Chapter XVI

The sidewalk on Vinerdale street was sparkling particularly bright as the golden flaxen sunlight down-poured on the city during the early afternoon. The cement was dampened into a darker shade of grey and the edges reached upwards into the piles of snow lying peacefully on the lawn. A perfect batch of salt was sprinkled on the transparent ice which protected the rough concrete. Sunny could tell that this street had been taken care of with attentiveness.

Sunny dipped her yellow-bleached converse into the white powdery snow as she stepped out of a Toyota highlander. Before her, stood a white two-garage house with large spacey windows. She took a breath, lightly patted her sneakers on the welcome mat, and rang the bell. A chubby woman opened the door with a welcoming enthusiasm. Sunny couldn't help but look at her coconut-sized breasts. The woman immediately reached forward and wrapped her thick arms around the guest. Sunny had never experienced such intimacy with a stranger before, and it made the impression that the woman was an affable host.

"Mrs. White," said Sunny. "It's n-n-nice to meet you."

"Phhh. Call me Demanda," said the woman, after which she grabbed Sunny with great solidity into the living room. Demanda poured Sunny a glass of a mysterious potion-like liquid called Demanda's caffeine-loaded homemade soda and began to prattle about the grandeur events of her daily life, like visits to Walmart or Home Depot. Demanda explained that though she often enjoyed and found it relaxing to do the menial chore of folding laundry, it was nice to have company, an audience. She handed Sunny a basket of T-shirts and asked if she could help out. Sunny didn't know how to act but to just go along with the woman who seemed to enjoy her presence. Sunny smiled awkwardly. She didn't sign up for a play-date with Selena's mother. Where. Was. Selena.

As they folded the dry polyester, Demanda kept asking about summer even when the windows were frosted with ice.

"Where'd you go?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you must've gone on some vacation or trip over the summer. I can see that tan of yours. Sunny is getting too much su-u-n! Ha-ha-ha." The woman had checks that resembled apples and her laugh was remarkable.

"I hope you don't mind that I say, but it's almost too yellow… like mustard. Ha-ha-ha." Sunny, referred to such an un-tasty condiment, looked offended. Mostly because the only traveling Sunny had done over the summer was an eight-hour drive under the protection of a car roof.

"Aye girl, don't worry. I just bought this whitening cream for my Patel friends. Want some?"

"Whitening cream?"

"You see my tan?" She asked, pointing to the transparent skin resting on the bridge of her neck. "That's the good stuff. I go to Sensations Tanning. Perfect. Never comes out so… mustardy." Sunny, slightly uncomfortable, turned her eyes away. The pleasant conversation suddenly began to veer off in a troubling direction.

Just then, Sunny saw Selena, leaning on the door frame that separated the living room and the kitchen, nibbled on a red twist, a smirk on her face.

"Ask any one of our visitors and they'd tell you the harmony in our family," continued Demanda, her smile so full of delight. She loved her husband Atlas's strength, that he made all the important decisions, was the 'man of the house. Atlas loved her cooking and he just couldn't his eyes off her wavy curves.

Just then, the Kitties rang the doorbell and overwhelmed the lady all at once. They dragged her into Selena's room, shut the door, and situated themselves in a circle on the floor. Selena's room was painted a dark green. She had a monster television, a walk-in closet with all her clothes waiting patiently on hangers. Sunny made note of it all. She was here. It was surreal.

From being there on the floor with them, Sunny learned that Tate was a real sex fanatic; she had never seen someone so enthusiastic about pleasure. A while later, the girls started to chat about other things, none of which she was included in many conversations.

"Demanda really seems to like you, huh," Tate said, wrapping her lips around a cigarette.

"She just doesn't stop talking, does she?" Sunny said. Tate blew out, and Ashley lit up.

"Yeah LOL, she's always boasting. Demanda definitely has the character flaw known as conceit."

"That's probably where Selena gets it from," Sunny said under her breath with a sudden burst of disobedience.

"HEY!" Selena roared.

"Omg… Sunny just made a funny!" Tate reached into her pocket and pulled out what seemed like a long USB. "Have a hit." High school was just underway, the age of rebellion and Sunny was perhaps the only person in the school who hadn't rebelled yet. There wasn't one time that she could remember in which she had cut loose, broken a rule, and done the unanticipated. Still, she shook her head, no. Everybody froze and shot their eyes sideways at her like she had said something devastatingly terrible.

"Oh, come on! You're killing the mood, chink." She didn't smoke for one reason, and one reason only: she knew her mother would decry her act as horror and burst into tears of disappointment and shame.

"I… just… I can't, sorry." Instantly the friendliness went away. Selena spits out her gum.

"Excuse me?" Sunny looked down into her lap.

"I—"

"Nobody has to know," she said. "Lyssa won't know." Sunny closed her eyes. She didn't know why but by saying her name, it felt like a personal attack. Selena placed another vape between her fingers.

"Stop being such a baby and just try it already. Your mommy is too busy to care." Sunny pictured Lyssa in her mind, hoping that she would say something wise to save her from doing this. But there she was, talking to Camryn or whatever.

Selena sucked in and when she blew out, she closed her eyes and wobbled her head as if floating in a world of happy nicotine. Sunny knew she needed that. Sunny also knew that she could stop at this moment, leave the room, call Lyssa and tell her to come to pick her up. But the lonely part of her didn't want to. She didn't want to go home to empty rooms or deal with Lyssa. She wanted to be like Selena. She agreed.

"Ok." Selena couldn't hear the cracks in her voice, but Sunny could feel it in her throat. She grabbed the vape. The button was on the front, beside the glass tube that held the liquid inside. She closed her eyes and breathed in, let the blueberry flavor sink into her chest, and then blew out her first cloud. Selena cheered. They laughed. Sunny had never been more guilt-stuck in her life; she had never felt better about herself either.

An hour later, Sunny so full of nicotine, and Selena a bit drunk off of vodka get another wacky idea.

"Wanna go porn-hunting?"

"Huh?" Sunny hadn't seen porn, but the idea of looking at porn with Selena had a certain appeal to it. The two girls spent the rest of the day surfing the web. A woman crouched on her hands and knees while a strong man knelt behind her. The woman's eyes showed disinterest, but still, she moaned as if she were having the time of her life. Sunny couldn't help but feel her pants damp. She took mental notes and treated it as a learning experience as Lyssa would call it.

They went to so many porn sites it got tiring. Bored, they kept smoking the vape until it ran out of juice. Eventually, Selena shut off the computer and they went looking through Rogan's room for more nicotine. Yum.

The Whites had three children, two brothers who sandwiched the middle child, Selena. Her brothers were boys, not to say hostile. They would leave the toilet seats up, their socks were left where they fell, and food was left out on the counter. In many ways, they really lived up to being a teenager. But still, the house managed to be kept stain-free and tidied. The two girls searched the room and ended up finding plenty of porn magazines haphazardly stuffed in between the mattress sandbox springs.

"WOW, look at this!" Selena's eyes doubled. As it turned out, Rogan liked something other than weed.

***

The next day, the classrooms were not a terrain for war anymore; when Sunny walked in with the Kitties, the people saluted, praised. The gapes instituted confidence. She was swaggery, like a transformative figure, and took up the courage to walk alongside Selena instead of behind her. Selena seemed to receive it well too. Everyone had such an easy way around her, it felt almost as if they saw her as equal.

At a crossroad between fear and valor, Sunny believed she was choosing valor to build herself into the brave, into those Kitties whose legends were told and retold. It was easy for her to believe that the Kitties brought everything good in this world. It was easy for Sunny to let her innocence slip away, to live a facile existence today but lose a beaming tomorrow.