat moved her head around, as if trying to let out some words. She closed the book in front of her. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said, too. Whether I’m just tricking myself into thinking things could work out with him.”

“Hun, I didn’t mean…” Sadja began to speak. “I didn’t want… what I said to make things harder for you, you know.”

Kat shook her head. “It didn’t. I think it just woke me up to how things already were.”

“I hope it works out.”

Kat looked at the girl. “Me too.”

Sadja brought her backpack up onto the chair next to her. She unzipped it and took out a notebook.

“Well, while I’m here, I got some stuff to study for too.”

Kat nodded, smiling. She opened the book back up, and the two sat together in silence.

…

Rodrigo, Kat, Cole, Lukas, and Ash walked out of English class. Emily was waiting for them as they came out.

“Jeez, I thought that lucky early-morning breakfast burrito would help me a lot more than that,” Rodrigo said as he scratched the back of his head.

Emily tried to give some words of comfort. “Don’t worry, Rod. There’s always next time.”

“Maybe, as a future rule, try to get a little more experience than a burrito.” Lukas interjected.

Emily smiled. “I can help you guys with studying, you know.”

“Well, you coulda warned me about all those questions with the names. Illya, Sevchya, Novya, Florya… shiiit, Vince really expects me to know what the fuck the difference is between all that?”

“Well, at least one of us did well.” Kat looked over at Lukas. The others followed. Lukas caught the glances and vehemently shook his head.

“No no, I do good on the essays, not the exams.”

Cole patted him on the back. “We’ll see about that. Something tells me that Mr. Vince doesn’t think we’re all delinquents. Not yet.”

The group reached an intersection of hallways, the same where Cole was that morning. In his place was Isaac, who looked up as the group approached. Kat broke away from the others and began to walk towards him. Lukas, distracted by the previous moments, didn’t think to look away until it was too late. He watched, in clear view, Kat go right up to Isaac and give him a kiss on the lips. He caught a look at Isaac this time too, who looked back at him curiously. In a strictly reflexive — and rather obvious — fashion, Lukas shot his head away from the two and looked back the other way.

After the two finished kissing, Kat looked back up at the quarterback. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah. You cool with us taking your car? I took the bus today.”

Kat nodded. “That’s fine.”

The two walked out together to the parking lot where they saw the girl’s red pickup truck. They both got in, Kat taking the driver seat.

“I still think it’s funny,” Isaac said, buckling his seatbelt. “Your dad’s like, crazy rich, and yet you get this ol’ hunk of junk.”

Kat turned the car on. “Well, he still believes in that good old Christian work ethic.”

“Nothing for free. I get it.” Isaac leaned against the window. “Well, if you ever need to borrow my car, you can.”

“I thought you didn’t trust women drivers.”

Isaac smirked. “Oh, come on. You’re way more careful of a driver than me, that’s for sure.”

Kat pulled out of the parking lot, and began driving down the street. “So, I heard you and Cole are friends now.”

“Oh, yeah. He started coming by the gym in the morning, so we got to know each other. He’s actually not that bad.”

Kat looked at him. “Were you expecting him to be worse?”

“No! Not like that. I know he’s friends with Rus and Maurice and everybody. But… I don’t know, he’s cool. A chill dude.” Isaac watched the houses go past. “Don’t know too many chill people nowadays.”

A few moments later and the pickup pulled into the park. The teens got out, leaving their backpacks in the car. The two met together on the sidewalk curb, where Kat outstretched her hand. 

Isaac sighed. “Do we have to?”

“What? I think it’s cute.” Kat outstretched her hand a little farther. “Besides, my hands are freezing.”

Isaac shrugged. “Well, when you put it that way…”

He grabbed Kat’s hand gently, holding it and rubbing it softly as they walked down the cement path that led towards the park trees. 

After a few minutes of walking around in silence, Kat spoke up. “Isaac, I want to talk. About us.”

The words unnerved the boy, but he tried to keep his cool. “What about?”

“I just want to talk about… why we’re here. What we want out of this relationship, how we can support each other, stuff like that.”

“I mean… I think we’ve been doing fine. Unless there’s something specific you wanted to talk about.”

The comment annoyed Kat. It felt like a deflection. Still, she didn’t go on the offensive.

