Page 26 of The Wright Man

The wind was picking up as I walked up the cracked sidewalk to the playground. Rust had started to claim the swing set. One of the monkey bars was broken. The place looked like a forgotten memory. But sure enough, there she was.

Angelica. Sitting on our old swingset, knees pulled to her chest, arms wrapped tight, her braids a curtain around her face. She didn't hear me approach until the rusted chains creaked under my weight as I sat beside her.

"Hey," I said quietly.

She sniffled, wiped her cheek with the back of her sleeve, and turned her head away. "Hey."

"You good?"

"Yeah."

She wasn't.

"You sure?"

She let out a sigh and rolled her eyes, not at me but at herself. "It's stupid. Embarrassing."

"So? I won't laugh."

She hesitated. Then the words came in a tumble, bitter and fast.

"Kaliyah Wade and her little backup dancers cornered me in the bathroom yesterday. Said it don't matter that Miss Dana's been braiding my hair and I don't wear puffs anymore. That I still got a face like a Nestle Crunch bar, and nobody would ever wanna kiss me. Started singing that stupid Bucky Braceface song."

My jaw tightened.

When Angelica got her braces, the kids at school went from calling her Bucky Badteeth to Bucky Braceface.

Little Bucky Braceface, the metal mouth queen,

Shines so bright it hurts to be seen!

Wires and zits — now that's a look!

Even her mirror said girl, you shook!

It was stupid.

"What'd you do?"

Angelica smirked a little. "Punched her cousin in the mouth when she got too close. Kaliyah dipped after that."

Pride bloomed in my chest. That was my girl. But she still looked sad.

"What else happened?"

She shook her head, tried to smile like it didn't matter. "They were all talking about how many boys they've kissed. Who wants them. Who kissed who at Jamal's pool party last weekend. Kaliyah said she had three boys tryna kiss her that night alone."

Her shoulders sagged, and she looked down at her shoes. "And then she looked at me and said, 'You couldn't buy a date, much less a kiss. Must suck to be that unwanted.'"

Something hot bloomed in my stomach. Anger, maybe. Or maybe it was something else. Some mix of protective instinct and disbelief that anybody could look at her—my Angel—and not see how bright she was. How beautiful.

"They were probably right. I mean..." She looked down at her shoes. "I've never kissed anybody."

"So?"

She shrugged, didn't look at me. "So, I dunno... Maybe I wanna know what it's like? See what all the fuss is about."

I leaned back, chains creaking again as I stared up at the cloudy sky.