Many of my original recipes came from Mrs. Davis next door. James Davis’s grandmother, to be exact. She was a lovely lady. After my mom passed away when I was twelve, she had taken me in and helped with any girl problems. My dad met and married Tiffany pretty quickly after my mom passed but his new wife didn’t even try to pretend interest in my life.
Mrs. Davis, on the other hand, talked me through how to use a tampon and then she showed me how to bake cookies to cheer me up. Once she realized how much I enjoyed baking and cooking, she would have a new recipe for me to test the next time I went to see her.
“How come you’re always out here by yourself?”
There was no need to turn around and see who walked up behind me. It was the version of James only I knew. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the boy had an evil twin. That would be the high school James. This one was much more approachable and real. My secret James was the one who kept feeding mycrush while the other version I saw at school dashed my hopes repeatedly.
“Contemplating life and the liberal use of cinnamon in apple pie.”
He chuckled and took the seat beside me. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Seems like you just did,” I sassed.
“Ha! Ha!” James flicked his hand to land a tap on my elbow and I turned to see his brows were drown as he said, “Seriously.”
“I can’t answer if you don’t ask it,” I reminded him. My poor, stupid little heart sat up and waited for its crush to finally ask me out. Then, she was immediately let down - again - when the question that popped out of James’s mouth was not even close. Not even a little bit.
“Why do you hang out with Simone Galloway at school?”
“That’s a weird question. Why wouldn’t I?” I turned to search James’s face for whatever hidden meaning might be tucked into the shadows of his question. “Simone and I have been friends since she moved here in seventh grade. You know that.”
“Yeah, but you’re only school friends,” he said. My heart plummeted to my knees, or maybe my ankles. So, like the clueless dummy I was, I had to go and ask the question that poked holes in my heart - whether it still beat in my chest of fell somewhere down near my feet was of no consequence.
“What?” I was dumbfounded by the categorization. So much so, I physically snapped back away from him - as far as my chair would allow anyway.
“Okay, for example, you didn’t come to Ashley Burnham’s party out at Quemado Lake.”
“So?” I questioned. “I don’t really hang out with Ashley and she didn’t invite me.”
James chuckled again and for some reason the sound didn’t leave me warm and fuzzy. Instead, it slithered over my skin as if it was meant to knock me down or make me feel stupid.
“You do know high school parties don’t work like kids’ parties right?”
My eyes narrowed as anger and embarrassment warred inside me to be the dominant emotion. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked knowing I would hate his answer.
“Anyone can come. You don’t get a hand-written invitation to the party with birthday cake and presents at the end.”
I honestly didn’t know that - about the invitation thing. Obviously, it wasn’t supposed to be a birthday cake kind of thing.I still thought you had to be invited to attend with everyone else.
“Okay, and?” I questioned. “What does this have to do with me being friends with Simone?”
“You do know she goes to those parties, right?”
Simone had never mentioned going or bothered to ask if I wanted to ride with her. I didn’t have my driver’s license or a car yet. Simone had both. We talked on the phone and texted but almost never hung out after school or on weekends anymore.
Suddenly, I began to see where James was going with his question. It was weird, wasn’t it? One friend of mine only hung out with me at school while the other only talked to me where no one from school knew about it. I didn’t say another word to James as I stood up and walked away. Hopefully, he would put the fire out before he left.
“Hey, wait, Cass.” I heard him jump up from his seat and come after me. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just didn’t know if you guys were real friends or like-”
I cut him off. “Secret friends?” I questioned. “No, that can’t be it because Simone actually hangs out with me at school in front of people unlike some other people I know who can onlybe bothered to say anything to me when no one else is around to witness it.” I didn’t manage to walk away calmly that time.
I ran.
Not that it was necessary. James Davis would never chase after me. He never really cared. I wondered why he bothered to talk to me at all.
2.THE MOLDY POD
KNUCKLES