“Well, you remember what I told you? At Homecoming?”

“Yeah, that you wanted me to become more part of your life. I got that.”

Kat shook her head. “No, I mean… for us to be a couple. That I’m engaged in what you do, in who you are… and you do the same for me.”

“And you think I don’t do that?”

“Isaac, that’s not-”

“No, no. It’s okay, I wasn’t, like…” Isaac watched a few birds chirping to each other on the ground. “I get what you’re saying, is what I meant. That it can sometimes be hard, because, you know, we’re interested in different things. But I think we do a good job of supporting each other in spite of that.”

“No, what I’m saying is… do you think it’s good to have a relationship, with two people who have completely different wants and interests?”

Isaac was taken aback. Without recognizing it he withdrew his hand from Kat’s. “Well, I mean, you can’t expect two people in a relationship to have the exact same interests.”

“I didn’t say the exact same interests. I said, like, large differences.” Kat put her hands into her jacket’s pockets. She looked around. No one else was on the path.

“I guess, what I’m actually trying to say… I feel like you don’t care about me. Like, not me, but about who I am. You don’t care about my music, you don’t care about when I rant about the choir production stuff, you don’t care when I want to hang out with my girl friends, or with Cole or Lukas, you don’t care for the food I like, or the shows I watch, or… anything, really. And I don’t think that’s a fault with you, because I think you do try. I just wonder… if that’s something sustainable, is all.”

“Kat, I…” Isaac tried to find the right words to say. “I do care, alright? I do my best to support you, and everything you do. And yeah, there’s things I’d rather do, but I stomach it. I stomach it because I care about you, just how you stomach all my shit. Football, the guys, my food, my shows… I know it’s not all that interesting to you, but the fact that you come in and give it an honest try. Well, that’s what I think matters.”

Kat’s face had changed. Isaac began to wonder why.

“What did you mean by that?” She finally spoke out.

Isaac was confused. “Mean by what?”

“Things you’d rather do. What does that mean?”

Isaac initially didn’t catch on. “Well, I mean… I’d rather go with my friends to a party, or something. But I don’t.”

“No Isaac, you did. You missed my show.”

Now the boy began to see where things were going. “Oh, come on, Kat! I told you that was a mistake!”

“You still went!” Kat took a few more steps away. “Isaac, your idea of ‘stomaching’ the other person’s interests seems to be to ignore them until you have to deal with it.”

“Ok Kat, you are being really unfair to me right now.” Isaac began to increase his volume to match the girl’s.

“Oh, really? Name one time that I did the same thing to you. Name one time where I skipped out on one of your games to go hang out with the girls, or one time where I pulled out my phone while you were talking about your problems, or one time where you said ‘Man, Kat, I can’t wait to spend all summer with you’, and I replied, ‘Oh sorry, what? I forgot to tell you, I’m going with my friends on a trip to fucking Italy!’”

“Listen, there’s a big difference between… between being unsupportive, and trying to keep your freedom. I know there are times where you would rather be elsewhere than with me, and I don’t want to keep you locked up like that. If two people have a relationship, then they’ve gotta respect the other’s independence.”

“No Isaac, I wouldn’t rather be elsewhere than with you! Because I love you! Because that’s what love is!”

There was a rustling behind Kat. She turned to see an older couple, some distance away. A lady in with a cane and a small fur hat looked onwards at the two, while the man she was with put his hands in corduroy pockets, looking out at the grass and pretending not to notice.

Kat turned back around. She approached Isaac again, speaking quietly now.

“You want freedom? Fine. I’ll give you all the freedom you want. Because I’m done playing this game with you.”

Isaac tried to stop her, but it was too late. The girl rushed past, back down the path they came in from. He turned back to the old couple, who now both looked away from him. He took in a deep breath, sighed, and walked down in the other direction.

…

When Kat got back to her car, she could barely keep in her tears. She quickly got into the driver seat, taking out her phone, and dialed the first number that came to her mind. The tone rang, and rang, until a voice finally came out on the other end.

“Hey, this is Sadja Ayoub! I’m not at the phone right now, but if it’s something important, you can-”

“Shit!” Kat ended the call, her voice a sharp whisper to herself. She began sniffling, hot tears rolling down her cheek, as she dialed another number. This one also rang, but not nearly as long.

