Page 1 of A Little Kissing Between Friends

Chapter One

Cyn

Board Bully

Let my daddy tell it, I came out the womb with rhythm, and if you really get him to talking about it, he’ll tell you that my first cry was the sweetest staccato his ears had ever been blessed to witness. He’ll say that he knew—even then—that I was destined to be a musician, and that it was no surprise to him when I began showing a propensity for recognizing notes and immediately playing them back on the various instruments crowded in the front room of our home from his years in a band way back before he met my mama. While other babies and toddlers were banging on pots in the middle of the kitchen, Marvin Thomas had me mashing on the pedal of a bass drum and plucking at the strings on an electric guitar. Although both of my brothers were musically inclined, the art of making music was only shared between me and my daddy. It was our thing. He instilled in me a deep respect for composing and gave me room to allow music to just...be.

And then, on my tenth birthday, he presented me with a drum machine, and that’s when everything changed for me.

Creating became an integral part of my day. It became a part of me, making up the foundation of who I was. Being a musician was who I was just as much as being a lesbian was, though I knew music sooner than I realized my sexuality. With music at the heart of our bond, it came as no surprise to anyone, let alone my mama, that I was a daddy’s girl. And because my daddy and I were so close, he was the first person to know the most important revelation. I was nine when I came home from a long, draining day of being a fourth grader and rushed through my homework to meet him in the front room.

That was our routine. Before I could lay hands on a single instrument, I had to finish my tasks and check with my mama to see if she needed help with dinner. The rules were the same for my brothers, and oftentimes I would check in with my mama to find that Caleb was already chopping vegetables or sifting flour.

We were tuning the guitars when I spoke up.

“Daddy,” I said.

“What is it, Star Shine?”

Star Shine was the nickname he’d given me at my infancy. He always said that my mama was the sun in his solar system and I was the brightest star. It was the only way he addressed me, and it brought a smile to my face whenever I heard him say it.

“I got in a fight at recess today.”

In my peripheral, I watched as he stopped twisting a tuner and looked at me.

“Who did you fight?”

Sighing, I stared at the guitar across my lap. I didn’t want to look at him because I could already hear the disappointment in his tone.

“Britney Berry. She’s a girl in my class.”

“Why were you fighting?”

“Because she’s stupid,” I muttered, kicking my foot against the carpet.

“Excuse me?”

When he infused bass into his voice, I knew he wasn’t accepting any nonsense from me. In the Thomas household, using the word stupid was a capital offense. I should’ve known better, but I wasn’t thinking.

Eyebrow quirked, he gave me a firm stare. “Do you want to try that again, little girl?”

Nodding, I lifted the guitar from my lap and placed it on its stand. Then I went to stand in front of my father as I explained everything.

“Today is Britney Berry’s birthday and she wore a really pretty dress to school. I told her that her dress was really pretty and she said thank you. And her hair was in these braids with beads on the ends that were the same color as her dress, so I told her that her hair was pretty too.”

“Did she say thank you that time?”

I nodded. My daddy was always big on manners. “She did! So then we were in line to get on the monkey bars and she was in front of me, but then she turned around and asked me if I want to be her girlfriend! And I said no!”

“You said no?!” His eyebrows had shot up and he looked perplexed.

I offered another vigorous nod. “I said no, Daddy! Because Reina from Mr. Williams’s class had already asked me to be her girlfriend at recess on Monday, and remember when you told Caleb that he could only have one girlfriend at a time, Daddy? Well, I told Britney Berry that you said that and that’s why I couldn’t be her girlfriend.”

Daddy sat back on his stool and stroked his chin. “Well, what did she say when you told her that?”

I took a deep breath. “She said I was lying!”

“She what?!” His voice rose, the show of outrage fueling me.