Over the years,I’d grown to love going to Miami for the summer. Most of it was because Joss was there. She’d become my best friend. She had a shitty mother who we nicknamed Cruella. I didn’t even know her mom’s real name because we’d always used her nickname. Joss always had a smile on her face because she was strong and funny and beautiful inside and out, unlike her mother. I didn’t know how she did it. If Cruella were my mom, I’d be a horrible person. I wouldn’t go to school, I would sneak out of the house, and I’d probably be drinking and doing drugs. I just wouldn’t give a fuck. Every time I talked to Grandma on the phone (which was multiple times a week), I made sure to chat with Joss. If anything were to ever happen to her, I’d lose my shit.
Then there was Cat. I met her three years ago. Joss and I were like brother and sister, but Cat and I were something else entirely. Something I couldn’t describe.
“Seth, this is my best friend, Cat.”
I tore my gaze from the hot pursuit going on during the episode of Cops. All morning Joss had been talking about her friend Cat, and honestly, it was annoying.
“Hello, Kitty Cat,” I teased.
Cat didn’t say a word.
“Cat got your tongue?” God, I cracked myself up. But as I looked her up and down and got a good view of the girl who couldn’t speak, my heart did something in my chest. Something I’d never felt before. It was almost as though it swelled and wanted to beat for the two of us. I felt like I was under this girl’s spell, and she was only twelve. How could I think a twelve-year-old was pretty? I was fifteen. I would be driving as soon as school started. I didn’t want this girl, but my heart was trying to tell me something different.
“Why are you being so mean?” Joss whined and slapped my arm.
“Well, does she talk?”
“Yes, she talks,” Joss answered.
I stared at Cat, her big chocolate eyes staring back at me, until she finally spoke. “Yes … Yes, I talk.”
“Aw, the kitty cat speaks,” I teased some more. I felt like a little boy with his first crush who, instead of being nice to the girl he wanted to hold hands with, was being mean to her.
Joss took a seat next to me on the couch. “Don’t call her that.”
“What? Kitty Cat?”
“Yeah.”
I glanced up at Cat. She looked happy. She was biting her lower lip, trying not to smile. She totally liked me calling her kitty cat.
“Sorry,” I apologized, though I didn’t mean it, and then I changed the subject. “You wanna go swimming?”
Cat shrugged. “Sure.”
We had to wait until Joss’s mom went to work before we were able to go to the pool. Cruella was a royal bitch. She wouldn’t let Joss do anything away from her trailer except go to school, and now that there was no school, Joss took care of her two-year-old brother, Bryce. Of course, Grandma was the real person watching the kid. Joss was responsible, but she was only a child herself. This was her summer, and Joss needed to have fun. That’s why I made sure to tell my parents I wanted to come to Florida for the summer each year. Joss needed me. My parents had worked their stuff out and were happy to get rid of me. Dad got a detective job and wasn’t always in the line of fire. It helped my mother sleep at night. Before leaving for Miami this year, I’d overheard Dad telling Mom that when he got back from dropping me off at the airport, he wanted her naked. I didn’t want to think about my parents naked!
After Joss’s mom went to work, we finally made it swimming.
“Marco!” Joss called out at the other end of the pool.
“Polo!” Cat and I yelled back. We were side by side, our shoulders pressing together when the motion of the water moved us. “So, you like me calling you kitty cat or what?” I whispered, not wanting Joss to hear where we were.
Cat’s brown eyes snapped to me, and she grinned. “I don’t mind.”
“Good.”
“Marco!”
“Polo!” we both said back.
“What’s your nickname for Joss?” Cat whispered. We moved away from the approaching Joss with her eyes closed, the water rippling around us.
I shrugged. “I don’t have one. Joss is her nickname.” Her name was Joselyn, but everyone called her Joss.
“Oh. Well, I like the nickname.” Cat smiled, and I smiled back.
I liked the nickname too.