“Hey, Kat? What’s up?”

Kat let out a sigh. She wiped the tears from her cheek. “Hey, Cole.”

“Yo.” His voice sounded confused. “…is there something wrong?”

Kat took a deep breath in. “I just… broke up with Isaac.”

“Did you want to talk about it?” His voice was understanding now.

“Yeah. Or just, I need someone to talk to in general, I guess.”

“I get it. You wanna go get something to eat?”

“Sure. What do you have in mind?”

Cole thought for a moment. “I dunno… Sonic?”

Kat giggled. Some teardrops fell off her cheek when she did. “Sonic?”

“Yeah. Sounds like good post-breakup food.”

Kat looked out the window. “Alright, sure, fuck it. I’ll pick you up, okay?”

“Sounds good. Seeya in a bit.”

“Aight. Bye-bye.”

She tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, and for a brief moment she forgot what got her all upset in the first place.

…

A few minutes later the red pickup arrived in front of Cole’s door. Cole was already there, walking up and hopping into the passenger side. He took the phone that was still sitting on the seat and placed it into one of the cup holders.

“So, how you feeling?” He asked, putting his seatbelt on.

Kat struggled for words to say. “Uh… I could’ve handled it better, I guess? We kinda just got into it. I don’t know, it all happened so fast. I don’t want to text him right now since I think it’ll be a bad idea. Maybe it’s better to just give us a day to cool off, then talk to him, saying I’m sorry it was such a shitshow and that I hope we can still be friends, something like that.”

“Makes it sound like you’re unsure about the whole thing.”

“I don’t know, Cole! I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Cole could tell the girl was getting frustrated. He dialed it back, using his light voice.

“Well, I think your first step is a good idea. Give it a day, see what happens.”

Kat nodded. The car drove off. 

A minute or so later Kat’s phone rang. Cole looked up at her.

“Could you check to see who it is? It’s probably Sadja.”

Cole grabbed the phone, and confirmed it was.

“Leave it, then. I called her before I called you. I’ll just explain it all to her when I get home.”

“Did you call Lukas?”

Kat paused for a moment, driving in silence. “Oh, um… no, I didn’t.”

Cole put the phone back where it was. “You mind me asking why? Usually when you bring me along you bring Lukas, too.”

The truck merged into traffic. Kat tried to speak.

“I was… just, afraid, I guess?”

“Afraid?”

Kat gripped the steering wheel. “Well, I’ve been thinking a lot… about my relationship with Isaac, and… what I missed out on in order to be with him. And I think about, the friends I have… like Lukas, who I just, I mean, I really haven’t talked to him. I’ve dated Isaac since, what, February? And I’ve barely talked to Lukas in that whole time. That’s almost a whole year, Cole.”

Something happened to Kat. She began to tremble. The words that came out of her mouth left in a different pitch. Her eyes began to shine in the reflecting light. 

“A-and I just think… what if all that time, that time I wasted… what if it just brought Lukas and I further apart? What if, after this, we’re not close anymore? What if w-we just drift farther and farther away?”

The light turned green. Kat focused her attention back on driving, but it was at that moment when the tears began to flow. She kept trying to wipe them away with a free hand, but new ones continued to come in their place.

“Kat, listen,” Cole spoke delicately. “I can tell you for a fact that Lukas still cares about you. He still cares about you the same amount he did before you started dating Isaac. I can tell you that being in a relationship for a couple of months hasn’t changed anyone’s opinion of you.”

“I… I know. I know.” She turned a corner, where the two saw their destination on the horizon. “I just get, really emotional about… people leaving me, I guess. Even the Isaac thing, I’ll probably regret it in the morning.” She pulled her car into one of the drive-in slots. “Oh no, I think my nose is running. Could you grab me the Kleenex pack from the car pocket? And don’t look at me, please.”

Cole smiled, grabbing the small plastic pack of tissues and handing it over to Kat. She blew her nose, looking at herself in the mirror. Her nose was bright pink and her eyes began to swell.

“Oh, Kat. Look at you. You sorry bitch,” she muttered to herself.

The two ordered their food. Kat began to pull out her wallet when Cole tapped her on the shoulder.

