Nola
I followed Bee’s lead when we got to the beach. She didn’t want to talk about Aaliyah’s response while I got changed, and I was respecting that decision, for now. But I was scared the quieter she got, the closer she was to letting this go before we gave it a real chance.
But the minute Bee and her little sisters dragged me to play mermaids, which was really just swimming around the ocean and picking the colors of our tail, every ounce of agitation melted from Bee’s face. By now, I thought I had seen Bee in every state. But in the safety of her four siblings, she was unreal.
Her goofiness was released as she splashed around with Celeste, the moodier of the two younger twins. With Celeste’s bangs flipped off her forehead, she looked so much like Bee it was scary.
I didn’t realize Colette had swam closer to me until she started talking, “You know, I’ve never seen my sister look at anyone the way she looks at you.”
“Because she’s never been in a relationship.” I dismissed easily.
“Nah. She was this weird when she came back from Spain, and even after her freshman year and they lost the natty.”
I flicked my eyes over to Colette, floating on her back and looking up.
“Yeah, well she took that out on me the next year, when she beat me.”
“True. But you’ve always been around. Even when she should’ve cursed your name, you always managed to come up in conversation.”
“I’m just trying to make sure she never has a reason to curse my name again.”
“Make sure of that,” Colette switched her position to swim away from me. “I know where you sleep now, Nola Young.” She smiled.
“I think you always did.”
“Smart ass!”
Bee swam over to me while Celeste went to meet her sister on the shore. “Was Lettie threatening you?”
“Definitely, but at least she was nicer than Aaliyah,” I joked to gauge Bee’s temperature.
In response, Bee sank her head under the water to scream. Her hair floated around her Medusa style as the air bubbles rose to the surface before her head popped back up.
“How was that?”
“Cathartic.” Bee eyed me. “Maybe if screaming was allowed, I wouldn’t crash out as much.”
“I’ll see if I can change some rules for you.”
“Thanks, baby.”
“Anything for you, honeybee.”
Bee’s eyes squint, her eyes assessing the top of my head. “Does anything include letting me re-twist your hair?”
I winced before I could think about it, “Only if you can be gentle.”
“Aw, are you tender headed?” Bee grabbed my face like I was a small child.
“Unfortunately yes, and I wasn’t expecting to get my hair wet.”
“Well that’s the life of a mermaid, baby.”
“So I’ve learned.”
The tension from Aaliyah and Bee’s fight still hung in the townhouse like a bad smell that wouldn’t leave even with the windows and doors open. Even with mine and Olive;s age gap, we still found ourselves in stupid fights that took me too long to get over, while she moved on like she wasn’t just slinging insults at me left and right.
It seemed like Bee processed the same way. Between the way we floated with her little sisters in the ocean for hours, to theMean Girlsmovie night we had after Aaliyah and Amir went to the house they were staying in, no one brought up the fight.