“I can pay for it.”

“Oh, come on, Cole. I-”

“Nope. Already know what you’re gonna say. ‘Oh, I’m the trust fund baby, blah blah blah.’ Well, you also just broke up with your boyfriend. So let me pay, just this once.”

Kat took a moment. She looked at him, and smiled. “Alright, fine. Just this once.”

Cole pulled out his wallet and handed it over. Kat took out the card and swiped it through the reader, but when she went to put it back her eyes fixated on something else in the wallet.

“Who’s this?” She asked, pulling out an old square photo. It was of a woman, more specifically a headshot portrait, which showed her smiling. She had long, curly brown hair and a pair of circle-rimmed thick glasses. Her eyes were brown and even through the grainy texture of the photo one could see the clear smooth tone of her skin. She appeared to wear a green velvet dress, but it was mostly too cropped out to tell.

“Oh… that’s my mom.”

“Your biological one?”

“Yeah. I keep it in there for good luck, I guess.”

Kat looked down at the photo again, affectionately. “You have her smile.”

Cole didn’t respond. He turned back to the car window. Kat put the photo back into the wallet. 

“Did you ever try learning more about them?” Kat continued the conversation.

“Once. In middle school. Marion kept a collection of their stuff for me after the accident, and one day I asked her if I could go through it. It was mostly pictures of them — their anniversary, Christmas, things like that. There were a couple of pictures of me too, but obviously I was too young to remember. My father was… an actuary, I think. And my mom was a kindergarten teacher.”

“Explains why Mrs. Schrodden had heard of her.”

Cole nodded. “Apparently she was really good. Had a bunch of those… ‘Golden Apples’, or whatever that they award teachers.” He took a deep breath in, tapping on the car door. “It’s weird, sometimes. Knowing that there was a pair of people who brought you into this world, raised you until you were four, and then… they passed away, and you don’t remember anything about them.”

Kat nodded gently. “I’m sure they’re proud of you. Wherever they are.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

Kat changed her expression from forlornness to a smirk. She slapped the boy with his wallet. “Cole!”

Cole smiled back, grabbing the wallet from her. They waited a few more minutes for the food.

“So, what about you?” Kat asked. “What’s new with you?”

“Oh, not that much.”

“I’ve noticed you’ve been hanging around Maria a lot more often.” 

“Oh, that’s… I’m helping her get through the Anita stuff.”

Kat’s expression changed again. “Has she been doing okay? She knows Rose, Sadj and I are there to help her, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. She knows.”

There was another pause as the food came. Kat handled Cole’s food to him, but afterwards her arms stayed in her lap and she stared at the steering wheel.

“God, I can’t even imagine it. I think the worst thing that’s ever happened to me was… I don’t know, my uncle getting colon cancer. But this is something else. And to Maria… she doesn’t deserve it. She’s never hurt anybody, and all she gets is shit in return.”

“Things don’t happen to people because they deserve it.”

“I know.” Kat grabbed her drink, gave a big sigh, and leaned back into the car seat. “What a hell of a semester this has been. I hope the whole year isn’t this bad.”

Cole didn’t respond, instead taking a bite of his meal. Kat took a sip from her straw.

“Oh, this milkshake’s actually pretty good. You wanna try some?”

“You got meningitis?”

“No. But I can spit in it, if that’s what you want.”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Please don’t do that.”

Kat smiled. She handed the drink over to Cole then picked up her fries.

“You think we’ll ever find someone, Cole?”

Cole looked at her. He considered the obvious connection. “For you, I think it’ll be easy.”

“What about you?”

He took a sip from his drink, staring off into the beyond. Finally, he shook his head. “I’m not too sure about that one.”

“Oh, come on! You’re handsome, you’re smart, you’re good with the ladies…”

“I appreciate you stroking my ego, but I don’t think that’s how it works in real life.”

Kat leaned over. She put a gentle hand on Cole’s shoulder, though Cole didn’t turn her way. 

“Hey, Cole. You’ll find someone. I know you will.” She went back towards her seat, looking out at the driver’s window. “We’ll both find somebody.”

But Cole wasn’t convinced. Not in the self deprecating way he had been before, but a real conviction. He said nothing in response.